JP2004147235A - Digital broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve problems that the electronic program guides of other channels remain in a state that they are not updated when a specific channel is selected and continuously viewed and, when the time frame of a program is changed during viewing, reserved control to a specified program does not start at starting time of the program intended by a person who makes reservation in terrestrial digital broadcast. <P>SOLUTION: This digital broadcast receiver is provided with: a main control part which specifies a particular program in the electronic program guide and makes control reservation to the program; a control reservation data holding part which stores information about the control reservation; and a control part on the network side which controls a network connection part which acquires program information from a server for providing the program information via the Internet. This digital broadcast receiver updates broadcast of which the program guide is being received by controlling the broadcast by using the main control part and updates broadcast different from the broadcast being received by controlling the broadcast by using the control part on the network side. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus in which program information is broadcast together with video for each broadcast type, such as digital terrestrial broadcasting.
[0002]
[Prior art]
A conventional receiving apparatus simply receives the provision of unique program information to a database (for example, Patent Document 1). There is also an electronic program guide system in which information indicating that program information provided by the Internet has been updated is provided by broadcast media (for example, Patent Document 2). In addition, a receiving circuit that includes a plurality of receiving circuits and does not perform a program receiving process always acquires the latest channel selection information (for example, Patent Document 3).
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-238196 A (Page 2-13, FIG. 2)
[Patent Document 2]
JP 2001-275055 A (Page 2-7, FIG. 1)
[Patent Document 3]
JP-A-2000-13696 (page 2-7, FIG. 1)
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In terrestrial digital broadcasting that is scheduled to be newly broadcast, program information is broadcasted together with video for each broadcast type, so if a specific channel is selected and viewed continuously, the electronic program guide of other channels is not updated There is a problem that the program is changed during that time, and control such as channel switching to the designated program and recording on the video tape recorder does not start at the start time of the program intended by the user.
[0005]
A first object of the present invention is to enable control based on program information in units of programs to accurately control a program intended before the change even if the program table is changed.
[0006]
A second object of the present invention is to display, on an electronic program guide, information on the elapsed time since the confirmation / update of the electronic program guide. Here, the confirmation / update refers to confirming whether or not the electronic program guide is the same as that already obtained, and updating the data if there is a difference.
[0007]
Another object of the present invention is to enable the receiving apparatus to easily know whether or not the time frame of the program reserved for control has been changed.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the present invention, a first object is to control a network-side control unit to automatically obtain a program guide of a broadcast different from that being received by connecting to a program information providing server via the Internet. The program information of the broadcast of the program whose start time is earlier is acquired more frequently than the program information of the other broadcasts so that the reservation operates correctly.
[0009]
For the second object, the present invention records the confirmation / update time of the electronic program guide for each broadcast type, and calculates the elapsed time from the difference from the current time when displaying the electronic program guide. Further, the elapsed time is converted into another information and displayed on the electronic program guide.
[0010]
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic program management system in which information on whether the start time of a control-reserved program is advanced or delayed with the update of the electronic program guide as compared with the control reservation time is stored in an electronic program. It is displayed on a table or a control reservation confirmation table for confirming the control reservation.
[0011]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a digital broadcast receiving apparatus, 101 is a broadcast receiving unit, 102 is a main video / audio decoding unit, 103 is a synthesis / switch output unit, 104 is a display device, 105 is a speaker, 106 is an operation unit, 107 is a main control unit, 108 is a network connection unit, 109 is a network side control unit, 110 is a program guide holding unit, 111 is a control reservation data holding unit, 112 is a sub-picture / audio decoding unit, 113 is a remote control unit, 114 Is an external input terminal. 200 is a broadcast receiving antenna, 300 is a recording device such as a video tape recorder, 400 is the Internet, 501 is a first program information server, 502 is a second program information server, and 503 is a WEB server.
[0012]
The digital broadcast receiving apparatus 100 controls other blocks via the main control unit 107 and the network-side control unit 109 by operating the remote operation device 113 or directly operating the operation unit 106. The broadcast receiving unit 101 is controlled by the main control unit 107, selects a desired broadcast channel from the broadcast signal from the broadcast receiving antenna 200, and sends an unprocessed video / audio signal to the main video / audio decoding unit 102. At the same time, it outputs an unprocessed signal of the program information to the main control unit 107. The main video / audio decoding unit 102 decodes video and audio data individually and outputs the data to the synthesis / switch output unit 103. The data on the broadcast being received processed by the main control unit 107 is input to the program guide holding unit 110 and held. In addition, reservation data for control such as automatic channel switching and video tape recorder recording is stored in the control reservation data holding unit 111.
[0013]
On the other hand, the network side control unit 109 controls the network connection unit 108 to connect to the program information server 501, 502, etc. of a broadcast different from the broadcast being received via the Internet 400, fetch program information, and The data is processed by the side control unit 109 and the data related to the broadcast is written into the program guide holding unit 110.
[0014]
Note that, apart from the broadcast, the connection may be made to the WEB server 503 via the Internet 400, and the video / audio signal may be fetched from the network connection unit 108 via the sub-video / audio decoding unit 112 to the synthesis / switching / output unit 103. . The synthesizing / switching / output unit 103 synthesizes or switches input signals from the main video / audio decoding unit 102, the sub-video / audio decoding unit 112, the program guide holding unit 110, and the external input 114 to generate audio. The signal is output to the speaker 105 and the video signal is output to the display device 104.
[0015]
According to the first embodiment, the program information of a broadcast other than the broadcast being received can be fetched at any time via the Internet. Therefore, the time frame of a program having a control reservation in a broadcast other than the broadcast being received is changed. Also, there is an effect that the data in the program guide holding unit 110 can be updated and a program with a control reservation can be correctly controlled.
[0016]
Embodiment 2. FIG. FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing a method for capturing program information according to the second embodiment of the present invention based on the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of FIG. The upper row is one channel (1ch) during broadcast reception, and the time slot 801 for fetching program information by the main control unit 107 in FIG. 1 is painted black, and program information is continuously fetched. The horizontal direction is the time axis, and the right direction is the time direction. The middle and lower parts of FIG. 2 show how the network-side control unit of FIG. 1 takes in program information of different broadcasts in a time division manner via the Internet. The middle row is two channels (2ch) with a control reservation, and the closer to the start time (0h) of the program with the control reservation, the narrower the interval for automatically fetching the program information, and the higher the frequency of fetching. On the other hand, the lower part is three channels (3ch) without control reservation, the interval of taking in the program information is made almost constant, and the taking frequency remains low.
[0017]
Therefore, according to the second embodiment, even when the program information of a broadcast other than the broadcast being received is changed immediately before the program reserved for control, the program information is acquired, and Thus, there is an effect that accurate control can be performed.
[0018]
Embodiment 3 FIG. FIG. 3 shows a program guide 600 according to a third embodiment of the present invention based on the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of FIG. The program information is fetched from the main control unit 107 and the network-side control unit 109 in FIG. 1, the data in the program guide holding unit 110 is confirmed, and if there is a change, the data is updated. Then, the program guide is output to the display device 104 via the combining / switching output unit 103. The background color of the channel display frame 601 is distinguished by shading based on the elapsed time since the last program information was fetched. In the figure, the darker the color, the more time has passed. FIG. 2 shows a case where shading is given in the state of the time indicated by the broken line 802 in FIG. 2, and 1ch is white because program information is continuously taken in. 2ch is a light color because the elapsed time since the last time program information was fetched is short. 3ch is a dark color because the elapsed time since the last acquisition of the program information is long.
[0019]
Therefore, just by looking at the program guide display, it is possible to know the approximate elapsed time since the last time program information was imported, and if necessary, manually specify a channel and import new program information. This has the effect of giving instructions.
[0020]
Although not shown in the third embodiment, the elapsed time since the last acquisition of the program information may be indicated by a number or an icon in addition to the difference in background color.
[0021]
Embodiment 4 FIG. FIG. 4 shows a control reservation confirmation table 700 according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention based on the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 shows a program guide 600. In FIG. 4, the type column indicates that “recording” is a reservation for recording on a video tape recorder, and “switching” indicates that it is a reservation for channel switching. The title column is the title of the program. The column of ch indicates a channel number. The time frame column indicates the time frame of the latest update of the program. Apart from this, the time frame at the time of control reservation is separately recorded. The change column indicates the time at which the time frame of the corresponding program was changed after the control reservation, 0h indicates no change, + indicates change after, and-indicates change before. On the other hand, in FIG. 5, in the display of the program guide 600, the program frame 602 with the control reservation is surrounded by a thick line so as to be noticeable. Further, when the time frame of the corresponding program after the control reservation is changed, the background color of the program frame 602 is changed. In FIG. 5, the background color of the program frame 602 is darkened because the time frame of the program of the movie 1 has been changed later. On the other hand, since the time frame of the news program is unchanged, the background color of the program frame is white.
[0022]
As described above, when the control does not start at the scheduled time, it is possible to easily know whether or not the time frame has changed by looking at the background color of the control reservation confirmation table 700 or the program guide 600. . Then, if necessary, the control reservation is manually canceled.
[0023]
Although not shown in each of the above embodiments, the main control unit and the network control unit may execute one central processing unit (referred to as a CPU) by multitasking. The task may be executed using a plurality of CPUs.
[0024]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the present invention includes a main control unit for taking in a program guide of a digital broadcast receiving device via a broadcast, and a network-side control unit for taking in a program guide from the Internet, so that terrestrial digital broadcasting can be performed. Since program guides for different broadcasts can be created at the same time, there is an effect that intended control can be performed even if the time frame of a program reserved for control of a broadcast other than the broadcast being received is changed. In the program guide and the control reservation table, the elapsed time after the update or the time frame change time is displayed in a different background color, so that the control reservation state can be easily confirmed.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital broadcast receiving device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing a method for capturing program information according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a program guide by a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a control reservation confirmation table by a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a program guide by a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 100 digital broadcast receiving apparatus, 101 broadcast receiving section, 102 main video / audio decoding section, 103 synthesis / switching / output section, 104 display apparatus, 105 speaker, 106 operation section, 107 main control section, 108 network connection section, 109 network Side control unit, 110 program guide holding unit, 111 control reservation data holding unit, 112 sub-picture / audio decoding unit, 113 remote control device, 114 external input, 200 broadcast receiving antenna, 300 video tape recorder, 400 internet, 501 first 502, second program information server, 503 WEB server, 600 program guide, 601 channel display column, 602 program time frame, 700 control reservation confirmation table, 701 change column, 801 program information capture time Band, 802 Dashed line indicating time of display of FIG.

Claims (4)

In a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that receives video and audio from a digital broadcast and acquires program information to create an electronic program guide,
A main control unit that designates a specific program in the electronic program guide, switches a channel to the program, or controls recording to a recording / reproducing device;
A control reservation data holding unit that stores the control content as reservation information is provided,
A network-side control unit that controls a network connection unit that acquires program information from a program information providing server via the Internet;
A program guide holding unit that outputs a program guide image is provided,
While continuously checking or updating the program guide of the broadcast being received under the control of the main control unit, until the control start time at which the program guide of the broadcast different from the broadcast being received is reserved in the control reservation data holding unit, A digital broadcast receiving apparatus characterized in that the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is confirmed or updated via the Internet under the control of the network-side control unit every time a predetermined time elapses. The digital broadcast receiving device according to claim 1,
The network-side control unit, among the programs reserved for control in the control reservation data holding unit, broadcast program information of the program with the earliest start time more frequently than other broadcast program information via the Internet. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus for acquiring or updating a program guide from a program information providing server. The digital broadcast receiving device according to claim 1,
A digital broadcast receiving apparatus for displaying information corresponding to an elapsed time since the confirmation or update of the electronic program guide for each broadcast type. The digital broadcast receiving device according to claim 1,
The control for confirming the electronic program guide or the control reservation as to whether the start time of the control-reserved program is earlier or later due to the update of the electronic program guide as compared with the time of the control reservation. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus, which is displayed on a reservation confirmation table.

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