JP2004235847A - Dtv set - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a DTV set in which program information can be viewed without requiring any special operation in addition to the program video information of a selected channel and a program can be selected comfortably by grasping not only the instantaneous image information in the way of switching the channel but also the content of that program or a program being broadcast next on that channel. <P>SOLUTION: The DTV set capable of storing and utilizing program information comprises a means for detecting the up operation and down operation signals of a channel being operated by a user, and a means for altering the channel when the operation signal is detected and displaying the program screen of the altered channel and further displaying the program information of a program under display and a program being broadcast next for a specified period. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a DTV device, and more particularly to a DTV device capable of performing a channel up / down operation and a program program table display operation by a remote control device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a DTV device, in addition to a normal digital broadcast program, a data broadcast program, an analog broadcast program, a telephone line, a home intercom, a front door phone, the Internet, a home server, and various home appliances are connected. . At this time, by operating the channel up / down button 208 of the remote control device, it is possible to switch not only the channel on which broadcasting is being performed and the program program, but also to a peripheral device that can be viewed and reproduced by the DTV device of the other input source. Also, switching to another application screen mounted on the DTV device is treated as if it were one of the channels, and the selection operation is performed by the channel up / down button of the remote control device.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above configuration, when there are many broadcast channels that can be received by the DTV device, even if the channel is continuously changed by operating the channel up / down button of the remote control device, each channel is not changed. In each case, only one scene of the program can be confirmed, and depending on the time zone, there are many cases where commercials and the like are flowing in each channel, and it is difficult to confirm the content from the screen of the program that is displayed by chance.
[0004]
Also, if the channel up / down button of the remote control device is operated quickly and continuously or a signal is generated continuously by pressing and holding it for the purpose of checking more programs and input sources, the digital In broadcast, even if the channel is continuously changed frequently, the content screen of the program may not appear immediately due to the processing of the decoder. As a result, the content of the program or the screen during the switching operation is checked. It was difficult.
[0005]
In particular, when the switching of the input source to many external video devices connected to the DTV device as described above is also performed by the up / down operation of the channel of the remote control, the up / down operation is performed because there are many devices serving as channels and input sources. It was difficult to confirm the contents of all programs using only the buttons and select the program most suitable for the purpose of the viewer.
[0006]
Also, even if the viewer is lucky to find a favorite program in a short time channel switching operation, if the selected program is just before the end, sufficient satisfaction cannot be obtained. was there.
[0007]
Further, in view of the above problems, an application such as a program section of a newspaper is provided by using information transmitted together with program data in a digital broadcast such as an electronic program guide (hereinafter, abbreviated as EPG) to provide a digital broadcast program. Some DTV devices provide content and information of various devices connected to the DTV device to viewers. In this case, however, a remote control device such as moving a focus or deciding a selection for selecting a program on an EPG application is used. Since various buttons, such as a pointing device, a cursor key button, and a key button for determination, need to be operated, it takes a very long time to select a target program as a result.
[0008]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and its purpose is to provide program-related information without performing any special operation in addition to program video information of a selected channel, and to switch channels. An object of the present invention is to provide a DTV device capable of selecting a comfortable program by grasping not only instantaneous image information on the way but also the content of a program and the content of a program to be broadcast on the next channel.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a DTV device that stores program-related information and detects a signal of an up operation and a down operation of a channel operated by a user, and the operation signal is detected. Means for changing the channel in the case where the program is changed, displaying the program screen of the changed channel, and simultaneously displaying the program-related information on the program being displayed and the program-related information on the program to be broadcast next for a certain period. It is characterized by having.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0011]
<Embodiment 1>
FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 and FIG. 11 are views best representing the features of the DTV device according to the present invention. Here, FIG. 4 is a diagram of a display screen on which a program which the user was watching at the time of changing the channel is displayed, and FIG. 6 is a channel operation performed by operating the channel up / down button of the remote control device of the DTV device once. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display screen of the DTV device immediately after switching, and FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display screen after a predetermined time has elapsed from the state of FIG. FIG. 11 shows a display screen of the DTV device when the channel up / down button is kept pressed.
[0012]
FIG. 1 is an external view of a DTV device according to the present invention. Various video devices and audio devices such as a VTR device and a DV device connected to the DTV device around the DTV device main body, and further inserted into the DTV device main body. In this manner, various media such as a memory card device, a DVD, and the like, which can record and reproduce the stored information, are displayed.
[0013]
FIG. 2 shows a remote control device for operating the DTV device, 201 is the main body of the remote control device, 202 to 206 are up / down / left / right buttons and a central execution button for operating various setting menu screens of the DTV device, and 207 is a digital button. A color button 208 used for data broadcasting at the time of broadcasting, a channel up / down button 208 for up / down channel, and an up / down button 209 for controlling the volume of the DTV device are provided.
[0014]
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a DTV device according to the present invention, where 301 is an antenna device for receiving digital broadcast radio waves, and 302 is for selecting and tuning radio waves received from an antenna. A tuner device, 303 is a demodulation circuit device for demodulating a selected radio wave and converting it into a signal, 304 is a TS decoder circuit for separating a TS signal from the demodulated signal, and 305 is a video signal based on the separated TS signal. A video decoder circuit 306 performs decoding, an audio decoder circuit 306 performs a code using audio from the TS signal, and a data broadcast decoder circuit 307 decodes a data broadcast from the TS signal.
[0015]
Reference numeral 308 denotes an OSD circuit for displaying information from various control devices of the DTV device main body, 309 denotes various applications mounted in the DTV device, and 310 synthesizes and outputs various video information created inside the DTV device. An image synthesizing unit, 311 is a monitor device serving as a display screen of the DTV device, 312 is a ROM device for storing programs for various controls of the DTV device and programs of installed applications and various data, and 313 is a DTV device. A RAM device that stores programs for various controls, programs of installed applications and various data, and serves as a work for operating the applications.
[0016]
314 is a CPU device for executing various controls and applications of the DTV device, 315 is a modem device for performing communication between the DTV device and external devices, 316 is an authentication operation for performing a limited reception operation of the DTV device, Alternatively, an IC card device for exchanging various types of information with an external device, 317 is a bus device for transmitting information between circuit blocks of the DTV device, and 318 is an image with an external device connected to the DTV device An interface circuit 319 for exchanging high-speed data including data is a remote control device for transmitting various commands to the DTV device.
[0017]
FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an operation of a process when an operation is performed on the DTV device by the remote control device. In particular, here, an operation of a process when an operation of an up / down button of a channel is performed is shown. The other processes are omitted here because they are not directly related here.
[0018]
Here, step 1201 is a step of acquiring a received signal type of the remote control device, 1202 is a step of analyzing a command signal, and 1203 is a step of determining whether or not the analyzed command is a signal by a channel up / down button. If not, the process proceeds to the step of processing each command in the DTV device, but it is not directly related in the present invention and is omitted here because there are many types. In step 1204, if the signal transmitted by the remote controller is a command corresponding to channel up / down, the setting value holding the current channel is changed. In step 1205, the stream is changed as necessary. Perform a switch.
[0019]
In step 1206, program related information is read. In step 1207, it is determined whether or not the channel up / down button of the remote controller is continuously pressed. If not, the channel is changed in step 1208. Is executed, and in step 1209, the program of the changed channel is displayed. In step 1210, the previously read program-related information, here, the information on the current program and the information on the next program are combined and displayed with the program, and it is determined in step 1211 that a certain time has elapsed. Will continue to be displayed. If it is determined that the predetermined time has elapsed in step 1211, the program-related information is deleted in step 1212, and the operation processing by the remote control device ends.
[0020]
If it is detected in step 1207 that the channel up / down button of the remote controller is continuously pressed, the process proceeds to step 1213, where the program-related information, that is, the channel before and after the selected channel, is selected. , And display a list of program-related information. In step 1214, the cursor position existing in the above list display is displayed in accordance with the next value of the set value holding the current channel, and in step 1215, the cursor position is displayed at the cursor position. Change to the set value that holds the channel that was set.
[0021]
In step 1216, the stream is switched as needed, and in step 1217, new program-related information is read. In step 1218, it is determined again whether or not the channel up / down button of the remote control device is continuously pressed. If not, the channel to the channel corresponding to the position of the cursor on the program related information list described above is determined. The change is executed and the process proceeds to step 1209. If it is determined in step 1218 that the button is continuously pressed, the process proceeds to step 1213 again to loop.
[0022]
Hereinafter, the first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7 and FIGS.
[0023]
Now, as shown in FIG. 4, the user is watching the program 051 on the channel “BSD05” in the DTV device according to the present invention. At this time, the user operates the channel up / down button 208 of the remote control device of FIG. 2 for the purpose of changing the currently viewed program to another program, for example, an operation of raising the channel by the remote control device. I do. By the operation of the remote control device, the processing of the remote control signal shown in FIG. 12 is started in the DTV device.
[0024]
In step 1201, the command type of the remote control signal sent to the DTV device by the remote control device is acquired, and in step 1202, it is analyzed that the command is a channel up command. Therefore, the process proceeds to step 1204 based on the determination in step 1203. In step 1204, the number of the channel to be displayed next, that is, the channel of the channel “BSD06” which is a channel up from the channel “BSD05” is set. At this time, in step 1205, a stream including the channel “BSD06” is selected as necessary, and in step 1206, program-related information is read.
[0025]
Next, in 1207, it is determined whether or not the channel-up button of the remote control device is continuously pressed. If not, the process proceeds to step 1208, and the channel is actually changed. . In the next step 1209, the decoding process of the program by the selected channel is started, and in step 1210, the combined display with the program-related information is performed, and the program screen and the program-related information as shown in FIG. , A screen on which information on the current program on the channel “BSD06” and information on the next program on the channel “BSD06” are also displayed.
[0026]
In step 1211, it is determined whether or not this state has continued for a certain period of time. If the state has elapsed, in step 1212, the program-related information portion is deleted, and the screen changes to a program-only screen as shown in FIG. 5. At this time, when the user operates the remote controller again to perform the channel-up operation, the channel similarly changes from the channel “BSD06” to the channel “BSD07”, and for a certain period of time, as shown in FIG. , The program 071 of the channel “BSD07”, the information on the program and the information of the next program on the channel “BSD07” are displayed together.
[0027]
If the user continues to press the channel up button of the remote control device while watching the program on the channel “BSD05” shown in FIG. 4, the channel up button of the remote control device is still pressed in step 1207. Since the operation is continued, the press-and-hold operation is detected, the process proceeds to step 1213, and a list screen of program related information centering on the channel being viewed as shown in FIG. 11 is displayed.
[0028]
In step 1214, the scrolling of the list information of the program-related information is performed so that the thick frame-shaped cursor shown by 1103 in FIG. 11 is always at the center position. At that time, in step 1215, along with the movement of the list, the channel displayed with the cursor at the center position is set, and the stream is switched as necessary in step 1216. Then, in step 1217, the stream is switched again. The program-related information is read, and it is determined in step 1218 whether or not the channel-up button is still pressed. If the button is pressed, the process loops to step 1213 and loops to step 1214. In, the list is moved, and thereafter, similarly, the channels set in step 1215 change one after another.
[0029]
Also, in this state, if the user releases the channel up button of the remote control device, the setting is changed to the channel where the cursor was when the channel up button was finally released in step 1219, and the process proceeds to step 1209. Then, the program of the channel is displayed, and the screen of the combined use of the program of the channel and the program-related information is displayed by a fixed time loop of steps 1210 and 1211, and then the display shifts to a normal program display.
[0030]
As described above, according to the present invention, when the viewer who is the user repeatedly operates the channel up / down button of the remote control device to search for the program that he / she wants to watch from the program being viewed, the viewer switches. For a certain time immediately after, information about the program being broadcast on the channel that has been switched and information about the program that will be broadcast next are displayed. Information is provided.
[0031]
Further, by continuing to press the channel up / down button of the remote control device, the program information is started to be decoded in the channel immediately after switching, and only the program-related information of each channel is listed without waiting for the time until it is displayed. And can quickly switch channels.
[0032]
As described above, even when the user performs an operation of switching channels by operating the channel up / down buttons of the remote control device, it is possible to quickly and easily select a target channel.
[0033]
Further, in the present embodiment, the channel switched by operating the channel up / down button of the remote control device is only a broadcast program. However, other input sources, for example, video sources recorded in a VCR device or an HDD device are also described above. In the configuration in which the program is continuously switched to the broadcast program by the channel up / down button of the remote control device, reproduction from the current tape position of the VCR device is performed based on the recorded content data information recorded together with the video source in the VCR device or the HDD device. By using the information of a possible video source and the information of the video source recorded next or the information of the video source which can be immediately reproduced by the HDD device instead of the program related information, the remote control device can be used. Seamless operation becomes possible.
[0034]
Also, as a function of the DTV device, a DTV device having a means for presenting a recommended program to a user based on user's operation history information and preference information, a program displayed at a certain time immediately after changing channels. As related information, a recommended program may be presented.
[0035]
Similarly, in the list display of the program-related information including a plurality of channels displayed by the user's operation of holding down the channel up / down button, the program-related information of the channel where the recommended program is present is given priority instead of the continuous channel. May be displayed.
[0036]
<Embodiment 2>
In the first embodiment, when the channel up / down button is repeatedly operated by the remote control device, immediately after switching the channel, for a certain period of time, the program-related information on the program currently being broadcast and the program to be broadcast next In the present embodiment, when program-related information relating to a program currently being broadcast is displayed as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the program-related information is extracted from the program-related information. Based on the program start time information and the program time, the program currently being broadcast is calculated at which position in the program time, and next to the program-related information on the current program displayed on the display screen. , One frame of the program-related information is scaled and projected to the program time, and the temporal position of the program currently being broadcast in the scaled program time. By displaying a mark indicating, the program currently being broadcast to the user, or more, such of the beginning of the program, or such towards the end of, or how much or followed by the later, it is possible to identify outline.
[0037]
Also, on the program related information list screen displayed by holding down the channel up / down button of the remote control device, the time of the currently broadcast program is displayed in the program related information of the currently broadcast program of each channel. The target position may be displayed as a mark.
[0038]
By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to avoid a problem that the program ends immediately after switching to the channel, despite the fact that the user likes the program-related information, and the user needs to search for the channel again. Things.
[0039]
<Embodiment 3>
In the first embodiment, when the user presses and holds the channel up / down button when operating the remote control device of the DTV device, only the list display of the program-related information centering on the currently selected channel is performed. However, if the processing speed of the DTV device has a margin, as shown in FIG. 10, the image data of the program and the list of the program related information may be displayed in combination.
[0040]
By adopting such a configuration, when searching for the channel of one's favorite, while considering mainly the video information of the program, I want to see more about other channels and the next program to be started, so that I want to see more When a program exists, it is possible to reduce the possibility of overlooking the program.
[0041]
【The invention's effect】
As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, when a user who is watching a program uses the remote control device to search for a program that he or she wants to watch on another channel from the program, the channel of the remote control device is increased. By operating the down button, it is possible to view program-related information without performing any special operation in addition to the program video information of the selected channel as appropriate. Also, by grasping the contents of the program and the contents of the program to be broadcast on the next channel, a comfortable program selection becomes possible.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an external view of a DTV device and peripheral devices according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an external view of a remote control device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display unit of the DTV device for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display unit of the DTV device for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display unit of the DTV device for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display unit of the DTV device for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating Embodiment 2 of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating Embodiment 2 of the present invention.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a display unit of the DTV device for explaining the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
101 DTV device main body 102 Video disc insertion slot 103 Memory card insertion slot 104 Video disc device 105 Memory card device 106 to 109 Various peripheral video devices 110 to 112 Image diagram of broadcast media 201 Remote control main unit 207 Data broadcast color button 208 Channel up / down button

Claims (6)

In a DTV device that stores program-related information and can be used,
Means for detecting a signal of an up operation and a down operation of a channel operated by a user, and changing the channel when the operation signal is detected, displaying a program screen of the changed channel, and for a certain period, What is claimed is: 1. A DTV device comprising: means for displaying together program-related information on a program being displayed and program-related information on a program to be broadcast next. When displaying the program-related information on the currently displayed program for a certain period, the scale that indicates the time position of the currently displayed program in the entire broadcast time of the program is set. The DTV device according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit. When detecting a signal of an up operation and a down operation of a channel operated by a user, a means for separately detecting a continuous user operation such as a continuous operation of pressing a button of a remote control device is provided, and the operation of continuously pressing the button by the user is provided. Upon detection, means for hiding the program screen of the channel sequentially changed by the pressing and holding operation and, instead, the program-related information of the currently changed channel and the selected Means for displaying a list of program-related information of a channel that is continuous with the channel, means for canceling the list display when detecting that the user has stopped pressing and holding down the button, and And means for displaying a program screen of a selected channel at the time when the operation of holding down is stopped. Described DTV apparatus. When a signal indicating a channel up operation and a down operation by the user is detected, the broadcast time of the program currently being broadcast is specified as a program-related information to be displayed together with the program screen of the changed channel for a certain period of time. When the broadcast time is equal to or less than a specific time, the program-related information is displayed. The DTV device according to claim 1. A means for searching for a recommended program based on the user's viewing history information, preference information, or information sent from a broadcast station, etc., and a certain signal when a signal indicating a channel up operation and a down operation by the user is detected. 2. A program display device according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying, as the program-related information to be displayed together with the program screen of the channel changed during the period, the program-related information relating to the recommended program which is currently being broadcast or is to be broadcast soon. Description DTV device. Means for searching for a recommended program based on user's viewing history information, preference information, or information sent from a broadcast station, etc .; and program-related information displayed in a list when a user's pressing and holding operation of the button is detected. Means for preferentially displaying the program-related information of the channel in which the searched recommended program exists, instead of the program-related information of a channel continuous to the selected channel. 3. The DTV device according to 3.

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