JP2004312384A - Analog/digital broadcasting reception device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To more quickly search a channel by preliminarily recording channels receivable by an analog tuner and skipping the recorded channels to omit unnecessary frequency tuning when performing digital channel search. <P>SOLUTION: A control part 14 sets the first frequency of channel search and starts channel search. The control part 14 decides whether an analog tuner part 15 is capable of reception by terrestrial analog broadcasting or not before causing a digital tuner part 12 to perform the tuning operation. In the case that it is decided that it is capable of reception by terrestrial analog broadcasting, scan of terrestrial digital broadcasting is regarded as unnecessary to skip processing because reception is possible by terrestrial analog broadcasting. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving both terrestrial analog broadcasts and terrestrial digital broadcasts.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Digital terrestrial broadcasting is scheduled to begin in the three major metropolitan areas of Kanto, Kinki and Chukyo by the end of 2003, and other regions will also start by the end of 2006. Analog broadcasting will continue until around 2011, and in the transition period, analog broadcasting and digital broadcasting will be mixed.
[0003]
In order to search for a receivable channel in a certain area, it is useful to use a function called a channel search for automatically determining whether a tuner can select a channel for each frequency.
[0004]
The basic mechanism of channel search is the same for analog and digital, but when searching for channels digitally, after selecting a tuner, a Network Information Table (hereinafter abbreviated as NIT), Service Information (hereinafter abbreviated as SI) Receiving Electronic Program Guide (EPG electronic program guide) and digital data, it is necessary to acquire channel data, so it takes a little longer than analog. When this becomes several tens of channels, it takes a considerable time, and this is one of the problems in the terrestrial digital receiver.
[0005]
As one of the solutions, there is a technique disclosed in Patent Document 1. This is a high-speed search by performing a frequency (channel) search and determining whether each frequency is for analog or digital or not broadcast. This is because analog and digital do not coexist at the same frequency, and if they do coexist, it is considered that they interfere with each other and cannot receive both. As described above, there is an idea that the tuner determines whether the signal is for analog or digital use after tuning the frequency and skips the digital determination.
[0006]
[Patent Document 1]
JP 2001-230689 A
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, if an analog channel has already been received, frequency tuning is useless. If the analog channel that can be received is known in advance, it is a waste of time to search even the frequency of the analog channel when performing a digital channel search.
[0008]
An object of the present invention is to record channels that can be received in analog form in advance and skip channels recorded when performing a digital channel search, thereby eliminating unnecessary frequency tuning and performing a channel search faster. An object of the present invention is to provide an analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides an analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus capable of receiving both analog broadcasts and digital broadcasts. A digital channel acquiring means for acquiring a channel which can be received, and a control means for skipping a frequency scan of a channel which can be received by analog broadcasting when performing a channel search for digital broadcasting.
[0010]
The present invention further includes an analog channel management means for setting and recording a receivable channel as a channel on which the analog broadcast is being broadcast in a channel search of the analog broadcast. It is characterized by acquiring data of a channel that can be received by broadcasting.
[0011]
Further, according to the present invention, the analog channel management means records a date and time when a channel can be selected and received by analog broadcasting, and the control means can receive an analog broadcasting channel from the recorded date and time. Is determined.
[0012]
Further, according to the present invention, the analog channel management means records the history of the date and time when the channel of the analog broadcast was not selected and received, and the control means, based on the history of the date and time when the signal could not be received, It is characterized in that it is determined whether or not the channel can no longer be received in analog broadcasting, and the channel being broadcast in terrestrial analog broadcasting is specified based on the determination.
[0013]
In addition, the present invention provides a method for controlling the terrestrial digital broadcast channel search for a channel other than the terrestrial analog broadcast which is not received by the control means. Is characterized by performing a terrestrial analog broadcast channel search, and if a channel that cannot receive the terrestrial analog broadcast is found, the terrestrial digital broadcast channel search is additionally performed.
[0014]
In addition, the present invention provides a terrestrial digital broadcast when the control unit acquires a frequency of a channel channel corresponding to a terrestrial analog broadcast that can be received by terrestrial digital broadcast, and performs a terrestrial analog broadcast channel search. It is characterized by skipping channels that can be received by broadcasting.
[0015]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of an analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0016]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.
The analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus includes an antenna unit 11 for receiving terrestrial analog broadcast and terrestrial digital broadcast radio waves, a terrestrial digital broadcast tuner unit 12 for detecting the received radio waves, and a video extracted from the radio waves. A video / audio output unit 13 composed of a display, a speaker, etc., which is output after the data and audio data are decoded, a control unit 14 for controlling the operation of the entire receiving apparatus, and a terrestrial analog broadcast for detecting a received radio wave. It comprises a tuner section 15, an analog channel management section 16 for managing channels of terrestrial analog broadcasting, and a digital channel management section 17 for managing channels of terrestrial digital broadcasting.
[0017]
Hereinafter, a channel search operation of the terrestrial analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the embodiment configured as described above will be described.
[0018]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of a conventional digital broadcast channel search process.
In step S101, the first frequency for performing a channel search is set, and the channel search is started. In step S102, a Tuning command is executed for the digital tuner unit 12, and in step S103, the tuner status is checked. If the channel cannot be selected in step S104, the process moves to step S107 without performing subsequent processing. Subsequent processing is digital-specific processing. In step S105, NIT or SI is received from Transport Stream (Transport Stream defined by the MPEG system standard; abbreviated as TS) data output from the tuner, and step S106. A channel correspondence table is created from the data described above. If there is a next frequency in step S107, the next frequency is set, and the process returns to step S102; otherwise, the process ends.
[0019]
The flow of the terrestrial digital broadcast channel search process according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
In step S201, control unit 14 sets a first frequency for performing a channel search and starts a channel search. Next, in step S202, before causing the digital tuner unit 12 to perform the tuning operation, the control unit 14 determines whether or not the analog tuner unit 15 can receive the terrestrial analog broadcast. In this case, the process proceeds to step S203 because it is necessary to scan the terrestrial digital broadcast. If it is determined that the terrestrial digital broadcast can be received, the terrestrial digital broadcast cannot be scanned because the terrestrial analog broadcast can be already received. Then, the process from S203 to S207 is skipped.
[0020]
If the terrestrial digital broadcast needs to be scanned, the control unit 14 executes a Tuning command to the digital tuner unit 12 in step S203 and then proceeds to step S204, as described with reference to FIG. To check the tuner status. If the channel cannot be selected in step S205, the process proceeds to step S208 without performing the subsequent processing. If the channel can be selected, NIT or SI is received from the TS data output from the digital tuner unit 12 in step S206. In step S207, a channel correspondence table is created from the data. If there is a next frequency in step S208, the next frequency is set, and the process returns to step S202; otherwise, the process ends.
[0021]
As can be seen from the conventional example, in the case of a channel that can be received by analog broadcasting, the processing from S203 to S207 is unnecessary, and the channel search processing can be shortened for that channel.
[0022]
Next, a description will be given of a method for determining whether or not reception is possible by terrestrial analog broadcasting.
[0023]
As an example, as shown in FIG. 4, a table 21 of channels that can be selected as a result of performing a channel search by terrestrial analog broadcasting is recorded in the analog channel management unit 16. When performing a terrestrial digital broadcast channel search, the control unit 14 searches the table 21 that records the terrestrial analog broadcast channel corresponding to the frequency to be scanned. If there is no corresponding channel when it can be received by terrestrial analog broadcasting, it is determined that it cannot be received by ground wave analog broadcasting.
[0024]
Also, as shown in FIG. 5, the control unit 14 records the date and time in the analog channel management unit 16 when the selection of the terrestrial analog broadcast is successful, and only the one that has been successfully selected recently can be received. Based on this idea, a channel that has been successfully selected within one week may be a channel that can be received by terrestrial analog broadcasting. In this case, if a terrestrial digital broadcast channel scan is performed on December 25, 2003, since channel 38 has not been received for eight days and channel 42 has not been received for one month or more, the channel is treated as unreceivable. , 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 46 are treated as being received. Thus, the data is recorded in the reception channel table 22 and the analog channel management unit 16.
[0025]
Further, the control unit 14 records the history of the date and time when reception was not possible as shown in FIG. 6 in the analog channel management unit 16 as a table 23. For example, the number of times that channel selection has failed in a time zone (7:00 to 24:00) that is considered to be a normal broadcast, or a large number of days (three or more times) cannot be received. Good. In this case, since the channels 38 and 42 have both failed to tune three or more times, the controller 14 treats the channels as unreceivable and treats them as 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and It is assumed that channels 14, 16, and 46 can be received.
[0026]
Next, in FIG. 7, during the terrestrial digital broadcast channel search processing according to the present invention, a terrestrial analog broadcast channel scan is performed for channels that should have been received by terrestrial analog broadcast, The flow of an additional search process will be described. First, as shown in Fig. 3, a channel search is performed by terrestrial digital broadcasting except for channels that can be received by terrestrial analog broadcasting, and at the same time, terrestrial analog The channel which was able to be received by the broadcast is searched again by the terrestrial analog broadcast, and a channel which needs additional scanning is searched. After the terrestrial digital broadcast channel search is completed, the same processing as in FIG. 6 is performed again.
[0027]
In step S301, control unit 14 sets a first frequency for performing a channel search and starts a channel search. Next, instead of proceeding to the tuning operation in step S302, it is determined whether an additional scan is necessary. If it is determined that the scan is necessary, the process proceeds to step S303. If it is determined that the scan is not necessary, steps S303 to S307 are performed. Skip the process. Thereafter, a Tuning command is executed for the digital tuner unit 12 in step S303, and the tuner status is checked in step S304. If the channel cannot be selected in step S305, the process moves to step S308 without performing subsequent processing. In step S306, control unit 14 receives NIT or SI from the TS data output from digital tuner unit 12. In step S307, a channel correspondence table is created from the data. If there is a next frequency in step S308, the next frequency is set, and the process returns to step S302; otherwise, the process ends. This should make it easier to forget to scan for digital terrestrial broadcasting channels.
[0028]
Finally, a method for speeding up the terrestrial analog broadcast channel search based on the result of the terrestrial digital broadcast channel search will be described with reference to FIG.
In step S401, control unit 14 sets a first frequency for performing a channel search and starts a channel search. Next, before shifting to the tuning operation in step S402, the digital tuner unit 12 determines whether or not it can be received by terrestrial digital broadcasting. If it is determined that the signal cannot be received, the process proceeds to step S403 because it is necessary to scan the terrestrial analog broadcast. If it is determined that the signal can be received, the digital terrestrial broadcasting has already been received, so that the scanning of the analog terrestrial broadcasting is not required, and the processing from S403 to S407 is skipped. If the terrestrial analog broadcast needs to be scanned, a Tuning command is executed for the terrestrial analog broadcast tuner unit 15 in step S403, and the analog tuner status is checked in step S404. If the control unit 14 fails to select a channel in step S405, the control unit 14 proceeds to step S407 without performing subsequent processing. If the channel has been selected, the channel management table of the analog channel management unit 16 is updated in step S406. If there is a next frequency in step S407, the next frequency is set, and the process returns to step S402; otherwise, the process ends.
[0029]
As in the case of terrestrial digital broadcasting, in the case of a channel that can be received by terrestrial digital broadcasting, the processing from S403 to S406 is unnecessary, and the channel search processing can be shortened for that channel.
[0030]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, a terrestrial analog / digital broadcast receiver can receive terrestrial analog broadcasts, and can perform channel search for terrestrial digital broadcasts and analog broadcasts at a high speed, thereby enabling the user to uselessly wait. Use less time.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of an analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of a conventional terrestrial digital broadcast channel search process.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of a channel search process of digital terrestrial broadcasting in the embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of storing a database of channels that can be received by terrestrial analog broadcasting in the embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of storing a database of channels that can be received by terrestrial analog broadcasting including the date and time in the embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of storing a database of channels that can be received by terrestrial analog broadcast including a history of unreceivable date and time in the embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flow of an additional terrestrial digital broadcast channel search process in the embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flow of a channel search process of terrestrial analog broadcasting in the embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
Reference Signs List 11 antenna unit 12 terrestrial digital tuner unit 13 video / audio output unit 14 control unit 15 terrestrial analog tuner unit 16 analog channel management unit 17 digital channel management unit

Claims (6)

In analog / digital broadcast receivers that can receive both analog and digital broadcasts,
Analog channel acquisition means for acquiring a channel on which analog broadcasting can be received;
Digital channel acquisition means for acquiring a channel on which digital broadcasting can be received;
An analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: control means for skipping a frequency scan of a channel that can be received by analog broadcasting when performing a digital broadcast channel search. The analog / digital broadcast receiving device according to claim 1,
Analog channel management means for setting and recording a receivable channel as a channel on which analog broadcasting is being broadcast in a channel search of analog broadcasting,
The analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means acquires data of a channel which can be received by analog broadcast from said analog channel management means. The analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 2,
The analog channel management means records a date and time when a channel can be selected and received by analog broadcasting,
An analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus, wherein the control means determines whether or not an analog broadcast channel has been received from the recorded date and time. The analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 2,
The analog channel management means records the history of the date and time when the channel of the analog broadcast was not selected and received,
The control means determines from the history of the date and time when reception was not possible, whether or not the channel could not be received in analog broadcasting, and based on the determination, specifies the channel being broadcast in terrestrial analog broadcasting. Analog / digital broadcast receiver. The analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4,
The control means, when performing a terrestrial digital broadcast channel search for channels other than the terrestrial analog broadcast can be received, at the same time, only the channels that can be received by terrestrial analog broadcast of terrestrial analog broadcast An analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus characterized in that a channel search is performed, and if a channel that cannot receive terrestrial analog broadcasting is found, the channel is additionally searched for terrestrial digital broadcasting. The analog / digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5,
The control means obtains the frequency of a channel corresponding to a terrestrial analog broadcast that can be received by a terrestrial digital broadcast, and is capable of receiving the terrestrial digital broadcast when performing a channel search of the terrestrial analog broadcast. An analog / digital broadcast receiver characterized by skipping channels.

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