JP2005286424A - Digital broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital broadcast receiver capable of efficiently acquiring and storing program information. <P>SOLUTION: The digital broadcast receiver 30 is configured to acquire program information on a digital broadcast wave of each channel by automatically switching the channels sequentially. A CPU 13 stores the program information and the acquired date and time acquired from a channel during reception to a memory 14. Further, at application of power OFF command, the processing for acquiring the program information as to other channels is executed. In this case, the CPU 13 compares the acquired date time information of the program information with present date and time information prior to acquisition start of the program information and executes the acquisition of the program information when a prescribed time elapses. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that receives a digital broadcast.

  A digital broadcast receiving apparatus that receives a digital broadcast using a satellite or a terrestrial wave selects an arbitrary broadcast wave from a plurality of broadcast waves received through a dedicated antenna or a terrestrial antenna using a tuner, and selects the selected broadcast wave. An arbitrary channel is selected from among a plurality of channels included in the wave by demultiplexing processing, a digital signal of the selected channel is taken out and decoded to output a video / audio signal.

Also, in digital broadcasting, electronic program guide (EPG) information, which is information such as the program content and broadcast time of a broadcast program, is included in the broadcast signal as service information (SI: Service Information). The broadcast receiving apparatus separates the SI from the broadcast signal and displays an EPG screen by an OSD (On Screen Display) function (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-290887 A

  By the way, in the satellite digital broadcasting, each broadcasting station transmits program information of other stations, but in the terrestrial digital broadcasting, each broadcasting station transmits only the EPG information of its own station. For this reason, if the user continues to watch a program on the same channel for a long time, even if the program information of another channel is updated (for example, the program is postponed, advanced, shortened, changed, etc.) In the receiver, program information of other channels is not updated, and the user can obtain only old program information. Furthermore, if the user watches the same channel immediately after purchase or for several days, the program information of other channels cannot be acquired at all, and the program information of other channels may not be presented.

  For this reason, when so-called viewing is interrupted, such as when the power is turned off, the digital terrestrial broadcast receiving apparatus sequentially switches the channels for which program information is scheduled to be acquired, and acquires SI in each selected channel. ing.

  However, the program information transmission cycle for each channel is, for example, a maximum of 180 seconds in the case of EIT (event information table), and a total of 24 minutes is required to acquire EIT for 8 channels. Is also required. During this period, the broadcast receiving apparatus must be powered on, which is not desirable from the viewpoint of power saving.

  In view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcast receiver capable of efficiently acquiring and storing program information.

  In order to solve the above problems, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention acquires program information carried on a digital broadcast wave in each channel by automatically switching the channel sequentially. In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus, the means for storing the acquisition date information of the program information is compared with the acquisition date information of the program information and the current date information, and if the predetermined time has passed since the previous program information acquisition date And means for executing acquisition of information.

  With the above configuration, since the selection of program information acquisition is performed based on the difference between the program information acquisition date and time and the current time, program information acquisition can be performed compared to simply acquiring program information on all channels. Total time can be shortened.

  The digital broadcast receiving apparatus having the above-described configuration may be configured to start a program information acquisition process when a user receives a power OFF command, and to execute the power OFF after the program information is acquired. Moreover, it may be configured such that the user can set the predetermined time.

  According to the present invention, since the selection of the program information acquisition is performed based on the difference between the acquisition date and time of the program information and the current time, the total program information acquisition is performed as compared to simply acquiring the program information for all channels. The time can be shortened, the power ON time is shortened, and the power can be saved.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, but here, a case where a user views a terrestrial digital broadcast is illustrated. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a digital broadcast receiving apparatus 30 of this embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining program information acquisition processing.

  In FIG. 1, a terrestrial antenna 1 is arranged outdoors in a predetermined direction and receives a terrestrial digital broadcast signal. The terrestrial antenna 1 gives the received signal to the terrestrial digital tuner 2.

  The terrestrial digital tuner 2 extracts a signal of a specific frequency from the high frequency digital modulation signal including video / audio data. The terrestrial digital tuner 2 includes a demodulation circuit, a deinterleave circuit, an error correction circuit, etc., and demodulates the selected digital modulation signal to output a transport stream.

  The demultiplexer (DEMUX) 3 separates the transport stream into an MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group 2) video stream, an audio stream, and PSI / SI (Program Specific Information / Service Information). The demultiplexer 3 supplies the video stream and the audio stream to the AV decoder 4 and supplies program information (program name, program start time, program content information, etc.) included in the PSI / SI to the CPU 13. Note that a plurality of channels are multiplexed in the transport stream, and the process for selecting an arbitrary channel from among these is the packet ID of the arbitrary channel in the transport stream from the PSI / SI. It becomes possible by taking out data such as whether or not it is multiplexed. The transport stream can also be selected based on PSI / SI information.

  The AV decoder 4 includes a video decoder that decodes a video stream and an audio decoder that decodes an audio stream. The video decoder decodes the input variable length code to obtain a quantization coefficient and a motion vector, and performs inverse DCT transform, motion compensation control based on the motion vector, and the like. The audio decoder decodes the input encoded signal to generate audio data. The video data generated by the decoding is output to the video processing circuit 5, and the audio data is output to the audio processing circuit 6.

  The video processing circuit 5 receives video data from the AV decoder 4 and performs D / A conversion, for example, to convert it into a composite video signal. The audio processing circuit 6 receives the audio data output from the AV decoder 4 and performs D / A conversion to generate, for example, a right (R) sound analog signal and a left (L) sound analog signal.

  The video output circuit 7 and the audio output circuit 8 include an output resistor, an amplifier, and the like. The AV output terminal 9 is provided with an output unit (a set of left and right audio output terminals and video output terminals, etc.). This output unit is provided with a video / audio code 17 and is provided with a picture tube 16a and a speaker 16b. 16 is connected.

  The OSD (On Screen Display) circuit 12 outputs video data based on character information and color information instructed to be output from the CPU 13 to the adder 20. The adder 20 performs processing for incorporating the video data into the received video data output from the AV decoder 4. The OSD circuit 12 can display a menu screen or an EPG screen.

  The remote control transmitter 10 is provided with various keys and sends various commands to the broadcast receiving apparatus 30. When the key is operated, a signal light (remote control signal) indicating a command corresponding to the key is emitted. Sent from the department. The remote control light receiver 11 receives the signal light, converts it into an electric signal, and gives it to the CPU 13.

  The memory (for example, RAM, EEPROM, flash memory, etc.) 14 stores program information for displaying the EPG screen, acquisition date / time information of the program information, and the like.

  The CPU 13 performs overall control in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus 30. In particular, as a process according to the present invention, a process for efficiently acquiring program information is performed. The program information acquisition process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The CPU 13 scans all channels at the time of initial power-on (initial purchase) of the digital broadcast receiving device 30, performs station determination, obtains program information for the channels determined to be stationed, Store in a predetermined area. Further, the CPU 13 has a calendar function, and stores the acquisition date and time of program information for each channel in the memory 14 (step S1). In addition, after the above initial processing, processing for acquiring program information of the channel is performed during program reception.

  Next, the CPU 13 determines whether or not a power-off command has been issued (step S2). If there is no power OFF command, it is determined whether or not the program information has been changed in the selected channel (step S3). If there is a change, the program information and acquisition date information of the channel being selected are stored in the memory 14 (step S4).

  When there is a power-off command, processing for acquiring program information of each station is started. For example, the CPU 13 selects a channel that is one station above the current channel (step S5). Then, it is determined whether or not channel selection has been completed for all the stationed channels (step S6). If completed, the digital broadcast receiving device 30 is turned off (step S9). Note that the program information may be acquired for each channel by automatically turning on the power after a predetermined time has elapsed. When the power is turned on by a user operation before the predetermined time elapses, the reception process is immediately started and the power is turned off again.

  If NO in step S6, the program information acquisition date and time stored in the memory 14 for the channel being selected is compared with the current time (step S7) to determine whether the program information is old (step S8). ). In this embodiment, when the difference between the acquisition date and the current time exceeds 3 hours, it is determined that the program information is old. When it is determined that the program information is old, the process proceeds to step S4, and the program information of the channel being selected is stored in the memory 14 together with the acquisition date. In the above example, the acquisition date and time of the program information stored in the memory 14 for the channel being selected is compared with the current time, but the comparison process is performed prior to channel selection, and it is determined that the program information is new. In this case, channel selection itself may be skipped.

  Thus, for channels whose difference between the acquisition date and time of the program information and the current time does not exceed 3 hours, program information acquisition is skipped because it is assumed that there is no change in the program information. The total time for program information acquisition can be shortened as compared to acquiring the program information. Therefore, the power ON time is shortened, and power saving can be achieved.

  In the above example, the program information is determined to be old when the difference between the acquisition date and time and the current time exceeds 3 hours, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it may be 1 hour or 2 hours instead of the above 3 hours. Alternatively, the number of stationed channels × the time of the retransmission cycle of EIT may be employed. When the number of channeled channels is 8 and the EIT retransmission period is 180 seconds, the number of channeled channels is 24 minutes, and when the difference between the acquisition date and the current time exceeds 24 minutes, it may be determined that the program information is old. Of course, the manufacturer may be able to set the time instead of fixedly setting the time. For example, an item such as “program information update acquisition time” may be provided on the menu screen, and the time set by the user on this item may be adopted.

1 is a block diagram showing a digital broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the flowchart which showed the acquisition process of program information.

Explanation of symbols

1 Antenna 2 Tuner 3 Demultiplexer (DEMUX)
4 AV decoder 12 OSD circuit 13 CPU
14 memory

Claims (3)

Means for storing program information acquisition date and time information in a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that acquires program information on digital broadcast waves by automatically switching the channels sequentially in each channel; Means for comparing the acquisition date and time information of the program information with the current date and time information and executing acquisition of the program information when a predetermined time has passed since the previous program information acquisition date and time Broadcast receiving device. 2. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein when receiving a power-off command from a user, the program information acquisition process is started and the power-off is executed after the program information is acquired. A digital broadcast receiver. 3. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a user can set the predetermined time.

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