JP2006033548A - Receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that, when a viewer reserves a program, a receiver usually shows that the reserved program is to begin with a message just before the time of the reservation is up, but it is troublesome that the viewer selects a channel just at the reservation time up, and the viewer must wait with seeing when it changes to the reserved program, resulting in that viewer's stress builds up. <P>SOLUTION: A CPU decides whether the difference between the start time of a selected reserved program and the present time is within a preset fixed time (S11), If it decides that the difference between the start time of the selected reserved program and the present time is within the preset fixed time, it controls a tuner to immediately select a broadcast station of the selected reserved program without regarding that the recording reservation or the viewing reservation is taken (S12). The "fixed time" is a predetermined one, but the viewer may set the "fixed time" at any time as desired before selecting either the viewing or recording reservation. The viewer can check the switching to a channel of the reserved program within a predictive time to avoid building up stress. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a receiver, and more particularly to a receiver having a function of reserving a desired program to be viewed or recorded using an acquired electronic program guide (EPG).

  As is well known, in television broadcasting, a television broadcast radio wave of each channel carrying program contents consisting of images and sounds is transmitted, a desired channel is selected and received by a receiver, and an image of the program contents is displayed. Make a voice sound. Among these television broadcasts, analog broadcasts are broadcast using the vertical blanking period that is not used for transmission / reception of program contents in the television broadcast radio waves, and superimposing data of the electronic program guide there. For such television broadcasting, ADAMS, G guide (g-guide), etc. are currently put into practical use. Receivers for each are also on sale.

  On the other hand, in digital broadcasting, a descriptor called EIT is arranged in SI (Service Information) information in a digital broadcasting signal, and there is EPG information (electronic program guide data). EPG information acquired from SI information in the received digital broadcast signal is displayed. In both the analog broadcast receiver and the digital broadcast receiver, when the viewer selects a desired program on the EPG display screen, if it is a future program, the viewing reservation or the recording reservation Is now possible. In other words, when a desired desired program is to be viewed, a viewing reservation is made, and a recording reservation is made when the desired program is to be recorded.

  The conventional receiver displays the program reserved for viewing or recording on the EPG display screen according to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, when a conventional receiver selects and inputs any broadcast program in the future from the present time on the EPG display screen (step S1), the conventional receiver displays a screen for selecting viewing reservation or recording reservation. On the basis of the viewer's selection input for viewing reservation or recording reservation, reservation is made accordingly (step S2).

  Thereafter, until the reserved time is reached, the broadcast signal of the current channel is received (step S3), and when the reserved time is reached, the broadcast signal of the reserved channel is switched to reception. A message to switch to the reserved channel is issued (seconds before) (step S4). Thereby, viewing or recording of the broadcast program of the reserved channel is started from the reserved time.

  In addition, the reminder function notifies the viewer that the broadcast time of the reserved program is approaching on the display of the receiver immediately before the start of the broadcast of the corresponding program, so that the viewer can determine whether to switch channels. Such a receiver is conventionally known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP-A-11-266414

  The problem shown in the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 and the conventional receiver described in Patent Document 1 is a case where a reservation is made by transitioning to a program that starts several minutes after the present in the electronic program guide. In this case, since the reserved program is a program that starts in the future from the present, it is selected whether to make a recording reservation or a viewing reservation at the time of reservation.

  However, if you make a reservation to watch a program that starts a few minutes after a channel that is different from the program of the channel you are currently watching, the viewer will feel that you want to tune to the channel that you have already reserved for viewing. It seems that there is, but even in this case, it will be the first time after returning to the program that was once watched and displaying a message such as "I will tune to the reserved program" just before the time of viewing reservation There are many cases that conflict with the will of the viewer, such as switching to the program of the reserved channel.

  In addition, when a reservation is made for a recording reservation or a viewing reservation, a reservation message is usually displayed immediately before the reservation time, and channel selection is performed at that time. However, such a message display temporarily disturbs the user's viewing and is troublesome. Furthermore, since the reception screen does not switch until just before the reserved program starts, in response to a request to view from the beginning of the reserved program, you must wait to see if the received program will actually switch to the reserved program. There is also a problem that the viewer's stress is accumulated.

  Further, in the conventional receiver described in Patent Document 1, immediately before the broadcast of the reserved program is started, the viewer is informed of whether the viewer switches the channel by displaying a message on the receiver. Therefore, in this conventional receiver, for example, even when a program that starts only one to two minutes later is reserved, the viewer waits for a message asking whether to switch channels, and the viewer receives the message after the message appears. Has to operate the remote control to instruct to switch channels, and the viewer is stressed during the period until the message is displayed, and there is a problem that the stress of the viewer is accumulated as described above. .

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and when a program that starts from the time set by the viewer is reserved and selected in the electronic program guide, at the time of recording reservation or at the time of viewing reservation or both, It is an object of the present invention to provide a receiver capable of making a reservation that does not accumulate stress for viewers by immediately selecting a broadcasting station.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a data acquisition means for acquiring data of an electronic program guide, a display means for displaying an electronic program guide based on the acquired electronic program guide data, and an electronic program guide displayed. A receiver having reservation means for reserving a program to be viewed or recorded, and having a channel selection means for forcibly selecting a channel of the reserved program from the start time of the program reserved by the reservation means It is.

  In the present invention, since the channel of the reserved program is automatically selected from the start time of the reserved program at the current time, the channel of the channel different from the reserved program is reserved before the start of the program. Even if you are watching, it will automatically switch to the reserved program channel.

  According to the present invention, even if a program of a channel different from the reserved program is viewed before the reserved program is started, the reservation is made when the channel selection start time set in advance or arbitrarily set by the viewer is reached. Since it automatically switches to the program channel, even if you make a viewing reservation or recording reservation immediately before the start time of the reserved program, you can watch the message that the message appears immediately before the start time of the reserved program as before There is no need to wait tensely, and viewers can confirm the switch to the channel of the reserved program within the estimated time, and the stress can be avoided.

  Next, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a receiver according to the present invention. The present embodiment is a terrestrial digital receiver that displays EPG information and can reserve viewing or recording a future broadcast program from the display screen.

  In FIG. 1, a terrestrial digital broadcast signal received by a UHF antenna 11 for terrestrial digital is supplied to a tuner 12 and a desired channel of a viewer is tuned and tuned. The channel that can be selected by the tuner 12 includes a high-quality HD (for example, resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels) being broadcast on one channel, or a plurality of standard-quality SD (for example, resolution of 720 × 480 pixels). ) Is broadcast, or both HD and SD are broadcast.

  The digital broadcast signal of the channel selected by the tuner 12 is supplied to the descrambler 13 where descrambling processing for releasing the scramble applied on the broadcast station side is performed. This is a pay broadcast, etc., when you want to charge, so that you can not watch it as it is, scramble the broadcast signal on the broadcast station side, only when a specific card etc. not shown is inserted in the receiver, It is a circuit for enabling scrambled viewing.

  The received broadcast signal output from the descrambler 13 is supplied to a demultiplexer 14, where it is divided into video data and audio data, and temporarily stored in a demultiplexer random access memory (RAM) 17, Thereafter, the data is sent from the demultiplexer RAM 17 to the video decoder 15 and the audio decoder 16, respectively.

  The video decoder 15 decodes the compressed video data to decode the image data, and then the GUI (graphics user interface) image data is superimposed by the graphics 18 and output to the monitor as the video output 26. The audio decoder 16 decodes the compressed audio data to decode the audio data, and outputs the obtained audio data as an audio output 27 to the speaker.

  The tuner 12 to the audio decoder 16 described above are connected to a central processing unit (CPU) 20 via a bus and operate under the control of the CPU 20. In addition to this, the CPU 20 bus has a read only memory (ROM) 21 for storing a program executed by the CPU 20, a RAM 22 for storing variables of the CPU 20, a flash memory 23, an RTC (Real Time Clock) 24, and the like. A remote control I / F (interface) 19 is connected.

  Further, the demultiplexer 14 extracts SI / PSI (Program Specific Information) information and data carousel information other than the above audio data and video data from the received broadcast signal, and temporarily stores them in the demultiplexer RAM 17. For example, if it is SI information, it is rearranged into information for EPG, or information of a BML (Broadcast Markup Language) document is extracted from data carousel information and stored in the RAM 22.

  The above-mentioned BML document is a page description language for XML-based data broadcasting established by ARIB (Radio Industry Association). The receiver extracts the BML document and describes various descriptions described there. It has a BML browser that displays the contents of simple data broadcasts and controls the receiver through exchanges with viewers using a remote control.

  When the viewer gives an instruction to display EPG information, the CPU 20 presents the EPG information read from the RAM 22 to the viewer through the graphics 18. EPG information can be acquired for 8 days from now. The BML document is automatically executed or executed by the operation of the viewer. For example, the graphics user interface portion in the BML document presents an image to the viewer using the graphics 18.

  The flash memory 23 is a nonvolatile memory, and its contents are retained even when the power is turned off. In the present embodiment, information indicating which broadcast station has been selected and what program has been viewed is stored in the flash memory 23.

  The RTC 24 is a watch. The RTC 24 may have a crystal oscillator inside to hold time by itself, or may hold time based on time data received as SI information from a received broadcast signal. In the latter case, the CPU 20 acquires time information TOT (Time Offset Table) in the SI information from the demultiplexer RAM 17 via the demultiplexer 14 and holds it in the RTC 24. In any case, the CPU 20 can acquire time data from the RTC 24.

  The remote control I / F 19 acquires and holds a command 25 obtained by receiving infrared rays emitted from a remote control (not shown) by a light receiving unit (not shown). The CPU 20 reads this command 25 and knows what button on the remote controller has been pressed or released.

  The basic configuration shown in FIG. 1 of the receiver of this embodiment is almost the same as that of a conventional receiver. In this embodiment, the program stored in the ROM 21 is an operation peculiar to this embodiment. Is characterized by being executed by the CPU 20.

  Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, the CPU 20 performs an operation according to the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the same processing steps as those in FIG. An EPG screen as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the screen of the receiver. Here, broadcast programs from 3 pm to 8 pm from two broadcast stations are displayed. The broadcast program being displayed is changed to one using the cursor keys on the remote controller, and the enter key on the remote controller is pressed there. At this time, if it is a current broadcast program, it is immediately selected as the broadcast station.

  Here, assuming that a broadcast program on the future, for example, April 6, is selected from 3:58 pm on April 5, the selection information is sent as a command 25 from the remote controller via the remote controller I / F 19. Are input to the CPU 20 (step S1 in FIG. 2). Based on the input of this command, the CPU 20 displays the EPG information read from the RAM 22 on the monitor of the receiver through the graphics 18. Accordingly, for example, a display screen having buttons for selecting whether to make a recording reservation or a viewing reservation is displayed in a part of the broadcast program on April 6, as shown in FIG.

  When the viewer selects a recording reservation or a viewing reservation using the remote controller based on this display screen, the selection information is input to the CPU 20 via the remote controller I / F 19 as a command 25 from the remote controller (FIG. 2). Step S2). Based on the input of this command, the CPU 20 determines whether the difference between the start time of the selected reserved program and the current time is within a predetermined time (step S11 in FIG. 2). If it is longer than a certain time, the CPU 20 sequentially executes the processes of steps S3 and S4 in FIG. The processes in steps S3 and S4 are the same as conventional processes.

  On the other hand, if the CPU 20 determines in step S11 that the difference between the start time of the selected reserved program and the current time obtained by the RTC 24 is within a preset fixed time, regardless of whether it is a recording reservation or a viewing reservation, The tuner 12 is controlled to immediately select the broadcasting station of the reserved program selected (step S12 in FIG. 2). Here, the “certain time” in the above step S11 may be set immediately before or immediately after selecting the viewing reservation or the recording reservation, or may be set by the viewer at any time before that. ing. Furthermore, it may be a predetermined “certain time” preset as a receiver.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the screen when the above-mentioned fixed time is set for the viewer. As shown in the figure, the above setting screen includes the title 31 for setting the timing of reservation channel selection, and 6 minutes 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes before. The button 32 is a choice button of the street, and any one of the six choice buttons is selected and set by the cursor key of the remote controller.

  Thus, according to this embodiment, when the start time of the reserved program comes before the selected time, the channel is automatically switched to the reserved program channel, so that the channel currently being viewed differs from the reserved program channel. And even if a reservation is made immediately before the start time of the reserved program, there is no need to wait tensely while watching a program on a different channel for a message to appear immediately before the start time of the reserved program as in the past. , The viewer can confirm the switching of the reserved program to the channel within the estimated time, and can prevent stress.

  In the above embodiment, the process of step S11 is applied to both the viewing reservation and the recording reservation. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and there is no problem if it is applied to only one of them. In addition, the fixed time is configured to select one of the six choice buttons, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, any time can be input using a numeric key or the like. It is also possible to make it.

  Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to a television receiver, and can be applied to a VTR, a disk recorder, a home server, etc., or a single digital broadcast tuner. Further, although FIG. 1 illustrates an antenna for terrestrial broadcasting, the present invention can also be applied to satellite broadcasting, cable television, and streaming broadcasting from the Internet.

It is a block diagram of one embodiment of a receiver of the present invention. It is a flowchart for operation | movement description of one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of an EPG screen. It is a figure which shows an example of a screen when selecting a reserved program. It is a figure which shows an example of a display screen when setting the time of the difference of the start time of a reserved program, and the present time. It is a flowchart for operation | movement description of an example at the time of the reservation of the conventional receiver.

Explanation of symbols

12 Tuner 13 Descrambler 14 Demultiplexer 15 Video Decoder 16 Audio Decoder 17 Demultiplexer RAM
18 Graphics 19 Remote control I / F
20 Central processing unit (CPU)
21 Read-only memory (ROM)
22 Random access memory (RAM)
23 Flash memory 24 RTC

Claims (1)

Data acquisition means for acquiring data of the electronic program guide, display means for displaying the electronic program guide based on the acquired data of the electronic program guide, and a program to be viewed or recorded from the displayed electronic program guide is reserved. In a receiver equipped with a reservation means,
A receiver comprising channel selection means for forcibly selecting a channel of a reserved program from the start time of the program reserved by the reservation means.

Images