JP2008124907A - Digital broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a digital broadcast receiver enabling stress of a user in channel switching to be relaxed. <P>SOLUTION: The digital broadcast receiver is equipped with: a decoding section 105, 106 for decoding a program multiplexed over reception digital broadcast waves and constituted of video and audio; a selecting section 107 for first selecting a decoding section which is the first enabled to output audio when program reception is requested, and next selecting the other decoding section which decodes a requested program; an audio output section 109 which causes an audio output device 3 to output audio constituting the program decoded by the first selected decoding section asynchronously with the video constituting the program, and then causes the audio output device 3 to output the audio constituting the program decoded by the next selected decoding section; and a video output section 108 which is caused to output the video constituting the program decoded by the next selected decoding section to a display device 2 synchronously with the audio constituting the program. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiver that receives a digital broadcast.

  Some digital broadcast receivers are as follows (hereinafter referred to as “conventional digital broadcast receivers”) in order to improve the initial response of the screen display after switching the reception channel. A conventional digital broadcast receiver includes: a first decoding unit that decodes broadcast data included in a first segment group among a plurality of segments; and a second decoding that decodes broadcast data included in a second segment A part.

  When reception of an arbitrary channel is instructed, the conventional digital broadcast receiver simultaneously performs a decoding process by the first decoding unit and a decoding process by the second decoding unit for a plurality of segments corresponding to the channel. As a result, the screen on which the video information has been previously generated is preferentially displayed on the display unit.

  A conventional digital broadcast receiver first reads a set channel. Here, the setting channel refers to, for example, a receiving channel that is a switching destination when the receiving channel is switched. When the setting channel is read, the conventional digital broadcast receiver advances the two processing systems A and B in parallel.

  The first processing system A includes reception of a broadcast for a fixed reception terminal of a set channel (a so-called high-definition broadcast using 12 segments) and initial screen generation of the broadcast. The second processing system B includes reception of a broadcast for a mobile receiving terminal of a set channel (so-called one segment broadcast) and initial screen generation of the broadcast.

  When one of the first processing system A and the second processing system B is completed, the conventional digital broadcast receiver next determines which processing system has been completed first. Here, when the first processing system A and the second processing system B are started at the same time, the second processing system B is completed first with high probability.

  When it is determined that the second processing system B has finished processing first, the conventional digital broadcast receiver displays an initial screen for broadcasting for mobile receiving terminals. The conventional digital broadcasting receiver continues to display the initial screen of broadcasting for mobile receiving terminals until the first processing system A is completed. When the first processing system A is completed, the conventional digital broadcast receiver displays an initial screen of broadcasting for fixed reception terminals (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2005-167557 A

  In digital television broadcasting, it is necessary to decompress video information compressed in accordance with MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group), and in order to display video, it is necessary to reproduce a GOP (Group Of Pictures) including I pictures. is there.

  In the case of broadcasting for mobile receiving terminals, I pictures are received by the digital broadcasting receiver about every 2 seconds. In the case of broadcasting for fixed receiving terminals, digital broadcasting is received every about 0.5 seconds if the reception environment is good. Received by the machine. Therefore, in the conventional digital broadcast receiver, it takes time until the video is displayed on the screen after the user operates the power switch or the reception channel is changed. There was a problem that the user felt stressed.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcast receiver that can alleviate user stress caused by waiting time at the time of channel switching.

  In order to achieve the above object, a digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention is required to receive a program and a plurality of signal processing systems for reproducing a program composed of video and audio multiplexed on a received digital broadcast wave. Then, a selection unit that selects a signal processing system that can output sound first among a plurality of signal processing systems, and then selects another signal processing system that reproduces the requested program, and a selection unit. After the audio constituting the program reproduced by the signal processing system previously selected by the unit is output to the audio output device asynchronously with the video constituting the program, the signal selected next by the selection unit The audio output unit that outputs the audio that constitutes the program reproduced in the processing system to the audio output device, and the video that constitutes the program reproduced in the signal processing system that is selected next by the selection unit In sync with the audio that makes up the program And an image output unit that outputs to indicate device. The digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention may be constituted by an integrated circuit or software.

  In digital broadcasting, it is necessary to decode audio information and video information in the process of reproducing a program. At this time, the amount of data necessary to decode the audio information is smaller than that of the video information, and the audio information has a lower correlation on the time axis than the video information. The constituent audio can be reproduced in a shorter time than the video.

  For such digital broadcasts, the digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention outputs audio that has been signal-processed by a signal processing system that is capable of audio output first at the time of channel switching and is asynchronous with the program video. Output through the section.

  As described above, according to the digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention, it is possible to alleviate the user's stress due to the waiting time at the time of switching the channel because it is provided to the user quickly although only the audio of the program is provided. Become.

  Hereinafter, a digital broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  A digital broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, a digital broadcast receiver 1 is provided with a display device 2 such as a liquid crystal display device and an audio output device 3 such as a speaker device.

  The digital broadcast receiver 1 includes an antenna 100 that receives a carrier wave for digital broadcasting, a front end 101 that demodulates stream data from the carrier wave, and a back end 104 that decodes the demodulated stream data to reproduce video / audio data. A selection unit 107 that selects a signal processing system that reproduces video / audio data to be output to the display device 2 and the audio output device 3, a video output unit 108 that causes the display device 2 to output a video represented by the video data, and an audio An audio output unit 109 that outputs audio represented by data to the audio output device 3 and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 110 that controls each unit of the digital broadcast receiver 1 are provided.

  The digital broadcast receiver 1 can simultaneously receive, demodulate and decode two different digital broadcasts. The front end 101 includes a tuner 102 that extracts a signal in a necessary band from a carrier wave received by the antenna 100, and a demodulation unit 103 that demodulates stream data multiplexed on the signal extracted by the tuner 102. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that demodulation section 103 can simultaneously demodulate two stream data multiplexed on the signal extracted by tuner 102.

  The back end 104 has two decoding units 105 and 106 so that two stream data can be decoded. FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the decoding unit 105. Note that the decoding unit 106 is configured in the same way as the decoding unit 105, and thus description thereof is omitted.

  In FIG. 2, a decoding unit 105 includes a stream data dividing unit 200 that separates stream data demodulated by the front end 101 into video data and audio data, a video data decoding unit 201 that decodes compressed video data, Necessary for decoding processing such as compression method, screen size, audio sampling rate, and number of quantization bits based on the audio data decoding unit 202 that decodes compressed audio data and the stream data demodulated by the front end 101 A decoding process management unit 203 that sets various parameters for each processing block and manages the entire processing of the decoding unit 105.

  The digital broadcast receiver 1 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG.

  The CPU 110 operates according to a computer program stored in advance in a ROM (not shown). During this operation, when a channel switching request is generated in the CPU 110, the CPU 110 temporarily stops output by the audio output unit 109, and initializes an audio output buffer (not shown) used by the audio output unit 109 if necessary ( FIG. 3; S300). Further, the CPU 110 temporarily stops the output from the video output unit 108 and initializes a video output buffer (not shown) used by the video output unit 108 (S301).

  Next, the CPU 110 initializes the back end 104 that decodes the stream data (S302). In addition, the CPU 110 or the back end 104 initializes the front end 101 and sets a reception frequency corresponding to the channel requested as the switching destination (S303).

  When the reception frequency is set to the tuner 102 in the front end 101, stream data is output from the demodulation unit 103, and each stream data is input to the decoding units 105 and 106.

  Thereby, the decoding parts 105 and 106 can acquire the decoding information of each stream data. The decryption information acquired by the decryption units 105 and 106 is passed to the CPU 110. Next, the CPU 110 initializes the selection unit 107 (S304).

  Here, the CPU 110 selects one of the decoding units 105 and 106 that allows the audio output unit 109 to output audio to the audio output device 3 earlier from the two pieces of decoding information passed from the decoding units 105 and 106. The unit 107 is selected.

  For example, the CPU 110 causes the selection unit 107 to select a decoding unit that has acquired a PTS (Presentation Time Stamp) representing an earlier output time of the sound from the stream data. Further, the CPU 110 may cause the selection unit 107 to select a decoding unit that has decoded stream data that has been modulated by a modulation scheme with higher error tolerance during mobile reception. In the following description, it is assumed that the decoding unit 105 has been selected.

  When comparing the video data of the stream data and the audio data, the audio data requires less data for decoding than the video data. Also, the audio data has a lower degree of correlation on the time axis than the video data. More specifically, in order to decode video data reproduced along the time axis, past and future video data are required. Taking MPEG as an example, an I picture is required for decoding a P picture of video data, and both an I picture and a P picture are required for decoding a B picture of video data. If the I picture cannot be acquired, the video data cannot be decoded until the next I picture is received, and the video stops. On the other hand, audio data does not require data that is farther in time than video data. That is, it can be said that the audio data has a lower degree of correlation on the time axis than the video data. From the above two viewpoints, since the decoding process of the audio data is completed before that of the video data, if the audio output unit 109 does not synchronize with the video output unit 108, the video is displayed on the display device 2. It is possible to cause the audio output device 3 to output audio before the output. As a result, the digital broadcast receiver 1 can quickly present information to the user when switching channels.

  Next, when the selection by the selection unit 107 is completed, the CPU 110 measures the elapsed time from when the voice represented by the voice data decoded by the decoding unit 105 selected by the selection unit 107 is output from the voice output device 3. Then, it waits until the measured elapsed time reaches the specified time (S305).

  Here, the CPU 110 can acquire the elapsed time when information such as TMCC (Transmission and Multiplexing Configuration Control) information necessary for demodulation of the carrier wave can be acquired by the front end 101 or when decoding information can be acquired by the back end 104. Measurement may be started.

  Further, the CPU 110 may start measuring elapsed time at a clear timing in the digital broadcast reception process.

  For example, the CPU 110 may start measuring elapsed time when the initialization of the back end 104 in step S302 or the initialization of the front end 101 in step S303 is completed. In this case, the specified time used in step S305 is the video represented by the video data decoded by the decoding unit 106 not selected by the selection unit 107 after the initialization of the back end 104 or the front end 101 is completed. Is determined to be the longest time required for the display device 2 to be ready for output.

  Further, the CPU 110 may start measuring elapsed time when the PTS is acquired by the decoding unit 106 not selected by the selection unit 107. In this case, the CPU 110 uses a time obtained by subtracting the time required for the selection processing of the selection unit 107 from the time until the time represented by the PTS acquired by the decoding unit 106 is reached, as the specified time in step S305.

  Further, the CPU 110 may start measuring the elapsed time when the initialization of the back end 104 in step S302 is completed and specific processing on the stream data in the decoding units 105 and 106 is completed. In this case, the specified time in step S305 is set to the longest time required for processing to be executed following this specific processing on the stream data in the decoding units 105 and 106.

  Also, the decryption processing management unit 203 of the decryption unit 105 or 106 informs the CPU 110 when the decryption is completed, when the key information for descrambling is obtained, or when the first decryption process by the audio data decryption unit 202 ends. The CPU 110 may start measuring the elapsed time when the notification is received. In this case, the specified time in step S305 is set to the longest time required for the process following the process being executed when the elapsed time measurement is started in the decoding unit 105 or 106.

  Further, the CPU 110 may start measuring the elapsed time when the initialization of the front end 101 in step S303 is completed. In this case, for the specified time in step S305, the video represented by the video data decoded by the decoding unit 106 not selected by the selection unit 107 is output from the display device 2 after the initialization of the front end 101 is completed. It is set to the longest time until it becomes ready.

  In step S305, when the elapsed time reaches the specified time, the CPU 110 causes the selection unit 107 to select a decoding unit 106 that is not selected by the selection unit 107 (S306).

  In Japanese digital broadcasting, a fixed frequency band as a carrier wave is allocated to each broadcaster, and the allocated frequency band is divided into a plurality of logical bands called segments. As data transfer is performed using more segments, the amount of data increases, so that high-quality and high-quality programs can be broadcast.

  FIG. 4 shows frequency bands assigned to each broadcasting station in Japanese digital broadcasting. One broadcasting station is assigned a frequency band Wb corresponding to 13 segments. Within the frequency band Wb corresponding to the 13 segments, each broadcast station uses one segment broadcast (hereinafter simply referred to as “1 segment”) using the one segment logical band Wc and the remaining 12 segment logical bands. 12-segment broadcasting (hereinafter simply referred to as “12 segments”) is performed. Note that the antenna 100 has a reception band Wa including the frequency bands of these broadcast stations.

  The 12 segments are mainly for stationary TVs and the like, and the 1 segment is mainly for mobiles such as mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). In addition, 1 segment often broadcasts the same program as 12 segments or related programs.

  Here, since 12 segments are capable of high image quality, high sound quality, and multi-channel broadcasting, it takes time to specify packet identifiers (PID, Packet Identification) and receive key information for decryption.

  Furthermore, since 12-segment uses 64QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) carrier modulation to secure the data transfer amount, the data error rate increases depending on the reception environment, and especially the error tolerance during mobile reception is strong. In addition, it takes time to correct data errors and to interpolate data.

  On the other hand, in the 1 segment, data is basically not encrypted, and reception of a key for decryption and decryption processing are not required. Furthermore, since 1 segment uses QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) carrier modulation, which has a higher error resistance than 64QAM, data error correction and interpolation are less than 12 segments.

  Therefore, in FIG. 3, when the receiving frequency of digital broadcasting including 12-segment and 1-segment information is set in the tuner 102, the CPU 110 performs video / audio separation from the 1-segment stream data in step S303. It is desirable that the selection unit 107 selects a decoding unit that decodes data, and in step S306, the selection unit 107 selects a decoding unit that decodes video / audio data separated from 12-segment stream data.

  In step S306, when the selection unit 107 is switched, a gap is generated because the two stream data have no correlation. For example, unpleasant sound is output from the sound output device 3 or noise is displayed on the display device 2 when the channel is switched.

  In order to reduce such a gap, the audio output unit 109 lowers the reproduction volume of the audio output device 3 or mutes the output of the audio output device 3 when switching channels, thereby causing unpleasant audio to be output. Output from the output device 3 may be prevented. Thereby, smooth channel switching can be performed.

  The video output unit 108 may prevent noise from being displayed on the display device 2 by fading in the video displayed on the display device 2 at the time of channel switching. Thereby, smooth channel switching can be performed.

  Such a digital broadcast receiver 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a front end 101 and a back end 104 for receiving two related digital broadcasts, and a selection unit 107 capable of selecting a digital broadcast to be reproduced. By providing, in response to a channel switching request, the digital broadcast audio data including the audio data that can be output earlier among the two digital broadcasts is preferentially output.

  At this time, in the other digital broadcast output process, the digital broadcast receiver 1 switches the stream after a lapse of a certain time from the start or completion of the process unique to the digital broadcast, thereby causing the user due to the waiting time at the time of channel switching. Can relieve stress.

  Further, the CPU 110 has been described as performing the processing of FIG. 3 according to the computer program. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 1, the demodulator 103, the back end 104, the selector 107, the video output unit 108, and the audio output unit 109 may be incorporated into a single integrated circuit 4 instead. .

  The digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention is suitable for an on-vehicle or stationary digital television broadcast receiver that is required to have an effect of reducing the waiting time at the time of channel switching.

1 is a block diagram of a digital broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram of the decoding part which comprises the digital broadcast receiver in one embodiment of this invention The flowchart for operation | movement explanation at the time of the channel change of the digital broadcast receiver in one embodiment of this invention Schematic diagram showing frequency bands allocated to each broadcasting station in Japanese digital broadcasting

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Digital broadcast receiver 2 Display apparatus 3 Audio | voice output apparatus 100 Antenna 101 Front end 102 Tuner 103 Demodulation part 104 Back end 105,106 Decoding part 107 Selection part 108 Image | video output part 109 Audio | voice output part 110 CPU
200 Stream Data Dividing Unit 201 Video Data Decoding Unit 202 Audio Data Decoding Unit 203 Decoding Process Management Unit

Claims (6)

A plurality of signal processing systems for reproducing a program composed of video and audio multiplexed on a received digital broadcast wave;
When reception of the program is requested, the signal processing system that can output the sound first is selected from the plurality of signal processing systems first, and the other signal processing system that reproduces the requested program is next. A selection section to select,
The audio constituting the program reproduced by the signal processing system previously selected by the selection unit is output to the audio output device asynchronously with the video constituting the program, and then selected by the selection unit. An audio output unit that causes the audio output device to output audio constituting a program reproduced by the signal processing system;
A video output unit that outputs a video that constitutes a program reproduced by the signal processing system selected next by the selection unit to a display device in a state of being synchronized with the audio that constitutes the requested program; Broadcast receiver. Any one of the plurality of signal processing systems plays a one-segment broadcast program,
The selection unit selects a signal processing system that is playing back the one-segment broadcast program first, from among the plurality of signal processing systems, assuming that audio output is possible first. The digital broadcast receiver described.   The selection unit selects a signal processing system capable of outputting sound first and then, when a predetermined time elapses, another signal that is reproducing the requested program from the plurality of signal processing systems. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein a processing system is selected.   The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 3, wherein the other signal processing system reproduces a high-definition broadcast program.   The predetermined time is acquired when information necessary for demodulating the program data is acquired by the signal processing system that is capable of outputting sound first, or in the process of the demodulation. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 3, which is calculated from the time when A plurality of signal processing systems for reproducing a program composed of video and audio multiplexed on a received digital broadcast wave;
When reception of the program is requested, a selection is first made of the plurality of signal processing systems that can output sound first, and then the one that reproduces the requested program is selected next. And
The audio constituting the program reproduced by the signal processing system previously selected by the selection unit is output to the audio output device asynchronously with the video constituting the program, and then selected by the selection unit. An audio output unit that causes the audio output device to output audio constituting a program reproduced by the signal processing system;
A video output unit that outputs a video that constitutes a program reproduced by the signal processing system selected next by the selection unit to a display device in a state in which the video is synchronized with the audio that constitutes the requested program. circuit.

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