JP2009152740A - Receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable execution of channel setting of terrestrial digital broadcast of DVB-T standards in a receiver without requiring a user to perform country setting operation. <P>SOLUTION: A control section of the receiver starts channel setting for physical channels in a UHF band (S11), and acquires an original network ID from an NIT of TS of each of the receivable physical channels (S13). Upon completion of channel setting for all the channels of the UHF band (YES in S15), the control section executes country setting processing for identifying a country where the receiver is used, based on the original network ID of the acquired physical channel (S21). Upon completion of country setting (S21), channel setting is executed for the physical channel of the VHF band based on a search plan corresponding to the county specification (S23). Thus, since channel setting can be executed by executing country specifying processing without requiring user's operation, the burden on the user can be reduced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus for receiving terrestrial digital broadcasting based on the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) standard.

  In general, in order to enable viewing on a digital terrestrial broadcast receiving device, it is necessary to perform channel setting for setting a physical channel that can be viewed by a user as a channel list prior to viewing after purchasing the device or transferring the device. There is. With regard to this channel setting, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a digital broadcast channel selection device that acquires channel information broadcast in the region from channel information obtained by the first search result and performs channel setting. .

  By the way, in the terrestrial digital broadcasting based on the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) standard performed in Europe, for example, the frequency of the physical channel of the VHF band is predetermined for each country. In a receiving apparatus that receives terrestrial digital broadcasting, frequency information of physical channels that can be received is set in advance as a search plan for each country. Conventionally, for example, when an initial setting is performed after the power is turned on, for example, in a receiving apparatus, a country setting for specifying a country in which the receiving apparatus is installed is performed by a user, and then a search corresponding to the country set at that time is performed. Based on the plan, channel setting is automatically performed. Thereby, for example, even when the frequency of the physical channel and the frequency step between the physical channels are slightly different for each country, the channel setting suitable for the country can be performed.

  However, as described above, there is a problem that selection of the country setting necessary for automatically executing the channel setting is troublesome for the user, and it is automatically executed without any user operation. It was hoped that it would be done. Regarding this problem, the channel selection device of Patent Document 1 is applicable only when the frequency of the physical channel is the same even if the region is different. It is not applicable to such problems.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a receiving apparatus that performs digital broadcast channel search based on channel information searched by analog broadcast channel search. However, Patent Document 2 does not disclose that a reception area is determined when an analog broadcast is not broadcast, and the above problem cannot be solved.

Patent Document 3 discloses a broadcast receiving apparatus in which a channel search is simultaneously performed by a plurality of tuners, and a program can be viewed even when another channel search is continued based on preset channel search preset information. Patent Document 4 discloses a receiving apparatus that calculates a frequency for searching digital broadcasting at the start of a search, checks the presence or absence of a broadcast wave when the frequency is set in the RF unit, and records the frequency. Further, Patent Document 5 discloses a receiving apparatus that searches for frequencies that can be received by TV broadcasting and CATV broadcasting, calculates spurious frequencies, and can appropriately determine the broadcasting mode. However, Patent Documents 3 to 5 do not disclose effective solutions for the above problems, such as a channel setting method that can be applied when the frequency of a physical channel differs from country to country.
JP 2006-20178 A JP 2006-197166 A JP 2006-211142 A JP 2007-174696 A JP 2007-266683 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and can perform a digital terrestrial broadcast channel setting operation without the need for a user to perform a country setting operation, thereby easily reducing the burden on the user. An object of the present invention is to provide a usable receiving apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 includes a control unit that controls the operation of each unit of the apparatus, and the control unit among physical channels of digital terrestrial broadcasting based on the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) standard. Included in the tuner that selects and receives the physical channel specified by the demodulator, the demodulator that demodulates the terrestrial digital broadcast signal received by the tuner and outputs it as a transport stream, and the transport stream output from the demodulator A decoding unit that decodes the encoded video signal and audio signal, and the control unit extracts a viewable physical channel based on a predetermined search plan and performs channel setting for setting as a channel list From the setting means and the channel list set by the channel setting means In the receiving apparatus having a channel designating unit for selecting a physical channel and designating the tuner to select the physical channel, the channel setting unit performs the channel setting for a physical channel in the UHF band. Based on the predetermined identification information included in the NIT (Network Information Table) of the transport stream of the physical channel extracted thereby, the country setting process for identifying the country in which the device is used and registering it as the country setting is performed. The channel setting is performed for a physical channel in the VHF band based on a predetermined search plan corresponding to the registered country setting.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, when the channel setting means performs the country setting process, in addition to the identification information, reception level information obtained at the time of channel selection of each physical channel is used. It identifies the country in which the device is used.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the identification information is an original network ID (original_network_id).

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the channel setting means first sets a channel for a UHF band physical channel having a common frequency even in different countries, and is included in the transport stream of the extracted physical channel. Since the country setting process is performed using the identification information, the country setting can be automatically performed. Since the channel setting for the physical channel in the VHF band is performed based on a search plan corresponding to the country setting that is automatically performed, the frequency of the physical channel is set for each country without performing the country setting operation by the user. Different terrestrial digital broadcast channel settings can be easily performed, and the burden on the user can be reduced. In addition, since country setting is performed based on NIT identification information that is always included in the transport stream, country setting can be reliably performed.

  According to the second aspect of the invention, the country setting process is performed using the reception level information obtained at the time of channel selection of each physical channel in addition to the identification information. Therefore, for example, channel setting is performed near the border where the search plans are different from each other. In this case, it becomes possible to register a country that can receive terrestrial digital broadcasting relatively well as a country setting. Furthermore, since channel setting is performed with a country-specific search plan that can receive broadcasts satisfactorily, channel setting can be easily performed so that terrestrial digital broadcasting can be viewed more reliably.

  According to the invention of claim 3, since the country setting is performed based on the original network ID indicating the country of the broadcast network, the country setting process can be performed more reliably and the burden on the user can be reduced.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a receiving apparatus according to this embodiment. The receiving apparatus 1 receives digital terrestrial television broadcasting compliant with the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) standard and DVB-SI (Digital Video Broadcasting-Service Information) standard adopted in Europe and the like, and is viewed by the user. This is a so-called television broadcast receiver that displays the information as possible. Broadcast signals adopting the above standards have different physical channels, that is, carrier carrier frequencies, in each country. Each carrier carrier has a plurality of transport streams (substreams) as a plurality of logical channels (subchannels). ; Hereinafter referred to as TS). Here, the logical channel refers to a channel selected by the user when viewing the television. The TS includes a video signal and an audio signal of a digital terrestrial broadcast program encoded in a predetermined format.

  The receiving device 1 selects and receives an arbitrary physical channel of terrestrial digital broadcasting transmitted from a broadcasting station and received using the antenna 2, and demodulates the terrestrial digital broadcasting signal received by the tuner 11 as TS. The output demodulator 12 is composed of, for example, a control LSI and the like, and is composed of a control unit 13 that controls the operation of each unit of the receiver 1 such as the tuner 11, and a ROM, RAM, or flash memory. A storage unit 14 for storing various setting data used for control, for example, a TS demultiplexer 15 and a decoding unit 16 provided in the control unit 13, an output unit 17, and a radio reception unit 18 are provided. Yes. The TS selected by the tuner 11 and output from the demodulator 12 is input to the TS demultiplexer 15. The TS demultiplexer 15 separates the TS corresponding to the logical channel designated by the control unit 13 among the logical channels superimposed on the TS from the input TS as TS packets. As will be described later, the predetermined TS packet is separated based on a specific PID (packet identifier) attached to the TS packet. The decoding unit 16 decodes the encoded video signal and audio signal included in the TS acquired by the TS demultiplexer 15 and outputs them to the output unit 17 as a digital video signal and a digital audio signal. The output unit 17 includes, for example, a DA conversion circuit, a liquid crystal panel and its drive circuit, an amplification unit, a speaker, and the like. Based on the video signal and the audio signal output from the decoding unit 16, the digital terrestrial broadcasting is provided to the user. Is output to be viewable. For example, the wireless reception unit 18 receives a wireless signal transmitted from the remote controller 20 operated by the user, and inputs the received wireless signal to the control unit 13 as an operation signal. The control unit 13 is configured to perform predetermined control according to the input operation signal. That is, the user is configured to be able to control the operation of the receiving device 1 using the remote controller 20.

  In the present embodiment, the control unit 13 extracts a physical channel that can be viewed and sets channel settings for setting as a channel list, and from the set channel list, for example, in accordance with an instruction from the user It functions as a channel designating means for selecting a physical channel including the logical channel and designating the channel designated to the tuner 11 so as to select the physical channel. The channel list set by the channel setting is registered in association with, for example, a logical channel that the user views, a physical channel that the tuner 11 selects when viewing the logical channel, and frequency information of the physical channel. It is set by being stored in the storage unit 14.

  The channel designation is appropriately performed when the user views the program, for example, according to the user's channel selection operation. When there is a channel selection operation by the user, the control unit 13 refers to the channel list stored and set in the storage unit 14, identifies the physical channel corresponding to the logical channel that the user desires to view, The tuner 11 is controlled so as to receive a physical channel, and channel designation is performed. In addition, the control unit 13 controls the TS demultiplexer 15 to acquire the logical channel TS that the user wants to view as described above. Accordingly, the logical channel that the user desires to view can be viewed according to the channel selection operation by the user.

  Below, the channel setting performed by control of the control part 13 is demonstrated. For example, the control unit 13 performs channel setting based on a predetermined search plan registered in the storage unit 14 and extracts a receivable physical channel. In the DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) standard, there are two physical channel frequency steps of 7 MHz and 8 MHz. For example, in Europe, although the frequency of the physical channel of the UHF band is unified, the physical frequency of the VHF band The frequency of the channel may differ from country to country in each country where the terrestrial digital broadcast station is located. For this reason, in this embodiment, a search plan in which a physical channel that can be received in advance for each country and a frequency of the physical channel are specified in association with each other is set in, for example, the storage unit 14. FIG. 2 shows an example of each search plan in country A and country B that are adjacent to each other. In the figure, physical channels 5 to 12 are in the VHF band, and physical channels after channel 21 are in the UHF band. The control unit 13 selects a search plan for the country in which the receiving device 1 is used from the search plans stored in the storage unit 14 in this way, and performs channel setting.

  In addition, when the channel setting is performed, the control unit 13 is configured to automatically perform a country setting process for identifying the country in which the receiving device 1 is used and registering it as the country setting. That is, it is possible for the user 1 to automatically execute channel setting based on a suitable search plan without making the country setting by himself / herself, so that the receiving apparatus 1 can be viewed digital terrestrial broadcasting.

  In the country setting process performed by the control unit 13, a value specific to each country is included in the NIT (Network Information Table) provided based on the DVB-SI standard in the TS of each physical channel acquired at the time of channel setting. The country in which the receiving apparatus 1 is used is identified using the original network ID (original_network_id), which is information that can be used to identify the country, and the reception level information indicating the signal strength of the physical channel at that time. To do. At this time, the TS demultiplexer 15 extracts the TS packet storing the NIT from the TS input from the demodulator 12. Each TS packet is assigned a PID (packet identifier) consisting of 13-bit information, and the PID of the TS packet including NIT is, for example, 0x10. Accordingly, the TS demultiplexer 15 searches for a TS packet with a PID of 0x10, extracts the NIT from the TS packet, and extracts the original network ID from the NIT.

  FIG. 3 shows a flow of channel setting performed under the control of the control unit 13. For example, when the channel list is not set at the time of new purchase of the receiving device 1 or the country where the receiving device 1 is installed is changed, the channel list that has been set up so far is the current terrestrial digital broadcasting. It is executed automatically under the control of the control unit 13 or manually in response to a predetermined user operation in a state that is not suitable for the reception environment. When the channel setting is started, first, the control unit 13 selects the minimum channel among the UHF band physical channels, and starts the channel setting (S11). Channel settings for each physical channel are performed as follows. That is, the tuner 11 selects and receives the physical channel, acquires information such as the NIT and broadcasting station name of the TS, and determines whether there is broadcasting (S12). If there is broadcast (S12: YES), the original network ID is acquired from the NIT of the TS (S13), and the physical channel and the acquired information including the original network ID are associated with each other and registered in the channel list (S14). ). At this time, the control unit 13 registers the signal strength of the physical channel in the channel list according to the original network ID as reception level information. If the physical channel is registered in the channel list, or if there is no broadcast on the physical channel (S12: NO), the channel setting is not completed for all channels in the UHF band (S15: NO), the tuner 11 Next, the next physical channel is selected (S16), and the same setting process is performed in the order of the channels until the channel setting is completed for all channels (S15: YES).

  When channel setting is completed for all channels in the UHF band (S15: YES), the control unit 13 performs country setting processing (S21). The country setting process is performed with reference to the channel list stored in the storage unit 14 by setting the channel for the UHF band channel. In the present embodiment, the channel list generated and stored as described above is associated with the original network ID and reception level information for each physical channel that can be viewed by the user by the tuner 11. Registered. For example, the control unit 13 calculates the number of physical channels having the same original network ID, and compares the numbers by the original network ID. At this time, for example, for the physical channel with a high reception level, the control unit 13 is configured to perform weighting such as increasing the number of physical channels when calculating the number of physical channels. As a result of calculating the number of physical channels for each original network ID in this way, the control unit 13 determines the country corresponding to the original network ID for the largest original network ID, for example, the country in which the device is used. Is stored in the storage unit 14 as a country setting and registered, and the physical channel related to the original network ID other than the original network ID is not subject to viewing and is deleted from the channel list.

  When the control unit 13 ends the country setting process (S21), the control unit 13 reads a search plan corresponding to the set country setting from the storage unit 14 (S22). Then, based on the read search plan, channel setting is executed in order for the physical channels in the VHF band in the search plan (S23). When channel setting is executed for all channels in the VHF band and the channel list is completed, the channel list is stored in the storage unit 14 and the channel setting is terminated.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, channel setting is performed for the physical channel in the UHF band, and the original network ID indicating the country of the broadcast network is included in the NIT that is always included in the TS of the physical channel extracted by the channel setting. Since the country setting process is performed based on this, the country setting can be performed automatically and more reliably. Since the channel setting for the physical channel in the VHF band is performed based on a search plan corresponding to the country setting that is automatically performed, the frequency of the physical channel is set for each country without performing the country setting operation by the user. Different terrestrial digital broadcast channel settings can be easily performed, and the burden on the user can be reduced. In addition, when a physical channel is selected for channel setting for a UHF band physical channel, the original network ID used for the country setting process is acquired at the same time. You can end channel setting with.

  In addition, since country setting is performed using the original network ID of each physical channel and reception level information obtained at the time of channel selection, for example, when performing channel setting near a border where search plans differ from each other, It becomes possible to register a country that can successfully receive digital terrestrial broadcasting as a country setting. Since channel setting is performed according to a country-specific search plan that allows favorable reception of broadcasting, channel setting can be easily performed so that terrestrial digital broadcasting can be viewed more reliably.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the structure of the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation is possible suitably in the range which does not change the meaning of invention. For example, the control unit generates a country setting list indicating the correspondence between the information such as the original network ID used for the country setting process and the physical channel separately from the channel list, and performs the country setting process based on the country setting list. It may be configured as follows. Further, the control unit may be configured to perform country setting using other identification information included in the TS and capable of identifying the country of the broadcast instead of the original network ID. Furthermore, the control unit does not use the reception level information of each physical channel at the time of channel setting as described above, but uses only the original network ID corresponding to each physical channel, and the physical channel associated with it. The country corresponding to the original network ID having the largest number may be configured to identify the country in which the receiving apparatus is used.

  In addition, when the channel is set, the control unit once extracts broadcasts for all physical channels in the UHF band, and then selects each extracted physical channel by the tuner again, so that the NIT original network is selected. You may be comprised so that ID etc. may be acquired. Also in this case, as in the above embodiment, the country setting and the channel setting can be automatically executed to reduce the burden on the user. Note that the receiving device is not limited to a receiver type having a liquid crystal monitor, a speaker, or the like as an output unit, but receives terrestrial digital broadcasts, for example, from an output terminal provided in the output unit to an external monitor or the like. It may be of a so-called set top box type that outputs. Further, the receiving device may be configured to receive other types of broadcasting in addition to terrestrial digital broadcasting.

The block diagram which shows an example of the receiver which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows an example of the search plan of the said receiver. The flowchart which shows the flow of the channel setting of the said receiver.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Receiver 11 Tuner 12 Demodulator 13 Control part (Channel setting means, Channel designation means)
16 Decryption unit

Claims (3)

A control unit for controlling the operation of each part of the device;
A tuner that selects and receives a physical channel designated by the control unit among physical channels of digital terrestrial broadcasting based on DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial) standard;
A demodulator that demodulates the terrestrial digital broadcast signal received by the tuner and outputs it as a transport stream;
A decoding unit for decoding the encoded video signal and audio signal included in the transport stream output from the demodulation unit,
The controller is
Based on a predetermined search plan, channel setting means for performing channel setting for extracting a viewable physical channel and setting it as a channel list;
In the receiving apparatus having a channel designating unit for selecting a physical channel from the channel list set by the channel setting unit and designating the tuner to select the physical channel,
The channel setting means performs the channel setting for a UHF band physical channel, and is used by the apparatus based on predetermined identification information included in a NIT (Network Information Table) of a transport stream of the physical channel extracted thereby. A country setting process for identifying a country to be registered and registering it as a country setting, and performing the channel setting for a physical channel in the VHF band based on a predetermined search plan corresponding to the registered country setting. apparatus.   The channel setting means, when performing the country setting process, uses the reception level information obtained at the time of channel selection of each physical channel in addition to the identification information to identify the country in which the device is used. The receiving device according to claim 1.   The receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification information is an original network ID (original_network_id).

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