JP2010035069A - Digital broadcast recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording and reproducing device capable of inexpensively suppressing, quality reduction of recorded programs even when a plurality of programs are simultaneously recorded. <P>SOLUTION: When recording of a plurality of programs is detected (code A), a recording and reproducing device (1) carries out processing for extracting, from a TS, only EIT [p/f actual] that is EIT essential to recording of the programs and stops processing for extracting other EIT such as, for example, EIT[p/f other]. EIT[schedule...] and the like (code B). When the plurality of programs are recorded completely and recording of only one program is detected thereafter (code C), extraction processing of the other EIT, of which the extraction processing is stopped, is resumed (code D). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital broadcast recording / reproducing apparatus having a plurality of tuners, and more particularly to a digital broadcast recording / reproducing apparatus capable of reducing a processing load when recording a plurality of programs.

  Currently, a digital broadcast recording / reproducing apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a recording / reproducing apparatus) having a plurality of tuners to enable simultaneous recording of a plurality of programs has been put on the market (see Patent Document 1).

  In such a recording / playback apparatus, when a plurality of programs are recorded at the same time, descrambling processing, demodulation processing, and various video processing of the received broadcast signal are executed for a plurality of programs. Further, processing for extracting program related information and EIT (Event Information Table) from the received digital broadcast signal is executed.

Based on the received EIT, an EPG (electronic program guide) for improving convenience such as program selection and recording reservation is constructed, and the timing of the end of recording is controlled.
JP 2006-041838 A

  By the way, when recording a plurality of programs at the same time, the amount of data processing increases as the number of recorded programs increases, so that the processing load in the various processes increases and the processing capability decreases.

As a result, the descrambling process and the demodulating process of the broadcast signal are not in time, recording errors such as frame dropping and skipping occur in recording the recorded program, and the quality of the recorded program is deteriorated.
In order to solve such a problem, it is sufficient to increase the processing capacity of the CPU that executes the above-described various processes and increase the memory capacity. However, the manufacturing price of the recording / playback apparatus increases.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording / playback apparatus that can suppress a decrease in quality of a recorded program even if a plurality of programs are recorded simultaneously at a low cost.

  The first technical means includes a plurality of tuners for selecting and receiving digital broadcast signals, and a recording / playback apparatus capable of simultaneously recording a plurality of programs starts and ends recording of the plurality of programs. And a processing unit for extracting program related information from the received digital broadcast signal, and when the processing unit detects that recording of a plurality of programs is started, A recording / reproducing apparatus is characterized in that only program-related information essential for recording is extracted, recording control is performed based on the extracted program-related information, and extraction processing of other program-related information is stopped.

  The second technical means is characterized in that, in the first technical means, when it is detected that a plurality of program recordings are completed and one program is recorded, the extraction process of the other program related information is resumed. To do.

  According to a third technical means, in the first or second technical means, the program related information essential for program recording is EIT [p / f actual].

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reduce a processing load at the time of recording a program, and thus it is possible to provide a recording / playback apparatus capable of suppressing a decrease in quality of a recorded program even if a plurality of programs are recorded at the same time. Further, since the processing load is reduced without using high-performance hardware, the manufacturing price does not increase.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the timing from the start to the end of recording of the program A broadcasted by the broadcasting station A and from the start to the end of recording of the program B broadcasted by the broadcasting station B. After a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of recording of program A, recording of program B is started. Thereafter, the recording of the program B ends, and the recording of the program A ends.

In the recording process described above, a TS (broadcast stream) transmitted by a broadcasting station is received, and AV data and SI are extracted and separated from the received TS.
Then, the AV data is subjected to various processes and recorded in the HDD or the like, and the EIT is extracted from the separated SI.

SI (Program Information: Service Information) means various information defined for the convenience of program selection, and is defined by a standard (ARIB standard) established by the Japan Radio Industry Association. . SI is multiplexed with TS and transmitted from a broadcasting station or the like using an area opened as user-definable by ISO / IEC13818-1 in TS (Transport Stream). Provides various information about EPG.
The EIT is a table describing event (often representing programs) information, and is one of various types of information included in the SI described above. For each program, information such as start time, program time, program name, appearance work, program genre, etc. is described in this table. The recording / playback apparatus can mainly create an EPG based on the EIT.

  FIG. 2 shows a recording / playback apparatus including a plurality of tuners according to the present invention, which receives each TS transmitted by each broadcasting station selected by each tuner (A, B), and includes the SI included in the received TS. It is a figure explaining the process which extracts EIT from.

When the TS related to the program A transmitted by the broadcasting station A selected by the tuner A is received, the recording / playback apparatus performs processing (EIT section filtering processing) for extracting EIT from the TS (step S1), and extraction The EIT parsing process is executed in accordance with the data structure of the EIT (step S2).
Then, after the EIT syntax analysis, an electronic program guide (EPG) construction process is executed based on the analyzed event information (EI) (step S3).
At the same time, the same processing is executed when receiving a TS related to the program B transmitted from the broadcasting station B selected by the tuner B (step S1 ′, step S2 ′).
At the same time, the recording process for each program is executed.

By the way, in EIT, various types are defined as shown in FIG. 3, and the timing of transmission from a broadcasting station differs depending on the type.
EIT [p / f ...] is transmitted from the broadcasting station when the program starts / ends or the program organization is changed, and EIT [schedule ...] is broadcast every day at midnight, when the program organization is changed, or when other information is changed. Sent from the station.

Also, EIT [p / f actual] is essential information for recording a program related to the EIT in order to perform recording control corresponding to a change in program organization, for example, when a baseball program is extended. Other EITs are not necessarily required for program recording.
EIT [schedule ...] has a large amount of data because it includes information related to a large number of programs.

  In the state shown in FIG. 1, for example, when the recording time zone of program A and program B crosses midnight, while the program is being recorded, as shown in FIG. schedule]] is transmitted from the broadcasting station, the recording / playback apparatus executes the EIT [schedule ...] extraction process.

If EIT [schedule ...] extraction processing is executed during recording of a plurality of programs in this way, the amount of data processing increases, which places a heavy load on the CPU and memory of the recording / playback apparatus, resulting in high processing capacity. descend.
For example, when recording a scrambled broadcast of a digital broadcast, it is necessary to descramble the MULTI2 cipher in real time using a descramble key obtained from an ECM section and a B-CAS card. However, if the processing capability decreases, the descrambling process will not be in time, and the packet data that has not been decrypted will be recorded (recorded). Quality will deteriorate.

  In addition, when the processing capacity decreases, packet data stacked in real time in a section filtering buffer (memory) may overflow. In this case, packets that have not been filtered yet are lost. For example, if a caption packet is lost, caption data cannot be recorded.

  Even if EIT [schedule ...] is not received, the same problem may occur even when EIT [p / f other] is received.

  Therefore, when the recording / playback apparatus according to the present invention detects that recording of a plurality of programs is started (reference A in FIG. 1), EIT [p / f actual], which is an EIT essential for recording the program. Only the process of extracting from the TS is executed, and the extraction process of other EITs, for example, EIT [p / f other], EIT [schedule ...] is stopped (same sign B). Then, the EIT parsing process is executed according to the data structure of the extracted EIT section.

  After that, when the recording of a plurality of programs is completed and the recording of only one program is detected (same reference C), the extraction process of another EIT that has stopped the extraction process is restarted (same reference D).

  In this way, it is possible to prevent a deterioration in the quality of the recorded program due to a decrease in processing capability that occurs during recording of a plurality of programs.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the recording / playback apparatus 1 according to the present invention for executing the above-described EIT extraction control.
The recording / playback apparatus 1 includes a plurality of tuners that select and receive digital broadcast signals, and can simultaneously record a plurality of programs.

Reference numeral 11 denotes an operation unit including a plurality of buttons, an operation panel, and the like, and the user operates the recording / playback apparatus 1 via the operation unit. The operation unit 11 may be configured from a remote control or the like.
Reference numeral 12 denotes a display unit that displays status information of the recording / playback apparatus 1, and 13 denotes a memory that records various control information.
Reference numeral 14 denotes a control unit that controls each functional block, and includes a recording processing control unit 14a that controls recording processing. The recording process control unit 14a also executes processing for detecting that recording of a plurality of programs has started and ended. B is a bus.

  Reference numeral 21 denotes a tuner unit, which includes two tuners for selecting a digital broadcast via the antenna 2, a tuner A 21a and a tuner B 21b.

(Signal from tuner A21a)
First, functional blocks related to processing of a broadcast signal output from the tuner A 21a will be described.
The tuner A 21 a outputs the selected digital broadcast signal to the demodulation unit A 22 a of the demodulation unit 22. The demodulator A22a demodulates the digital broadcast signal from the tuner A21a, performs various processes on the demodulated signal, and outputs the processed signal to the separator A23a of the separator unit 23.

  The separation unit A23a of the separation unit 23 that has received the signal from the demodulation unit A22a extracts and separates the AV (video / audio) signal and SI (EIT) from the signal, and records the separated AV signal / SI. The data is output to the recording processing unit A24a of the processing unit 24. The separated EIT is output to the EIT extraction unit A251a of the EIT data processing unit 25.

  The recording processing unit A24a of the recording processing unit 24 that has received an AV signal or the like from the separation unit A23a of the separation unit 23 performs selection of the AV signal or the like to be recorded. In selecting AV signals to be recorded, for example, captions and data broadcast signals that are unnecessary for recording (recording) are selected. When video processing such as video compression processing is performed, the processing unit A 24 a decodes the selected AV signal, performs various processing such as compression processing, and records it in the HDD 26. In addition, when video processing such as video compression processing is not performed, the selected AV signal is recorded in the HDD 26. SI is also recorded as necessary.

The EIT extraction unit A251a of the EIT data processing unit 25 that has received the EIT from the separation unit A23a of the separation unit 23 uses the EIT [p / f actual], EIT [p / f other], and EIT [schedule actual from the received EIT. basic], EIT [schedule actual extended], EIT [schedule other basic], and EIT [schedule other extended] are extracted, and the extracted EIT is output to the EIT syntax analysis unit A252a.
The above extraction process is performed by referring to the table identifier (table_id) of the EIT data (see ARIB standard STD-B10 version 4.5).

  The EIT syntax analysis unit A252a that has received the EIT from the EIT extraction unit A251a performs syntax analysis based on the extracted EIT type, and outputs the analysis result to the EPG construction unit 27. The EPG construction unit 27 that has received the analysis result executes an EPG construction process based on the analysis result.

(Signal from tuner B21b)
As for the broadcast signal output from the tuner B 21 b, the same processing as the broadcast signal output from the tuner A 21 a described above is performed by the demodulation unit B 22 b of the demodulation unit 22, the separation unit B 23 b of the separation unit 23, and the recording process of the recording processing unit 24. The detailed description will be omitted because it is executed by the section B24b, the EIT extraction section B251b of the EIT data processing unit 25, and the EIT syntax analysis section B252b.

(EIT extraction process control)
Next, details of EIT extraction processing control will be described.
Reference numeral 253 denotes an EIT extraction processing control unit. When the recording processing control unit 14a detects that recording of a plurality of programs (simultaneous recording of a plurality of programs) is started, the EIT extraction processing unit 251a and the EIT extraction unit B 251b receive the recording. Only the EIT [p / f actual] required for program recording is extracted from the EIT, and the other EIT [p / f other], EIT [schedule ...] extraction processing is instructed to stop. Receiving the instruction, the EIT extraction unit A251a and the EIT extraction unit B251b extract only EIT [p / f actual] from the received EIT based on the instruction. Note that, based on the extracted EIT [p / f actual], recording control, for example, recording end timing is determined.

  Thereafter, when the recording processing control unit 14a detects the end of recording of a plurality of programs (recording of one program), the EIT extraction unit A251a and the EIT extraction unit B251b send other EIT [p / f other] and EIT [schedule ...] to cancel the extraction process stop. In response to the instruction, the EIT extraction unit A251a and the EIT extraction unit B251b resume extraction processing such as EIT [p / f other] and EIT [schedule actual basic] that have been stopped based on the instruction.

That is, the EIT data processing unit (processing unit) 25 performs EIT extraction processing from the received digital broadcast signal. Further, the EIT data processing unit (processing unit) 25, when the recording processing control unit (detection unit) 14 detects that recording of a plurality of programs has started, EIT [p / f actual] essential for program recording. Only, and recording control is performed based on the extracted EIT [p / f actual], and the extraction processing of other EITs, for example, EIT [p / f other], EIT [schedule ...] is stopped.
When the recording process control unit (detection unit) 14 detects that a plurality of program recordings have been completed and one program has been recorded, the other EIT extraction process is resumed.

  When the extraction process is resumed, not only the EIT is extracted from the digital broadcast signal output from the tuner A 21a, but also when the output of the digital broadcast signal from the tuner B 21b is continued, the tuner B 21b You may make it extract EIT from the digital broadcast signal to output.

The EIT extraction process control will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, it is determined (detected) whether or not recording reservation or recording by a user's operation is started (step S11). When the recording process control unit 14a detects that recording has started (step S11 / recording start), the control unit 14a determines whether or not a plurality of programs are recorded (step S12).

In the case of recording a plurality of programs (step S12 / multiple programs), the EIT extraction unit A251a and the EIT extraction unit B251b only receive EIT [p / f actual] from the received EIT based on an instruction from the EIT extraction processing control unit 253. Are extracted, the extraction process of other EIT [p / f other], EIT [schedule ...] is stopped (step S13), and the process returns to step S11. At the same time, a program recording process is executed.
In the case of recording one program (step S12 / one program), the process returns to step S11 without executing the process of step S13.

When the end of recording is detected in step S11 (step S11 / recording end), the control unit 14 executes the recording end process, and the recording process control unit 14a ends the recording of a plurality of programs. It is determined (detected) whether or not only one program is recorded (step S14).
When recording of a plurality of programs ends and only one program is detected (step S14 / one program), other EIT [p / f other], EIT [schedule ... ] Is restarted (step S15), and the process returns to step S11.
If the recording state of a plurality of programs remains unchanged (step S14 / multiple programs), the process returns to step S11 without executing the process of step S15.

  When power-off of the recording / playback apparatus 1 is detected in step S11 (step S11 / power-off), the process ends.

By doing so, it is possible to reduce the processing load at the time of program recording, and therefore it is possible to suppress the deterioration of the quality of the recorded program even if a plurality of programs are recorded simultaneously.
In particular, the quality of recorded programs deteriorates by suppressing the extraction processing such as EIT [schedule ...] that is sent when midnight, program change, and other information changes, which are processing loads unique to digital broadcasting. Can be suppressed.

In the present embodiment, an example of recording two programs as an example of recording a plurality of programs at the same time has been shown. However, the present invention can also be applied to recording three or more programs. In this case, three or more tuners and other data processing units such as a separation unit may be provided in the recording / playback apparatus.
The recorded program may be recorded not on the built-in HDD 26 but on a recording medium such as a DVD or a BD, or an external HDD. The HDD 26 is not essential.

It is the figure which showed the recording start / recording end timing of the program. It is a figure for demonstrating the process which extracts EIT. It is a figure for demonstrating the kind of EIT. It is a functional block diagram of the recording / reproducing apparatus concerning this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating EIT extraction process control.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Recording / reproducing apparatus, 2 ... Antenna, 11 ... Operation part, 12 ... Display part, 13 ... Memory, 14 ... Control part, 14a ... Recording process control part, 21 ... Tuner unit, 21a ... Tuner A, 21b ... Tuner B , 22 ... demodulation unit, 22a ... demodulation unit A, 22b ... demodulation unit B, 23 ... separation unit, 23a ... separation unit A, 23b ... separation unit B, 24 ... recording processing unit, 24a ... recording processing unit A, 24b ... Recording processing unit B, 25 ... EIT data processing unit, 251a ... EIT extraction unit A, 251b ... EIT extraction unit B, 252a ... EIT syntax analysis unit A, 252b ... EIT syntax analysis unit B, 253 ... EIT extraction processing control unit, 26... HDD, 27... EPG construction unit.

Claims (3)

In a recording / playback apparatus comprising a plurality of tuners for selecting and receiving digital broadcast signals and capable of recording a plurality of programs simultaneously,
A detection unit that detects that recording of a plurality of programs has started and ended;
A processing unit for extracting program related information from the received digital broadcast signal,
When detecting that recording of a plurality of programs is started, the processing unit extracts only program related information essential for program recording, performs recording control based on the extracted program related information, and stores other program related information. A recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by stopping the extraction process.   2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the recording of a plurality of programs ends and it is detected that one program is recorded, the extraction processing of the other program related information is resumed.   The recording / playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the program-related information essential for program recording is EIT [p / f actual].

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