JP2011130111A - Television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a television receiver enabling a user to casually searching rebroadcast of a program currently viewed by the user. <P>SOLUTION: The television receiver capable of acquiring a broadcast signal having ID data for identifying a program has: an ID acquiring module for acquiring the ID data in the program currently viewed; a program searching module for searching, from an electronic program guide, the rebroadcasted program of the above program which is broadcasted on a network different from that of the program currently viewed on the basis of the acquired ID data; and a searched result display for causing a screen to display the searched program. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a television receiver, and more particularly to a television receiver capable of receiving a broadcast signal accompanied with ID data for specifying a program.

  In recent years, in television broadcasting, once broadcast a program is broadcast again (so-called rebroadcast). For example, by broadcasting a program broadcast in a certain time zone at a predetermined time one month later, a user who has not viewed the program can view the program again.

  The rebroadcast program described above is used for the purpose of interpolating the failure by recording again using the rebroadcast program when, for example, the program recording fails in addition to the user's viewing (for example, patents) Reference 1-5).

JP 2002-354354 A JP 2006-128879 A JP 2009-049836 A JP 2007-104420 A JP 2007-088623 A

  When a user is watching a program, the user may want to watch this program again. For example, when a program that happens to be viewed is being broadcast, and the user wants to view this program from the beginning, the user does not have information for specifying the program such as the program start time and title name. For this reason, the user needs to search for whether or not the rebroadcasting is started after acquiring information on the currently viewed program with reference to the program guide or the like. Furthermore, since some rebroadcast programs are broadcast on a network different from the currently broadcast network, there is a case where the user is forced to search for the rebroadcast program.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a television receiver that can easily search for a rebroadcast of a program that a user is currently viewing.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, in a television receiver capable of acquiring a broadcast signal accompanied by ID data for identifying a program, an ID acquisition means for acquiring the ID data in a currently viewed program; Based on the acquired ID data, program search means for searching for a rebroadcast program of the program broadcast on a different network from the program being viewed from an electronic program guide, and the searched program on the screen Search result display means for displaying.

In the invention configured as described above, when a user is viewing an arbitrary program and wants to view this program again, the ID is acquired when a predetermined input is made by a remote control device or the like. The means obtains ID data in the program currently being viewed. This ID data specifies the program being viewed, and the program search means searches the electronic program guide for a rebroadcast program of the program broadcast on another network based on the acquired ID data.
Here, the network means a network in which transmission and reception are performed by a broadcast signal of the same form, such as digital broadcasting, BS broadcasting, and further CS broadcasting. For example, a transmitting side and a receiving side ( Antenna, television receiver). Therefore, the other network means a relationship such as terrestrial digital broadcasting and BS broadcasting. Thereafter, the information of the searched rebroadcast program is displayed on the screen by the search result display means, and the search result is displayed to the user.

  For this reason, even when the user wants to watch a rebroadcast of the program that the user is currently viewing, even if the program is broadcast on another network, information for identifying the program to be viewed (program name) It is possible to search for a rebroadcast program without checking the broadcast time etc. on the user side, and a television receiver capable of searching for a rebroadcast of a program that the user wants to watch without load is provided. be able to.

The search result by the program search means is not only used for displaying the search result by the search result display means, but can be applied to various uses. Therefore, the present invention may be configured to have a recording means for recording the searched rebroadcast program.
In the invention configured as described above, the rebroadcast program can be recorded by the recording unit based on the search result, and the rebroadcast program searched by the user can be surely viewed.

As an example of a configuration in which the program search means searches for a rebroadcast program, the program search means may set the search target channel as a channel belonging to the same group series as the program being viewed.
When rebroadcast programs are broadcast on other networks, many of them are broadcast on channels in the same group series, and rarely broadcast on channels of other series. Therefore, in the invention configured as described above, the time required for the search can be shortened by narrowing down the search means to channels with a high probability that the search range is broadcast.

Further, as an example of a configuration in which the program search means searches for a rebroadcast program, the program search means may be configured such that the search target channel is a specialized channel that broadcasts the same genre as the program being viewed.
When a rebroadcast program broadcasts a specific genre (for example, sports, movies, etc.), there is a high probability that the rebroadcast program is a channel that broadcasts the same genre. For this reason, in the invention configured as described above, the search means narrows down the search range to channels with a high probability of being broadcast, thereby shortening the time required for the search.

Further, the ID data used for searching for the rebroadcast program is not limited to the newly designed data, and existing data may be used. For this reason, the ID data may be a service descriptor, a series descriptor, and an event descriptor of EIT information.
In the invention configured as described above, the existing ID data is diverted by using the service descriptor, series descriptor, and event descriptor of the EIT information transmitted along with the program data in digital broadcasting. The present invention can be realized and the design can be facilitated.

  As another configuration of the present invention, there is a recording means for recording the searched rebroadcast program, and the ID data is a service descriptor, a series descriptor, and an event descriptor of EIT information, The program search means may be configured such that the search target channel belongs to the same group series as the channel that broadcasts the program being viewed.

As described above, according to the present invention, a rebroadcast of a program that a user wants to watch can be searched without load.
According to the second aspect of the invention, the rebroadcast program searched by the user can be surely viewed.
According to the third and fourth aspects of the invention, the time required for the search can be shortened.
Furthermore, according to the invention concerning Claim 5, the design of a television receiver can be made easy.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the television receiver concerning 1st Embodiment. It is a figure for demonstrating an electronic program guide. It is a figure explaining the setting screen concerning the search of the rebroadcast program output by the OSD circuit. 10 is a flowchart for explaining rebroadcast program search processing executed by the television receiver 90. It is a flowchart explaining the search process of the rebroadcast program performed by step S3. It is a figure which shows the search screen displayed on the display 95 during a search process. It is a figure which shows the search result displayed on the display 95 in step S4 of FIG. It is a figure which shows the recording setting screen displayed on the display. It is a flowchart explaining the process for determining whether the program with the television receiver 90 in 2nd Embodiment is a specialized program. It is a figure for demonstrating the table which recorded the relationship of the broadcaster.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in the following order with reference to the drawings.
(1) First embodiment:
(2) Second embodiment:
(3) Third embodiment:
(4) Other embodiments:

(1) First embodiment:
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of a television receiver according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the television receiver according to the first embodiment. In the first embodiment, the television receiver 90 is configured to include a recording / playback unit (recording unit) therein.

  The television receiver 90 receives an operation via the remote control device 70 and broadcasts a program, and accepts an operation input using the remote control device 70 or the like on the menu screen, thereby executing a recording reservation in the recording / playback unit 80. Can be made. Furthermore, when the user is watching a program, the television receiver 90 searches whether or not the program is rebroadcast, and displays the date and time of the rebroadcast program based on the search result, or Recording reservation can be executed. Hereinafter, the configuration of the television receiver 90 according to the present embodiment will be described.

=== Configuration of Television Receiver ===
The television receiver 90 includes the following main parts. Reference numeral 91 denotes an external memory, which stores a channel map and ID data described later. Reference numeral 92 denotes a control unit that controls driving of the television receiver 90. Reference numeral 93 denotes a front end unit that extracts digital data of a channel selected by a remote control device from broadcast radio waves received by an antenna (not shown). Reference numeral 94 denotes a back-end unit, which decodes and outputs a video signal and an audio signal from the acquired digital data. Reference numeral 95 denotes a display which outputs a video based on the decoded video signal. Reference numeral 96 denotes a speaker that outputs sound based on the decoded sound signal. Reference numeral 97 denotes an OSD circuit that synthesizes an OSD image with a video signal output from the back-end unit 94. Reference numeral 98 denotes a remote control receiving unit that receives an infrared signal output from the remote control device 70 and outputs a control command to the control unit 92. Reference numeral 80 denotes a recording / playback unit that records and plays back a program in accordance with a control signal from the control unit 92.

  The control unit 92 controls the driving of the television receiver 90 by executing a control command input via the remote control receiving unit 98 and a predetermined program. The control unit 92 includes a CPU (not shown), a ROM that stores programs and data for driving the CPU, and a RAM that functions as a work area for the CPU. In addition, each part which comprises the control part 92 and the television receiver 90 is connected via the bus | bath, and control is performed via this bus | bath.

  The front end unit 93 includes a channel selection unit that extracts a modulation signal of a channel selected by a remote controller from broadcast radio waves received by various antennas, and a transmission path decoding unit that extracts digital data from the selected modulation signal. Configured. In the present embodiment, the front end unit 93 will be described as a configuration for receiving digital broadcasting.

  The back-end unit 94 includes a descrambling unit 94a that descrambles the acquired digital data, an MPEG demultiplexing unit 94b that extracts MPEG video / audio signals and TS information from the descrambled digital data, and a TS. The basic decoder unit 94c that processes SI information in the information and the video / audio decoding unit 94d that decodes the video / audio signal are provided. Here, the SI information includes EIT information for specifying the program information, and the basic decoder section 94c creates an electronic program guide using the EIT information and also describes the service description included in the EIT information. Get children, event descriptors, and series descriptors.

  The service descriptor is data describing a broadcaster who broadcasts a channel, and is used to identify the broadcaster in this embodiment.

  The event descriptor is data describing a program name (event name) and short text information related to the program name, and is used for specifying the program name in this embodiment.

  The series descriptor is data for handling a program in association with a predetermined application. In this embodiment, the series descriptor is used as data for associating the predetermined program with a rebroadcast program of the program. In this embodiment, “episode_number” is used as a series descriptor used for searching for a rebroadcast program. Here, “episode_number” is a value for specifying each broadcast time when the same program is broadcasted in series, and is different for each broadcast frequency of the program.

  The recording / playback unit 80 reads, for example, data stored in a medium such as a BD (Blu-ray Disc) or DVD, or HDD by a pickup unit, and transmits the data to the back-end unit 94 through an interface. When the recording / playback unit 80 receives data output from the backend unit 94 via the interface, the acquired data is stored in the medium or the HDD using the pickup unit. The recording / playback unit 80 includes a system controller (not shown) inside, and controls the driving thereof by a control command from the control unit 92.

  The external memory 91 stores SI information added to the program data and transmitted, and an electronic program guide created based on the SI information. The basic data decoder section 94c produces an electronic program guide for each network (terrestrial digital, BS, CS) based on the SI information and stores it in the external memory 91. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the electronic program guide. In the electronic program guide shown in FIG. 2, the horizontal axis is each channel axis and the vertical axis is a time axis so that a program scheduled to be broadcast for one week on a predetermined network can be specified. Each program recorded in the program table is recorded with the service descriptor, event descriptor, and series descriptor described above in association with each other.

  The OSD circuit 97 synthesizes the OSD image with the video data output from the control unit 92 and outputs it. The OSD image output by the OSD circuit 97 includes a menu screen that is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for selecting various settings of the television receiver 90 and various screens for searching for a rebroadcast program. Note that the OSD image output from the OSD circuit 97 is stored in the internal memory in advance, and the OSD image output according to the control command is determined.

  In addition to the channel key 71 for selecting a channel, the remote controller 70 transmits a rebroadcast program search key 72 for transmitting a control command for causing the television receiver 90 to search for a rebroadcast program of the currently viewed program. The re-broadcast scheduled program displayed as the search result is provided with a recording reservation key 73 for transmitting a control command for making the television receiver 90 make a recording reservation.

  With the above configuration, the television receiver 90 broadcasts a program based on the television broadcast received by the antenna. Further, when the user operates the rebroadcast program search key 72 of the remote control device 70 while viewing the program, the television receiver 90 determines whether or not the currently broadcast program is rebroadcast from the electronic program table. Search for. At this time, the search for the rebroadcast program can be executed only by the user operating the rebroadcast program search key 72 of the remote control device 70, and it is necessary to input a program name and identification data for specifying the program. do not do. Therefore, it is possible to search for a rebroadcast of a program that the user wants to watch without load. The rebroadcast program search process in the television receiver 90 will be described below.

=== Rebroadcast program search processing during program viewing ===
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a setting screen for searching for a rebroadcast program output by the OSD circuit 97. The rebroadcast program search according to the present embodiment can be switched on or off according to the user setting. That is, when the user operates the remote control device 70 to display the setting screen shown in FIG. 3 and “automatic search” is set to “on” on this setting screen, the remote control device 70 can be restarted while viewing the program. By simply operating the broadcast program search key 72, the television receiver 90 can search for a rebroadcast program related to the program currently being viewed. On the other hand, when the user does not select “automatic selection”, the automatic search is not executed.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining rebroadcast program search processing executed by the television receiver 90. The process shown in FIG. 4 is a process executed when the user is viewing a predetermined program with the television receiver 90.

  In step S1, when the user operates the rebroadcast program search key 72 of the remote control device 70 while viewing an arbitrary program, the control unit 92 receives the control command (step S2: YES) and is currently viewing The re-broadcast program of the program is searched (step S3).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the rebroadcast program search process executed in step S3. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a search screen displayed on the display 95 during the search process. This search screen is displayed as an icon indicating that the search is being performed at the lower right of the screen so as not to disturb the user's viewing while searching for the rebroadcast program.

  In step S11, the control unit 92 acquires a service descriptor, an event descriptor, and a series descriptor of a currently broadcast program from the SI information. That is, the control unit 92 acquires the service descriptor, event descriptor, and series descriptor “episode_number” corresponding to the currently viewed program acquired by the basic data decoder unit 94 c from the external memory 91. Therefore, the control unit 92 implements the ID acquisition unit of the present invention by the function of the back end unit 94 and the process of step S11.

  If the control unit 92 has not searched all the networks recorded in the electronic program guide (step S12: NO), the process proceeds to step S13. If the control unit 92 has not searched all the channels in the comparison target network (step S13: NO), the process proceeds to step S15.

  In step S15, the control unit 92 determines whether or not the name of the broadcaster that broadcasts the program to be searched is related to the program currently being viewed. That is, the control unit 92 compares the service descriptor of the currently viewed program acquired in step S11 with the service descriptor of the comparison target program recorded in the electronic program guide, and the broadcasters are identical or related. Determine if there is. Here, since there may be a case where a part of the provider name is the same among related broadcasters, a part of the provider name (for example, AAA broadcast and the characters “AAA” in the AAA network). ) May be determined as related broadcasters. On the other hand, if the broadcasters are not the same (step S15: NO), the control unit 92 switches the comparison target to another channel (step S18).

  In the channel determined to be the same broadcaster, if the control unit 92 has not compared all the programs in the comparison target channel (step S16: NO), the process proceeds to step S17.

  In step S17, the control unit 92 compares each ID data acquired in step S11 with the ID data of the comparison target program recorded in the electronic program guide (step S17). That is, if the result of comparing the event descriptors and series descriptors (episode_number) of both programs matches (in the case of event descriptors, partial match is also considered), the control unit 92 (step S19: YES) Is a rebroadcast program of the currently viewed program (step S20). Here, when the program name of the rebroadcast program is specified using the event descriptor, the program name may not completely match between the initial broadcast and the rebroadcast. For example, in a rebroadcast program, an additional character may be added to the program name at the time of the initial broadcast to distinguish between the initial broadcast and the rebroadcast program. For this reason, in step S19, determination is performed in consideration of not only complete matching of event descriptors but also partial matching.

  In step S21, the control unit 92 sets the next program in the comparison target channel as a comparison target, and repeats the processing of steps S16 to S21. Further, the program comparison process is performed on the channels that are recognized as related to the broadcaster until all the programs are compared (step S16: YES).

  Further, when all the channels of the comparison target network are compared (step S13: YES), the control unit 92 switches the comparison target to another network (step S14). For example, what was compared with terrestrial digital broadcasting is switched to BS digital broadcasting. Therefore, the control unit 92 changes the electronic program guide to that of the target network, and thereafter repeats the processing of steps S12 to S21.

  If the comparison of the programs is completed in all the networks that can be received by the television receiver 90 (step S12: YES), the search is terminated and the process returns to step S4 of the flowchart shown in FIG. Therefore, the control part 92 implement | achieves the program search means of this invention by the process of step S3.

  In step S4, the control unit 92 controls the OSD circuit 97 to display the search result on the display 95. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the search result displayed on the display 95 in step S4 of FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, “broadcast station”, “date / time”, and “broadcast time” at which the rebroadcast program is broadcasted are displayed as search results retrieved in step S3 in the lower right corner of the screen. . That is, in order not to disturb viewing of the currently broadcast program, search results “AAA broadcast station, 5/26 (Tue) 15: 00-15: 30”, “AAA broadcast station, 5/27” are displayed at the lower right of the screen. (Tuesday) 5: 00-5: 30 "is displayed. This search result is created based on SI information stored in association with the electronic program guide. Therefore, the user can refer to the search result without being disturbed to watch the program. When a rebroadcast program is not detected, a character string such as “Not searched” is displayed as a search result. As mentioned above, the control part 92 implement | achieves the search result display means of this invention by the process of step S4.

  In this state, when the user operates the recording reservation key 73 of the remote controller 70 (step S5: YES), the control unit 92 executes the recording reservation for the rebroadcast program searched in step S3 for the recording / playback unit 80. (Step S6). FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a recording setting screen displayed on the display 95. The user can make a recording reservation for a rebroadcast scheduled program by operating each icon displayed on the recording setting screen.

  As described above, in the television receiver 90 according to the present invention, the rebroadcast of the remote control device 70 is performed when the user wants to view this program again in a situation where the user is viewing the arbitrary program. By operating the program search key 72, ID data in the currently broadcast program is acquired, and a rebroadcast program broadcast on another network is searched from the electronic program guide based on this ID data. Therefore, when searching for a rebroadcast program, the user does not need to input a program name or otherwise specify a program, and can search for a rebroadcast program while reducing the user's operation load.

(2) Second embodiment:
Further, as a method for selecting a channel to be compared, a search may be performed by narrowing down to a specialized program that broadcasts only a specific program. That is, when the program currently being viewed is a specific program (sports program or movie), the time required for the search can be shortened by making the comparison target a specialized channel that broadcasts only the program.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining processing for determining whether or not a program with a television receiver 90 is a specialized program in the second embodiment. The process shown in FIG. 9 is executed prior to the process of step S4 in FIG. 5, for example, and after the target channel to be searched is narrowed down, the rebroadcast program shown in FIG. 6 is searched by the narrowed down channel. Is called.

  In step S21, the control unit 92 acquires the content descriptor of the currently broadcast program from the SI information. Here, the content descriptor is data in which information about the genre of the event is described. In the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not the channel is a specialized program using “content_nibble_level1” from the content descriptor.

  In step S22, when the program is not searched for all the networks (step S22: NO), the control unit 92 proceeds to step S23. In step S23, if the search is not executed for all the channels recorded in the electronic program guide in the target network (step S23: NO), the process proceeds to step S24.

  In step S24, the control unit 92 compares whether or not the acquired content descriptor (“content_nibble_level1”) matches the first program recorded in the electronic program guide and the next program. (Step S25: YES), it is determined that the channel is of the same genre as the currently viewed program (step S26). Therefore, the control unit 92 stores the channel determined to be the same genre in the RAM. Note that determining the attribute of a channel based on two programs recorded in the electronic program guide is an example, and for example, it may be determined from the ratio of the same genre in all programs in the channel.

In step S27, the comparison target is changed to another channel (step S27), and the processes in steps S23 to S26 are repeated. When comparison of programs is performed on all channels in the target network (step S23), the comparison target is switched to another network (step S28).

  Furthermore, when the comparison of the programs is completed in all networks where the television receiver 90 can broadcast (step S22: YES), the control unit 92 ends the search. Therefore, the process returns to step S4 shown in FIG. 5 to search for a rebroadcast program using only the channel stored in step S26 as a search target range. The second embodiment has been described above.

(3) Third embodiment:
In step S15 of FIG. 5, a table for specifying a group of broadcasters in advance when determining whether or not the name of the broadcaster that broadcasts the program to be searched is related to the program currently being viewed. And the control unit 92 may specify the association of the broadcaster name using this table. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a table in which relationships of broadcasters are recorded. In the table shown in FIG. 10, for example, “NHK general”, “NHK education”, “BS1”, and “BS2” are associated and recorded as the same group. Therefore, in step S15, when the broadcaster of the program currently being viewed by the user is “NHK general”, the control unit 92 determines that the broadcaster to be searched is “NHK education”, “BS1”, “ It is expanded to “BS2”. Note that the broadcaster association in the table shown in FIG. 10 may be one in which the user arbitrarily changes the correspondence of the broadcaster in addition to the one recorded as the initial value. With the above configuration, a rebroadcast program can be detected with higher accuracy.

(4) Other embodiments:
There are various modifications of the present invention.
As a rebroadcast program search method, various methods are assumed. For example, when a predetermined program is rebroadcast after being broadcast, many of them are broadcast on the same channel, and rarely on another channel. Therefore, if the search range is first narrowed down to the same channel with a high probability of being broadcast and the search range is expanded to other channels when there is no search target, the time required for the search is shortened. Probability can be increased. Therefore, in the search process shown in FIG. 5, after a rebroadcast program is searched for by the same channel, if the rebroadcast program is not searched, the rebroadcast program may be searched for by another channel.

  Surprisingly, the television receiver 90 includes the recording / playback unit 80 therein, and may be configured to cause the recording / playback apparatus to execute a recording process by being connected to a recording / playback apparatus such as a media player.

  The configuration of the ID data according to the present invention is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this.

Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. It goes without saying for those skilled in the art,
・ Applying mutually interchangeable members and configurations disclosed in the above embodiments by appropriately changing the combination thereof.− Although not disclosed in the above embodiments, it is a publicly known technique and the above embodiments. The members and configurations that can be mutually replaced with the members and configurations disclosed in the above are appropriately replaced, and the combination is changed and applied. It is an embodiment of the present invention that a person skilled in the art can appropriately replace the members and configurations that can be assumed as substitutes for the members and configurations disclosed in the above-described embodiments, and change the combinations and apply them. It is disclosed as.

  70 ... Remote control device, 71 ... Channel key, 72 ... Rebroadcast program search key, 73 ... Recording reservation key, 80 ... Recording / playback unit, 90 ... TV receiver, 91 ... External memory, 92 ... Control unit, 93 ... Front End unit 94 ... Back end unit 94a ... Descramble unit 94b ... MPEG demultiplexing unit 94c ... Basic decoder unit 94d ... Audio decoding unit 95 ... Display 96 ... Speaker 97 ... OSD circuit 98 ... Remote control Receiver

Claims (6)

In a television receiver capable of acquiring a broadcast signal accompanied by ID data for identifying a program,
ID acquisition means for acquiring the ID data in the currently viewed program;
Program search means for searching a rebroadcast program of the program broadcast on a network different from the program being viewed from the electronic program guide based on the acquired ID data;
And a search result display means for displaying the searched program on a screen.   2. The television receiver according to claim 1, further comprising recording means for recording the searched rebroadcast program.   3. The television according to claim 1, wherein the program search means sets the search target channel to a channel belonging to the same group series as a channel that broadcasts the program being viewed. John receiver.   3. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein the program search unit sets the search target channel as a specialized channel that broadcasts the same genre as the program being viewed. .   The television receiver according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the ID data is a service descriptor, a series descriptor, and an event descriptor of EIT information. Recording means for recording the searched rebroadcast program;
The ID data is a service descriptor, a series descriptor, and an event descriptor of EIT information,
2. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein the program search means sets the search target channel to a channel belonging to the same group series as a channel that broadcasts the program being viewed.

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