JP2012191433A - Program information display device, program automatic reproducer using the same, electronic apparatus using them, program display method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To construct a structure for performing automatic reproduction with a simple operation and to provide a technology for automatically reproducing a program which is not reproduced in a desired time zone.SOLUTION: A program information display device displaying program information includes: a display control section generating and displaying a recommended program column obtained by displaying recommended program information of a recommended program with a high recommendation degree along a time base based on the recommendation degree of the program; and a recommended program column editing section performing an editing processing for replacing display of the recommended program information with a low recommendation degree of the program among recommended program information displayed in the recommended program column with display of information on a recommended content with the high priority of replacement.

Description

  The present invention relates to a program information display device and the like, and more particularly to a program automatic reproduction technique using the same.

  Recently, digital television broadcasts and the like have become widespread, and confirmation and reservation of programs by an electronic program guide (electronic program guide: EPG) are performed in digital television receivers. In general, in such a program information providing service, program broadcast schedule information of each broadcasting station is displayed in the same display method as the “radio / TV column” published in newspapers. In other words, the vertical axis is the time axis and the horizontal axis is the channel axis, and the corresponding program information is displayed in the defined program cell. Based on this, the user views the program, reserves viewing, special reservations, etc. It can be performed.

  In the technique described in Patent Literature 1 below, in the electronic program guide, a user-desired channel field in which a program desired by a user is reserved for recording from among various channels and the reserved recorded programs are rearranged as own channels. Has been proposed to create. By creating such a pseudo channel, an automatically recorded program can be automatically reproduced by placing it in a desired time zone.

JP 2003-189218 A

  However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, a program reserved for recording is recorded and then automatically played back. The user can perform a reservation process for a desired program, a rearrangement process for a recorded program, and the like. There is a problem that the user operation is complicated.

  In general, in a television receiver and a recording / reproducing apparatus (recorder) having an automatic recording function, an unreproduced recorded program is accumulated indefinitely unless the recorded program is consciously reproduced and deleted. There is a problem of end.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a technique for automatically reproducing an unreproduced program in a desired time zone while constructing a mechanism for performing automatic reproduction with a simple operation.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, a program information display device that displays program information, and a recommended program that displays recommended program information of a recommended program having a high recommendation level along a time axis based on the recommended level of the program. A display control unit for creating and displaying a column, and a display of recommended program information having a low recommendation level from the recommended program information displayed in the recommended program column. A program information display device is provided that includes a recommended program column editing unit that performs an editing process to be replaced with.

  The degree of recommendation of the program is determined based on the viewing history of the broadcast program, and the priority of the replacement is the recommended content, the recommended program with a low degree of recommendation of the program, or a broadcast program in the time zone before and after the recommended content. It is determined on the basis of the degree of relevance.

  The recommended degree of the program is determined based on the viewing history of the broadcast program, and the priority of the replacement is a genre of the recommended content and a program having a high viewing history in the broadcast time zone of the broadcast program to be replaced. It is determined based on the high relevance to the genre.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program information display device that displays program information, and the recommended program information of a recommended program having a high recommendation level is displayed along a time axis based on the recommendation level of the program. A display control step for creating and displaying a program column, and a display of recommended program information having a low recommendation level of the program out of the recommended program information displayed in the recommended program column, information of recommended content having a high priority of replacement There is provided a program information display method including a recommended program column editing step for performing an editing process to be replaced by display.

  The present invention may be a program for causing a computer to execute the program information display method described above, or a computer-readable recording medium storing the program.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to construct a mechanism for performing automatic reproduction with a simple operation and to automatically reproduce an unreproduced program in a desired time zone. Further, an unreproduced recorded program can be automatically reproduced unconsciously.

It is a functional block diagram which shows the example of 1 structure of the recording / reproducing apparatus provided with the program information display apparatus by the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows one structural example of the electronic program guide provided with the recommended program column. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of an electronic program guide in the program information display apparatus by this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the other example of a display of an electronic program guide in the program information display apparatus by this Embodiment. It is a flowchart figure which shows the flow of the recommended program column edit process by the recommended program column editing part by this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the mode of the screen display by the process of the recommended program column edit part of the program information display apparatus by the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart figure which shows the flow of the reproduction | reservation reservation process in the recommended program column edit part of the program information display apparatus by this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the recommended program display column in the program information display apparatus by the modification 1 of this invention.

  Hereinafter, a program information display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention and an automatic program reproduction apparatus using the same will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the recording / reproducing apparatus will be described as an example.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a recording / reproducing apparatus provided with a program information display apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  The recording / reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a front end 1 including a tuner for selecting a broadcast program from a broadcast signal received from an antenna AT, and a demultiplexer 3 that divides the multiplexed signal into a video signal and an audio signal. A video / audio decoding unit 11 that decodes the encrypted video signal and audio signal, an audio output unit 13 that outputs the decoded audio, and a program that decodes the program information from the output from the demultiplexer 3 An information decoding unit (also serving as a program information acquisition unit) 5, a program guide data generation unit 7 that generates electronic program guide (EPG) data from the acquired program information, and a screen synthesis unit 15 that combines video, program display data, and the like. And a display unit (display) 17 for displaying the video synthesized by the screen synthesis unit 15.

  Further, a control unit (CPU) 21 that controls the entire function units, a memory unit (RAM, ROM) 23 that stores programs for causing the CPU 21 to execute various processes, and a hard disk that records programs and the like. Unit (HDD) 27 and a remote control light receiving unit 25 for receiving a remote control signal from the remote control device. Moreover, you may have the interface part 33 which comprises the interface for acquiring a content via the network NT between the server apparatuses 35 which provide a content. In the program information display device, the display unit 17 and the audio output unit 13 are not essential.

  As functional units related to the display of program information, the control unit 21 includes a display control unit 21a that controls display of the display unit 17, an automatic reproduction unit 21b that performs automatic reproduction based on the created program guide, and user viewing.・ Recommendation that edits the recommended program column that picks up and displays recommended recommended programs that are presumed to be preferred by the user based on the user's viewing / reproduction preferences and the user preference learning unit 21c that learns the reproduction preferences And a program column editing unit 21d. In general, these functional units are processed based on a program recorded in the ROM of the memory unit 23. Recommended content is a broad concept that includes recommended programs. Among the content stored in external content servers and storage media such as optical discs, recommended content is based on user viewing and playback preferences. It is.

  Next, the recommended program display column will be described. In the future, with the progress of digitalization of broadcasting and high compression technology of video and audio, the number of broadcasting stations will increase further and multi-channel broadcasting is planned. As the number of channels increases, it becomes difficult to list the display of the electronic program guide in the “radio / TV column” format. Therefore, there is an electronic program guide provided with a recommended program column in which recommended programs that match user preferences and the like are arranged in a line in the time axis direction.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electronic program guide having a recommended program column. The recommended program column is created by automatically selecting a recommended program with a high recommendation level that the user is expected to view. The degree of recommendation, which is a criterion for selecting a program in the recommended program column, is based on, for example, a program that has been viewed many times in the past by the device, and the user's preference using the program title, genre, broadcast time zone, etc. Is learned by the user preference learning unit 21c, and a program that can be recommended to the user according to the preference is selected.

  In the display screen 17 shown in FIG. 2, for example, an area for displaying that it is a terrestrial digital TV program guide and which day (which day of the week including today is the electronic program guide display ( In this case, an area 42a for indicating whether the current electronic program guide is underlined display))), a display 42b indicating that the program currently being viewed is program A, A general electronic program guide display field in which program cells 45 displaying program information defined by a time axis and a channel axis are arranged in a matrix, and a general electronic program guide display field as indicated by an arrow 43 The recommended programs with high recommendation level are selected based on the viewing history depending on the genre for users who watch a lot of variety, drama, news, etc. For example, (In this case, up to the recommended program 51 is displayed in the E from the program A) Recommended program column 47 being displayed on the time axis of the shaft and are provided. Based on the recommended program column 47, the user can smoothly view, reserve viewing, reserved recording, and the like of a recommended program with a high recommendation degree by a simple operation.

  FIG. 3A is a diagram showing a display example of an electronic program guide in the program information display device according to the present embodiment. The basic configuration of the electronic program guide shown in FIG. 3A is the same as the configuration of FIG. 2, but in the recommended program column 47, for example, a recommended program in the time zone of the program C with a low recommendation level is stored in, for example, the storage unit. (HDD) 27 is configured so that it can be replaced with a recorded program stored in it. The recorded program only needs to be recorded by the time period of program C. An example of how to select a recorded program to be replaced at this time will be described later. Here, instead of the program C, the recorded program H27a and the recorded program J27b are displayed as recommended programs in the time zone that was the broadcast time zone of the program C. Here, as shown in FIG. 3B, a mark or the like that can recognize that the recorded program H27a and the recorded program J27b are recorded programs acquired from the HDD may be added to the display of the program information. . For example, a display 71 such as [HDD] is displayed in the program cell, a program cell in which recorded program information is displayed is color-coded from a program cell in which other program information is displayed, or indicated by reference numeral 51. As described above, for example, the bar-shaped colored area 51 may be displayed along the time axis in the time zone in which the recommended program from the HDD is displayed. Thereby, the user can easily know that the program is a recommended program from the HDD.

  Hereinafter, configuration examples and the like of various data tables stored in the memory unit and serving as a basis for editing the recommended program column will be described.

  Table 1 shows each recommended program in the recommended program column in which the program information acquisition unit 5 displays the recommended program selected based on the electronic program guide data acquired from the broadcast wave and the recommended level, and its broadcast time zone. And a table showing the relationship between the recommended level of each recommended program. As shown in Table 1, the user's preference is high based on each broadcast time period (from 0 to 1 o'clock, 1 o'clock to 2 o'clock, etc.) and the recommendation level (for example, genre etc.) from program A to E A table indicating that the priority is higher as the value is smaller in this case is stored in, for example, a ROM or the like as a base for creating a recommended program column.

  According to Table 1, it can be seen that the recommendation degree of program C is low (value is 5). This program C is a target to be deleted by editing.

  Table 2 shows recorded programs F to K stored in the storage unit (HDD) 27, their recording times, and the priority of replacement based on the genre (in this case, the smaller the value, the replacement , The priority displayed in the recommended program guide is high). Here, the priority of replacement based on the genre is, for example, a priority based on whether or not the program is a recorded program of a genre that is frequently viewed on the apparatus in the time zone of the program C, and is shown in Table 2. The given priority indicates the order of genres that are frequently viewed on the apparatus in the time zone of the program C. That is, among the recorded programs, a recorded program candidate to be replaced with the program C is a program H having a high priority as a genre that is often seen in the time zone from 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock, which is the broadcast time zone of the program C, or The program J or the like whose title is similar to the program often seen in the time zone from 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock, which is the broadcast time zone of the program C, is obtained.

  In addition, as another example of the priority of replacement, the title similarity in Table 2 (in this case, the smaller the value, the more similar) and the flag indicating whether or not it is a continuous series (in this case) , The program G marked with a circle is a continuous program). Title similarity and continuous series will be described later.

  Here, which of the programs to be replaced is selected based on the priority may be set by user setting or the like.

  Table 3 shows the similarity between the character strings of the program titles. It can be seen that program B and program H are similar, but are not similar to program J.

  Alternatively, as shown in Table 4, when the recommended program B in the time zone before the time zone from 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock is, for example, a recorded program H or J and a series of programs, that is, the title Are the same and the number of programs such as (1), (2), and (3) is indicated, the programs may be acquired from the HDD so as to be arranged in that order. In this way, it is also possible to continuously play back a recorded program that has not been viewed in the previous week but a series of programs broadcast today. You may judge using series ID.

  Further, when recording, programs are managed in a folder or the like by genre, etc., and information on the automatic playback time zone is added to the folder. For example, the child program folder may be selected so that the child program is always played back in the evening.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of recommended program column editing processing by the recommended program column editing unit 21d according to this embodiment. First, in step S1, when the recommended program creation process is started, the program information (broadcast wave SI information) 5a acquired by the program information decoding unit (program information acquisition unit) 5 and the user preference learning unit 21c are stored in the past. Based on the user preference learning information 21c ′ obtained from the viewing history and the like, in step S2, program information with a recommendation level with a recommendation level attached as attribute information is generated, and in step S3, it is recommended for each time zone. The program with the highest degree is selected (see FIG. 2, Table 1, etc.). Thereby, the recommended program column shown in FIG. 2 can be created.

  Next, in step S4, the recommended program column editing unit 21d deletes a program (for example, program C) having a recommendation level priority equal to or lower than a certain value from the display of the recommended program column, and in step S5, the recommended program column is displayed in the recommended program column. If there is a certain amount of free time (YES), among the recorded programs stored in the storage unit (HDD) 27, content such as a recorded program that fits in the free time, for example, the priority of Table 2 and Table 3 A recorded program with a high priority displayed in the recommended program column such as the title similarity and the continuous series in Table 4 is inserted into the recommended program column in that time zone, and the process returns to step S5. If there is more free time, the process of displaying recorded program information during that free time is continued, and when the free time runs out (NO), the creation process is terminated (End).

  Through the above processing, the recommended program table as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B can be edited and created.

  According to the program information display device according to the present embodiment, by performing recommended program column editing processing in which a program in a recommended program column is replaced with a program with a higher priority among recorded programs in the recommended program column. It is possible to play a program that the viewer is expected to watch more, such as a genre or a title that is often viewed during the time period. Also, by displaying recorded program information in the recommended program column, it is possible to easily perform playback and viewing operations without distinguishing between broadcast programs and recorded programs. Therefore, it is possible to construct a mechanism that allows a user to view a more preferable program.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a program information display apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a screen display by processing of the recommended program column editing unit 21d of the program information display device according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a recommended program column of the program information display device according to the present embodiment. It is a flowchart figure which shows the flow of the reproduction | regeneration reservation process in the edit part 21d. In the program information display device according to the present embodiment, a recommended program column as shown in FIG. 2 is created based on an electronic program guide, and then a focus (cursor) is displayed on a time slot for replacing recorded content or a program to be replaced. And providing a mechanism that allows the recommended program column to be edited by moving the cursor along the time axis.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the process is started (Start: Step S11), and the program information acquired by the program information acquisition unit 5 in Step S12 and the user preference learning obtained by the user preference learning unit 21c from the past viewing history and the like. A recommended program column is created and displayed based on the information 21c ′. In step S13, the default time zone is selected (state indicated by the cursor) (cursor 67a in the recommended program table 47 in FIG. 5). Here, as shown in FIG. 5, the recorded program list 61 in the HDD having the recorded program ID (number) 63 and the recorded program names (F to K) 65 is displayed, and the recorded program H67 to be replaced is selected. Then press the OK button on the remote control. Then, a playback menu 71 is displayed. When the playback reservation 77 is selected and determined from the two buttons, “Play Now 73” and “Reservation Reservations 77”, an electronic program guide including a recommended program column 47 is displayed on the screen 17. Is displayed. When the determination button is pressed in the default state (YES in step S14), the replacement of the program C with the recorded program H is completed in step S15, and the reproduction reservation process is completed (step S16: End). On the other hand, if the determination button is not pressed (NO) and the movement of the up / down cursor key is detected in step S17 (YES), the time zone indicated by the cursor after the movement in the recommended program column 47 in FIG. 5 is detected in step S18. (For example, the time zone of program B or program D) is selected. Here, returning to step S14, the recorded program can be set as a replacement target in another time zone. If NO in step S17, the process returns to step S12. With the above processing, a desired program can be moved from the recorded program in the recorded program list 61 in the HDD to a desired time zone in the recommended program column 47 and edited. Then, it is possible to make program playback reservation settings in the order displayed in the recommended program column 47 after editing.

  As described above, according to the program information display device according to the present embodiment, a desired recorded program can be set as a recommended program in a desired time zone, and a playback reservation for a recorded program is made based on the recommended program column. It can be performed. Then, the program can be automatically reproduced based on the recommended program table as described above in which the broadcast program and the recorded program are mixed. The timing for using this automatic reproduction function is as follows.

  First, a program to be automatically reproduced can be automatically reserved for reproduction as an automatic reproduction schedule along the time zone of the recommended program column. Here, at the timing when the program guide is displayed, the program to be automatically reproduced is displayed in the recommended program column. When the automatic reproduction is started, the program is automatically reproduced along the time zone of the recommended program column.

(Modification 1)
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a recommended program column in the program information display device according to the first modification of the present invention. In the recommended program column 47 shown in FIG. 7, the time zone (for example, 2 hours) of the program C between the program B and the program D does not match the playback time of the recorded program to be replaced. In FIG. 7, the program H of the 1-hour recorded program, the program J of the 2-hour recorded program, and the program K of the 3-hour recorded program are displayed in the time frame name of 2 hours. That is, it can be considered that the choice of the recorded program is displayed.

  When automatic reproduction is performed in this state, after program B, program H is reproduced for one hour and program J is reproduced for one hour. Alternatively, when the user performs an operation at the end of the program B, the program J may be played back, or only two hours of the program K may be played back. High-speed playback may be performed according to the time zone.

  The playback time of the recorded program may be shorter than the idle time of program C. In the program information display device according to the first modification, the degree of freedom of display in the recommended program column of the recorded program to be replaced can be increased, and the user can select and play a desired recorded program from the recommended program column. Is possible.

(Modification 2)
In each of the above-described embodiments, the recorded program has been described as the content to be replaced by the broadcast program. However, the network content acquired from the server device 35 via the network or the content recorded on the optical media or the like may be the replacement target. good.

  In the above-described embodiment, the configuration and the like illustrated in the accompanying drawings are not limited to these, and can be appropriately changed within a range in which the effect of the present invention is exhibited. In addition, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the object of the present invention.

  For example, the program reserved recording apparatus according to the present embodiment may be provided in a general recording / reproducing apparatus, or may be provided in a television integrated recording / reproducing apparatus. Or you may make it add to recording / reproducing functions, such as a personal computer. In the specification, these devices are collectively referred to as an electronic device.

  In addition, a program for realizing the functions described in the above-described embodiments is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on the recording medium is read into a computer system and executed, thereby executing processing of each unit. May be performed. The “computer system” here includes an OS and hardware such as peripheral devices.

  Further, the “computer system” includes a homepage providing environment (or display environment) if a WWW system is used.

  The “computer-readable recording medium” refers to a storage device such as a flexible medium, a magneto-optical disk, a portable medium such as a ROM and a CD-ROM, and a hard disk incorporated in a computer system. Furthermore, the “computer-readable recording medium” dynamically holds a program for a short time like a communication line when transmitting a program via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line. In this case, a volatile memory in a computer system serving as a server or a client in that case, and a program that holds a program for a certain period of time are also included. The program may be a program for realizing a part of the above-described functions, or may be a program that can realize the above-described functions in combination with a program already recorded in a computer system.

  The present invention can be used for a recording / reproducing apparatus or the like.

AT ... antenna, NT ... network, 1 ... front end, 3 ... demultiplexer, 5 ... broadcast information decoding unit (broadcast information acquiring unit), 7 ... program guide data generating unit, 11 ... video / audio decoding unit, 13 ... sound Output unit 15... Screen composition unit 17 display unit 21 display control unit 21a display control unit 21b automatic reproduction unit 21c user preference learning unit 21d recommended program column editing unit 23 ... Memory unit, 25 ... Remote control light receiving unit, 27 ... Storage unit (HDD), 33 ... Interface unit, 35 ... Server.

Claims (11)

A program information display device for displaying program information,
A display control unit for creating and displaying a recommended program column displaying recommended program information of a recommended program having a high recommendation level along a time axis based on the recommended level of the program;
A recommended program column editing unit that performs an editing process to replace the display of recommended program information with a low recommendation level of the recommended program information displayed in the recommended program column with information display of recommended content with a high priority of replacement. And a program information display device. The degree of recommendation of the program is determined based on the viewing history of the broadcast program,
The priority of the replacement is determined based on a high degree of association between the recommended content and the recommended program having a low recommendation level of the program or a broadcast program in a time zone before and after the recommended program. 1. The program information display device according to 1. The degree of recommendation of the program is determined based on the viewing history of the broadcast program,
The priority of the replacement is determined based on a high degree of association between the genre of the recommended content and a genre of a program with a high viewing history in a broadcast time zone of the broadcast program to be replaced. 1. The program information display device according to 1. The recommended program column editor
4. The program information display device according to claim 1, wherein the program information is replaced with one or a plurality of the recommended contents having a reproduction time shorter than or equal to a broadcast time of the program to be replaced. 5. The recommended program column editor
4. The program information display device according to claim 1, wherein the program information display device is replaced with one or a plurality of the recommended contents having a reproduction time longer than a broadcast time of the program to be replaced.   6. The program information display device according to claim 2, wherein the recommended content is content that has already been acquired by the broadcast time of the replaced broadcast program. The display control unit
7. The display control according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein display control is performed such that a cursor indicating a time zone to be replaced is movably displayed in the recommended program column in accordance with a selection from the list of recommended contents. The program information display device according to claim 1.   8. An automatic reproduction unit that automatically reproduces a program and content based on the recommended program column re-edited by a recommended program column editing unit. The program information display device described.   An electronic apparatus comprising the program information display device according to any one of claims 1 to 8. A program information display device for displaying program information,
A display control step for creating and displaying a recommended program column displaying recommended program information of a recommended program having a high recommendation level along the time axis based on the recommended level of the program,
A recommended program column editing step for performing an editing process in which the display of recommended program information having a low recommendation level among the recommended program information displayed in the recommended program column is replaced with the information display of recommended content having a high priority of replacement And a program information display method.   A program for causing a computer to execute the program information display method according to claim 10.

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