JP3490938B2 - Television receiver - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Broadcasts received by television receivers are diversified into not only conventional so-called terrestrial broadcasts but also CATV (cable television) and satellite broadcasts. In such a diversified broadcasting system, it takes a long time to find a desired program or it is impossible to obtain real-time program information only with program guides using newspapers, magazines, etc. as a medium. There is.

Therefore, in addition to the program information in paper medium,
A so-called OSD (on-screen display), which is a method of displaying an EPG (electronic program guide), which is program information transmitted from a broadcasting station, on the screen of a television receiver has been put into practical use.

In the conventional EPG on-screen display,
It is possible for the viewer to visually select the program he / she wants to watch from the program guide on the screen. However, when the EPG display is erased after the desired program is selected from the program guide and the selected program is displayed on the entire screen,
The viewer cannot know what program is being broadcast on a channel different from the channel of the selected program.

For example, when a viewer is interested in a baseball program, if the viewer is watching a baseball relay, there is a high possibility that another baseball relay being broadcast at the same time will be missed.

Conventionally, when a certain program is selected and viewed, another program that is being broadcast at the same time is displayed in a rectangular area provided in a part of the screen of the program currently being viewed. Method (PIP: Picture in picture) has been put to practical use.

However, as shown in FIG. 6, when only one PIP screen B is displayed within the screen A of the program currently being viewed, only one of the back programs is displayed.
I can't check it on the IP screen. Further, among the programs being broadcast at the same time, there is no means for selecting and displaying a program that is of interest to the viewer, that is, a program related to baseball in the above example, so that it is displayed on the full screen and the PIP screen. There is a drawback that there is a high possibility that the program that the viewer wants to watch will be mixed into the programs other than the ones that are currently being viewed.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, by displaying a plurality of PIP screens B within the screen A of the program currently being viewed, a method of simultaneously displaying a plurality of subprograms by the PIP system has also been put into practical use. There is. However, among the programs being broadcast at the same time, since there is no means for selecting and displaying a program that is of interest to the viewer, that is, a program related to baseball in the above example, many programs that are not of interest to the viewer are displayed. As a result, it is difficult to see the program currently being viewed, and it is troublesome to check whether or not the program is of interest to the viewer from the program contents displayed on a large number of PIP screens.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a television receiver which allows a viewer to easily recognize a back program of the same type as the one currently being watched while watching a certain program. The purpose is to provide.

Further, according to the present invention, when a certain program is being watched, the viewer can easily recognize the back program of the same kind as the one being watched at the same time, and the same kind as the one being watched. An object of the present invention is to provide a television receiver capable of easily selecting a back program.

[0011]

A television receiver according to the present invention has a keyword table for storing, as a keyword, a typical phrase that is considered to be included in a title of a program belonging to a preset program category. Means for obtaining the title of the program being played and the title of each behind-the-scene program currently being broadcast, means for determining whether or not the title of the program currently being viewed includes a keyword in the keyword table, If the title of the program being viewed includes a keyword in the keyword table, the category of the program currently being viewed is recognized from the keyword table, and among the behind-the-scene programs,
Means for retrieving programs whose titles include at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently viewed, as well as at least one of the keywords found by the search and corresponding to the category of the program currently viewed. It is characterized in that it is provided with means for displaying the title of the back program, which includes one of the titles, on the program screen currently being viewed.

In the case where the title of the back program, which includes at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently being viewed, in the title, is displayed overlaid on the screen of the program currently being viewed, the display screen is displayed. In the above, it is preferable to provide means for allowing the viewer to select the title of the back program, and means for automatically selecting the program corresponding to the selected title of the back program.

There is provided means for displaying, in a PIP format, a still image or a moving image of a behind-the-scene program having at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently being viewed, which is found by the search. preferable.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a television receiver.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a tuner section which receives a broadcast wave from an antenna and outputs a signal. A demodulation unit 2 demodulates the signal input from the tuner unit 1 and outputs a transport stream (hereinafter abbreviated as TS). Reference numeral 3 is a TS separation unit that separates the TS output from the demodulation unit 2 into video, audio, and other additional information. The additional information includes program guide information (EP
G information) is included.

Reference numeral 4 is a video TS output from the TS separation unit 3.
Is a video decoding unit that performs a decoding process and outputs a video.
Reference numeral 6 denotes an OS for superimposing an on-screen image on the video output obtained by the video decoding unit 4 for screen display.
This is a D multiplex processing unit.

Reference numeral 5 is a voice TS output from the TS separation unit 3.
Is a sound decoding unit for decoding and outputting sound. Reference numeral 7 is an EPG information acquisition unit for acquiring and accumulating the EPG information separated by the TS separation unit 3.

Reference numeral 8 is a program title comparison processing section. Based on the program title obtained from the EPG information acquisition unit 7, the program title comparison processing unit 8 determines whether or not the program title currently being viewed includes a specific keyword that characterizes a certain program category, and determines If the keyword is included, it is determined whether or not the particular keyword is included in other program titles that are being broadcast at the same time, and a group of program titles including the particular keyword is extracted.

Reference numeral 9 is a keyword table having a plurality of corresponding keywords and program categories used in the program title comparison processing section 8. An operation unit 10 is used by a viewer to display an EPG and select a program from the EPG. The operation unit 10 includes a remote control and an operation panel provided on a front panel of the television receiver.

The operation of the television receiver will be described below.

After the power is turned on, the tuner section 1 and the demodulation section 2
Selects the channel set as the default value, and TS
The TS is output to the separating unit 3. When the input TS is a stream in which a plurality of channels are multiplexed, the TS separation unit 3 extracts a stream corresponding to a channel set as a specified value from the input TS, and extracts a video, an audio, and an addition from the stream. Streams related to information are separated and output to the video decoding unit 4, the audio decoding unit 5, and the EPG information acquisition unit 7, respectively.

When a channel change is input from the operation unit 10, the following operation is performed. When the tuner unit 1 and the demodulation unit 2 need to select a channel due to the channel change, that is, the T that is currently demodulated.
When the target channel is not multiplexed on S, the tuner unit 1 and the demodulation unit 2 perform a channel selection operation, and
The S separation unit 3 extracts the stream corresponding to the target channel.

If the channel selection operation is unnecessary, that is, if another stream multiplexed on the TS currently being demodulated is a stream corresponding to the target channel, the TS demultiplexing section 3 determines the target. The stream corresponding to the channel to be extracted is extracted.

The EPG information acquisition section 7 controls the OSD multiplexing processing section 6 to extract EPG information from the additional information output from the TS separation section 3 and output it as a program guide table on the screen. Further, the EPG information acquisition unit 7 displays E on the screen.
When a command such as a channel change command is input from the operation unit 10 while the PG is displayed, the tuner unit 1, the demodulation unit 2 and the TS separation unit 3 are controlled.

The program title comparison processing unit 8 obtains from the EPG information acquisition unit 7 the program title of the program currently being viewed and the program title list of other receivable programs. Further, it is determined from the keyword table 9 whether or not the program title currently viewed includes a specific keyword that characterizes a certain program category. If the program title that you are currently watching contains a specific keyword that characterizes a certain program category, it is determined whether the specific keyword is included in other program titles that are being broadcast at the same time. To do. Then, a program title group including the specific keyword is extracted, and each program title of the extracted group is displayed through the OSD multiplex processing section 6 in a multiplexed manner on a normal screen as shown in FIG.

The program titles that are displayed in multiplex are displayed on the operation unit 1.
Viewers can select from 0. The program title selected by the viewer can be distinguished from other program titles by flashing the title frame, etc., and by the viewer pressing the enter key etc. in that state,
The program corresponding to the program title is selected.

It should be noted that instead of outputting only the program title on the screen as shown in FIG. 4, a PIP for displaying a still image or a moving image of the program in addition to the program title as shown in FIG.
The screen B may be displayed. In this case,
When a tuner, a decoding unit, and a TS separation unit are additionally provided to display still images in PIP, still images of the back program to be PIP-displayed may be sequentially acquired and displayed in PIP. In the case of PIP-displaying a moving image, it is only necessary to acquire video of a back program to be PIP-displayed at predetermined time intervals and display those back-programs in a time-division PIP display.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the contents of the keyword table 9.

The keyword table 9 stores, as keywords, typical words and phrases that are considered to include program titles of each program, such as baseball, golf, news, and weather forecast.

For example, since it is considered that the program titles belonging to the category of "baseball" include the words "baseball" and "nighter", if the program title contains any of these words, It can be judged that the program having the program title belongs to the category of "baseball".

FIG. 2 shows a back program display processing procedure executed by the program title comparison processing section 8 every time a new program is selected.

When a new program is selected, the program title comparison processing unit 8 obtains the program title of the newly selected program from the EPG information acquisition unit 7, and the keyword table 9
It is searched whether the keyword therein is included in the program title (step 1).

If the keyword in the keyword table 9 is not included in the program title of the program currently selected (NO in step 2), the current process is terminated.

If the keyword in the keyword table 9 is included in the program title of the currently selected program (YES in step 2), the category name corresponding to the keyword is stored (step 3). Of receivable programs other than programs newly selected by the EPG information acquisition unit 7, the titles of other programs (behind programs) currently being broadcast and information for selecting the program (tuning information ) Is acquired (step 4).

Among the acquired titles of the back programs, the titles containing at least one keyword corresponding to the category name stored in step 3 are searched for each program (step 5).

When a program title including the keyword corresponding to the category name stored in step 3 is found (YES in step 6), the title of the back program and the tuning information are stored (step 7). . Then, if there is an unsearched back program (step 8).
YES), the process returns to step 5.

In this way, when the search for all the titles of the back program acquired in step 4 is completed (NO in step 8), each back program title stored in step 7 is placed in a predetermined position on the screen. The OSD is displayed (step 9). As a result, the title of the back program of the same type as the program currently being viewed is displayed. Then, the processing of this time is ended.

In this way, when the viewer selects one program title and then presses the enter button while the one or more program titles displayed on the screen are being displayed, the program is The title comparison processing unit 8
Recognize which program title is selected from the cursor position information, and perform control for selecting the program based on the recognized program tuning information (stored in step 6). .

In the above embodiment, the title of the back program of the same type as the currently viewed program is displayed in OSD, or in addition to this, a still image of the back program of the same type as the currently viewed program or Although the moving image is displayed in PIP, only the still image or moving image of the back program of the same type as the program currently being viewed may be displayed in PIP. Also in this case, when one PIP screen is selected by the viewer, it is preferable to automatically select the back program corresponding to the selected PIP screen.

[0041]

According to the present invention, when a certain program is being viewed, the viewer can easily recognize the back program of the same type as the program currently being viewed.

Further, according to the present invention, when a certain program is being viewed, the viewer can easily recognize the back program of the same type as the program currently being viewed and the user is viewing the program. It becomes possible to easily select the same type of back program.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a television receiver.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a back program display processing procedure executed by a program title comparison processing unit 8 every time a new program is selected.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of contents of a keyword table.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which the title of a back program of the same type as the program currently being viewed is displayed.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which the title of a back program of the same type as the program currently being viewed and its program image are displayed.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which one behind-the-scenes program is PIP-displayed on a conventional television receiver.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example in which a plurality of behind-the-scenes programs are PIP-displayed on a conventional television receiver.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 tuner section 2 demodulator 3 TS separation unit 4 Video decoding section 5 Audio decoding section 6 OSD multiple processing unit 7 EPG information acquisition section 8 Program title comparison processing unit 9 keyword table 10 Operation part

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Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A keyword table for storing, as keywords, typical words and phrases that are considered to be included in the titles of programs belonging to preset program categories, titles of programs currently being viewed and currently broadcasted programs. A means for obtaining the title of the back program, a means for determining whether or not the title of the currently viewed program includes a keyword in the keyword table, a title of the currently viewed program includes a keyword in the keyword table If it is, recognize the category of the program you are currently watching from the keyword table,
A means for searching for programs that have at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently being watched in each of the behind-the-scene programs, as well as the category of the program currently being watched found by the search. A television receiver comprising: means for displaying a title of a back program, which includes at least one of the corresponding keywords in the title, on the screen of the program currently being viewed. 2. In the case where the title of the back program, which includes at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the program currently being viewed, in the title, is displayed in an overlapping manner on the screen of the program currently being viewed, The television according to claim 1, further comprising: means for causing a viewer to select a title of the back program on the display screen, and means for automatically selecting a program corresponding to the selected title of the back program. Receiving machine. 3. A means for displaying, in a PIP format, a still image or a moving image of a behind-the-scene program having at least one of the keywords corresponding to the category of the currently viewed program found by the search. The television receiver according to any one of claims 1 and 2.