JP3966339B2 - Receiver - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a receiving apparatus having a function of displaying text information.

  In recent years, text information such as a program guide has been provided by text broadcasting, digital broadcasting using satellites, and the like, and there are receiving apparatuses that display this text information on a screen. As a display method on the screen, for example, a program title is displayed for each channel as shown in the front view of the receiving device screen in FIG.

  For these character information, a character size of a certain size is used due to the display resolution, viewing distance, and the like. Therefore, the amount of information that can be displayed in one screen is limited.

  In addition, as a method of displaying program guide information on the screen, a program selected by a cursor 440 having an operation means such as a remote controller for displaying a plurality of text information on the screen and selecting one of the program information. There is a receiving device that displays text information related to the information 445 on a specific area 446 on the screen, for example, at the top of the screen shown in FIG.

  In this case, the amount of program information related to the selection item (for example, the title of the program) displayed in the specific area 446 on the screen is left to the size of the display area. Therefore, if the selection item display area is widened to secure the number of selection items, the amount of related information is reduced. Conversely, if the display area for the related information is increased, the display area for the selection items becomes narrow, and the number of selection items that can be displayed decreases, making it difficult to use.

  In addition, when the selection item is selected, by pressing a specific button of a remote controller (hereinafter simply referred to as a remote controller), as shown in the front view of the receiving device screen in FIG. There is a receiving apparatus in which related information is displayed in the display area 447. However, this receiving apparatus has a drawback that the operation of pressing a specific button is troublesome or the selection item is hidden and is difficult to use.

  Still another prior art will be described with reference to front views of screens of receiving apparatuses shown in FIGS.

  As shown in FIG. 14 (a), as a method of displaying a text broadcast on the screen, a video of a broadcast program and a plurality of icon images 500 representing each program of the text broadcast are displayed on the screen, and their icons are displayed. There is a receiving apparatus that selects and confirms one of the images 500 with a cursor 440 and displays the confirmed teletext program in a specific area on the screen, in this case, the area 502 on the right side of the screen.

  In this case, when the teletext program information is displayed using many areas of the screen, the broadcast program image becomes smaller, or the teletext program item, that is, the area for displaying the icon image 500 becomes smaller. The number of teletext selection items is reduced.

  On the contrary, as shown in FIG. 14B, if the display area 503 for the teletext information is reduced, the number of characters and the amount of information that can be displayed are reduced. Also, if the character size is displayed small, it may be difficult to read the characters.

  Further, in such a display method, when turning the displayed page of the teletext program, it is troublesome because the user needs to put information that is not displayed on the screen by operating the remote controller or the like.

  As a method of displaying the contents of the teletext on the screen, there is a receiving apparatus in which information 504 of a specific teletext program is scrolled and displayed on the screen as shown in FIG. In this case, as shown in FIG. 15B, the news is displayed on the screen by providing one specific button, for example, a news button 505 on the remote controller and pressing it.

  In order to display the contents of the teletext on the screen, it is necessary to designate display on the screen by operating a push button on the remote controller, and the user needs to take his eyes off the screen once. In addition, since there is conventionally only one type of character information program to be displayed by scrolling, the desired program cannot be viewed.

  As another prior art, as shown in FIG. 16, a plurality of images of a currently broadcast program are displayed on the screen, and channel information broadcast on each image is added and displayed. There is a receiving apparatus in which a selected image is displayed on the entire screen by selecting with the cursor 440. In this case, the information related to the selected image is information such as the channel number of the broadcasting station that is broadcasting, and information related to the program is not provided.

As described above, the conventional technology only displays character information, program information, and an image being received on a limited screen, so that necessary information for the viewer can be obtained easily and simultaneously. I could not.
Furthermore, even if a program title is selected and detailed information on the selected program is obtained, the display area is limited, so that sufficient information cannot be displayed.

  Also, when trying to display information that has not been displayed, it is difficult to use because it requires a user's remote control operation and is troublesome or other items such as selection items disappear.

An object of the present invention is to provide a receiving apparatus that solves this problem.
Another object of the present invention is to display a plurality of selection items and related information related to the selected items, and automatically display information not displayed among the information related to the selected items in a limited area. An object of the present invention is to provide a receiving apparatus that can perform the above-described operation.

In order to solve the above-described object, the present invention provides a television receiver in which an input unit for inputting image information of a program and program information related to the program, and viewing of the program input to the input unit. When an operation for displaying the program information is performed, a selection item for selecting a desired channel is selected with the selection item of the program information together with image information of the program being viewed. And a processing unit for displaying the program information of the program of the selected channel on the screen. The processing unit displays the program information in the program information display area at the bottom of the screen, and the program information of the channel selected by the selection item and not displayed in the program information display area If there is, the program information is scroll-displayed so that the program information that is not displayed is displayed after a predetermined time has elapsed since the selection item was selected.

  In the present invention, the presence or absence of information related to the selected item is determined, and if there is information, it is automatically displayed.

  Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the selection means includes cursor display means, and when the cursor is in a predetermined time stop state, the information relating to the item selected by the cursor is automatically scrolled. To display.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in a receiver that outputs program information, the contents of the program information can be easily recognized.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a receiving apparatus according to the present invention will be described using some examples. This embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings, taking as an example the case where the program guide information is sent superimposed on the broadcast.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a receiving apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, 101 is a signal input terminal, 102 is a signal separation unit, 103 is an image processing unit, 104 is an image reproduction unit, 105 is an image processing unit, 106 is an image synthesis unit, 107 is a signal output terminal, and 108 is an information processing unit. 109 is a data extraction unit, 110 is a data storage unit, 111 is a display data creation unit, 112 is a central processing unit, 113 is an external control input unit, 114 is a clock device, and 115 is a memory unit.

  In the receiving apparatus shown in the figure, the signal input to the signal input terminal 101 is input to the signal separation unit 102. The signal separation unit 102 separates and outputs image information and data information from the input signal, and the image information is input to the image processing unit 103 and the data information is input to the information processing unit 108.

  The image processing unit 103 processes, processes, and outputs the input image signal so that it can be displayed on the screen. For example, the image processing unit 103 includes an image reproduction unit 104 and an image processing unit 105, and the encoded image information is reproduced as an original image by the image reproduction unit 104. The reproduced image is input to the image processing unit 105, and the brightness, contrast, and contour correction processing of the image, image reduction and enlargement are performed, and the image is input to the image composition unit 106.

  The information processing unit 108 creates and outputs a program guide image from the data information separated by the signal separation unit 102. This data may be input from the communication information to the data storage unit 110 through the modem 117.

  The information processing unit 108 includes, for example, a data extraction unit 109, a data storage unit 110, and a display data creation unit 111. The data extraction unit 109 extracts and decodes program information from the data information output from the signal separation unit 102 and outputs the program information to the data storage unit 110. The data storage unit 110 accumulates input program information. The accumulated program information is output to the display data creation unit 111 when a program guide image is formed. The display data creation unit 111 creates a program guide image from the program guide information output from the data storage unit 110 and outputs it. The output program guide image is input to the image composition unit 106.

  The image synthesis unit 106 synthesizes the input image signal and the program guide image into one image and outputs it. The output image is output from the signal output terminal 107 and displayed on the screen by a display unit (not shown).

  Here, the central processing unit 112 controls the image processing unit 103 and the information processing unit 108 in response to a command input from the external control input unit 113 such as a remote control operated by the viewer. For example, the image processing unit 103 is controlled for image display size and image quality correction. Further, the information processing unit 108 performs control, editing, and search of program guide data accumulation, and further control or processing of a display form.

  In the figure, terrestrial broadcasts received by an antenna (not shown), satellite broadcasts such as CS and BS, and communications are supplied to the signal separation unit 102, and program guide information is stored in the data recording unit 110. .

  FIG. 2 shows a remote controller used in the receiving apparatus of FIG. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a remote controller used in the receiving apparatus of FIG. In the figure, a remote control 200 includes a power button 201, a program guide button 202 used when displaying program guide information, a multi button 203 used when displaying images of a plurality of channels, and up / down / left / right buttons 204, 205, 206, 207. , A determination button 208, a volume control button 209, and a channel button 210.

  Now, when the program guide button 202 of the remote controller 200 is pressed, the receiving device receives a command for displaying the program guide and stores this command in the memory unit 115. When this command is received, the program data currently being broadcast is extracted from the program guide information stored in the data storage unit 110 by the output from the clock device 114, and the display data creation unit 111 creates display data. The image synthesizing unit 106 sends the image to the program video being viewed, and the program video being viewed is displayed in the area 301 on the left side of the screen as shown in FIG. 3A. The program guide being broadcast is displayed in the area on the right side of the screen.

Here, FIGS. 3A to 3C are front views showing a first embodiment of the screen of the receiving apparatus.
In the program guide information, the channel name or channel number 302 is displayed at the left end of the right area of the screen, and the program information 303 such as the title of the program being broadcast on the channel and the performers is displayed at the right side of each channel number 302. .

  At this time, one of the program information is selected, and the selection operation can be performed by the cursor up / down buttons 204 and 205 of the remote controller 200.

When a specific selection item 304 is selected with the cursor 300 as shown in FIG. 3A, the information processing unit 108 in FIG. 1 performs the processing shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the flow of the receiving apparatus of FIG. In step 401, a cursor is displayed, and a specific selection item 304 is selected with this cursor. In step 402, the elapsed time is measured from the selected state. If the fixed time has not elapsed, the processing is not required. If the fixed time has elapsed, it is determined whether there is any program data not displayed in the display area as shown in step 403. If there is no information not displayed, no processing is performed. If there is information that is not displayed, in step 404, the output data is changed so that the information that is not displayed is displayed. By changing the output data by a specific amount, the contents displayed as shown in the selection item 305 in FIG. 3B, the selection item 306 in FIG. 3C, and the selection item 307 in FIG. 5A. It is displayed as scrolling on the screen.

  Next, as shown in the front views of the receiving device screens in FIGS. 5B and 5C, when the cursor down button 205 of the remote controller is pressed, the cursor 300 is changed from the selection item 307 in FIG. 5A. As shown in FIG. 5B, the selected item 308 is moved to a selected state. Also in this case, the operation is performed according to the flowchart of FIG. Therefore, if all of the selected program information is not displayed and there is an undisplayed portion, the display information is changed in the table information processing unit 108 after a certain period of time, so that the data shown in FIG. As shown in the selection item 308 and the selection item 309 in FIG. 5C, the program guide information is scrolled to display all information related to the selection item.

  By displaying the program information on the screen in this way, the user does not need to perform a specific operation, and can obtain information on the program in a selected state in a narrow area.

  A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 6A and 6B are front views of a receiver screen showing a second embodiment of the present invention. When the program guide button 202 of the remote control shown in FIG. 2 is pressed and the receiving device receives a command for displaying the program guide, the current broadcasting is performed from the program guide information stored in the data storage unit 110 according to the information of the clock device 114. The program data inside is extracted. When the central processing unit 112 determines the channel at the time when the program guide button 202 is pressed, the information processing unit 108 sets the selection item as the channel and the program information of the program 312 in the selected state. A display area 313 is provided separately, and is synthesized with the program video by the image synthesis unit 106 and displayed as shown in FIG.

  Since the display area of the program 312 has a small display area, it is possible to grasp the information of the program selected by the cursor in more detail by using the area 313 at the bottom of the screen having a larger display area. become. However, in the lowermost display area 313, not all program information may be displayed.

  In view of this, the information processing unit 108 determines whether there is program information that cannot be displayed in the program information display area 313 as shown in FIG. When time elapses, the display data is changed, and as shown in the display area 313 in FIG. 6B, information that is not displayed is displayed by scrolling. In the case of this embodiment, program information flows from right to left, and characters that have not been displayed appear and appear.

  As shown in the front view of the receiving device screen in FIG. 7A, when the cursor down button 205 of the remote controller is pressed, the display data creation unit 108 changes the display of the cursor 300 to the lower row 315 and displays the lowermost display area. The information displayed in 313 is changed to the information of the program 315 where the cursor is located and displayed on the screen. Also in this case, since all the program information cannot be displayed in the lowermost display area 313, the information processing unit 108 changes the display data as needed after a certain period of time as shown in FIG. Display above.

  In the present embodiment, the user can easily obtain guide information of the program simply by selecting a selection item, and the display area of the program video being viewed and the display area of the program title list for each channel are displayed. Information on programs currently being broadcast can be obtained while maintaining a wide range.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 8 is a front view of a receiving apparatus screen showing a third embodiment of the present invention, and shows an embodiment when a program guide display is displayed using the entire screen. When the program guide button 202 of the remote control is pressed in the normal program viewing state, the central processing unit 112 recognizes the viewing channel at that time, and the information processing unit 108 uses the clock device 114 and the data storage unit 110. As a result, the currently broadcast program data of the channel being watched is extracted, display data is created together with other channel names and titles, and displayed on the receiver screen as shown in FIG. At this time, the selection cursor 300 is in a state of selecting the program of the channel that was displayed before the remote control button was pressed.

  In this case, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, the information processing unit 108 measures the time of the cursor stop state, and when the predetermined time is reached, determines whether all the program information is displayed in the display area, and displays it. If it is determined that there is something that has not been performed, the information processing unit 108 changes the display data and outputs it. By this processing, as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, the program information is scrolled and displayed in the program information display area 319 at the top of the screen, and information that has not been displayed is displayed.

  In the state of FIG. 8B, when the cursor down button 205 of the remote controller is pressed, the selection cursor 300 moves to the lower stage, and the information that cannot be displayed for the selected program is the same as described with reference to FIG. Is displayed in the area 319.

  In the present embodiment, the user can obtain detailed information of a specific program while keeping the display area of the program guide wide.

  Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIGS. 9A, 9B, 10A, and 10B are front views of a receiving apparatus according to the third embodiment. When one of the cursor up / down / left / right buttons 204, 205, 206, 207 on the remote controller is pressed in the normal program viewing state, the central processing unit 112 recognizes the viewing channel at that time, and the information processing unit 108 , The program data currently being broadcast on the channel being watched is extracted by comparison between the clock device 114 and the data storage unit 110, display data is created together with the channel number, and the image composition unit 106 is broadcasting The program video is synthesized and displayed as shown in FIG. The selection cursor 300 selects the channel 324 that was displayed before the remote control button was pressed, and the program information display area 325 shows the current channel (CH2 in the case of the screen) selected by the cursor 300. Displays program information being broadcast.

  Also in this case, the operation is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. Therefore, when the cursor stop state time reaches a predetermined time, it is determined whether all the program information is displayed in the display area 325, and when it is determined that there is not displayed, the information The processing unit 108 changes the display data and outputs it. By this processing, as shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, the program information display area 325 at the bottom of the screen is scrolled and displayed, and information that has not been displayed is displayed.

  In the state shown in FIG. 9B, when the cursor down button 205 of the remote controller is pressed, the selection cursor 300 moves to the selection item 327 (CH3) shown in FIG. 10A, and FIGS. In the program information display area 325, the selection item 327, that is, in this case, the currently broadcast program data of the selected channel CH3 is displayed in the program information table time area 325 at the bottom.

  In the present embodiment, the user can obtain information on the program currently being viewed and information on other programs currently being broadcast while keeping the display area of the program video being viewed wide.

Hereinafter, an example in which the selection item is an image will be described with reference to FIG.
11 (a) and 11 (b) are front views of a receiving apparatus screen showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention. When the multi-button 203 of the remote controller 200 is pressed in the normal program viewing state, the image processing unit 104 generates a multi-screen composed of videos of a plurality of channels, and the multi-screen 330 and one of the selected screens is selected. 11 and the program information currently broadcast on the channel in the cursor selection state extracted by the information processing unit 108 are displayed by the image composition unit 106 as shown in FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 332 denotes an area for displaying program information selected by the cursor 300. The program information to be extracted is extracted from the data storage unit 110 by recognizing the current time information by the clock device 114 and the channel information displayed when the multi button 203 is pressed.

  In the state of FIG. 11A, when the cursor right button 206 of the remote controller 200 is pressed, as shown in FIG. 11B, the cursor 300 moves to the right side, and the selection item is item 331 to item 333, that is, CH2. In the information processing unit 108, the currently broadcast program data is extracted from the CH2 program data stored in the data storage unit 110 based on the current time information from the clock device 114. It is displayed in the display area 332.

  Similarly, the cursor 300 moves by pressing the cursor button of the remote controller 200, and the program information of the channel displayed by the cursor 300 is displayed in the program information display area 332.

  With these displays and operations, the user lists a plurality of program videos, and moves the cursor to the one that wants to know more information about the program from among them, thereby selecting the information of the selected program (in this example, text). Information) can be obtained, and the program can be easily selected.

  Next, an example in which more program videos can be listed than in the case shown in FIG. 11 will be described with reference to FIG. 12 (a) and 12 (b) are front views of a receiver screen showing a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

  In the case of FIG. 12, the number of images to be displayed, that is, the number of channels is increased by increasing the area 338 for displaying an image and reducing the displayed image as compared with the case of FIG. For this reason, the area of the program information display area 340 is smaller than in the case of FIG. Therefore, when the cursor stop time reaches a predetermined time, the selection item 339 selected by the cursor 300, in this case, the program information relating to the current time of CH1 is information as shown in FIG. The display area 340 is scrolled and displayed. The same operation is performed when the cursor 300 is moved using the remote controller 200 and another selection item is selected.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, the program information display area 340 at the bottom of the screen is narrowed to only one line of text compared to the embodiment of FIG. 11, so that many program videos can be displayed. Therefore, the user can easily recognize the program information on the selection screen while listing a large number of program videos, and the program selection operation is facilitated.

It is a block diagram which shows one Example of the receiver by this invention. It is a top view which shows one Example of the remote control used for the receiver of FIG. It is a front view which shows the 1st Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing flow of the receiving apparatus in FIG. 1. It is a front view which shows the 1st Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view which shows the 2nd Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view which shows the 2nd Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view which shows the 3rd Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view which shows the 4th Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view which shows the 4th Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view which shows the 5th Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view which shows the 6th Example of the screen of the receiver by this invention. It is a front view of the screen of the conventional receiver. It is a front view of the screen of the conventional receiver. It is the front view of the screen of the conventional receiver, and the front view of a remote control. It is a front view of the screen of the conventional receiver.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 102 ... Signal separation part 103 ... Image processing part 104 ... Image reproduction part 105 ... Image processing part 106 ... Image composition part 108 ... Information processing part 109 ... Data extraction part 110 ... Data storage part 111 ... Display data creation unit 112 ... Central processing unit 113 ... Control input unit 114 ... Timer unit 115 ... Memory unit 117 ... Modem 200 ... Remote control 202 ... Program guide button 203 ... Multi button 300 ... Cursor 313, 319, 325, 332, 340 ... scroll display section.

Claims (4)

In the receiving device,
An input unit for inputting image information of the program and program information related to the program;
When an operation for displaying the program information is performed while viewing the program input to the input unit, together with image information of the program being viewed, a selection item for selecting a desired channel; A processing unit for displaying on a screen program information of a program of a channel selected by the selection item among program information,
The processing unit displays the program information in a program information display area at the bottom of the screen, and there is program information that is not displayed in the program information display area as program information of a channel selected by the selection item. In the case, the receiving apparatus is characterized in that the program information is scroll-displayed so that the program information not displayed is displayed after a predetermined time has elapsed since the selection item was selected. The receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit does not perform the scroll display when there is no program information that is not displayed. 3. The receiving device according to claim 1, wherein the selection of the selection item and the operation for displaying the program information are performed by a remote controller. 4. The receiving apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the selection of the selection item is performed by a cursor key of the remote controller.

Images