JP4346491B2 - Broadcast program recording and playback system and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a broadcast program recording / playback technique, and in particular, can present a program recorded in the form of a broadcast program guide.

  An advanced broadcast program recording / playback system having a random access type recording device such as a hard disk has appeared, and the recording capacity of television broadcast programs has been rapidly increasing due to the development of the recording device. In such an advanced broadcast program recording / playback system, in order to make it easy to select a recorded program, a program name corresponding to the recorded program is made to correspond to the recorded program, and a list display (content display) by the program name is performed. Is known (for example, Patent Document 1).

  However, in the recorded program display based on the recorded program name, as the number of recorded programs increases, it becomes difficult for the user to understand what programs have been recorded, and there is a problem that the selection operation of the playback program becomes complicated. I came.

Under the circumstances described above, the present inventor has conducted intensive research and presents a program recorded in the form of a broadcast program table that users are accustomed to using. Since the information can be used effectively, it was found that the operation is very easy to match the user's thoughts and habits.
JP 2003-189207 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast program recording / playback system capable of easily selecting recording even when the number of recorded programs becomes enormous.

  In the broadcast program recording / playback system of the configuration example of the present invention, program organization information obtained from a broadcast or a network is stored, and displayed, selected, played back, and deleted in accordance with the actually recorded program. The program organization information is used by accumulating data superimposed on broadcast radio waves or data provided by the Internet (metadata provided by EPG or broadcasting station). The program is recorded separately, and a content table (electronic content guide: ECG) is displayed so that the recorded program can be identified. A necessary program can be selected from the display, and can be reproduced and deleted.

  The above function is realized by associating the accumulated program data with the actually recorded program.

  By deleting the program guide data corresponding to a program that is no longer a recorded program (erased) at the time of recording, playback, and accumulation of the program guide, permanent storage of the program guide data can be avoided.

  The present invention will be further described.

  According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the broadcast program recording / playback system: content storage means for recording the content of the broadcast program; program organization information storage means for storing the program organization information of the broadcast program; Display means for displaying the recorded broadcast program content along the axis of the broadcasting station and the time axis; designation means for designating the content to be operated using the displayed pieces; designated content And executing means for executing the operation.

  According to this configuration, the content recorded in the past can be displayed in a familiar broadcast program table, and selective reproduction, selective deletion, and selective extraction (conversion into a video file) can be performed.

  Broadcast programs include television broadcast programs or radio broadcast programs. Broadcast programs include not only video and audio broadcast programs but also data broadcast programs.

  Playback of recorded content may be performed with a normal TV set, or a playback function of a mobile station (cellular phone, including PHS) may be employed.

  The pieces may be displayed by being surrounded by line elements independently, or may be displayed in a grid pattern by vertical and horizontal lines.

  The vertical axis may be a time axis and the horizontal axis may be a channel, or vice versa. The vertical and horizontal directions need not be exactly right angles, but may be inclined. The scale of time does not need to be exactly uniform, as long as it keeps the order of programs for at least the same channel. The channel axis does not have to be uniform.

  The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system but also as a method. Of course, a part of the invention can be configured as software. Of course, software products used to cause a computer to execute such software are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  These and other aspects of the invention are set forth in the appended claims and will be described in detail below with reference to examples.

  According to the present invention, contents recorded in the past can be displayed in a familiar broadcast program table, and for example, selective reproduction, selective deletion, and selective extraction (video file conversion) can be performed.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a broadcast program recording / playback system of the present invention. In this figure, the broadcast program recording / playback system of this embodiment includes a tuner 10, an antenna 11, and an EPG (electronic program guide) receiving unit 13. , Recording device 14, playback control unit 15, TV set 16, ECG (electronic content guide) generation unit 17, user I / F control unit 18, content operation selection unit 19, EPG acquisition unit 20, communication control unit 21 and the like. It is configured to include.

  The tuner 10 tunes and demodulates the broadcast carrier wave received by the antenna 11 to acquire a video / audio signal and EPG data, and records the video / audio signal as recording data 141 on the recording device 14 under the control of the recording control unit 12. The EPG data is recorded as ECG data 142 under the control of the EPG receiver 13. In this example, the tuner 10 tunes and demodulates all target channels (organization channels) in parallel. Basically, a tuner card for each channel may be mounted, but the present invention is not limited to this. The broadcast signal may be any of a terrestrial analog broadcast signal, a satellite analog broadcast signal, a terrestrial digital broadcast signal, and a satellite digital broadcast signal, and includes a device corresponding to the broadcast signal.

  The recording control unit 12 records the tuned and demodulated video / audio signal as the recording data 141 in the recording device 14. The recording device 14 is a random-accessible recording device (DASD: also referred to as a direct access storage device) typically composed of a hard disk. When the video / audio signal is an analog signal, the recording control unit 12 performs signal processing such as MPEG2 encoding and records the signal in the recording device 14.

  The EPG receiving unit 13 receives EPG data from the tuner 10 and records it as ECG data 142 in the recording device 14. When the video / audio signal is an analog signal, EPG data multiplexed on a carrier wave by, for example, the VBI (Vertical Blanking Interval) method is received. When the video / audio signal is a digital signal, the SI / PSI decoder (SI: service information, PSI: program specific information) included in the tuner 10 or the EPG receiving unit 13 or the like generates the organization information (each station EIT or all station EIT). It is acquired and recorded in the recording device 14 as ECG data 142. If the composition information is simplified, it is as shown in FIG. 2 (in FIG. 2, programs not recorded in the recording device 14 are omitted). Note that the EPG data (program organization information) represents information related to a broadcast program to be broadcast from now on, and it is not necessary to retain what has been broadcast, but in this embodiment, it is stored in the recording device 14. Since program organization information is used to manage recorded video data 141 (including data broadcast program content in some cases), program organization information relating to content for which broadcasting has been completed is also retained within a necessary range.

The recording device 14 is a DASD such as a hard disk as described above, and records various management data in addition to the recorded data 141 (which may include data broadcast program content) and the ECG data 142. In this example, retained program data 143 (data regarding the retained program) is also stored. The retained program data 143 is information for specifying a recorded program (excluding those deleted by a deletion operation), and can be retained in an arbitrary form. For example, it may be set a recording flag for each turn sets the entry of the ECG data 142. When the program is deleted from the recording device 14, the flag is reset. Of course, the recorded program ID may be assigned to each recorded program, and the data of the entry corresponding to the EPG may be transferred thereto. When deleted, each recorded program entry may be deleted.

  The reproduction control unit 15 reads out the content of the program selected to be reproduced from the recording device 14 and performs signal processing such as MPEG2 decoding when necessary, and sends it to the TV set 16 a video / audio signal (data broadcasting program signal). But it is good). The TV set 16 may perform signal processing such as MPEG2 decoding. The reproduction operation (reproduction instruction) is performed by the content operation selection unit 19.

  The ECG generation unit 17 generates an ECG display from past ECG data 142 and retained program data 143. The user I / F control unit 18 receives an operation of the content operation selection unit 19 and controls execution according to the operation. The content operation selection unit 19 is, for example, a remote controller that instructs various operations. For example, when an ECG display is instructed from the content operation selection unit 19, the user I / F control unit 18 sends ECG display data to the ECG generation unit 17. Request generation of. When the user I / F control unit 18 receives the ECG display data from the ECG generation unit 17, the user I / F control unit 18 supplies the ECG display data to the reproduction control unit 15 and displays it on the screen of the TV set 16. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the ECG display displayed on the screen of the TV set 16 first displays a calendar (including the past date), and when a date (the current day or the past) is selected, Program organization information is displayed in accordance with the EPG information of FIG. In this example, since all the programs shown in FIG. 2 are recorded in the recording device 14, all the programs shown in FIG. 2 are displayed as frames arranged vertically and horizontally, with the time as the vertical axis and the channel as the horizontal axis. Each program piece is surrounded by vertical and horizontal lines. Of course, the pieces can be displayed in various ways.

  The content operation selection unit 19 selects content to be played back. The content can be selected by using a cursor button, a confirmation button (not shown) or the like of the content operation selection unit 19. The selected content is highlighted by the color attribute or blink attribute. For example, in FIG. 3, “The ABC”, which is the content indicated by a broken line, is selected and highlighted. When a playback instruction button (not shown) is operated in this state, the corresponding content is read from the recording device 14 and played back on the TV set 16.

  When the content is selected by the content operation selection unit 19 and the content is deleted, the content is similarly selected by using a cursor button, a confirmation button (not shown) or the like, and the delete button (not shown) is operated. Is deleted from the recording device 14. A plurality of contents to be deleted can be selected. Further, the immediately removed content may be recorded as a deleted content in an auxiliary recording device (not shown) or the recording device 14 for a predetermined period.

  The EPG acquisition unit 20 acquires EPG and program guide web page metadata from the EPG providing web server 23 and the broadcast station web server 24 via the communication control unit 21 and the Internet 22, and records them as ECG data. 14 is recorded. When the EPG information cannot be acquired from the broadcast signal, the EPG etc. acquiring unit 20 is used. Of course, even when the EPG information can be acquired from the broadcast signal, this may be used as the main information source.

  The outline of the operation of this embodiment is as follows.

[Data accumulation]
First, a broadcast carrier wave is received by the antenna 11, and video and audio and EPG data are separated. The separated video and audio are stored in the recording device 14 as recorded data 141 of digital data. The separated EPG data is stored in the recording device 14 as ECG data 142. Program organization information (EPG) from the Internet 22 is obtained from the EPG providing web server 23 and stored in the recording device 14 as ECG data 142. Similarly, the metadata of the program provided by the broadcasting station is obtained via the Internet 22 and stored in the recording device 14. At this time, the recording of the video and audio of the program by broadcasting, the storage of EPG data by broadcasting, the recording of EPG and the storage of metadata via the Internet are not linked at all, and are stored at individual acquisition timings. Become. Also, these different sources of data may be stored and managed separately and integrated as ECG data as appropriate.

[ECG display]
Only programs that match the recorded program are displayed as ECG. If the program shown in FIG. 2 is recorded, the ECG display is as shown in FIG. The recorded program is displayed so that it can be clearly identified.

[Playing past programs]
Using the ECG display as shown in FIG. 3, a program to be reproduced is selected. A program can be selected with a cursor key on the keyboard. Display is made so that the selected part can be easily identified. When “The ABC” is selected, for example, the background color of the program name changes so that the selected program can be easily determined (in the drawing, it is surrounded by a broken line for convenience). By determining the selected program, a program recorded in the past can be reproduced.

[Delete past program]
A program to be deleted is selected in the ECG display as shown in FIG. Similarly, the program can be selected with a cursor key on the keyboard. Also in this case, display is performed so that the selected portion can be easily discriminated. When “The ABC” is selected, for example, the background color of the program name changes so that the selected program can be easily determined as described above (indicated by a broken line in the figure for convenience). By determining the selected program, a previously recorded program can be deleted. When the ECG display is performed after the deletion, since “The ABC” has already been deleted from the recorded program, the display is displayed as an unrecorded state as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the deleted content is not displayed.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, in the above example, one recording device 14 is assigned to a single TV set 16, but one recording device 14 may be assigned to a plurality of TV sets 16. Although the TV set 16 and the recording device 14 are arranged close to each other, they may be connected via a wired or wireless network. A base station may be provided on the recording device 14 side, and the TV set 16 side may be a different station. A content operation selection unit 19 and a user I / F control unit 18 are appropriately arranged on the site of the TV set 16 and are integrally configured. When the mobile station includes a TV set, the content operation selection unit 19 and the user I / F control unit 18 are preferably included in the mobile station.

  In the above description, the configuration of the remote controller has been described as an example of the content operation selection unit 19, but may be included in the TV set 16.

  In the above-described example, one recording / reproducing system is used for one or a plurality of broadcasting systems. However, the recording / reproducing system may be used for each broadcasting system so that the user can reproduce and use these in a composite manner.

  In the above description, the selection of a recorded program (recorded program) has not been described in particular, but a known recording system configuration can be employed. Further, all of the knitting channels to be covered may be recorded. Moreover, after all the recording is performed, a program not designated for recording may be deleted later. In this case, the deleted program may be temporarily saved as deleted content.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the Example of this invention as a whole. It is a figure explaining the program organization information of the program recorded in the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of the ECG display in the above-mentioned Example. It is a figure explaining the example of ECG display after deleting a part of content in the above-mentioned Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Tuner 11 Antenna 12 Recording control part 13 EPG receiving part 14 Recording apparatus 15 Playback control part 16 TV set 17 ECG generation part 18 User I / F control part 19 Content operation selection part 20 EPG etc. acquisition part 21 Communication control part 22 Internet 23 EPG providing web server 24 Broadcasting station web server 141 Recorded data 142 ECG data 143 Retained program data

Claims (5)

Content storage means for recording broadcast program content for playback ;
Program organization information storage means for storing program organization information of a broadcast program;
Display means for displaying on the display screen along the axis and time axis of the broadcasting station a frame for displaying the content of the recorded broadcast program based on the stored program organization information ;
A specifying means for specifying content to be operated using the displayed pieces;
Possess and execution means for executing an operation on the specified content,
Only a piece representing a broadcast program recorded in the content storage means is displayed on the display screen, and a piece representing a broadcast program not stored in the content storage means is not displayed on the display screen. Recording / playback system.   The broadcast program recording / playback system according to claim 1, wherein the operation executed by the execution means includes content playback and content deletion.   The broadcast program recording / playback system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the operation executed by the execution means includes taking out and storing contents. A step in which content storage means records the content of the broadcast program for playback ;
A program organization information storage means for storing program organization information of a broadcast program;
A step of displaying, on the display screen along the axis and time axis of the broadcasting station, a display means for displaying the content of the recorded broadcast program based on the stored program organization information ;
A designation means for designating content to be operated using the displayed pieces;
Executing means, possess and performing operations on the specified content,
Only a piece representing a broadcast program recorded in the content storage means is displayed on the display screen, and a piece representing a broadcast program not stored in the content storage means is not displayed on the display screen. Recording and playback method. Computer
Content storage means for recording broadcast program content for playback;
Program organization information storage means for storing program organization information of broadcast programs;
Display means for displaying on the display screen along the axis of the broadcasting station and the time axis a frame for displaying the content of the recorded broadcast program based on the stored program organization information;
A designation means for designating content to be operated using the displayed pieces,
Execution means for performing operations on specified content
Function as
Only a piece representing a broadcast program recorded in the content storage means is displayed on the display screen, and a piece representing a broadcast program not stored in the content storage means is not displayed on the display screen. Computer program for recording and playback.

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