JP4386934B2 - Digital broadcast receiving apparatus and receiving method thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that is mounted on a mobile body and receives and decodes a digital broadcast, and in particular, broadcasts a series broadcast station or the same program when the reception state of the program of the receiving broadcast station deteriorates. The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus for performing a channel search for a channel or a channel having a high possibility of broadcasting the same program.

  A digital broadcasting station normally does not send out information related to a program that is currently being broadcast at the affiliated broadcasting station of the digital broadcasting station during a program transmission signal. Or, even if some information about the program of the affiliated broadcast station is sent in the program transmission signal from the digital broadcast station side, the program information of the affiliated broadcast station is not used on the mobile device-mounted receiving device side. . Therefore, if reception of a program being viewed on the mobile device-mounted receiving device side becomes impossible due to a decrease in reception level or the like, the viewer can manually change the current position of the receiving service area. Channel search for “stations that can be received when the station is within” and determine whether the program content is the same by the viewer, that is, whether the searched station is an “affiliated station” There was a need. More specifically, when the broadcast station detected by the channel search is not the same as the program being viewed, the channel search is performed again to detect the next broadcast station. It was necessary to perform a complicated process of viewing the program.

  In order to improve the complicated processing described above, for example, the digital broadcast station sends out the broadcast station information in the program information, and the mobile-equipped receiver receives the program, for example, when the reception level decreases. When it is determined that is not possible, it automatically performs a channel search for another broadcasting station in the “currently receivable state”, extracts the broadcasting station information of the broadcasting station from the searched broadcasting station program information, If there is a broadcast station of a program that was viewed before the reception level decreased in the affiliated broadcast station information, a method of selecting the broadcast station by determining that the searched broadcast station is an affiliated broadcast station is known. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1; Claim 1 and FIG. 1).

When it is determined that the program cannot be viewed due to a decrease in the reception level, a channel search is automatically performed, and the program title being broadcast by the broadcast station is extracted from the searched broadcast station program information. If the program titles of the programs viewed before the reception level declines are the same (or the program genre and program identification number are the same), the searched broadcast station is determined to be an affiliated broadcast station. However, a method for selecting the broadcasting station is known (for example, see Patent Document 1; Claims 2-5 and FIG. 1).
JP 2004-140690 A (Claim 1-5 FIG. 1)

  However, in the conventional digital broadcast receiving apparatus, every time the reception level is lowered and the viewer cannot view the program, the broadcast search time for the program is interrupted because the channel search that sequentially scans the entire band of the reception frequency is performed. There is a problem that it is long. In particular, when moving around the boundaries of service areas of broadcasting stations that are affiliated with each other by a moving body such as a car, channel search for affiliate broadcasting stations is frequently performed, so the program viewing interruption time becomes very long. .

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems. When viewing of a program at a broadcasting station of a program being viewed becomes impossible, the time for channel search for affiliated broadcasting stations is shortened, and An object of the present invention is to provide a digital broadcast receiving apparatus and a receiving method thereof that can shorten the viewing interruption time.

The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention has become incapable of receiving the reception signal of the program being viewed from the broadcast station based on various information obtained from the reception signal from the broadcast station of the program being viewed. A non-reception detection unit that detects this and outputs a non-reception notification;
Stores at least channel information of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed and, when an affiliate broadcasting station of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed is detected by channel search, at least channel information of the affiliated broadcasting station is stored in the viewing An affiliated broadcast station storage unit that associates and stores at least the channel information of the broadcast station of the program in such a manner that it is in an affiliated relationship;
When receiving a reception disapproval notification from the reception impossibility detection unit, search the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit,
When the affiliated broadcast station that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area is stored, it is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station is in the “current reception enabled state”. Judgment, in the case of “currently available reception state”, watching the program of the affiliated broadcasting station,
A channel selection control unit that outputs an instruction to perform a channel search for the affiliated broadcast station when the affiliated broadcast station that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area is not stored;
The receiving method of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention is as follows:
A first step of storing at least channel information of a broadcasting station of a program being viewed;
Based on various information obtained from the received signal from the broadcast station of the program being viewed, it is detected that the reception of the received signal of the program being viewed from the broadcast station has been disabled, and a reception disabled notification is issued. A second step of outputting;
A third step of searching for channel information of the affiliated broadcast station when the reception disabled notification is received;
When the affiliated broadcast station that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area is stored, it is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station is in the “current reception enabled state”. A fourth step of determining;
A fifth step in which a program of the affiliated broadcast station is viewed when a received signal based on the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station is “currently available”;
A sixth step of performing a channel search for the affiliated broadcast station when the affiliated broadcast station that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area is not stored;
When an affiliated broadcasting station of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed is detected by channel search, at least channel information of the affiliated broadcasting station is related to at least channel information of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed. And a seventh step of storing in association with each other.

The digital broadcast receiver of the present invention is
A tuner unit that receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program, selects, demodulates, and corrects an error, and outputs a TS (Transport Stream) of the received signal of the selected program;
The video / audio stream is separated and extracted from the TS, and the PSI (Program Specific Information) / SI (Service Information: service information, program arrangement information) is extracted from the TS and the PSI / SI is extracted. A demultiplexing part to be stored;
A video / audio decoder for decoding video and audio from the video / audio stream and outputting the decoded video and audio signals;
Based on various information obtained from the received signal of the channel being viewed, a reception disabled detection unit that detects that reception of the received signal of the currently viewed channel is currently disabled and outputs a reception disabled notification When,
The tuner stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is the tuner. A storage unit that stores the channel information of the detected channel in association with the channel information of the currently viewed channel when detected by the channel search by the unit;
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, it is determined whether the received signal of the channel is “current reception enabled” or not. If you want to watch the program on that channel,
In the case where another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or the channel being viewed is being transmitted to the tuner unit. A channel selection control unit that outputs instructions to channel search for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel,
The tuner unit includes a signal transmitted in a weak layer that is a layer of a modulation scheme having relatively low resistance to noise and multipath in the multiplexed received signal, and a noise and a signal in the multiplexed received signal. Both of the signals transmitted in the strong layer, which is a layer of a modulation scheme having a relatively strong resistance to multipath, are received,
The tuning control unit is
When any one channel is selected by the tuner unit, first, the demultiplex unit and the video / audio decoding unit receive the program transmitted in the weak layer of the one channel. Decoding the signal,
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit,
A switching instruction for switching to the strong layer of the one channel is output to the demultiplexing unit and the video / audio decoding unit, and the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong layer is “current reception ready state”. Whether or not
When the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong hierarchy is “currently unreceivable”, the channel information of another channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed is searched. And
Also, the receiving method of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention is:
The tuner unit receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program, selects, demodulates, and corrects an error, and outputs a TS (Transport Stream) of the received signal of the selected program,
A demultiplexing unit separates and outputs a video / audio stream from the TS and outputs it, and extracts PSI (Program Specific Information) / SI (Service Information: service information, program arrangement information) from the TS. To store the PSI / SI,
The video / audio code unit decodes the video and audio from the video / audio stream and outputs the decoded video and audio signals,
Based on various information obtained from the received signal of the channel being viewed, a reception impossible detection step of detecting that reception of the received signal of the channel being viewed is currently impossible and outputting a reception impossible notification When,
The storage unit stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or another channel that is highly likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed. A storage step of storing channel information of the detected other channel in association with channel information of the currently viewed channel when a channel is detected by a channel search by the tuner unit;
When the reception failure detection is detected by the reception failure detection step, the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed is searched,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
It is determined whether or not the received signal of the channel is “currently ready to receive”, and if it is “currently ready to receive”, the program of the channel is viewed,
If another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
Instructing the tuner unit to perform a channel search for another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed. It has a tuning control step to output,
By the tuner unit, a signal transmitted in a weak layer that is a layer of a modulation scheme having relatively weak resistance to noise and multipath in the multiplexed received signal, and a noise and a signal in the multiplexed received signal Both of the signals transmitted in the strong layer, which is a layer of a modulation scheme having a relatively strong resistance to multipath, are received,
The channel selection control step includes:
When any one channel is selected by the tuner unit, the received signal of the program transmitted in the weak layer of the one channel to the demultiplexing unit and the video / audio decoding unit first. Decrypt
In the case where reception failure is detected by the reception failure detection step,
A switching instruction for switching to the strong layer of the one channel is output to the demultiplexing unit and the video / audio decoding unit, and the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong layer is “current reception ready state”. Whether or not
When the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong hierarchy is “currently unreceivable”, the channel information of another channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed is searched. And
The digital broadcast receiver of the present invention is
A tuner unit that receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program and selects, demodulates, and corrects an error;
Based on various information obtained from the reception signal of the channel being viewed, a reception impossibility detection unit that detects that reception of the reception signal of the channel being viewed is disabled and outputs a reception disapproval notification;
The tuner stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is the tuner. A storage unit that stores the channel information of the detected channel in association with the channel information of the currently viewed channel when detected by the channel search by the unit;
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, it is determined whether the received signal of the channel is “current reception enabled” or not. If you want to watch the program on that channel,
In the case where another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or the channel being viewed is being transmitted to the tuner unit. A channel selection control unit that outputs instructions to channel search for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel,
The tuning control unit is
Another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is detected, and the channel information of the detected other channel is obtained. When storing in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, the priority of the detected channel is set to the earliest priority and stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed from before. The priority order of other channels is stored in the storage unit one by one lower than the previous priority order,
In the case where a plurality of other channels are stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit, when the reception disable notification is received from the reception disable detection unit, the plurality of other channels are assigned the priority. Are selected in order from the earliest channel, and it is determined whether or not the received signal of the selected channel is “currently ready to receive”.
When all of the other channels stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the same program as the channel being viewed is broadcast to the tuner unit. An instruction is output so that a channel search is performed for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as another channel that is currently being viewed or being viewed.
The digital broadcast receiver of the present invention is
A tuner unit that receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program and selects, demodulates, and corrects an error;
Based on various information obtained from the reception signal of the channel being viewed, a reception impossibility detection unit that detects that reception of the reception signal of the channel being viewed is disabled and outputs a reception disapproval notification;
The tuner stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is the tuner. A storage unit that stores the channel information of the detected channel in association with the channel information of the currently viewed channel when detected by the channel search by the unit;
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, it is determined whether the received signal of the channel is “current reception enabled” or not. If you want to watch the program on that channel,
In the case where another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or the channel being viewed is being transmitted to the tuner unit. A channel selection control unit that outputs instructions to channel search for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel,
The tuning control unit is
Detecting another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed, and viewing the channel information of the detected channel In addition to storing in the storage unit in association with the channel, the number of detection of each channel is also stored in the storage unit,
In the case where a plurality of other channels are stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit, when the reception disabled notification is received from the reception disabled detection unit, the plurality of other channels are detected as the number of times of detection. Select in order from the channel with the largest number of channels, determine whether the received signal of the selected channel is “currently available”, and if it is “currently available”, watch the program on that channel,
When all of the other channels stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the same program as the channel being viewed is broadcast to the tuner unit. An instruction is output so that a channel search is performed for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as another channel that is currently being viewed or being viewed.

  In the present invention, at the time of reception of the broadcasting station and the affiliated broadcasting station once selected and the affiliated relationship is recorded, in the case of “currently unreceivable state”, by automatically referring to the recording, It is possible to omit the time for scanning the entire band of the reception frequency and performing a channel search for the affiliated broadcasting station, thereby shortening the time during which program viewing is interrupted.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic internal configuration of a digital broadcast receiver according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, a tuner unit 1 receives a broadcast signal transmitted from a digital broadcast station via an antenna, performs channel selection, demodulation, and error correction, and outputs a TS (transport stream). The tuner unit 1 receives and selects a digital broadcast program reception signal from a broadcast station detected by channel search or a broadcast station designated by the input means according to an instruction output from a channel selection control unit 7 to be described later. Station, demodulation, error correction, TS of the received signal of the selected program is output, and if any of those processes becomes disabled, reception level information of the received signal of the program, reception At least one of C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, and error rate information is output.

  The demultiplexing unit 2 extracts program specific information (PSI: Program Specific Information) and program arrangement information (service information: SI: Service Information) from the input TS, and stores each program information in a memory. Note that the memory in this case may be the affiliated station storage unit 8 described later or another storage unit. Further, from the extracted PSI / SI, the value of the PID (TS packet identifier: Packet Identifier) of the video TS packet and audio TS packet in the TS is detected, and the video TS packet and audio TS packet are filtered by the TS by each PID. Are extracted and output to the video / audio decoding unit 3, and when any of these processes is disabled, PAT (Program Association Table) disconnection information, PMT (Program Map Table) disconnection At least one of information, TS synchronization loss information, and TS packet loss information is output.

  The video / audio decoding unit 3 decodes video and audio from the video packet and audio packet, outputs the decoded video signal of the video packet to the video display unit 4, and decodes the audio packet. The audio signal is output to the audio output unit 5, and when any of these processes is disabled, at least one of various information such as decode error detection information and decode error rate information is output.

The video display unit 4 displays the video on the screen based on the decoded video / audio signal data of the input video packet.
The audio output unit 5 outputs audio from the speaker based on the decoded video / audio signal data of the input audio packet.

  For example, in a digital broadcast receiver that is mounted on or carried by a moving body such as a car, the reception failure detection unit 6 moves the reception position of the digital broadcast receiver. There are cases where it is outside the service area of the station, or it is affected by the blocking or attenuation of the carrier wave due to the structure on the ground, etc. In such a case, the program from the broadcasting station of the program being watched is received However, it is a part for detecting such a case.

  For this purpose, the reception failure detection unit 6 receives the reception level, reception C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, error rate information, and the like from the tuner unit 1, and the demultiplexing unit 2 receives a predetermined PAT. Notification of disruption when it does not arrive at a time interval, notification of disruption when a PMT (Program Map Table) does not arrive at a predetermined time interval, and notification of synchronization lost when a synchronization byte is not detected every 188 bytes in the TS , A packet lost notification when a discontinuity of the continuity counter value existing in the TS header is detected is input, and an error notification or error rate notification when a decoding error is detected is input from the video / audio decoding unit 3 The

  Thereafter, the reception failure detection unit 6 detects that the reception signal is in a “current reception disabled state” based on at least one of the various types of information. Specifically, the reception failure detection unit 6 determines whether the reception signal is in the “current reception disabled state” state or the state immediately before the “current reception disabled state” from the input information or the input notification described above, and receives the received signal. Is determined to be in a “current reception disabled state” state or a state immediately before “current reception disabled state”, a reception disabled notification is sent to the channel selection control unit 7. In other words, based on various information obtained from the received signal from the broadcast station of the program being viewed, the unreceivable detection unit 6 has become unable to receive the received signal of the program being viewed from that broadcast station. Is detected and a reception impossible notification is output.

  The channel selection control unit 7 stores at least the channel information of the broadcast station of the program being viewed in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 or another storage unit. Further, when a reception failure notification is received from the reception failure detection unit 6, channel information of the affiliated broadcast station is searched from the later-described affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, and reception is possible when the current position is within the reception service area. If the affiliated broadcast station is stored, it is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station is “currently ready to receive”. If the affiliated broadcast station that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area is not stored, the tuner unit 1 is instructed to perform a channel search for the affiliated broadcast station. To do. The channel search instruction of the channel selection control unit 7 is output so as to operate in accordance with a state transition diagram of FIG.

  In addition, when a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations are stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 to be described later, when a reception unavailable notification is received from the reception unavailable detection unit 6, reception of a program being viewed from the broadcast station is received. The current area is estimated from the area identification value of the service ID obtained from the signal, the adjacent area is obtained, and the received signal of the program being viewed among the plurality of affiliated broadcast stations stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 is obtained. The broadcasting stations arranged in the adjacent area of the broadcasting station are selected in the closest order, and it is determined whether or not “current reception is possible”.

  The affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 stores at least channel information of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed, and when the affiliated broadcasting station of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed is detected by the channel search, At least the channel information is stored in association with at least the channel information of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed so as to have a series relationship. The affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 may store a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations.

FIG. 2 is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation of the channel selection control unit 7 in the digital broadcast receiver of FIG.
In FIG. 2, “broadcast station A viewing 51” indicates that the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is viewing the program of digital broadcast station A. “Affiliated station search 52” is a method in which the digital broadcast receiving apparatus searches for a broadcasting station belonging to the same series as that of broadcasting station A or B, for example, selecting channels in ascending order from the channel with the lowest physical frequency. Indicates that the search is in progress. “Broadcast station B viewing 53” indicates that the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is viewing a program of digital broadcast station B. Broadcast station A and broadcast station B are digital broadcast stations belonging to the same series. Digital broadcasting stations belonging to the same series generally have a high probability of broadcasting the same program at the same time, but in some time periods, there are cases where a specific program only in the area where the digital broadcasting station is located is broadcast. is there.

  As shown in the figure, the transition condition is “broadcasting station A viewing 51” when the affiliated station (broadcasting station B) has been detected and a notification of “currently unreceivable state” is input. Transition to the “affiliated station search 52” state when an affiliated station has not been detected and a notification of “currently unreceivable state” is input. In the state of “Broadcasting station B viewing 53”, when the affiliated station (broadcasting station A) has been detected and the notification of “currently unreceivable state” is input, the state changes to the state of “broadcasting station A viewing 51”. When the affiliated station is not detected and a notification of “current reception impossible state” is input, the state transits to the “affiliated station search 52” state. Further, in the state of “affiliation station search 52”, when an affiliated station is detected as a search result, one that is different from either of the above-mentioned “broadcasting station A viewing 51” or “broadcasting station B viewing 53”. Transition to the state. That is, if the transition source is “Broadcasting station A viewing 51”, the state transitions to the state of “broadcasting station B viewing 53” that is the affiliated station of the search result. A transition is made to the state of “broadcasting station A viewing 51”, which is the affiliated station of the result.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the channel selection control unit 7 in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of FIG.
The operation of the channel selection control unit 7 will be described below with reference to FIGS. Note that “broadcast station A” and “broadcast station B” in FIG. 2 are shown as “station n” and “affiliated station n ′” in FIG. 3, respectively.
First, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is viewing one broadcast station A (= station n in FIG. 3) of the two broadcast stations shown in FIG. 2 according to the instruction of the channel selection control unit 7, that is, in FIG. It is assumed that the state is “Broadcasting station A viewing 51” (S1). In this case, the channel selection control unit 7 stores at least the channel information of the broadcast station n of the program being viewed in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 or another storage unit (S2).

  In the state of step S1 described above, the channel selection control unit 7 has received a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit 6, that is, whether it is a “current reception enabled state” or a “current reception disabled state”. Is determined (S3). If it is “currently receivable” (S3: YES), it returns to step S1 and continues to watch station n, but if it is “currently receivable” (S3: NO), affiliated stations It is determined whether or not the channel information of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is stored in the storage unit 8 (S4).

  When the channel information of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8 (S4: YES), the channel selection control unit 7 selects the program of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series. (S5) Whether or not a reception failure notification is received from the reception failure detection unit 6, that is, the program of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is in the “current reception enabled state” or “current reception disabled state”. (S6). If it is in the “current reception enabled state” (S6: YES), the program of the broadcasting station n ′ is viewed (S7), that is, the state is changed to the state of “broadcasting station B viewing 53” in FIG. If it is “currently unreceivable state” (S6: NO), the process returns to step S4 and is the channel information of another broadcasting station (for example, broadcasting station n ″) of the same series stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8? It is determined whether or not (S4).

  While watching the program of the broadcast station n ′ in step S7, it is determined whether the program of the broadcast station n ′ of the same series is “currently available” or “currently unavailable” (S8). . If it is “currently receivable” (S8: YES), it returns to step S7 and continues to watch the program of the broadcast station n ′, but if it is “currently receivable” (S8: NO). In step S4, it is determined whether channel information of another broadcasting station (for example, broadcasting station n ″) of the same series is stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8.

  Note that the affiliated station storage unit 8 returns to step S4 in the case of NO in the determination of the “current reception enabled state” in steps S6 (when affiliated station n ′ is selected) and S8 (when affiliated station n ′ is viewed). This is because a case where a plurality of broadcasting stations of the same series are stored is considered, and in this case, the area of the service ID obtained from the received signal of the program being viewed from the broadcasting station as described above The current area is estimated from the identification value, the adjacent area is obtained, and among the plurality of affiliated broadcast stations stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, it is arranged in the adjacent area of the broadcast station of the received signal of the program being viewed. The broadcasting stations are selected in the closest order, and it is determined whether or not “current reception is possible”. For example, if only the broadcast station n ′ is stored as a broadcast station in the same series as the broadcast station n of the program being viewed, if NO in step S6, the process does not return to step S4. The process may proceed to step S9 to perform a channel search for broadcasting stations of the same series.

  Next, when the channel information of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is not stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8 in step S4 (S4: NO :: However, if a plurality of affiliated broadcasting stations are stored, the channel selection is performed. In this case, the channel selection control unit 7 makes a transition to the “affiliated station search 52” state of FIG. In other words, the channel selection control unit 7 instructs the tuner unit 1 to first set the channel to be searched to the channel with the minimum value in the band (S9), and then performs a channel search for the same series of broadcasting stations (S10). Here, as a method of detecting the same series of broadcast stations by channel search, for example, the BIT (Broadcaster Information Table) detected by the demultiplexing unit 2: the unit of broadcaster, the SI transmission parameter for each broadcaster unit, etc. If the value of the affiliate_id field in the designation section is the same for the program being viewed and the channel program of the searched broadcast station, it may be determined that the broadcast station belongs to the same series.

  Then, it is determined whether or not a broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is detected by the channel search (S11). If not detected (S11: NO), the further searched channel becomes the maximum value channel of the band. It is determined whether or not (S12). If the searched channel is the channel with the maximum value in the band (S12: YES), the channel search is repeated after returning to step S9 to set the channel to be searched as the channel with the minimum value in the band. If it is not a channel (S12: NO), the channel to be searched is incremented by one (+1) to (S13) and the process returns to step S10 to search for the same series of broadcasting stations.

  On the other hand, when a broadcast station n ′ of the same series is detected by the channel search in step S11 (S11: YES), the channel selection control unit 7 sets the channel information of the broadcast station n ′ of the same series and step S2. The channel information of the broadcast station n of the program being watched stored in step 1 is stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8 in association with the broadcaster so that it can be seen that the broadcaster has the same affiliated relationship (S14). The program of the station n ′ is viewed (S15), that is, the state is changed to “broadcast station B viewing 53” in FIG.

  While viewing the program of the broadcast station n ′ in step S15, it is determined whether the program of the broadcast station n ′ of the same series is “currently receivable” or “current receivable” (S16). . If it is “currently receivable” (S16: YES), it returns to step S15 and continues to watch the program of the broadcast station n ′, but if it is “currently receivable” (S16: NO). In step S4, it is determined whether channel information of another broadcasting station (for example, broadcasting station n ″) of the same series is stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8.

  In the conventional digital broadcast receiving apparatus, when the program of the broadcasting station being watched or about to be watched becomes “unreceivable” as in the case of NO in step S8 or step S16, the affiliated station storage unit 8 or the like All channel bands were searched without referring to reception records of past affiliated stations to detect broadcast stations of the same affiliated station. However, in that case in the present embodiment, first, a broadcast station of the same series is directly selected with reference to a past reception record (channel information) in the affiliated station storage unit 8, so that, for example, the broadcast station n ' When viewing of the program of broadcast station n is possible when viewing of the program is impossible, the time until displaying the image of the same program is shortened as compared with the case of searching all channel bands again. Can do. On the other hand, when viewing of the program of the broadcasting station n is impossible, when viewing of the program of the broadcasting station n ′ is possible, an image of the same program is displayed as compared with the case of searching all the channel bands again. The time until it can be shortened.

  In other words, conventionally, for example, when viewing is disabled in the state of “Broadcasting station A viewing 51” in FIG. 2, the state is changed to the “affiliated station search 52” state in all cases, and then “broadcasting station A viewing 51” In this embodiment, if there is a reception record (channel information) of a past affiliated station in the affiliated station storage unit 8, in this case, “Broadcasting Station A The state of “viewing 51” can be directly shifted to the state of “broadcasting station B viewing 53”. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time until the image of the same program is displayed.

  Up to this point, the basic configuration and operation have been mainly described in the case where the broadcasting station n and the broadcasting station n ′ are stored in the broadcasting station storage unit 8, but in the broadcasting station storage unit 8, A plurality of affiliated broadcast stations may be recorded. In this embodiment, in this case, the broadcasting stations adjacent to the currently receiving broadcasting station are sequentially selected from the stored contents of the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 to detect the broadcasting station in the “current reception enabled state”.

  To that end, broadcast station identification information for the program currently being viewed on the digital broadcast receiver, service area allocation information (including adjacent information) divided for each digital broadcast station, area identification information, etc. are required. become. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a bit configuration of a service ID in terrestrial digital broadcasting, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing classification of a region ID field of service ID in terrestrial digital broadcasting, and FIG. 6 is a region in digital terrestrial broadcasting. It is a figure which shows the area allocation situation of an identification field.

  First, the broadcast station identification information of the currently viewed program, that is, the service area of the broadcast station where the current position of the digital broadcast receiver is located is estimated. In the bit arrangement of the service ID in FIG. 4, the area identification code field is composed of 16 bits and bits 15 to 10, and the value of the area identification code is unique for each broadcasting station nationwide. Assigned. That is, by extracting the service ID from the received signal from the currently selected broadcast station and further extracting the 6-bit value of the field of the area identification code, any of 64 types of area identification values can be obtained. .

  Next, regarding the determination of the extracted area identification value, for example, by using FIG. 5, it is understood that 0 to 9 are wide area broadcasts and 10 to 63 are prefectural area (prefecture stations) broadcasts. More specifically, for example, by using FIG. 6, each region to which a region identification code is assigned can be detected.

  In the present embodiment, the broadcast station of the program currently being viewed from the area identification code of the broadcast station of the program currently being viewed by the digital broadcast receiver using FIGS. Next, for example, the area identification code of the service area adjacent to the service area of the broadcasting station at the current position is detected from the area allocation state of FIG. Then, a broadcast station having a service ID including an area identification code detected as an adjacent service area is searched from the service IDs of a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. Also, if there are a plurality of searched broadcast stations, for example, the stations are selected in the searched order, and it is determined whether or not “current reception is possible”. Watch a broadcast station.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the channel information of the broadcasting station of the program being viewed is recorded, and the program of the affiliated broadcasting station is detected by channel search because the program becomes unviewable. In addition, the channel information of the program of the affiliated broadcast station is recorded in association with the channel information of the program of the broadcast station being viewed so as to be in a sequence relationship. After that, when the program of the broadcast station of the program being viewed becomes unviewable again, the recorded affiliate broadcast station is selected by channel information, and conversely, the program of the affiliate broadcast station becomes unviewable In this case, the recorded original broadcast station is selected by channel information.

Therefore, at the time of reception of a broadcast station that has been tuned and recorded in the affiliated relationship and the affiliated broadcast station, the reception frequency as in the past is automatically referred to when the “currently unreceivable state” is entered. It is possible to omit the time for scanning the entire band of the channel and channel search for the affiliated broadcasting stations, to shorten the time when the program viewing is interrupted, and to improve the continuous viewability of the program.
In particular, when moving around the boundaries of service areas of broadcasting stations that are affiliated with each other on a mobile object such as a car, the channel search for affiliate broadcasting stations is performed automatically in a short time by automatically switching to the affiliate broadcasting station. Thus, the program viewing interruption time can be remarkably shortened, and the continuous viewing ability of the program can be remarkably improved.

  Also, in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment, when a program being viewed as a result of movement of a moving body such as a car becomes “currently unreceivable”, it is automatically connected without user operation. Broadcast station can be selected. Further, depending on the detection method in the reception failure detection unit 6, it is possible to automatically select another affiliated broadcast station immediately before reception becomes impossible.

  In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment, the channel selection control unit 7 performs a channel search for the same series of broadcast stations using the field value of the affinity_id in the BIT section detected by the demultiplexing unit 2, for example. Since it is possible to select an affiliated broadcast station that is likely to be broadcasting the same program that cannot be received and cannot be viewed, the possibility that the same program can be continuously viewed can be increased. .

  Further, in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment, when a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations are recorded in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, when searching for affiliated broadcast stations, the service ID of the currently viewed program is The service area is detected by extracting the area identification code of the broadcast station of the program being viewed. Then, only the affiliated broadcasting station having the service ID that becomes the service area adjacent to the service area is selected. With this processing, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present embodiment searches for a useless affiliated broadcast station whose service area is not adjacent to the service area of the broadcast station of the currently viewed program, and is “currently ready to receive”. The determination time can be omitted, and the detection of the affiliated broadcasting station in the “current reception enabled state” can be shortened.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the first embodiment described above, it is possible to improve the continuous viewability of the program by shortening the time during which the program viewing is interrupted when reception becomes impossible. When moving to an environment where radio waves cannot reach or where radio waves are poorly received, the channel selection control unit 7 determines that the reception level has decreased and can improve the malfunction of channel search for affiliated broadcast stations. could not.

  More specifically, in a conventional digital broadcast receiving device, when moving to an environment where radio waves cannot reach, such as in a tunnel, for example, a wasteful channel of an affiliated broadcast station even though all broadcast stations cannot receive it. A search is performed. In this case, for example, if the environment is such that the broadcast station of the program you watched before exiting from the tunnel while channel searching for the affiliated broadcast station was being watched before entering the tunnel, could be received sufficiently. It takes time to detect the broadcast station of the program that was being viewed before entering the tunnel in the channel search of the broadcast station.

  In other words, if the state before entering the tunnel without maintaining the channel search was maintained, the original broadcast was resumed by receiving the radio wave of the original broadcasting station immediately after exiting the tunnel, Viewing cannot be resumed until a station is detected, and extra time is required. In the second embodiment, a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that improves this malfunction will be described.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a schematic internal configuration of a digital broadcast receiver according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.
The basic configuration of the digital broadcast receiver of FIG. 7 is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 except that a position detection unit 9 is added.

  The position detector 9 is, for example, a receiver of a GPS (Global Positioning System) system, which receives radio signals from a plurality of GPS satellites received by a GPS antenna, and performs digital broadcasting based on the input radio signals. The current position of the receiver is detected, and the detected current position can be output to the tuning control unit 7 or displayed on the map data.

  Furthermore, the position detection unit 9 of the present embodiment not only detects the current position, but also affects, for example, a tunnel where the current position cannot receive radio waves from any broadcasting station, and radio wave reception intensity ( When it is determined that it is within the influence range of the structure, it is possible to notify the channel selection control unit 7 that “the current position is a state incapable of receiving”.

  The channel selection control unit 7 according to the present embodiment operates in the same manner as in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 when the notification of “currently incapable of receiving position” is not received from the position detection unit 9. I do.

However, if a notification that “the position is in a state where current reception is not possible” is received from the position detection unit 9, tuning control is performed even if there is a notification of “current state reception disabled state” from the reception failure detection unit 6. The unit 7 operates so as not to perform automatic channel selection of the affiliated broadcasting station in the operation of FIG.
In other words, if the current position is in a state where reception is not possible, the channel selection control unit 7 does not perform channel search for the affiliated broadcast station in the tuner unit 1 even if the affiliated broadcast station has not been detected. Even if the station has been detected, the operation of searching for the affiliated broadcast station from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 and selecting the station is not performed.

  As described above, in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment, the radio wave is received from the GPS satellite and the current position is grasped. Therefore, when moving to an environment where the radio wave cannot reach such as in a tunnel, for example, It is possible to prevent a useless operation in which a search for affiliated broadcast stations is performed even though the broadcast stations cannot be received. More specifically, when moving to an environment where radio waves cannot reach, such as tunnels, or environments where radio waves are poorly received, channel search is not performed for affiliated broadcast stations, even if affiliated broadcast stations are not detected. In addition, even if the affiliated broadcast station has been detected, the channel selection state of the program being viewed is maintained without performing the operation of searching for and selecting the affiliated broadcast station, so that the radio wave reception environment is good. When moving, viewing of a program that was being viewed before the radio wave reception environment deteriorated can be restored in a short time.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
In a conventional digital broadcast receiving apparatus, when a reception impossible notification is input, a channel search is performed to detect affiliated broadcast stations, and the program title of the same program title as the program title that can no longer be received or the genre of the program that can no longer be received A program having the same program identification number as that of the same genre or a program identification number of a program that can no longer be received is selected.
However, the program title, program genre, and program identification number alone are not sufficient information to identify the same program as before the reception disabled notification is input, so the same program as before the reception disabled notification is input is selected. You may not be able to station.

  In terrestrial digital broadcasting, there are cases in which programs with characteristics in each region and information limited to the region are broadcast, so even in affiliated broadcasting stations, the same program is always broadcast at the same time, such as news and weather forecasts. For example, limited news may be broadcast to the service area of each broadcasting station. Therefore, in the conventional digital broadcast receiving apparatus, even if the program name is the same as “daytime news” and the program genre is the same as “news program”, it is viewed before searching for affiliated broadcast stations. It may be different from the program you were watching.

  The program identification number corresponds to event_id in ARIB's digital terrestrial television broadcasting operation specification TR-B14, and is uniquely assigned within one service. May be assigned the same event_id. That is, there are cases where the same program cannot be selected even if a series broadcasting station having the same program identification number is selected.

  Conventionally, for example, a program name (title) is selected from the PSI / SI of a program, for example, to determine whether the program of the broadcast station being watched is the same as the program of the affiliated broadcast station selected by the reception impossible notification. In the first embodiment described above, it is determined whether the programs are the same based on the field value of affinity_id in the BIT section. In the present embodiment, a case will be described in which determination of the identity of a program is improved as compared with the conventional case.

FIG. 8 is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation of the channel selection control unit 7 in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.
In the digital broadcast receiver according to the third embodiment, the operation of the channel selection control unit 7 in the configuration of FIG. 7 of the second embodiment is not the state transition operation illustrated in FIG. 2 but the state transition illustrated in FIG. The point of operation is different.

  In FIG. 8, the state of “program A viewing 61” and the state of “program B viewing 62” are the same series but are viewed by watching the same program broadcast at the same time on different broadcast stations (channels). It shows the state. In the case of the “program A viewing 61” state of FIG. 8, when the reception impossible detection unit 6 detects that “the current reception impossible state” is the same as in the first embodiment, the channel selection control unit 7 An unreceivable notification is entered.

The channel selection control unit 7 detects EIT (Event Information Table) section information (information about the program such as program name, broadcast date and time, description of contents, etc.) in advance from the PSI / SI of the program being viewed. From the detected PSI / SI of each affiliated broadcast station, it is determined whether or not there is an affiliated broadcast station having the same field value as the EIT of the program that is currently being watched. The same program is viewed by selecting the channel.
In this way, the state transits to the “program B viewing 62” state.

  In order to distinguish the same program using PSI / SI, for example, the field value of event_name_char (program name) and the field value of text_char (program description) in the short format event descriptor in the EIT section are compared. Is determined. In the comparison of the field value of the program name, the same program is discriminated by comparing the program name, and the program description in the PSI / SI (summary explanation of the program, performers, etc.) is compared, and the same The program can be discriminated with higher accuracy.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 7 of the second embodiment, when the position detection unit 9 is detected and the current position is detected to be an unreceivable area by the position detection unit 9, the channel selection control unit 7 In the state transition diagram of FIG. 8, operation is performed such that state transition (automatic channel selection) to the same program between “program A viewing 61” and “program B viewing 62” is not performed.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when a program being viewed cannot be received or when it is determined that the program cannot be received, the program description in PSI / SI of each broadcast station detected in advance (program overview) Detects the same program using the program title, program genre, and program identification in order to select a program (same program) that has the same PSI / SI as the program that can no longer be viewed using the explanation and performers) Compared with the case where it does, the precision which detects the same program can be improved.

  For example, when the program is news, weather forecast, etc., there are many cases where the title is similar to a broadcasting station outside the affiliated group, and the same title is often broadcast every day. . Even in such a case, the present embodiment uses characters and outline descriptions included in the PSI / SI, so that it is possible to accurately determine the identity of the program and improve the detection accuracy of affiliated broadcasting stations.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
In conventional digital broadcast receivers, when it is determined that the reception level is low and viewing is not possible, only the received signals of strong layer transmission programs that are easily affected by noise and multipath are selected from the signals transmitted from the broadcast station. Bureau.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a schematic internal configuration of a digital broadcast receiver according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention.
The basic configuration of the digital broadcast receiver of FIG. 9 is the same as the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, but the digital broadcast receiver of the present embodiment is intended for a fixed receiver and has a noise. And weak layer transmission program reception signals that are weak to multipath but good image quality, and strong layer transmission strong against noise and multipath intended for digital broadcast receivers mounted on mobiles or carried by users Both signals of the received signal of the program are received, and an instruction to switch the strong hierarchy / weak hierarchy of the signal for receiving the program is output from the channel selection control section 7 and input to the demultipress section 2 and the video / audio decoding section 3 Is different.

The received signal of the program of strong hierarchical transmission is resistant to noise and multipath, but has a low bit rate, and the transmitted content is transmitted in the form of simple moving image and simple audio.
On the other hand, the received signal of the program of weak hierarchical transmission is transmitted to the high-quality moving image and high-quality sound types because the signal is for a fixed receiver and has a high bit rate. The video / audio compression methods for strong layer transmission and weak layer transmission are different.

For example, in 1-segment broadcasting corresponding to a strong hierarchy, the video compression method is H.264. H.264 / AVC (MPEG-4 Part 10: Advanced Video Coding: MPEG uses the Moving Picture Experts Group) encoding method, and the AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) + SBR (Spectral: Reproduction: Spectral Band Reproduction method) as the audio compression method. Is adopted.
On the other hand, in weak-layer broadcasting for fixed receivers, the MPEG2 encoding method is adopted as the moving image compression method, and AAC is adopted as the audio compression method.

  The video / audio decoding unit 3 in FIG. 9 is configured to be capable of decoding corresponding to the moving image compression method and the audio compression method transmitted in the strong hierarchy or the weak hierarchy as described above.

  In the tuner unit 1, the weak layer transmission data and the strong layer transmission data in the same channel are multiplexed and output to the demultiplex unit 2 at the same time. The tuner unit 1 does not select a channel for switching between a strong layer transmission program and a weak layer transmission program in the same channel. However, for a service to be viewed, a strong layer transmission program and a weak layer transmission program are specified by the user. Therefore, the channel selection control unit 7 notifies the demultiplexing unit 2 of a program switching instruction for strong layer transmission / weak layer transmission. As a result, the video / audio stream included in the hierarchical transmission designated by the user is output from the demultiplexing unit 2 to the video / audio decoding unit 3.

  In the video / audio decoding unit 3, each data of the corresponding video stream / audio stream is input to the input video stream / audio stream in response to a program switching instruction for strong layer transmission / weak layer transmission from the channel selection control unit 7. The decoding process is performed, and the decoded video signal data is output to the video display unit 4, and the decoded audio signal data is output to the audio output unit 5. The video display unit 4 displays the video, and the audio output unit 5 To output sound.

The reception failure detection unit 6 is notified of the reception level, reception C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, error rate information, and the like from the tuner unit 1.
Furthermore, when the PAT and PMT do not arrive at a predetermined time interval, the demultiplexing unit 2 notifies the reception impossibility detecting unit 6 of a PAT disruption notification and a PMT disruption notification.
If no synchronization byte is detected every 188 bytes from the TS, a notification of synchronization lost is sent. Further, when the discontinuity of the continuity counter value existing in the header of the TS packet is detected, the packet lost is notified. The video / audio decoding unit 3 notifies an error notification or an error rate to the unreceivable detection unit 6 when a decoding error is detected.

  From these notified information, the reception impossible detection unit 6 determines whether it is the “current reception disabled state” state or the state immediately before the “current reception disabled state”, and is in the “current reception disabled state” state. If it is determined, the reception control unit 7 is notified of reception failure. The channel selection control unit 7 sends a channel selection instruction to the tuner unit 1, a strong hierarchy transmission / weak hierarchy to the demultiplexing unit 2 and the video / audio decoding unit 3 so as to perform the state transition operation of FIG. A transmission program switching instruction is output.

FIG. 10 is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation of the channel selection control unit 7 in the fourth embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 10, the state of “Broadcasting station A's weak hierarchy viewing 71” is a state in which the broadcast station A's weak hierarchy transmission program is being viewed, and the state of “Broadcasting station A's strong hierarchy viewing 72” In this state, the station A is watching a strong hierarchical transmission program. The state of “Broadcasting station B's weak hierarchy viewing 73” is a state where the broadcasting station B's weak hierarchy transmission program is being viewed, and the state of “Broadcasting station B's strong hierarchy viewing 74” is the broadcasting station B ’s strong viewing. In this state, the hierarchical transmission program is being viewed. In addition, the broadcasting station A and the broadcasting station B are related to each other, and the programs viewed at each broadcasting station are all the same programs that are broadcast at the same time.

  The state of “affiliation station search 75” is a state in which the affiliated broadcast station of the broadcast station A or B is channel-searched in order from the channel with the lowest physical frequency, for example, and the affiliated broadcast station is selected.

FIG. 11 is an operation flowchart of the channel selection control unit 7 according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.
The operation of the channel selection control unit 7 will be described below with reference to FIG. First, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus is watching a program of weak hierarchical transmission of one of the two broadcast stations A (= station n in FIG. 11) shown in FIG. It is assumed that the state is the state of “weak hierarchy viewing 71 of broadcasting station A” in FIG. 10 (S21). In this case, the channel selection control unit 7 stores at least the channel information of the broadcast station n of the program being viewed in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 or another storage unit (S22).

  In the state of step S21 described above, the channel selection control unit 7 has received a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit 6, that is, whether it is a “current reception enabled state” or a “current reception disabled state”. Is determined (S23). If it is in the “current reception enabled state” (S23: YES), the process returns to step S21 to continue watching the program of the weak hierarchy transmission of the station n, but if it is in the “current reception disabled state” (S23: NO) ) Is a state in which the program of the strong hierarchy transmission of the station n is being watched, that is, the state of “broad hierarchy viewing 72 of the broadcasting station A” in FIG. 10 (S24). It is determined whether or not a “current reception disabled state” notification is received from the unit 6, that is, whether it is “current reception disabled state” or “current reception disabled state” (S25).

  When the program of the strong hierarchy transmission of the station n is “currently receivable” (S25: YES), the tuning control unit 7 proceeds to step S34 and can receive the program of the weak hierarchy transmission of the station n. Is determined, that is, whether it is the “current reception enabled state” or the “current reception disabled state” (S34). If it is possible to receive the weak layer transmission program of station n (S34: YES), the program returns to step S21 and the weak layer transmission program of station n is viewed. Is not received (S34: NO), the process returns to step S24, and the program of the strong hierarchical transmission of the station n is viewed. On the other hand, when the strong layer transmission program of the station n is “currently unreceivable” in step S25 (S25: NO), the channel selection control unit 7 stores the same series of broadcast stations in the affiliated station storage unit 8. It is determined whether n 'channel information is stored (S26).

  When the channel information of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8 (S26: YES), the channel selection control unit 7 selects the program of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series. (S27) Whether or not a reception failure notification is received from the reception failure detection unit 6, that is, the program of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is in the “current reception enabled state” or the “current reception disabled state”. Is determined (S28). When it is in the “currently receivable state” (S28: YES), the weak hierarchy transmission program of the broadcast station n ′ is viewed (S29), that is, “weak hierarchy viewing 73 of the broadcast station B” in FIG. The channel selection control unit 7 makes a transition to the state, and whether or not the reception disable notification is received from the reception disable detection unit 6 while viewing the program of the weak hierarchy transmission of the broadcast station n ′, It is determined whether the state is “current” or “current reception is not possible” (S30).

  When it is possible to receive the weak layer transmission program of the station n ′ (S30: YES), the channel selection control unit 7 returns to step S29 to watch the weak layer transmission program of the station n ′. When the reception of the weak hierarchy transmission program of the station n ′ is impossible (S30: NO), the strong hierarchy transmission program of the station n ′ is viewed (S31), that is, “Broadcasting station B” in FIG. Transition to the state of “high-level viewing 74”.

On the other hand, when the current reception is disabled in step S28 (S28: NO), the channel selection control unit 7 views the program of the strong hierarchical transmission of the broadcast station n ′ (S31) and selects the channel. The unit 7 determines whether or not the reception disabled notification unit 6 has received a reception disabled notification from the reception disabled detection unit 6 while viewing a program of the strong hierarchy transmission of the broadcast station n ′, that is, whether it is “current reception enabled” or “current reception” It is determined whether the state is “impossible state” (S32). If it is in the “current reception enabled state” (S32: YES), it is determined whether the reception of the program of the weak hierarchy transmission of the broadcasting station n ′ is in the “current reception enabled state” or the “current reception disabled state”. Judgment is made (S33). When it is in the “current reception disabled state” (S33: NO), the process returns to step S31 to continue watching the program of the strong hierarchical transmission of the broadcasting station n ′, but in the “current reception enabled state”. In (S33: YES), the process returns to step S29, and the program of weak hierarchical transmission of the broadcast station n ′ is viewed.
If it is in the “current reception disabled state” in step S32 (S32: NO), the process returns to step S26 to determine again whether the channel information of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8 or not. To do.

  Note that if the determination of “current reception is possible” in step S32 (when viewing affiliated station n ′ strong hierarchy) is NO, the process returns to step S26 when a plurality of broadcasting stations of the same series are stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8. In this case, the current region is estimated from the region identification value of the service ID obtained from the received signal of the program being viewed from the broadcast station as described above. The neighboring area is obtained, and the broadcasting stations arranged in the neighboring area of the broadcasting station of the received signal of the program being viewed are selected in order from the plurality of affiliated broadcasting stations stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8. It is determined whether or not “current reception is possible”. For example, if only the broadcast station n ′ is stored as a broadcast station in the same series as the broadcast station n of the program being viewed, if NO in step S32, the process does not return to step S26. The process may proceed to step S35 to perform a channel search for broadcasting stations of the same series.

  Next, when the channel information of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is not stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8 in step S26 (S26: NO :: However, if a plurality of the affiliated broadcasting stations are stored, the channel selection is performed. In this case, the channel selection control unit 7 makes a transition to the “affiliated station search 75” state of FIG. That is, the channel selection control unit 7 instructs the tuner unit 1 to first set the channel to be searched to the channel with the minimum value in the band (S35), and then performs a channel search for the same series of broadcasting stations (S36). Here, a method similar to that of the first embodiment may be used as a method for detecting a broadcast station of the same series by channel search.

  Then, it is determined whether or not a broadcasting station n ′ of the same series has been detected by the channel search (S37). If not detected (S37: NO), the further searched channel becomes the channel with the maximum value in the band. It is determined whether or not (S38). If the searched channel is the channel with the maximum value in the band (S38: YES), the channel search is repeated after returning to step S35 to set the channel to be searched to the channel with the minimum value in the band. If it is not a channel (S38: NO), the channel to be searched is incremented by one (+1) (S39), and the process returns to step S36 to search for the same series of broadcasting stations.

  On the other hand, when a broadcast station n ′ of the same series is detected by the channel search in step S37 (S37: YES), the channel selection control unit 7 sets the channel information of the broadcast station n ′ of the same series and step S22. The channel information of the broadcast station n of the program being watched stored in step S3 is associated and stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8 so that it can be understood that it is a broadcaster of the same affiliated relationship (S40), and the broadcast of the same affiliated The program of the weak hierarchy transmission of the station n ′ is viewed (S41), that is, the state is changed to the “weak hierarchy viewing 73 of the broadcasting station B” in FIG.

  Even during the viewing of the weak layer transmission program of the broadcasting station n ′ in step S41, the weak layer transmission program of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is in the “current reception enabled state” or the “current reception disabled state”. It is determined whether there is (S42). If it is “currently receivable” (S42: YES), it returns to step S41 and continues to watch the program of weak broadcast transmission of the broadcasting station n ′, but if it is “currently receivable” ( In S42: NO), the program of the strong hierarchy transmission of the broadcast station n ′ is viewed (S43), that is, the state is changed to the “broad hierarchy viewing 74 of the broadcast station B” in FIG. Indicates whether or not a reception disabled notification has been received from the reception disabled detection unit 6 even while viewing a program of strong broadcast transmission of the broadcast station n ′, that is, whether it is “current reception enabled” or “current reception disabled” Is determined (S44). If it is in the “currently unreceivable state” (S44: NO), the process returns to step S26, and it is determined whether or not the channel information of the broadcasting station n ′ of the same series is stored in the affiliated station storage unit 8. If it is in the “current reception enabled state” (S44: YES), whether the reception of the program of the weak hierarchy transmission of the broadcasting station n ′ is “current reception enabled state” or “current reception disabled state”. Is determined (S45). If it is “currently unreceivable” (S45: NO), the process returns to step S43 to continue watching the program of the strong hierarchical transmission of the broadcasting station n ′, but is “currently receivable”. In (S45: YES), the process returns to step S41, and the program of weak hierarchy transmission of the broadcast station n ′ is viewed.

  In the present embodiment, when in the state of “broad hierarchy viewing 81 of broadcast station A”, the reception impossible detection unit 6 detects the “current reception impossible state” in the same manner as described in the fourth embodiment. In this case, a reception impossible notification is transmitted to the channel selection control unit 7.

  The channel selection control unit 7 that has received the reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit 6 notifies the demultiplexing unit 2 and the video / audio decoding unit 3 of a program switching instruction for strong layer transmission / weak layer transmission, as shown in FIG. The state is changed to “broadcasting station A strong hierarchy viewing 72” and the broadcast station A's strong hierarchy transmission program is viewed. In the state of “High-level viewing 72 of broadcasting station A” in FIG. 10, when a reception failure notification is further received from the reception failure detection unit 6 and the affiliated broadcasting station is not detected, the channel selection control unit 7 The state transitions to the “affiliated station search 75” state, and the affiliated broadcast station is searched. As in the first embodiment, the affiliated broadcast station may be detected if the affiliate_id field value in the BIT section detected by the demultiplexing unit 2 is the same, for example.

  When the affiliated broadcast station can be detected in the “affiliated station search 75” state of FIG. 10, the channel selection control unit 7 indicates that the broadcast station A and the broadcast station B are affiliated broadcast stations. The information is recorded in the station storage unit 8 and transitions to a state of “broad hierarchy viewing 73 of broadcasting station B”. When the reception impossible notification is received in the state of “Broad station B weak layer viewing 73”, the channel selection control unit 7 sends a strong layer transmission / weak layer transmission program to the demultiplexing unit 2 and the video / audio decoding unit 3. The switching instruction is notified, and the state is changed to the “broader station B strong layer viewing 74” state of FIG.

  When the reception impossibility notification is received from the reception impossibility detection unit 6 in the state of “broader station B strong hierarchy viewing 74”, the channel selection control unit 7 determines that the affiliated broadcast station of the broadcast station B is the broadcast station A. Therefore, instead of performing the “affiliated station search 75” again, the broadcast station A, which is an affiliated broadcast station, is selected, and “the weak hierarchy viewing of the broadcast station A” is obtained. Transition directly to state 71 ".

  After that, when the broadcasting station A cannot receive even if it is in the state of “broadcasting station A's weak hierarchy viewing 71”, it transitions to the state of “broadcasting station A's strong hierarchy viewing 72”. When the reception impossible notification is received from the reception impossibility detecting unit 6 in the “high hierarchy viewing 72” state, if the affiliated broadcasting station is not detected, the state is changed to the “affiliated station search 75” state, and the affiliated broadcasting is performed again. Perform station search.

  Further, when a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations are recorded in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, the current region is estimated from the region identification value included in the service ID currently being viewed as in the first embodiment, and adjacent to each other. The area identification code of the area is obtained, and a broadcasting station having a service ID including the obtained area identification code is searched from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. Thereafter, the searched broadcast stations are selected in order, and the affiliated broadcast stations in the “current reception enabled state” are viewed.

  In addition, in the state of “broader station A strong layer viewing 72” and “broadcast station B strong layer viewing 74” in which the strong layer transmission program of FIG. 10 is viewed, the reception level information and reception from the tuner unit 1 are received. C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, error rate information, PAT from demultiplex unit 2, PMT disruption notification, TS synchronization lost and packet lost notification, and further from video / audio decoding unit 3 An error notification or error rate is notified to the reception failure detection unit 6, and from each notification, the reception failure detection unit 6 can detect that the reception situation has been improved. When the improvement of the reception status is detected, the reception failure detection unit 6 transmits a reception improvement notification to the channel selection control unit 7.

When the reception improvement notification is received, the channel selection control unit 7 transmits a strong layer transmission / weak layer transmission program switching instruction to the demultiplexing unit 2 and the video / audio decoding unit 3, and the weak layer transmission program is transmitted. Operate to be watched.
As a result, the broadcast station A transitions from the strong hierarchy viewing state of the broadcast station A to the weak hierarchy viewing state of the broadcast station A, or from the weak hierarchy viewing of the broadcast station B to the weak hierarchy viewing state of the broadcast station B, respectively.

  In this embodiment, when it is determined that a weak-layer transmission program that was being viewed cannot be viewed, it is automatically switched to a strong-layer transmission program that is less affected by noise and multipath, and simple video and audio are viewed. By doing so, the probability that the same program can be continuously viewed can be increased.

  In addition, since a program transmitted by strong layer transmission and weak layer transmission is usually multiplexed and output from a tuner unit 1 to one TS, switching between weak layer transmission and strong layer transmission is performed by the tuner unit 1. Since it is not necessary to control and switch the receiving broadcast station, the program switching time can be shortened, and the time during which viewing is interrupted can be shortened.

  Further, when a program of strong hierarchical transmission is also in a “currently unreceivable state”, it is possible to automatically select the affiliated broadcast station of the broadcast station that has been received as in the above-described embodiments. As described in the above embodiment, the program of the affiliated broadcasting station is likely to be the same program as the program that has become “currently unreceivable” and can no longer be viewed. The possibility of being able to be made can also be increased.

  In addition, even when a weak layer transmission program is “currently unreceivable” and a strong layer transmission program is selected, an improvement in the reception status is always detected. Again, it is possible to automatically watch high-resolution and high-quality programs with weak hierarchical transmission. Accordingly, the reception status is improved during channel selection of a program with strong hierarchical transmission, and it is possible to prevent a situation in which viewing of a program with strong hierarchical transmission is continued even though the program can be viewed with high image quality and high sound quality. .

  As described above, in the present embodiment, automatic broadcast selection is automatically performed by combining the automatic channel selection of the affiliated broadcast stations of the first to third embodiments described above with automatic switching between the program of weak hierarchy transmission and the program of strong hierarchy transmission. Since station selection and hierarchy switching are performed, the program viewing interruption time can be reduced as compared with the first embodiment. In particular, when moving around the boundary of a service area of a broadcasting station that is affiliated with each other by a moving body such as a car, the viewing interruption time of the program can be shortened compared to the first embodiment, and the continuous viewability of the program It can be improved further.

Embodiment 5 FIG.
In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the above-described fourth embodiment, the time during which program viewing is interrupted when reception is disabled can be shortened compared to that of the first embodiment to improve continuous viewing of the program. For example, when moving to an environment where radio waves cannot reach such as a tunnel or an environment where radio waves are poorly received, the channel selection control unit 7 determines that the reception level has decreased and performs a channel search for affiliated broadcast stations. Could not be improved.

  The problem of malfunction that causes a channel search for affiliated broadcast stations in an environment where radio waves cannot reach or an environment where radio waves are poorly received has been improved in the second embodiment relative to the first embodiment. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the fifth embodiment that improves the above-described problem with respect to the fourth embodiment will be described below.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a schematic internal configuration of a digital broadcast receiver according to Embodiment 5 of the present invention.
The basic configuration of the digital broadcast receiver of FIG. 12 is the same as the configuration of the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 9 except that a position detection unit 9 is added.

  Since the configuration and operation of the position detection unit 9 are described in detail in the second embodiment, description thereof is omitted here.

  The channel selection control unit 7 according to the present embodiment performs the same operation as that of the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 11 when the position detection unit 9 does not receive a notification that “the position is in a current unreceivable state”. I do.

  However, if a notification that “the position is in a state where current reception is not possible” is received from the position detection unit 9, tuning control is performed even if there is a notification of “current state reception disabled state” from the reception failure detection unit 6. In the operation of FIG. 11, the unit 7 is in the state of “Broad station A weak hierarchy viewing 71”, “Broadcast station A strong hierarchy viewing 72”, “Broadcast station B weak hierarchy viewing 73”, From the state of “High-level viewing 74 of station B” and the state of “affiliated station search 75”, operation is performed so that state transition is not automatically performed. That is, it operates so as not to perform the state transition that changes the hierarchy in FIG. 10 nor the state transition of the automatic channel selection of the affiliated broadcasting station. In other words, when the current position cannot be received, the channel selection control unit 7 notifies the weak layer transmission program of the “current reception impossible state” and does not change the state to the strong layer transmission program. Even if the broadcasting station is not detected, the tuner unit 1 does not perform channel search for the affiliated broadcasting station, and even if the affiliated broadcasting station has been detected, the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 searches for the affiliated broadcasting station. The operation to select the channel is not performed.

  As described above, in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment, even though all broadcast stations cannot be received as in the second embodiment, the hierarchy of received signals of the broadcast station and the search for affiliated broadcast stations can be performed. It can prevent unnecessary operations that are performed, and when you move to a place where the reception environment of radio waves is good, you can quickly resume watching the program you were watching before the reception environment of radio waves deteriorated. Can do.

Embodiment 6 FIG.
In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the fifth embodiment described above, it is possible to improve the continuous viewability of the program by shortening the time during which the program viewing is interrupted when the reception becomes impossible, as compared with the first embodiment. Improved the malfunction of channel search for affiliated broadcasting stations when moving to an environment where radio waves cannot reach or where radio waves are poorly received, but reception is not possible with only the program title, program genre, and program identification number It was not possible to improve the problem that the same program as before the notification was entered may not be selected.

  With respect to the problem that the same program as before the input of the reception impossibility notification may not be selected only by the program title, the program genre, and the program identification number, the problem is improved in the third embodiment with respect to the first embodiment. It was. Further, the problem that the same program as before the input of the reception impossible notification may not be selected by only the program title, the program genre, and the program identification number has been described in detail in the third embodiment, so a duplicate description will be given. Omitted. Hereinafter, a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to a sixth embodiment that improves the above problem with respect to the fourth embodiment will be described.

FIG. 13 is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation of the channel selection control unit 7 in the sixth embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 13, the state of “Broadcasting station A's weak hierarchy viewing 81” is a state in which the broadcast station A's weak hierarchy transmission program is being viewed, and the state of “Broadcasting station A's strong hierarchy viewing 82” In this state, the station A is watching a strong hierarchical transmission program. The state of “Broadcasting station B's weak layer viewing 83” is a state where the broadcasting station B's weak layer transmission program is being viewed, and the state of “Broadcasting station B ’s weak layer viewing 84” is the state of broadcasting station B ’s strong layer viewing. In this state, the hierarchical transmission program is being viewed. In addition, the broadcasting station A and the broadcasting station B are related to each other, and the programs viewed at each broadcasting station are all the same programs that are broadcast at the same time.

The present embodiment is different in that there is no “affiliated station search” state in which a channel search is performed for the affiliated broadcast station of the broadcast station A or B shown in the fourth embodiment.
In the present embodiment, when in the state of “broad hierarchy viewing 81 of broadcast station A”, the reception impossible detection unit 6 detects the “current reception impossible state” in the same manner as described in the fourth embodiment. In this case, a reception impossible notification is transmitted to the channel selection control unit 7.

  The channel selection control unit 7 that has received the reception disabled notification from the reception disabled detection unit 6 notifies the demultiplexing unit 2 and the video / audio decoding unit 3 of a program switching instruction for strong layer transmission / weak layer transmission, as shown in FIG. The state is changed to the state of “broadcasting station A's strong hierarchy viewing 82”, and the broadcast station A's strong hierarchy transmission program is viewed. In the state of “High-level viewing 82 of broadcast station A” in FIG. 13, when a reception failure notification is further received from the reception failure detection unit 6, the channel selection control unit 7 preliminarily stores the EIT ( Among the field values acquired from the Event Information Table) section, a weak layer transmission program having the same EIT section field value as the broadcast station's weak layer transmission program currently being viewed is detected at the present time. If possible, the fact that the broadcasting station A and the broadcasting station B are affiliated broadcasting stations is recorded in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 of FIG. 9, and the corresponding service is selected. In other words, the state transits to the “weak broadcast viewing 83 of broadcasting station B” state.

  When the reception disabled notification is further received from the reception disabled detection unit 6 in the state of “Broadcast station B weak hierarchy viewing 83”, the channel selection control unit 7 strongly applies to the demultiplexing unit 2 and the video / audio decoding unit 3. A program switching instruction for layered transmission / weak layered transmission is notified, and the state is changed to the “broadcasting B strong layer viewing 84” state of FIG.

  When the reception disabled notification is received from the reception disabled detection unit 6 in the state of “broader station B strong hierarchy viewing 84”, the channel selection control unit 7 indicates that the affiliated broadcasting station of the broadcast station B is the broadcast station A. Therefore, the broadcasting station A, which is an affiliated broadcasting station, is selected, and the state is changed to the state of “weak hierarchy viewing 81 of the broadcasting station A”.

  Here, for example, the field value of event_name_char (program name) and the field value of text_char (program description) in the short format event descriptor in the EIT section are used as the PSI / SI field values used to identify the same program. The field values may be compared to check for a match. In this comparison, not only the program name of PSI / SI but also the program description is checked for coincidence. Therefore, the outline of the program and performers are also matched, and the probability that the program of the affiliated station is the same program is obtained. Can be increased.

  Further, when a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations are recorded in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, the current region is estimated from the region identification value included in the service ID currently being viewed as in the first embodiment, and adjacent to each other. The area identification code of the area is obtained, and a broadcasting station having a service ID including the obtained area identification code is searched from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. Thereafter, the searched broadcast stations are selected in order, and the affiliated broadcast stations in the “current reception enabled state” are viewed.

  In addition, in the state of “broader station A strong layer viewing 82” and “broadcast station B strong layer viewing 84” viewing the strong layer transmission program of FIG. C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, error rate information, PAT from demultiplex unit 2, PMT disruption notification, TS synchronization lost and packet lost notification, and further from video / audio decoding unit 3 An error notification or error rate is notified to the reception failure detection unit 6, and from each notification, the reception failure detection unit 6 can detect that the reception situation has been improved. When the improvement of the reception status is detected, the reception failure detection unit 6 transmits a reception improvement notification to the channel selection control unit 7.

  When the reception improvement notification is received, the channel selection control unit 7 transmits a strong layer transmission / weak layer transmission program switching instruction to the demultiplexing unit 2 and the video / audio decoding unit 3, and the weak layer transmission program is transmitted. Operate to be watched. As a result, the broadcast station A transitions from the strong hierarchy viewing state of the broadcast station A to the weak hierarchy viewing state of the broadcast station A, or from the weak hierarchy viewing of the broadcast station B to the weak hierarchy viewing state of the broadcast station B, respectively.

  Further, as in the fifth embodiment shown in FIG. 12, it has a position detection unit 9, and when the position detection unit 9 detects that the current position is an unreceivable area, FIG. In the operation according to the state transition diagram, the operation is performed so as not to perform automatic channel selection (= transition to another state) to the same program in another state.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the same program at different levels or the same program at the same affiliated station can be automatically selected according to the field value in the EIT section of PSI / SI. Compared to the case where the same program is determined only by the number, it is possible to accurately determine that the program is the same. In particular, news or weather forecasts may not be able to determine whether the program is the same only by title, and it is possible to determine the same program by using the characters and outline descriptions included in the field values in the EIT section of PSI / SI. Accuracy can be improved.

Embodiment 7 FIG.
In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the affiliated station search is performed at the time when reception becomes impossible, and as a result, a new affiliated station having the same TS as the affiliated station information of the unavailable TS is found. If it can be detected, the affiliated station information of the TS that has become unreceivable is associated with the channel number or transmission frequency of the newly detected affiliated station TS and stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. In the first embodiment, in the case of ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial) of digital terrestrial broadcasting in Japan, for example, BIT (Broadcaster Information) transmitted in the BIT section and the frequency list is included in the affiliated station information. It is determined whether or not they are the same using only the value of the field of affinity_id in the (Table) section. However, in the determination using only the value of the affinity_id field in the BIT section, the probability that an affiliated station can be selected may not reach a sufficient level.

  Therefore, in the seventh embodiment of the present invention described below, in addition to the value of the affinity_id field of the first embodiment, a hit count indicating the number of successful channel selections of the TS stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 The value, that is, the detected number of detected affiliated stations is detected and stored, and the probability of selecting the affiliated station is increased by using the detected number of times.

  The configuration and operation of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to Embodiment 7 are basically the same as the configuration and operation of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to Embodiment 1 shown in FIG. 1, but as described above. In operation, when a TS can be received after automatic channel selection, a hit count value indicating the number of successful receptions of the TS is stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, and this reception is performed when reception becomes impossible. The difference is that automatic channel selection is performed using the received information (hit count value indicating the number of successful receptions: information on the detected number of detected affiliated stations).

The stored information (hit count value indicating the number of successful receptions: information on the number of detections of the detected affiliated station) will be described below.
The channel selection control unit 7 searches the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 when detecting that the TS that the reception incapability detection unit 6 was viewing has become incapable of reception due to deterioration of the reception environment. As a result, if the TS is successfully received, the channel selection control unit 7 increases the hit count value corresponding to the TS by 1, and then stores the TS affiliated station information in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. save. Further, the channel selection control unit 7 detects the affiliated station by performing a channel search in the broadcast frequency region, and even if the TS can be normally received, the channel selection control unit 7 increments the hit count value corresponding to the TS by one, The information is stored in the broadcast station storage unit 8 together with the affiliated station information of the TS.

  Thereafter, when the reception environment deteriorates and the reception failure detection unit 6 detects the reception failure of the TS being viewed, the channel selection control unit 7 first selects the channel of the affiliated station in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. From the information, a TS whose current position is estimated to be “within the reception service area” or “within the reception service area” is searched. If there are a plurality of searched TSs, the information of the hit count value is referred to, the channel selection instruction is output to the tuner unit 1 in the descending order of the hit count value, and the tuner unit 1 selects the channel. It is determined whether the received affiliated station is receivable. However, at this time, the TS that cannot be received may be excluded from the channel selection target.

  That is, in the digital broadcast receiver according to the present embodiment, the channel selection control unit 7 detects the number of detected affiliated stations when the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 stores the affiliated broadcast stations in association with each other. The number of detections is also stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 in association with the affiliated broadcast station. Then, when a reception disable notification is received from the reception disable detection unit 6 thereafter, the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station is searched from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. In the search result, when it is stored that there are a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area, the tuning control unit 7 determines the number of detected affiliated stations. Select from the affiliated broadcasting stations in descending order. Then, the channel selection control unit 7 determines whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the selected affiliated broadcast station is “currently available”, and when the received signal is “currently available”, the channel selection control unit 7 Watch the program. In addition, the channel selection control unit 7 does not store the sequence broadcast station in the sequence broadcast station storage unit 8 or if all the stored sequence broadcast stations are in the “currently unreceivable state”, the sequence broadcast station Output instructions to channel search for stations.

  By the way, in the above-described example, the higher hit count value is selected with priority, but if the view is changed, the priority order for selecting the affiliated station is increased by one every time the affiliated station is detected, The ranks of other affiliated stations that have become lower than that will be lowered one by one. In terms of the learning function of recent devices, it is known that the most recently obtained information is given the highest priority from the viewpoint of time, and the priority of other information is lowered one by one. In other words, the above can be considered as another embodiment shown below.

  As yet another embodiment, when the channel selection control unit 7 stores the affiliated broadcast station in association with the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, the priority order in which the detected affiliated station is selected during the next channel information search. Is set to the highest priority and the priority selected at the time of the next channel information search in the other affiliated stations stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 is forwarded one by one from the priorities. So that it is stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 in association with the affiliated broadcast station, and when the reception impossibility notification is received from the reception impossibility detection unit 6, the affiliated station of the affiliated station is received from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. If channel information is searched and stored so that there are multiple broadcast stations that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area, broadcasts with a higher priority of channel selection From station to station To determine whether the received signal based on the channel information of the selected affiliated broadcast station is “currently available” or not. May not be stored, or if all the affiliated broadcast stations stored are “currently unreceivable”, an instruction may be output to channel search for affiliated broadcast stations.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when a TS related to an affiliated station can be detected, the hit count value of the TS is stored in association with the channel information related to the TS, and the hit count is detected every time the TS can be detected. Since the value is incremented by 1 and stored, the hit count value is larger for the TS of the affiliated station in the region where the vehicle frequently travels everyday. Alternatively, when the hit count value is larger than the others, the priority order of the TS may be set earlier when searching for affiliated stations. In that case, the probability that the detected TS is selected in the automatic channel selection (automatic search) of the affiliated station when reception is impossible increases, and the channel can be selected at high speed. In addition, it is possible to increase the probability of being selected in the automatic channel selection of affiliated stations when reception is impossible even without using hardware (H / W) for position determination such as GPS, thereby reducing the cost of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus. Can be reduced.

Embodiment 8 FIG.
The configuration and operation of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention are basically the same as the configuration and operation of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. In the above case, when a TS can be received after automatic tuning when reception is not possible, there is a relationship of MFN (Multi Frequency Network) with respect to the TS (the same program of the same broadcasting station) where the TS cannot be received. Or the SFN (Single Frequency Network) relationship is stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8. Then, when reception is disabled after that, the difference is that the stored MFN information is used to automatically select the reception disabled TS and MFN-related TS.

  MFN (Multi Frequency Network) assigns a different frequency to the program sent from each transmitting station (each relay station) where service areas overlap when the same program of the same broadcasting station is broadcast. For example, this is a network in which a relay station broadcasts the same program at a frequency different from that of the parent station. It can also be said that the MFN is a network for an SFN (Single Frequency Network) for effectively using the frequency. Contrary to MFN, SFN (Single Frequency Network) assigns the same frequency to each transmitting station (relay station) where service areas overlap when the same program of the same broadcasting station is broadcast. For example, a network in which a relay station broadcasts the same program at the same frequency as the parent station in order to effectively use frequency resources. Therefore, the TS having the MFN relationship is, for example, a relationship between both TSs when the same TS is transmitted with different channel numbers between the relay station and the master station.

  The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present embodiment searches for a TS having an MFN relationship with the TS that has become unreceivable with reference to the MFN information in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 when reception becomes impossible. When a plurality of TSs having an MFN relationship are searched, it is determined whether or not reception is possible by selecting each TS in turn in the tuner unit 1. As a result, when a newly receivable TS having an MFN relationship can be detected, the detected TS (affiliated station TS) is stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 in association with the channel number or transmission frequency. . The channel number and frequency information of the MFN TS in the case of ISDB-T are a “frequency field” that is a “terrestrial distribution system descriptor to be transmitted” described in a “network information table (NIT) section” in the PSI, Alternatively, it can be obtained from the “physical ch field” and the “new physical ch field” which are “frequency list descriptors”. Further, in the case of the European digital broadcasting standard DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), the “center frequency field descriptor” that is “transmission frequency list descriptor” or “cell frequency list descriptor” that is “cell frequency list descriptor” in the NIT section. It can be obtained from the “frequency field”.

  Further, in the present embodiment, in addition to the MFN information, a hit count value indicating the number of successful channel selections of each TS stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 described in the seventh embodiment is also stored. The hit count value is obtained as a result of the channel selection control unit 7 searching the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 when the reception impossible detection unit 6 detects reception inability of the TS being watched due to deterioration of the reception environment. When reception is possible, the value of the hit count for that TS is increased by one. Similarly, the channel selection control unit 7 increases the hit count value for the TS by 1 even when the channel frequency in the broadcast frequency region is detected and the affiliated station is detected and received normally.

  When the reception impossible detection unit 6 detects reception inability of the TS being viewed due to the deterioration of the reception environment, the channel selection control unit 7 first refers to the MFN information transmitted in the TS that has become unreceivable, and the MFN relationship If there are a plurality of TSs, the channel information of those TSs is searched from the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8. When a plurality of these TSs are stored, a tuning instruction is first given to the tuner unit 1 from a TS having a large hit count value to determine whether or not reception is possible. However, the TS that was originally viewed and cannot be received may be excluded from the automatic tuning target.

  That is, in the digital broadcast receiver according to the present embodiment, the reception signal of the digital broadcast program from the broadcast station or the broadcast station designated by the input means detected by the channel search by the instruction output from the channel selection control unit 7 is received. A tuner unit 1 is provided for receiving, selecting, demodulating, correcting errors, and outputting a TS of a received signal of the selected program, and the channel selection control unit 7 associates the affiliated broadcast station with the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. When the same TS as the TS that transmits the program being viewed is detected by the tuner unit 1, the detected TS is assigned a different frequency for each transmitting station. And at least channel information of the TS having the detected MFN relationship and at least channel information of the TS transmitting the program being viewed is MFN related. If there is an unreceivable notification from the unreceivable detection unit 6, a TS having an MFN relationship is searched from the unrestricted broadcast station storage unit 8. It is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the TS in the MFN relation that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area is “current reception enabled”. Watch a program transmitted by an MFN-related TS, and no MFN-related TS is stored, or all of the stored programs transmitted by the MFN-related TS are in the “currently unreceivable state”. In this case, an instruction is output so as to perform a channel search for affiliated broadcasting stations.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, the channel selection control unit 7 detects the number of detected TSs, and stores the number of detections in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 in association with the affiliated broadcast station as well as the MFN relationship. When a reception failure notification is received from the reception failure detection unit 6, a TS having an MFN relationship is searched from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. When the channel selection control unit 7 stores a plurality of MFN-related TSs that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area, the channel selection control unit 7 sets the detection frequency value of the TSs that are MFN-related. Select from the largest broadcasting stations in order, determine whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the selected TS is “currently available”, and if it is “currently available”, TS that is MFN-related is transmitted Watch the program you want to play.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, when a TS having an MFN relationship can be detected, channel information on the TS is stored, so that a program transmitted by the TS having an MFN relationship is preferential when searching when reception is impossible. To be selected. At the same time, the hit count value is increased by 1 and stored in the same manner as in the seventh embodiment, so that the hit count value becomes larger than the others for MFN TS in the area where daily driving is frequent. The channel is preferentially selected at the time of MFN search when reception is impossible. Therefore, it is possible to automatically select a TS that is received well every day at high speed. In addition, since additional hardware (H / W) for specifying the position such as GPS is unnecessary, it is possible to reduce the cost of the search function when reception is impossible.

Embodiment 9 FIG.
In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the ninth embodiment, the configuration is the same as in the seventh and eighth embodiments, but the channel selection order is determined by the following algorithm instead of the channel selection order by the hit count value. Is different.

  As shown in the eighth embodiment, the affiliated station information or the MFN information is stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, but in the present embodiment, the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 further stores the same information. The tuning order information of TSs that are related to affiliated stations and the tuning order information of TSs that are mutually related to MFN are also stored. This channel selection order information is obtained when the channel selection control unit 7 detects that the reception of the TS being viewed due to the deterioration of the reception environment is disabled, the channel selection control unit 7 8 is set, and if a TS that is affiliated or related to MFN is selected, and the selected TS is successfully received by the tuner 1, the channel selection order for that TS is set to have the highest priority. To do. Similarly, even when the channel selection control unit 7 detects a TS that is related to an affiliated station or MFN by performing a channel search in the broadcast frequency region and can normally receive the TS, the channel selection order for that TS is given the highest priority. Set to. As a result, the priority of tuning of other TSs is lowered one by one.

  FIGS. 14 (a) and 14 (b) are diagrams showing the next channel selection priority determination algorithm when an affiliated station in Embodiment 10 of the present invention has been received. More specifically, FIG. 14 (a) shows TS (A), TS (B), and TS (C) stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 in automatic channel selection when reception failure is detected. FIG. 14 (b) shows the channel selection priority (channel selection order) in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 when selecting a channel. FIG. 14 (b) shows the case where the channel selection in FIG. When a new affiliated station-related TS (D) is detected by an affiliated station search that sequentially scans frequencies, and a new MFN-related TS (D) that is not in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 is selected FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the priority order (channel selection order) of channel selection in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 when the channel priority order (channel selection order) in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 is updated.

  First, the manner in which the channel selection order is switched will be described with reference to FIGS. The TS state shown in FIG. 14A is, for example, a relationship between three affiliated stations A, B, and C stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8, or a TS (A ), TS (B), TS (C) are stored and are in a state. In the figure, the smaller the number, the higher the priority of channel selection, that is, the channel of level 1 is selected with the highest priority. When the reception environment detection unit 6 detects that the reception of the TS that was being viewed is detected due to deterioration of the reception environment, the channel selection control unit 7 is a TS that is in a sequence relationship or an MFN relationship in the sequence broadcast station storage unit 8. If none of (A), TS (B), and TS (C) can be selected, a sequence search is performed, and as a result, a TS (D) that is a new affiliated station TS can be selected. Then, the channel selection information of TS (D) is stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 and the priority of TS (D) at the next channel selection is set to the highest priority level 1. As a result, the selection order of the level 1 TS (A), the level 2 TS (B), and the level 3 TS (C) set in the old channel selection order so far has one priority. Decreases gradually. In FIG. 14, TS (A) is lowered from level 1 to level 2, TS (B) is lowered from level 2 to level 3, and TS (C) is lowered from level 3 to level 4.

  Further, in FIG. 14B, reception is disabled in the case of FIG. 14A in which there is no TS (D) in the relationship between the TS and MFN that cannot be received in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8. When TS (D) is described in the MFN information transmitted by the TS and the channel transmitted by the TS (D) described therein is selected, as a result of receiving the broadcast using the TS (D) 6 shows a state in which information necessary for channel selection of the new TS (D) is stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 and the channel priority is stored as level 1.

  FIGS. 15 (a) and 15 (b) show the prioritization of the next channel selection when the affiliated station or MFN TS stored in affiliated station storage unit 8 in Embodiment 10 of the present invention can be received. It is a figure which shows an algorithm. More specifically, FIG. 15A shows a level 2 TS (A), a level 3 TS (B) stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 in the automatic channel selection when reception failure is detected, The selection in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 when the affiliated station or MFN-related TS can be selected by the level 2 TS (A) of the level 4 TS (C) and the level 1 TS (D). FIG. 15 (b) shows the priority in the channel selection of the TS (A) in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 because the channel (2) can be selected in the level 2 TS (A). It is a figure which shows the priority (channel selection order) of the channel selection in the affiliated broadcast station memory | storage part 8 at the time of raising a rank (channel selection order) to level 1 and updating.

  FIG. 15A shows that the affiliated station of the four affiliated stations (A), (B), (C), (D) or the TS having the MFN relation has the channel selection priority in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8. A level 1 TS (D), a level 2 TS (A), a level 3 TS (B), and a level 4 TS (C) are stored in this order from the highest. When the reception failure detection unit 6 detects the reception failure of the TS being viewed due to the deterioration of the reception environment, the channel selection control unit 7 selects a TS in the sequence relationship or MFN relationship in the sequence broadcast station storage unit 8. If a TS of the level 2 (TS (A)) is selected and received, the priority of tuning of the selected TS (A) is set as the highest level 1, and accordingly, Updates so that the priority of channel selection of TSs other than is lowered one by one. At that time, only the TS having the higher priority level than the level 2 TS (A) that can be selected in the priority order of the channel selection before the change needs to be changed. That is, as shown in FIG. 15B, TS (D) correspondingly lowers the channel selection order from level 1 to level 2, and for level 3 TS (B) and level 4 TS (C) Since the priority level is lower than the level 2 TS (A) in the old channel selection order, the channel selection priority is not changed.

  Next, when the reception impossible detection unit 6 detects that the reception of the TS that the viewer has been viewing has been detected due to the deterioration of the reception environment, the channel selection control unit 7 determines from the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 that the TS can no longer be received. Search for channel information of TSs related to affiliated stations or MFN. If there are a plurality of affiliated stations or MFN-related TSs as a result of this search, the tuning control unit 7 performs tuning according to the tuning order stored in the affiliated station recording unit 8, It is determined whether or not the selected broadcast can be received, and the affiliated station or MFN is searched. However, the TS that was originally viewed may be excluded from the automatic channel selection target when reception is not possible.

  In other words, in the present embodiment, the tuning control unit 7 detects the number of times of detection of the detected TS, and selects the channel when searching for the channel information of the TS having the next MFN relationship of the detected TS having the MFN relationship. The affiliated broadcast station storage unit is configured so that the priority order to be selected is set to the highest priority order and the priority order selected when the next channel information is searched for other MFN-related TSs is lowered below the priorities. 8, and when the reception failure notification is received from the reception failure detection unit 6, the channel information of the TS having the MFN relationship is retrieved from the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8. When the channel selection control unit 7 stores a plurality of MFN-related TSs that can be received when the current position is within the reception service area, the channel selection control unit 7 prioritizes channel selection of TSs that are MFN-related. TSs are selected in order from the earliest, and it is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the selected MFN-related TS is “currently available”, and if it is “currently available”, MFN An instruction is output so as to view a program transmitted by the related TS.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when a TS related to an affiliated station or MFN is detected, channel information related to that TS is selected together with the channel information related to that TS when the next reception is impossible. As a result of automatic channel selection when reception is not possible, the priority of the next channel selection for the received TS is raised or given the highest priority. Even when moving to an area where the vehicle does not travel frequently every day, the automatic tuning of the affiliated station or MFN TS at the time of the second or later reception failure occurrence can be performed at high speed. In addition, when returning to an area where the vehicle is frequently used every day, the channel selection priority stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 stores a relatively high speed value. The station can be implemented. In addition, since additional hardware (H / W) for specifying the position such as GPS is unnecessary, it is possible to reduce the cost of the search function when reception is impossible.

Embodiment 10 FIG.
The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the tenth embodiment has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment, but differs in the following points.
In the reception failure detection unit 6, the electric field level from the tuner control unit 1, reception C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, error rate information, PAT and PMT disruption information from the demultiplex unit 2, TS A history of any of the information such as the synchronization lost information, the abnormality occurrence information of the continuity counter value in the TS header, and the decoding error information from the video / audio decoding unit 3 is collected. When the reception failure detection unit 6 detects the reception failure from the collected information, and the channel selection control unit 7 can detect the affiliated station-related or MFN-related TS by the search of the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 or the channel search. The channel selection control unit 7 stores the detected channel selection information of the TS in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 and also stores the reception abnormality history information in a predetermined period immediately before reception failure occurs. The predetermined period in this specification refers to, for example, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus that collects various status information as described above at regular sampling intervals of, for example, several seconds. "Sampling period" is expressed as a predetermined period.

  After that, when the next reception failure detection unit 6 detects reception failure, the channel selection control unit 7 displays past reception abnormality history information that is the same or close to the change pattern of the reception abnormality history information at that time. The affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 is searched. The channel selection control unit 7 selects the reception abnormality history information having the same or similar change pattern based on the channel selection information of the TS having the affiliated station relationship or the MFN relationship that has been received at that time.

  That is, in the digital broadcast receiver according to the present embodiment, the reception signal of the digital broadcast program from the broadcast station or the broadcast station designated by the input means detected by the channel search by the instruction output from the channel selection control unit 7 is received. Receives, selects, demodulates, and corrects errors, outputs TS of the received signal of the selected program, and if the processing is not possible, the received level information of the received signal of the program, the received C / N ratio A tuner 1 that outputs at least one of information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, and error rate information, and a video / audio stream is extracted and output from the TS, and a PSI / SI is extracted from the TS In addition to storing the PSI / SI, if any of the processes is disabled, various information such as PAT disconnection information, PMT disconnection information, TS synchronization loss information, and TS packet loss information A demultiplexer 2 for outputting at least one, decoding video and audio from the video / audio stream, outputting the decoded video signal and audio signal, and any of the processes being disabled Includes a video / audio decoding unit 3 for outputting at least one of various types of information such as decoding error detection information and decoding error rate information.

  When the reception impossibility detecting unit 6 detects that the received signal of the program is “currently incapable of receiving” based on at least one of various types of information, the channel selection control unit 7 When the TS in the affiliated station or MFN relation can be detected by the search in the unit 8 or the channel search, the channel station information of the detected TS is stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 and “current status” The changed pattern of the various information in the predetermined period immediately before the “reception impossible state” occurs is stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 as reception abnormality history information in association with the channel station information of the detected TS.

  At the time of detection of the “current unreceivable state” by the second and subsequent reception impossibility detection unit 6, the channel selection control unit 7 obtains the reception abnormality history information at that time from the reception abnormality history information stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8. A change pattern that is the same as or similar to the changed pattern is searched, and the channel selection information of the affiliated stations or MFN that is stored in association with the reception abnormality history information of the search result is used for channel selection.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the channel selection control unit 7 receives the reception abnormality history information immediately before the occurrence of reception failure together with the channel information related to the TS when the automatic channel selection of the affiliated station or MFN is possible. From the next time, the reception abnormality history information saved when reception is not possible is searched for a similar pattern to the fluctuation pattern of the reception abnormality information at that time, and the TS is automatically selected. Therefore, it is possible to increase the possibility of receiving a TS that can be automatically selected at the same point that could not be received in the past, and to increase the possibility of high-speed automatic channel selection by selecting the TS first. be able to. In addition, since additional hardware (H / W) for specifying the position such as GPS is unnecessary, it is possible to reduce the cost of the search function when reception is impossible.

Embodiment 11 FIG.
The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the tenth embodiment has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment, but differs in the following points.
In the reception failure detection unit 6, the electric field level from the tuner control unit 1, reception C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, error rate information, PAT and PMT disruption information from the demultiplex unit 2, TS A history of any of the information such as the synchronization lost information, the abnormality occurrence information of the continuity counter value in the TS header, and the decoding error information from the video / audio decoding unit 3 is collected. When the reception failure detection unit 6 detects the reception failure from the collected information, and the channel selection control unit 7 can detect the affiliated station-related or MFN-related TS by the search of the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 or the channel search. The channel selection control unit 7 stores the detected channel selection information of the TS in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 and also stores the reception abnormality history information in a predetermined period immediately before reception failure occurs.

  Thereafter, when the next reception failure detection unit 6 detects reception failure, the channel selection control unit 7 uses, for example, a change in electric field level in the reception abnormality history information acquired during a predetermined period immediately before the reception failure occurs. In case of sudden deterioration, it is judged that it has entered an environment where no channel can be received, such as the environment in the tunnel, and automatic affiliated station relationship or MFN relationship TS search and channel selection operation To cancel.

  That is, in the digital broadcast receiver according to the present embodiment, as in the tenth embodiment, from a broadcast station detected by channel search by an instruction output from the channel selection control unit 7 or a broadcast station designated by the input means. The received signal of the digital broadcast program is received, selected, demodulated and error-corrected, and the TS of the received signal of the selected program is output, and if the processing is not possible, the received signal of the program is received A tuner unit 1 that outputs at least one of level information, received C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, and error rate information, and a video / audio stream is extracted and output from the TS. PSI / SI is extracted from and saved, and if any of the processes is disabled, PAT disconnection information, PMT disconnection information, TS out-of-synchronization information, TS packet A demultiplexing unit 2 that outputs at least one of various types of loss information of a video, decoding video and audio from a video / audio stream, outputting decoded video signals and audio signals, The video / audio decoding unit 3 is provided to output at least one of various information such as decoding error detection information and decoding error rate information when any of them is disabled.

  When the reception impossibility detecting unit 6 detects that the received signal of the program is “currently incapable of receiving” based on at least one of various types of information, the channel selection control unit 7 When the TS in the affiliated station or MFN relation can be detected by the search in the unit 8 or the channel search, the channel station information of the detected TS is stored in the affiliated broadcast station storage unit 8 and “current status” The changed pattern of the various information in the predetermined period immediately before the “reception impossible state” occurs is stored in the affiliated broadcasting station storage unit 8 as reception abnormality history information in association with the channel station information of the detected TS.

  At the time of detecting the “current reception disabled state” of the second and subsequent reception disabled detection unit 6, the channel selection control unit 7 detects the “current reception disabled state” of the second and subsequent reception disabled detection unit 6 at the time of detecting the affiliated broadcast station The relationship of affiliated stations as a result of searching the reception abnormality history information stored in the storage unit 8 or the channel selection information of the TS having the MFN relationship indicates that no channel can be selected at the current position. In this case, the channel selection using the channel selection information of the affiliated broadcasting station or TS having the MFN relationship is stopped.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, it is determined whether the environment is such that no channel can be received at all due to the change pattern of reception abnormality information immediately before reception failure occurs. Since the automatic channel selection is not operated by such means, when the tunnel is exited, the TS that was originally received can be re-received in a short time. In addition, since additional hardware (H / W) for specifying the position such as GPS is unnecessary, it is possible to reduce the cost of the search function when reception is impossible.

It is a block diagram which shows the schematic internal structure of the digital broadcast receiver which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation of the channel selection control unit 7 in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of a channel selection control unit 7 in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows the bit structure of service ID in terrestrial digital broadcasting. It is a figure which shows the classification | category of the area identification field of service ID in terrestrial digital broadcasting. It is a figure which shows the area allocation situation of the area identification field in terrestrial digital broadcasting. It is a block diagram which shows the schematic internal structure of the digital broadcast receiver which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation | movement of the channel selection control part 7 in the digital broadcast receiver of Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the schematic internal structure of the digital broadcast receiver which concerns on Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation | movement of the channel selection control part 7 in Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is an operation | movement flowchart of the channel selection control part 7 in Embodiment 4 of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the schematic internal structure of the digital broadcast receiver which concerns on Embodiment 5 of this invention. It is a state transition diagram of the channel selection operation | movement of the channel selection control part 7 in Embodiment 6 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the priority determination algorithm of the next channel selection when the affiliated station in Embodiment 10 of this invention has received. It is a figure which shows the priority determination algorithm of the next channel selection when the affiliated station preserve | saved in the affiliated station storage part 8 in Embodiment 10 of this invention or TS of MFN is able to be received.

Explanation of symbols

  1 tuner unit, 2 demultiplexing unit, 3 video / audio decoding unit, 4 video display unit, 5 audio output unit, 6 unreceivable detection unit, 7 channel selection control unit, 8 series broadcasting station storage unit, 9 position detection unit 51 “Broadcast station A viewing” state 52 “Affiliated broadcast station search” state 53 “Broadcast station B viewing” state 61 “Program A viewing” state 62 “Program B viewing” state 71 “Broadcasting station A viewing” "Weak hierarchy viewing" state, 72 "Broad station A strong hierarchy viewing" state, 73 "Broad station B weak hierarchy viewing" state, 74 "Broadcast station B strong hierarchy viewing" state, 75 "Affiliated broadcast station search" state 81 “Broad station viewing of broadcast station A” state, 82 “Broad station viewing of broadcast station A” state, 83 “Broad station viewing of broadcast station B” state, 84 “High layer viewing of broadcast station B” state

Claims (23)

A tuner unit that receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program, selects, demodulates, and corrects an error, and outputs a TS (Transport Stream) of the received signal of the selected program;
The video / audio stream is separated and extracted from the TS, and the PSI (Program Specific Information) / SI (Service Information: service information, program arrangement information) is extracted from the TS and the PSI / SI is extracted. A demultiplexing part to be stored;
A video / audio decoder for decoding video and audio from the video / audio stream and outputting the decoded video and audio signals;
Based on various information obtained from the received signal of the channel being viewed, a reception disabled detection unit that detects that reception of the received signal of the currently viewed channel is currently disabled and outputs a reception disabled notification When,
The tuner stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is the tuner. A storage unit that stores the channel information of the detected channel in association with the channel information of the currently viewed channel when detected by the channel search by the unit;
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, it is determined whether the received signal of the channel is “current reception enabled” or not. If you want to watch the program on that channel,
In the case where another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or the channel being viewed is being transmitted to the tuner unit. A channel selection control unit that outputs instructions to channel search for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel,
The tuner unit includes a signal transmitted in a weak layer that is a layer of a modulation scheme having relatively low resistance to noise and multipath in the multiplexed received signal, and a noise and a signal in the multiplexed received signal. Both of the signals transmitted in the strong layer, which is a layer of a modulation scheme having a relatively strong resistance to multipath, are received,
The tuning control unit is
When any one channel is selected by the tuner unit, first, the demultiplex unit and the video / audio decoding unit receive the program transmitted in the weak layer of the one channel. Decoding the signal,
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit,
A switching instruction for switching to the strong layer of the one channel is output to the demultiplexing unit and the video / audio decoding unit, and the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong layer is “current reception ready state”. Whether or not
When the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong hierarchy is “currently unreceivable”, the channel information of another channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed is searched. A digital broadcast receiver.   2. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein switching from the weak hierarchy to the strong hierarchy is performed for a channel selected by searching channel information stored in the storage unit.   2. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein switching from the weak layer to the strong layer is performed for a channel detected and selected by a channel search by the tuner unit. When the channel selection control unit is decoding the reception signal of the program transmitted in the strong layer, the reception signal of the program transmitted in the weak layer from the reception incapability detection unit is set to the “current reception enabled state”. If you receive
A switching instruction to switch the hierarchy of the program to be decoded to the weak hierarchy is output to the demultiplexing section and the video / audio decoding section, and the received signal program of the program transmitted in the weak hierarchy is viewed The digital broadcast receiver according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the digital broadcast receiver is provided.   The channel selection control unit estimates a current area when searching channel information of a channel stored in the storage unit, and selects a channel used in broadcasting from a broadcasting station in an area adjacent to the current area. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein the digital broadcast receiver is a digital broadcast receiver. The tuner unit receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program, selects, demodulates, and corrects an error, and outputs a TS (Transport Stream) of the received signal of the selected program,
A demultiplexing unit separates and outputs a video / audio stream from the TS and outputs it, and extracts PSI (Program Specific Information) / SI (Service Information: service information, program arrangement information) from the TS. To store the PSI / SI,
The video / audio code unit decodes the video and audio from the video / audio stream and outputs the decoded video and audio signals,
Based on various information obtained from the received signal of the channel being viewed, a reception impossible detection step of detecting that reception of the received signal of the channel being viewed is currently impossible and outputting a reception impossible notification When,
The storage unit stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or another channel that is highly likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed. A storage step of storing channel information of the detected other channel in association with channel information of the currently viewed channel when a channel is detected by a channel search by the tuner unit;
When the reception failure detection is detected by the reception failure detection step, the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed is searched,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
It is determined whether or not the received signal of the channel is “currently ready to receive”, and if it is “currently ready to receive”, the program of the channel is viewed,
If another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
Instructing the tuner unit to perform a channel search for another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed. It has a tuning control step to output,
By the tuner unit, a signal transmitted in a weak layer that is a layer of a modulation scheme having relatively weak resistance to noise and multipath in the multiplexed received signal, and a noise and a signal in the multiplexed received signal Both of the signals transmitted in the strong layer, which is a layer of a modulation scheme having a relatively strong resistance to multipath, are received,
The channel selection control step includes:
When any one channel is selected by the tuner unit, the received signal of the program transmitted in the weak layer of the one channel to the demultiplexing unit and the video / audio decoding unit first. Decrypt
In the case where reception failure is detected by the reception failure detection step,
A switching instruction for switching to the strong layer of the one channel is output to the demultiplexing unit and the video / audio decoding unit, and the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong layer is “current reception ready state”. Whether or not
When the received signal of the program transmitted in the strong hierarchy is “currently unreceivable”, the channel information of another channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed is searched. A receiving method of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus.   7. The receiving method of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 6, wherein switching from the weak layer to the strong layer is performed for a channel selected by searching channel information stored in the storing step. .   7. The receiving method of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 6, wherein switching from the weak layer to the strong layer is performed for a channel selected by channel search by the tuner unit. When the reception signal of the program transmitted in the weak hierarchy is being decoded while the reception signal of the program transmitted in the strong hierarchy is in the “current reception enabled state”,
9. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the demultiplex unit and the video / audio decoding unit are caused to switch a hierarchy of a program to be decoded to the weak hierarchy. Reception method.   The channel selection control step estimates a current area and selects a channel used for broadcasting from a broadcasting station adjacent to the current area when searching channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit. A receiving method for a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to any one of claims 6 to 9. A tuner unit that receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program and selects, demodulates, and corrects an error;
Based on various information obtained from the reception signal of the channel being viewed, a reception impossibility detection unit that detects that reception of the reception signal of the channel being viewed is disabled and outputs a reception disapproval notification;
The tuner stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is the tuner. A storage unit that stores the channel information of the detected channel in association with the channel information of the currently viewed channel when detected by the channel search by the unit;
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, it is determined whether the received signal of the channel is “current reception enabled” or not. If you want to watch the program on that channel,
In the case where another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or the channel being viewed is being transmitted to the tuner unit. A channel selection control unit that outputs instructions to channel search for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel,
The tuning control unit is
Another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is detected, and the channel information of the detected other channel is obtained. When storing in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, the priority of the detected channel is set to the earliest priority and stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed from before. The priority order of other channels is stored in the storage unit one by one lower than the previous priority order,
In the case where a plurality of other channels are stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit, when the reception disable notification is received from the reception disable detection unit, the plurality of other channels are assigned the priority. Are selected in order from the earliest channel, and it is determined whether or not the received signal of the selected channel is “currently ready to receive”.
When all of the other channels stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the same program as the channel being viewed is broadcast to the tuner unit. An instruction to output a channel search for another channel that is highly likely to be broadcasting the same program as another channel being viewed or the channel being viewed. The tuner unit receives a digital broadcast program reception signal, selects, demodulates, corrects an error, and outputs a TS of the selected program reception signal;
The tuning control unit is
When the channel information of another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, if the same TS as the TS transmitting the program being viewed is detected by the tuner unit, the detection is performed. It is detected that the TS is in an MFN (multi-frequency network) relationship, and the channel information of the detected TS in the MFN relationship and the channel information of the TS transmitting the program being viewed are in an MFN relationship. And store it in the storage unit,
When receiving a non-reception notification from the non-reception detection unit, search for the MFN-related TS from the storage unit,
It is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of another TS stored in association with the TS of the program being viewed as having an MFN relationship is “current reception enabled”. In this case, the program transmitted by the MFN-related TS is viewed,
When the TS having the MFN relationship is not stored, the tuner unit is instructed to perform a channel search for another channel having the MFN relationship,
If the programs transmitted by all the MFN-related TSs stored in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the tuner unit is further searched for another channel having an MFN-related channel. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the instruction is output as follows. The tuning control unit is
The priority of the TS having the MFN relationship detected by the channel search by the tuner unit is set to the earliest priority, and the priorities of the other TSs having the MFN relationship are lowered one by one from the priorities. Memorize it in the memory,
When a plurality of TSs are stored as having a MFN relationship with the TS of the program being viewed, when the reception failure notification is received from the reception failure detection unit, the TS having the MFN relationship is selected as the priority level. It is selected in order from the earliest, and it is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of the selected MFN-related TS is “currently ready for reception”. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 12, wherein an instruction is output so as to view a program transmitted by the TS. The tuning control unit is
When storing the channel information of another channel in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit, the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station that is in the same series as the broadcast station being viewed by the tuner unit is displayed. In association with a broadcast station, store in the storage unit,
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the affiliated broadcasting station from the storage unit,
It is determined whether or not the received signal from the affiliated broadcast station stored in association with the broadcasting station being viewed is “currently available”, and if it is “currently available”, the program from the affiliated broadcast station is displayed. Watch
If the affiliated broadcast station is not stored, the tuner unit is instructed to channel search for the affiliated broadcast station,
When the programs from all the affiliated broadcast stations stored in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the tuner unit is instructed to perform a channel search for another affiliated broadcast station. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 11, wherein: The tuning control unit is
The priority order of the affiliated broadcast stations detected by the channel search by the tuner unit is made the earliest order, and the priority order of other affiliated broadcast stations is lowered one by one from the priorities and stored in the storage unit. Let
When a plurality of affiliated broadcast stations are stored as having the same series relationship as the broadcasting station being viewed, when the reception unavailable notification is received from the reception unavailable detection unit, the affiliated broadcast stations are assigned the priorities. Are selected in order from the earliest, and it is determined whether the received signal from the selected affiliated broadcast station is “currently available” or not, and if it is “currently available”, the program from the affiliated broadcast station is viewed. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 14, wherein an instruction is output so as to do. A tuner unit that receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program and selects, demodulates, and corrects an error;
Based on various information obtained from the reception signal of the channel being viewed, a reception impossibility detection unit that detects that reception of the reception signal of the channel being viewed is disabled and outputs a reception disapproval notification;
The tuner stores channel information of the channel being viewed, and another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel that is being viewed is the tuner. A storage unit that stores the channel information of the detected channel in association with the channel information of the currently viewed channel when detected by the channel search by the unit;
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the channel stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed,
In the case where another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, it is determined whether the received signal of the channel is “current reception enabled” or not. If you want to watch the program on that channel,
In the case where another channel is not stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or the channel being viewed is being transmitted to the tuner unit. A channel selection control unit that outputs instructions to channel search for another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel,
The tuning control unit is
Detecting another channel that is broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed or another channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program as the channel being viewed, and viewing the channel information of the detected channel In addition to storing in the storage unit in association with the channel, the number of detection of each channel is also stored in the storage unit,
In the case where a plurality of other channels are stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit, when the reception disabled notification is received from the reception disabled detection unit, the plurality of other channels are detected as the number of times of detection. Select in order from the channel with the largest number of channels, determine whether the received signal of the selected channel is “currently available”, and if it is “currently available”, watch the program on that channel,
When all of the other channels stored in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the same program as the channel being viewed is broadcast to the tuner unit. An instruction to output a channel search for another channel that is highly likely to be broadcasting the same program as another channel being viewed or the channel being viewed. The tuner unit receives a digital broadcast program reception signal, selects, demodulates, corrects an error, and outputs a TS of the selected program reception signal;
The tuning control unit is
When the channel information of another channel is stored in the storage unit in association with the channel being viewed, if the same TS as the TS transmitting the program being viewed is detected by the tuner unit, the detection is performed. It is detected that the TS is in an MFN (multi-frequency network) relationship, and the channel information of the detected TS in the MFN relationship and the channel information of the TS transmitting the program being viewed are in an MFN relationship. And store it in the storage unit,
When receiving a non-reception notification from the non-reception detection unit, search for the MFN-related TS from the storage unit,
It is determined whether or not the received signal based on the channel information of another TS stored in association with the TS of the program being viewed as having an MFN relationship is “current reception enabled”. In this case, the program transmitted by the MFN-related TS is viewed,
When the TS having the MFN relationship is not stored, the tuner unit is instructed to perform a channel search for another channel having the MFN relationship,
If the programs transmitted by all the MFN-related TSs stored in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the tuner unit is further searched for another channel having an MFN-related channel. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the instruction is output as follows. The tuning control unit is
Detect the number of TS detections detected by the channel search by the tuner unit, and store the number of detections together with the information indicating the MFN relationship in the storage unit,
When a plurality of TSs are stored as having an MFN relationship with the TS of the program being viewed, when the reception failure notification is received from the reception failure detection unit, the MFN relationship TS is detected a large number of times. The received signal based on the channel information of the selected TS is determined to be “current reception enabled” or not, and if it is “current reception enabled”, the MFN-related TS transmits. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 17, wherein an instruction is output to view a program. The tuning control unit is
When storing the channel information of another channel in association with the channel being viewed in the storage unit, the channel information of the affiliated broadcast station that is in the same series as the broadcast station being viewed by the tuner unit is displayed. In association with a broadcast station, store in the storage unit,
When receiving a reception failure notification from the reception failure detection unit, search the channel information of the affiliated broadcasting station from the storage unit,
It is determined whether or not the received signal from the affiliated broadcast station stored in association with the broadcasting station being viewed is “currently available”, and if it is “currently available”, the program from the affiliated broadcast station is displayed. Watch
If the affiliated broadcast station is not stored, the tuner unit is instructed to channel search for the affiliated broadcast station,
When the programs from all the affiliated broadcast stations stored in the storage unit are “currently unreceivable”, the tuner unit is instructed to perform a channel search for another affiliated broadcast station. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 16, wherein The tuning control unit is
Detecting the number of detections of affiliated broadcast stations detected by the channel search by the tuner unit, and storing the number of detections together with information indicating the same series in the storage unit,
When a plurality of affiliated broadcasting stations are stored as having the same series relationship as the broadcasting station being viewed, when the reception impossible notification is received from the reception impossible detecting unit, the affiliated broadcast station is In order from the most frequent, select whether the received signal from the selected affiliated broadcast station is “currently available” or not, and if it is “currently available”, watch the program from the affiliated broadcaster. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the instruction is output to The tuner unit receives a received signal of a digital broadcast program, selects, demodulates, and corrects an error, outputs a TS of the received signal of the selected program, and if the processing is not possible, the program Output at least one of reception level information, reception C / N ratio information, PLL lock information, frame lock information, and error rate information of the received signal,
A video / audio stream is separated and output from the TS, and PSI / SI is extracted from the TS and stored, and if any of the processes is disabled, PAT disconnection information, A demultiplexing unit that outputs at least one of PMT disconnection information, TS synchronization loss information, and TS packet loss information;
Decode video and audio from the video / audio stream and output the decoded video signal and audio signal. If any of the processes is disabled, the decoding error detection information and decoding error rate information A video / audio decoding unit that outputs at least one of various types of information;
The reception impossibility detecting unit is
When it is detected that the received signal of the program is “currently unreceivable” based on at least one of the various information,
The tuning control unit is
When the TS used for broadcasting the same program can be detected by the search in the storage unit or the channel search by the tuner unit, the channel information of the detected TS is stored in the storage unit,
The change pattern of the various information in a predetermined period immediately before the occurrence of the “current reception impossible state” is stored as the reception abnormality history information in the storage unit in association with the channel station information of the detected TS,
Thereafter, when the reception failure detection unit detects the “current reception disabled state”, a change pattern that is the same as or similar to the change pattern of the reception abnormality history information at that time is determined from the reception abnormality history information stored in the storage unit. 21. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the reception abnormality history information is searched, and the searched reception abnormality history information is used for channel selection. The channel selection control unit indicates that the reception abnormality history information of a predetermined period immediately before the detection of the “current reception disabled state” by the reception disable detection unit indicates that the current position is a position where no channel can be selected. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the search for a channel that is broadcasting the same program or a channel that is likely to be broadcasting the same program is stopped.   The channel selection control unit estimates a current area when searching channel information of a channel stored in the storage unit, and selects a channel used in broadcasting from a broadcasting station in an area adjacent to the current area. The digital broadcast receiver according to claim 11, wherein the digital broadcast receiver is a digital broadcast receiver.

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