JP4583870B2 - Transport stream processing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport stream processing apparatus that processes a digital video signal and / or a digital audio signal, and more particularly to a digital video signal and / or digital output from a storage medium control apparatus that reproduces a transport stream recorded on a storage medium. The present invention relates to a transport stream processing apparatus suitable for processing an audio signal.

  With the start of digital television broadcasting, products that process digital video signals and / or digital audio signals are spreading on the market. Products that process digital video signals handle video data as packets of a predetermined size in accordance with MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standards, and perform transmission and other processing of digital video signals.

FIG. 11 shows the structure of transmission data using the MPEG system. The video data and audio data of the program are decomposed into a plurality of packets and expressed as one data stream obtained by connecting them. FIG. 11 shows two data streams. The two data streams are referred to as transport streams (hereinafter referred to as “TS”) 1 and 2, respectively.
In current satellite broadcasting (for example, BS broadcasting), one transmission band is called a transport, and one TS is transmitted by one transport. Accordingly, the two TSs in FIG. 11 are transmitted in different transmission bands.

A TS can include a plurality of program data. TS1 in FIG. 11 includes program A and program B. The data relating to the program is mainly composed of video data and audio data, and may include other data. In this way, various data including video and audio related to a plurality of programs are time-divided and broadcast in units of packets on the TS.
These packets have a packet identifier (identification number) called a PID (Packet Identifier), and the type or attribute of each packet can be identified based on the PID. Further, a portion where actual information is written in a packet is called a payload portion.

FIG. 10 shows a hierarchical structure of packets included in the TS. First, a packet called a PAT (Program Association Table) packet is included in the TS. A PAT packet has a PAT. In the PAT, a PID of a packet called a PMT (Program Mapping Table) packet is written. Each PMT packet has a PMT. In the PMT, information related to programs included in the TS is recorded.
In FIG. 10, during the PAT of the PAT packet of TS1, TS1 includes program A and program B, the PID of the PMT packet of program A is “100”, and the PID of the PMT packet of program B is PID. “200” is written. In the PAT of the PAT packet of TS2, TS2 includes program C and program D, the PID of the PMT packet of program C is “300”, and the PID of the PMT packet of program D is “400”. There has been written. In the following description, PID is described as a decimal number.

Next, in the PMT of the PMT packet of program A, the packet containing the video data of program A (hereinafter referred to as “video packet”) has a PID of 110, and the packet containing the audio data of program A It is written that the PID of 120 (hereinafter referred to as “voice packet”) is 120. That is, it can be seen that a packet with a PID of 110 in TS1 is a video packet of program A, and a packet with a PID of 120 is an audio packet of program A.
Similarly, PIDs of video packets and audio packets of the respective programs are written in the PMTs of the PMT packets related to the programs B, C, and D. Note that the PID of a packet other than the PMT packet can be written in the PAT. In some cases, PMTs of packets other than video packets and audio packets are written in the PMT.
Note that the PID of the PAT packet itself positioned at the top of the hierarchy is often determined to be “000”.

Since the video data and audio data occupy most of the information constituting the program, there are a large number of video packets and audio packets in the TS. Packets including a PAT packet and a PMT packet are arranged at various points in the flow of these packets. In BS digital broadcasting currently performed, PAT packets and PMT packets are arranged at a rate of about once every 100 msec to several 100 msec.
A receiver that receives a TS, which is a broadcast wave having such a configuration, sequentially extracts a PAT packet and a PMT packet from the TS, looks at the contents of each packet, and receives a video packet or an audio packet related to a desired program. To get.

  FIG. 7 shows a digital broadcast receiver having a conventional transport stream processing apparatus for selecting data related to a program desired by a user from this TS. A conventional digital broadcast receiver includes an antenna 101 that receives broadcast radio waves, a tuner 102 that selects and demodulates one TS from the broadcast radio waves, a descrambler 103 that descrambles a scrambled TS, and an IEEE 1394 standard. It has a conforming external input terminal 105, input selector switch 106, conventional transport stream processing device 700, AV decoder 107, and storage medium control device 104.

  The storage medium control device 104 includes a transmission unit 141, a reception unit 142, a buffer 143, a storage medium 133, and a control unit (not shown). A control unit configured with a microcomputer communicates with the transport stream apparatus 700. The receiving unit 142 temporarily stores the TS including the compressed digital video packet and / or the compressed digital audio packet output from the transport stream processing apparatus 700 in the buffer 143 and then records the TS in the storage medium 144. The storage medium 144 is an arbitrary recording medium, and is, for example, an optical disk, a magnetic tape, a semiconductor memory card, a hard disk, or the like. At the time of reproduction, the storage medium control device 104 temporarily stores the TS including the digital video packet read from the storage medium 144 and / or the compressed digital audio packet in the buffer 143 and then outputs the TS through the transmission unit 141.

  The input changeover switch 106 selects one of the TS output from the descrambler 103, the TS output from the external input terminal 105, and the TS output from the storage medium control device 104 and outputs the selected TS to the transport stream processing device 700. To do.

  A conventional transport stream processing apparatus 700 includes a program information management unit 711 and a DEMUX unit (extraction unit) 109. The DEMUX unit (extraction unit) 109 includes a PID filter 121 and a section filter 122. The PID filter 121 includes a PID table 131, a PID comparator 132, and an output changeover switch 133.

  The transport stream processing device 700 inputs the TS selected by the input selector switch 106. The input TS is checked for PID for each packet by the PID filter 121. The PID filter 121 is notified of the PID of the packet to be selected as the packet number Np to be selected from the program information management unit 711. This notification will be described at the same time when the program information management unit 711 is described.

  When the packet is a video packet and / or an audio packet to be selected, the PID filter 121 sends the packet to the AV decoder 107 as the selected packet Psav. The PID filter 121 may record the packet Psav in a buffer memory (not shown), and the AV decoder 107 may read the packet Psav from the buffer memory. The AV decoder 107 decompresses and outputs a packet Psav that is compressed video data and / or audio data. The selected packet Psav is recorded on the storage medium 144 in accordance with an instruction from the user.

  The PID filter 121 checks the PID of the packet, and if the packet is a packet other than a video and / or audio packet and is a PAT packet, PMT packet, or other packet that needs to be acquired, the packet is designated as a management information packet. It is sent to the section filter 122 as Pi. The section filter 122 analyzes the content of the management information packet Pi and sends the content Di to the program information management unit 711.

  The program information management unit 711 includes a memory, a memory controller, and the like, and receives program information to be processed from a system control unit (not shown) of the entire digital broadcast receiver. The program information management unit 711 knows the PID of the PMT packet to be acquired from the content of the PAT, and knows the PID of the video packet and / or the audio packet to be acquired from the content of the PMT. The program information management unit 711 notifies the PID filter 121 of the PID of the PAT packet, the PID of the PMT packet to be acquired, and the PID of the video packet and / or the audio packet to be acquired as the number Np of the packet to be selected.

A storage medium 144 such as a tape, a disk, or a solid-state storage element is connected to a device (here, a digital broadcast receiver) including the transport stream processing device 700 as in the conventional example, and the PID filter 121 is designated as the storage medium 144. When transmitting a packet related to the selected program, the PID filter 121 stores the PAT packet, the PMT packet related to the selected program, and the video and / or audio packet of the designated program as a partial stream (Ps) as a storage medium 144. Send to.
The external input terminal 105 may input a TS of a transmission standard other than IEEE1394 or a dedicated standard.

With reference to FIG. 8, a more detailed description will be given centering on the operation of the PID filter 121. The PID filter 121 includes a PID table 131, a PID comparator 132, and a switch 133. Here, a case where TS1 in FIG. 11 is input and program A is selected will be described.
The PID table 131 is a table for registering PIDs of packets that are selected and output by the PID filter 121. The input TS1 is input to the PID comparator 132 packet by packet. The PID comparator 132 passes the packet having the PID written in the PID table 131 to the subsequent stage, and discards the other packets.

  In the initial state, a packet number indicating a PAT packet “000” is set in the PID table 131 (St100). The PID comparator 132 passes the packet having the number written in the PID table 131 to the subsequent processing (Fp100). That is, normally, the PID filter 121 discards the input packet until the first PAT packet is received. Although the PID of the PAT packet is “000”, it is not necessarily inevitable, but it is often used in the operation.

The switch 133 sends the PAT packet to the section filter 122 (Pi100). The section filter 122 analyzes the contents of the PAT stored in the payload part of the PAT packet and sends the contents to the program information management part (Di100).
The program information management unit 711 knows that the information related to the program A to be selected is written in the PMT stored in the payload part of the PMT packet whose PID is “100”, and notifies the PID table 131 of the number. (Np100). PID “100” is set in the PID table 131 (St200).

Next, the PID comparator 132 continues to discard the input packet until a PMT packet with a PID of “100” is received. When the PID comparator 132 recognizes the PMT packet with the PID “100”, the PID packet is passed (Fp200). The passed PMT packet is sent to the section filter 122 via the switch 133 (Pi200). The section filter 122 analyzes the contents of the PMT stored in the payload part of the PMT packet and sends the contents to the program information management part 711 (Di200).
The program information management unit 711 knows that the video information of the program A to be selected is contained in a packet having a PID of “110”, and that the audio information is contained in a packet having a PID of “120”. Notify the PID table 131 (Np200). These PIDs are set in the PID table 131 (St300). A flag indicating that these packets are sent to the AV decoder is also set in the PID table 131. In the figure, this flag is indicated by a black circle.

Thereafter, the PID comparator 132 passes packets having PIDs “110” and “120” having video and audio information relating to the program A, respectively. These packets are sent to the AV decoder 107 via the switch 133 due to the presence of a flag sent to the AV decoder (Psav).
When the selected program is recorded in the storage medium 144 that is a digital stream memory (DSM), the PAT packet, the PMT packet, the video and / or the audio packet are output to the reception unit 142 of the storage medium control device 104 ( Ps).

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of the operation of the DEMUX unit 109 including the PID table 131, the PID comparator 132, and the switch 133.
First, the DEMUX unit 109 inputs a packet (step 910). The PID comparator 132 determines whether or not the PID of this packet is in the PID table 131 (step 912), and if it is not in the PID table 131, returns to the step 910 for inputting the packet again.
If the PID of the input packet is in the PID table 131, the PID comparator 132 determines whether or not to output as TSp (step 914), and if so, outputs it as TSp (step 916). This TSp is sent to the storage medium 144 or the like.

  Regardless of whether or not to output as TSp, the PID comparator 132 determines whether or not to send the packet to the AV decoder 107 based on the flag of the PID table 131 (step 918). If the packet is not sent to the AV decoder 107, the PID comparator 132 sends the packet to the section filter 122 (step 922). The section filter 122 sends the contents of the packet to the program information management unit 711 (step 924). When sending the packet to the AV decoder 107, the PID comparator 132 sends the packet as Psav to the AV decoder (step 920). Then, the process returns to the packet input step 910 again.

The packet group output to the outside in this way is a packet group obtained by extracting the information related to the program A, the PAT packet and the PMT packet from TS1 in FIG. 10, and is as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 12, a TS obtained by removing unnecessary packets from the original TS is referred to as a partial stream (hereinafter referred to as “TSp”).
These techniques are disclosed in Patent Document 1 (see Patent Document 1).

JP 2000-341597 A

  The operation when the transport stream processing apparatus 700 of the conventional example inputs the partial stream TSp reproduced from the storage medium 144 in order will be described with reference to FIG. Although not shown, the system control unit of the entire digital broadcast receiver is notified in advance to the program information management unit 711 which program in the storage medium 144 of the storage medium control device 104 is to be played back. Similarly, it is assumed that the storage medium control device 104 is notified of which program is to be reproduced.

When the transport stream processing apparatus 700 takes out the video and audio packets of the target program from the TSp reproduced from the storage medium 144, the transport stream processing apparatus 700 stores the PID table 131 in the PID filter unit 121 as described in the related art. The PID for the video and audio packets of the target program must be set.
The PID of these video and audio data packets is written in the PMT of the PMT packet in the reproduced TSp, and the PID of the PMT packet is also described in the PAT of the PAT packet in the reproduced TSp. ing.

Therefore, when a new program is reproduced from the storage medium 144, the PID relating to the video and audio packets is not set in the PID table 131 unless the PAT packet and the PMT packet in the reproduced TSp pass through the PID filter 121. The PAT packet and the PMT packet are embedded only at a time interval of about 100 ms to several hundreds of ms.
That is, when a program is reproduced from the storage medium 144, the transport stream processing device 700 starts to input a packet until the PID of the target program video and audio packet is set in the PID table 131. Discard. Therefore, there is a problem that the time from the start of stream input until the PID of the target program video and audio packet is set in the PID table 131 becomes a waiting time.

  In particular, when a program is reproduced continuously from the storage medium 144 (for example, program A to program C), from the end of the currently reproduced program (program A) to the reproduction of the next program (program C). There arises a problem that a certain amount of time is required. Such a time interval seems to be short, but is sufficient to make the user feel uncomfortable. In addition, there is a problem in that video and audio during that time cannot be viewed by discarding the video and audio packets input until the PAT packet and PMT packet of the next program are received.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a transport stream processing apparatus that shortens the waiting time until reproduction and does not discard packets.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has the following configuration. The invention according to claim 1 inputs a packet having a packet identifier,
A packet identifier filter that selects only the packet having a predetermined registered packet identifier from the input packets, the packet identifier filter has a packet identifier table for registering a packet identifier;
If the packet identifier is written in the payload portion of the selected packet , the packet identifier table is updated with the packet identifier,
If the selected packet is a predetermined dummy packet, the packet identifier of the video and / or audio packet in the dummy packet is extracted, and the packet identifier table is updated,
If the selected packet is a video and / or audio packet, an extraction unit that selects and outputs only the packet having a packet identifier registered in the packet identifier table ;
The packet identifier of at least the video and / or audio packet included in the transport stream output by the transport stream output device is acquired, and the packet identifier is written in the payload part to generate a dummy packet with the packet identifier A controller that adds the dummy packet to the head of the transport stream output by the transport stream output device;
Is a transport stream processing apparatus.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the transport stream processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit attaches a unique packet identifier as the packet identifier of the dummy packet.

  The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the control unit uses a NULL packet as the dummy packet, and adds information for distinguishing it from a normal NULL packet in the NULL packet. This is a transport stream processing apparatus.

  When a program is recorded on the storage medium, video and audio packet PIDs of the program are recorded separately. In the present invention, since a dummy packet in which a PID such as a video packet or an audio packet in the TSp is previously written is added to the head of the TSp reproduced from the storage medium, the arrival of the PAT packet or the PMT packet in the TSp Since the video packet and the audio packet can be sent to the AV decoder without waiting for, the effect that the waiting time until reproduction can be shortened can be obtained.

  Also, video and audio can be viewed from the beginning of TSp without discarding video and audio packets until the PAT packet and PMT packet are received.

  DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments that specifically show the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<< Embodiment >>
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a digital broadcast receiver having a transport stream processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The digital broadcast receiver according to the present embodiment includes an antenna 101 that receives broadcast radio waves, a tuner 102 that selects and demodulates one TS from the broadcast radio waves, a descrambler 103 that descrambles the scrambled TS, and IEEE 1394. The external input terminal 105, the input changeover switch 106, the transport stream processing device 100, the AV decoder 107, the storage medium control device 104, and the system control unit (not shown).

  The digital broadcast receiver according to the embodiment of the present invention includes a transport stream processing device 100 instead of the conventional transport stream processing device 700. When the storage medium control apparatus 104 records a TS including the compressed digital video packet and / or the compressed digital audio packet output from the transport stream processing apparatus 100 on the storage medium 144, the storage medium control apparatus 104 outputs the video packet and / or Alternatively, the PID of the voice packet is recorded on the storage medium 144 separately from the TS. In response to an inquiry from the transport stream processing apparatus 100, the storage medium control apparatus 104 can immediately notify the PID of the video packet and / or audio packet of the recorded program. The other components of the digital broadcast receiver of the present invention are the same as those of the conventional example.

The transport stream processing apparatus 100 includes a DEMUX unit (extraction unit) 109 including a PID filter 121 and a section filter 122, and a control unit 108 including a program information management unit 111 and a dummy packet insertion unit 112. The DEMUX unit 109 is the same as described in the prior art.
The operation of the PID filter 121 that outputs the partial stream TSp from the input TS to the storage medium 144 is the same as that described in the related art.

First, the case where the transport stream processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment selects a program from the input TS and records the TSp related to the program on a storage medium will be described. The packet output from the transport stream processing apparatus 100 is also displayed as Ps and also as TSp.
A system control unit (not shown) of the entire digital broadcast receiver instructs the program information management unit 111 to output a partial stream TSp related to a predetermined program in TS1 to the storage medium control device 104.
For the sake of explanation, it is assumed that program A and program C of the two streams TS1 and TS2 in FIG. Since TS1 and TS2 are transmitted by separate transponders, the tuner 102 tunes these transponders appropriately. Further, it is assumed that the program C is broadcast after the program A in time.
The storage medium 144 is an arbitrary recording / reproducing recording medium such as a plate-shaped recording medium such as a hard disk or an optical disk, a tape-shaped recording medium, or a solid-state memory. The recording medium may or may not be replaced.

  As described in the prior art, the transport stream processing apparatus 100 extracts a related packet for a desired program in the TS and transmits it to the storage medium control apparatus 104. That is, the PAT packet and the PMT packet in TS1 are acquired, the PIDs of the video and audio packets are detected, and the packet group corresponding to the PID is transmitted to the storage medium control device 104 as TSp (Ps). The storage medium control device 104 records TSp (Ps) related to the program A in TS1 and the program C in TS2 on the storage medium 144.

  The program information management unit 111 separately notifies the storage medium control device 104 of the PID information of the packet to be transmitted to the storage medium 144 (Ri1). The program information management unit 111 may notify the notification information Ri1 to the storage medium control device 104 prior to the transmission of TSp (Ps), or may be notified after the transmission of TSp (Ps). In the figure, Ri1 is shown to be notified by a communication line different from the transmission line of partial stream Ps, but the same communication line as Ps may be used. For communication of TSp and Ri1, a protocol based on a standard such as IEEE 1394 may be used, or a dedicated line and protocol may be used.

Instead of the configuration of the embodiment, the program information management unit 111 does not notify the storage medium 144 of the PID information of the packet to be recorded on the storage medium 144 but stores it in a built-in memory (preferably a non-volatile memory). You may do it.
The storage medium control device 104 may be included in a device including the transport stream processing device 100, or may be a device separate from the device.

Next, a case where the TSp of programs A and C are reproduced from the storage medium 144 will be described. A system control unit (not shown) of the entire digital broadcast receiver instructs the storage medium control device 104 and the transport stream processing device 100 to reproduce the TSp related to the program recorded in the storage medium 144.
Instead, the system control unit (not shown) may instruct only the storage medium control device 104 to play back the TSp related to the program recorded on the storage medium 144. The storage medium control device 104 transmits the program to be reproduced to the transport stream processing device 100 directly or via a system control unit (not shown) of the digital broadcast receiver.
Alternatively, the system control unit (not shown) may instruct only the transport stream processing apparatus 100 to reproduce the TSp related to the program recorded on the storage medium 144. The transport stream processing apparatus 100 transmits a program to be reproduced to the storage medium control apparatus 104 directly or via a system control unit (not shown) of a digital broadcast receiver.

  The program information management unit 111 acquires, from the storage medium control device 104, PID information of packets (including video packets and / or audio packets) belonging to the TSp of the program reproduced from the storage medium 144 (Ri2). The program information management unit 111 may directly acquire the PID information of the packet belonging to the TSp of the reproduction program from the storage medium control device 104 or via a system control unit (not shown) of the digital broadcast receiver. May be. When the program information management unit 111 stores the PID information in a built-in memory, the PID information is read from the memory.

  The program information management unit 111 may request the storage medium control device 104 for the PID information, and the storage medium control device 104 may send the PID information accordingly. Alternatively, the PID information may be transmitted by itself, and the program information management unit 111 may acquire the information. Further, the line used for notification is not particularly limited, as in the case where these pieces of information are transmitted from the program information management unit 111 to the storage medium control device 104.

The program information management unit 111 notifies the dummy packet insertion unit 112 of the PID of the video and / or audio packet in the TSp of the program to be reproduced (Np1). The dummy packet insertion unit 112 prepares a packet with a unique PID and writes the video and / or audio packet PID of the program to be reproduced in the payload portion of the packet. Therefore, the prepared packet has the same format as the PMT packet.
The dummy packet is a packet that is not originally included in the TSp recorded in the storage medium 144 and is added for convenience of handling by a device that handles the TSp (including TS). It does not depend on the contents of the payload part.

  The dummy packet insertion unit 112 waits for the reproduced TSp from the storage medium 144, adds the prepared dummy packet to the head thereof, and sends it to the DEMUX unit 109. Therefore, the reproduced TSp is a dummy packet shown in FIG. 4 followed by TS1.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the dummy packet insertion unit 112. The dummy packet insertion unit 112 includes a dummy packet generation unit 220, a transmission unit 240, and a buffer 260.
The operation of the dummy packet insertion unit 112 will be described. The program information management unit 111 transmits PID information of packets (including video and / or audio packets) included in the TSp to be reproduced to the dummy packet generation unit 220 (Np1). The dummy packet generation unit 220 generates a dummy packet in which these PIDs are written in the payload portion. The PID of the dummy packet itself is a unique numerical value that is unlikely to be used in the normal TS. Here, it is set to “1000” for explanation. The dummy packet generation unit 220 sends the created dummy packet to the transmission unit 240.
On the other hand, the buffer 260 waits for the arrival of TSp from the storage medium control device 104, and stores it when a packet is received.

The dummy packet may be given a PID of a NULL packet instead of giving a unique value of 1000. For example, create a dummy packet in which the PID of a packet such as a video and / or audio of TSP to be reproduced from now on, which is notified by Np1, and a flag for distinguishing from a normal NULL packet are written in the payload part, A PID of a NULL packet is given.
The transmission unit 240 detects that the TSp packets from the storage medium 144 are accumulated in the buffer 260 and transmits the dummy packet first received from the dummy packet generation unit 220 to the DEMUX unit 109 (PID comparator 132). To do.

  The transmission unit 240 starts to transmit the TSp stored in the buffer 260 to the DEMUX unit 109 (PID comparator 132) after a certain time interval after the transmission of the dummy packet. By making the fixed time interval larger than the normal packet interval in the TS, the program information management unit 111 reproduces the extracted packet from the dummy packet before the first packet of the TSp reaches the DEMUX unit 109. Acquiring the PID information of the program packet and writing it to the PID table 131 can be reliably completed.

Alternatively, after transmitting the dummy packet, several packets (for example, a NULL packet) with an empty payload portion to which a PID different from the PID attached to the dummy packet is assigned may be sent. Several empty packets may be sent prior to the transmission of the dummy packet. Thus, the DEMUX unit 109 can establish synchronization while receiving these empty packets. For example, the PLL of the DEMUX unit 109 can establish synchronization with the clock information included in the packet. The DEMUX unit 109 can reliably read the TSp read from the buffer 260 from the beginning.
As described above, the dummy packet insertion unit 112 adds a dummy packet in which a PID of a desired video and / or audio packet is written to the head of the TSp read from the storage medium 144.

Next, how the DEMUX unit 109 processes a TSp with a dummy packet in which a video and / or audio PID is written at the head will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows an internal configuration of the DEMUX unit 109.
The TSp with dummy packet input to the DEMUX unit 109 is input to the PID filter 121. The configuration of the PID filter 121 has been described in the conventional example.

  In the initial state, the PID of the PAT packet “000” (St10) and the PID (St20) of the dummy packet “1000” are set in the PID table 131. The PID table 131 of the embodiment is a table that can register a limited number of PIDs. The capacity of the PID table 131 is small, and the capacity is only slightly larger than the storage capacity necessary for registering the PID of the packet currently selected and output by the PID filter 121. If the PID of a packet that the PID filter 121 selects and outputs in the future is registered in the PID table 131, the storage capacity of the PID table 131 may be insufficient. Therefore, it is preferable that the program information management unit 111 registers only the PID of the packet that the PID filter 121 currently selects and outputs as much as possible, or the packet that is currently selected and output.

The program information management unit 111 sets the PID of the dummy packet in the PID table 131 simultaneously with notifying the dummy packet insertion unit 112 of the PID of the reproduced program video and / or audio packet (Np1). If the DEMUX unit 109 has not yet received a dummy packet from the dummy packet insertion unit 112, the timing at which the program information management unit 111 sets the PID of the dummy packet in the PID table 131 may vary in time.
However, at this time, in order to prevent the storage capacity of the PID table 131 from being insufficient, the program information management unit 111 does not record the PID of the video and / or audio packet of the reproduced program in the PID table 131.

  The operation of the PID comparator 132 is the same as that of the prior art. The PID comparator 132 passes the packet having the PID written in the PID table 131 and sends it to the switch 133 (Fp10). That is, the PID filter 121 discards the input packet until the first PAT packet or a dummy packet with a PID of “1000” is received.

In the present invention, since a dummy packet with a PID of “1000” is added to the head of the stream from the storage medium 144, the PID filter 121 passes the dummy packet.
The switch 133 sends the packet to the section filter 122 (Pi10). The section filter 122 extracts the PID stored in the payload portion of the input dummy packet, and sends the PID information to the program information management unit 111 (Di10). The PID information (Di10) here is the PID of a packet such as video and / or audio included in the TSp reproduced from the storage medium 144.

  The program information management unit 111 acquires the PMT packet in TSp that the packet belonging to the program A to be selected is a video packet with a PID of “110” and an audio packet with a PID of “120”. Know at least. The program information management unit 111 writes the PIDs of these packets in the PID table 131. Since the dummy packet is added to the head of the TSp reproduced and output by the storage medium control device 104, the program information management unit 111 selects the PID of the packet that the PID filter 121 is to select and output from now on, It can be registered just before the packet starts to be input.

The program information management unit 111 notifies the PID of the packet selected by the PID comparator 132 and a flag indicating a packet to be sent to the AV decoder 107 among the selected packets (Np10). These PIDs and flags are set in the PID table 131 (St30). In FIG. 2, the flag is indicated by a black circle next to the PID of the packet. The PID comparator 132 sends the PID packet with the black circle flag added to the AV decoder 107.
Thereafter, the PID comparator 132 passes packets having PIDs “110” and “120” having video and / or audio information related to the program A. Based on the fact that these packets have a flag to be sent to the AV decoder 107, the switch 133 sends these packets to the AV decoder 107 (Psav).

  The DEMUX unit may have the configuration shown in FIG. FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the DEMUX unit 1309 of the present invention. In FIG. 13, the DEMUX unit 1309 (extraction unit) includes a PID filter 1321 and a section filter 122. The PID filter 1321 includes a PID table 131, a PID comparator 132, an output changeover switch 133, and a PID extractor 1334. The DEMUX unit 1309 includes a PID extractor 1334 in addition to the configuration of the DEMUX unit 109. Otherwise, they are the same.

  The PID comparator 132 sends the detected dummy packet to the PID extractor 1334. The PID extractor 1334 directly extracts the PID of the video and / or audio packet from the dummy packet and sets it in the PID table 131 (NP10a). According to this configuration, the addition of the PID extraction unit 1334 increases the circuit scale of the DEMUX unit, but the speed of setting the PID in the PID table 131 is improved. Therefore, after the dummy packet is transmitted, the next program TSp stored in the buffer 260 can be immediately transmitted to the DEMUX unit 109. The timing adjustment described above is not necessary.

Next, a case where program C in TS2 is reproduced following reproduction of program A in TS1 will be described. Before the storage medium control device 104 starts playback of the program C, the program information management unit 111 receives a playback instruction for the program C from the system control unit (not shown) of the entire digital broadcast receiver. For example, the program information management unit 111 receives a reproduction instruction for the program C from a system control unit (not shown) simultaneously with the reproduction instruction for the program A or during the reproduction of the program A.
When receiving the reproduction instruction for program C, program information management section 111 notifies dummy packet insertion section 112 of the PID of the packet to be acquired for program C. For example, “310” and “320” are the PIDs of the video packet and audio packet of program C.

When the storage medium control device 104 ends the reproduction of the program A and switches to the reproduction of the program C, it issues a predetermined notification signal. This signal is transmitted to the program information management unit 111 as Ri3 shown in FIG. Upon receiving this signal, the program information management unit 111 instructs the dummy packet insertion unit 112 to add a dummy packet to the head of the TSp of the program C (Np2). The subsequent processing is the same as in the case of reproducing the program A. The relationship between the previous TS1, the dummy packet, and the next TS2 is as shown in FIG. That is, a dummy packet is inserted following TSp1, and TSp2 follows.
In the embodiment, the PID of the packet belonging to the program C is notified to the dummy packet insertion unit 112 in advance. Instead, when the storage medium control device 104 notifies the program information management unit 111 of switching to the program C, the storage medium control device 104 notifies the dummy packet insertion unit 112 of the information on these PIDs. May be.

5 and 6 show a main operation of the program information management unit 111 as a flowchart. FIG. 5 is a flowchart when the program information management unit 111 is instructed by a system control unit (not shown) to select a TS from the tuner 102 or the external input terminal (IEEE1394 in FIG. 1) 105. .
After starting the operation, the program information management unit 111 designates “000”, which is the PID of the PAT packet, in the DEMUX unit 109 (step 512). In step 514, the program information management unit 111 waits for an answer from the DEMUX unit 109. The operation of the DEMUX unit 109 has already been described with reference to FIG.

The DEMUX unit 109 returns the PID information in the PAT of the PAT packet with the PID “000” to the program information management unit 111. The program information management unit 111 obtains the PID of the PMT packet of the desired program (program A) from the PID information, and sets it again in the DEMUX unit 109 (step 516). Then, it waits for an answer from the DEMUX unit 109 again (step 518).
The DEMUX unit 109 returns the PID information in the PMT of the PMT packet of the program A to the program information management unit 111. The program information management unit 111 sets PIDs such as video packets and / or audio packets described therein in the DEMUX unit 109 (step 520). As already described, the program information management unit 111 simultaneously transmits to the DEMUX unit 109 a flag indicating that the video packet and the audio packet are packets to be transmitted to the AV decoder 107. The program information management unit 111 sets not only the PIDs of video and / or audio packets belonging to the program A but also PIDs of other packets belonging to the program A, for example, PIDs of packets having information related to time stamps, to the DEMUX unit 109 You may do it.

Next, the operation of the program information management unit 111 when the program information management unit 111 inputs the TSp reproduced by the storage medium control device 104 will be described with reference to FIG. The program information management unit 111 is notified from the system control unit (not shown) of the digital broadcast receiver that the storage medium control device 104 is in the playback mode.
The program information management unit 111 receives a channel selection command for the program A to be reproduced by the storage medium control device 104 (step 610). The program information management unit 111 obtains the PID information of the packet belonging to the program A to be reproduced from the storage medium control device 104 (step 612). Packets belonging to the program A to be reproduced include video and / or audio packets, and may include packets having time stamp information.

Next, the program information management unit 111 notifies the dummy packet insertion unit 112 of the PIDs of these packets (step 614). The operation of the dummy packet insertion unit 112 has been described with reference to FIG. The program information management unit 111 sets a PID specific to the dummy packet in the DEMUX unit 109 (step 616). The notification of Np1 in FIG. 1 corresponds to this. The PID of the dummy packet may be determined in advance, or the program information management unit 111 may determine at any time and instruct the dummy packet insertion unit 112. Alternatively, the dummy packet insertion unit 112 may arbitrarily or arbitrarily select and determine the PID of the dummy packet from several ranges and notify the program information management unit 111 of it.
When the preparation is completed as described above, the program information management unit 111 instructs the dummy packet insertion unit 112 to transmit the TSp (step 618). Based on this instruction, the transmission unit 240 of the dummy packet insertion unit 112 transmits a dummy packet, and then transmits the TSp from the storage medium control device 104 stored in the buffer 260.

The program information management unit 111 waits for an answer from the DEMUX unit 109 (step 620).
The DEMUX unit 109 replies to the program information management unit 111 with the PID information set in the dummy packet, that is, the PID information of the packet such as video and / or audio included in the reproduction TSp output from the storage medium control device 104. The program information management unit 111 sets these PIDs in the DEMUX unit 109 again (step 622). At this time, a flag indicating that video and audio packets are transmitted to the AV decoder 107 is simultaneously set in the DEMUX unit 109. Thereafter, as described above, the DEMUX unit 109 processes the input packet according to the instruction of the PID table.

5 and 6 are flowcharts of main operations of the program information management unit 111. Inserting another processing flow as needed in these flowcharts, replacing the replaceable steps in the flowcharts of FIGS. 5 and 6 with other steps, or substituting with other processing methods, Needless to say, it is simply a design matter.
The transport stream processing apparatus according to the embodiment is incorporated in a digital broadcast receiver, but is not limited thereto. For example, the transport stream processing device may be incorporated in the storage medium control device. Alternatively, the transport stream processing apparatus may be a single unit. The present invention is not limited to inserting a dummy packet at the head of a partial stream. A dummy packet may be inserted at the beginning of the full stream.

  In the embodiment, the digital broadcast receiver having the transport stream processing device and the storage medium control device 104 of the present invention has been exemplified. However, it is not limited to this configuration. The transport stream processing apparatus of the present invention can be combined with any transport stream output apparatus having the following configuration.

  The transport stream output device can at least temporarily store the transport stream, extracts the PID of the video packet and / or audio packet of the program in the transport stream, and stores it separately. Other devices such as a transport stream processing device may store the PID. In response to an inquiry from the transport stream processing device, the PID of the video packet and / or audio packet of the program is notified to the transport stream processing device. Output of the accumulated transport stream is started in response to a predetermined command.

  For example, a large-capacity RAM that temporarily stores a transport stream output from the descrambler 103 and its control unit are provided. When temporarily storing the transport stream in the RAM, the control unit detects the PAT packet and the PMT packet, and stores the PID of the video packet and / or the audio packet of each program in a predetermined location of the RAM. In response to an inquiry from the transport stream processing device, the control unit informs the transport stream processing device of the PID of the video packet and / or audio packet of the program. In response to a command from the system control unit (or transport stream processing device), the control unit starts outputting the transport stream stored in the RAM. With this configuration, at least the user commands the video and / or audio output until the transport stream processing apparatus actually outputs the video and / or audio, the packet is not discarded. When the user commands the output of video and / or audio, if the tuner or the like has already output a transport stream including the target program, the waiting time until playback becomes shorter than before.

  The present invention is useful as a transport stream processing apparatus that processes a transport stream including video packets and / or audio packets.

1 is a configuration diagram of a digital broadcast receiver having a transport stream processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed configuration diagram of the DEMUX unit of the transport stream processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention The figure which shows the structure of the dummy packet insertion part of the transport stream processing apparatus of embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the structure of the partial stream by which the dummy packet was inserted by the transport stream processing apparatus of embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the operation | movement flow in case the transport stream processing apparatus of embodiment of this invention selects a predetermined program from the transport stream input from the tuner etc. The figure which shows the operation | movement flow in case the transport stream processing apparatus of embodiment of this invention selects a predetermined program from the reproduction | regeneration stream from a storage medium etc. Configuration diagram of a digital broadcast receiver having a conventional transport stream processing apparatus Detailed configuration diagram of the DEMUX unit of the transport stream processing apparatus of the conventional example Flow chart showing operation of DEMUX unit Diagram showing the hierarchical structure of the transport stream Diagram showing the structure of the transport stream The figure which shows the structure of the partial transport stream of embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the structure of the DEMUX part of other embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100, 700 Transport stream processing device 101 Antenna 102 Tuner 103 Descrambler 104 Storage medium control device 105 External input terminal 106 Input changeover switch 107 AV decoder 108 Control unit 109, 1309 DEMUX unit (extraction unit)
111, 711 Program information management unit 112 Dummy packet insertion unit 121, 1321 PID filter 122 Section filter 131 PID table 132 PID comparator 133 Switch 141 Transmission unit 142 Reception unit 143 Buffer 144 Storage medium 1334 PID extractor

Claims (3)

Enter a packet with a packet identifier,
A packet identifier filter that selects only the packet having a predetermined registered packet identifier from the input packets, the packet identifier filter has a packet identifier table for registering a packet identifier;
If the packet identifier is written in the payload portion of the selected packet , the packet identifier table is updated with the packet identifier,
If the selected packet is a predetermined dummy packet, the packet identifier of the video and / or audio packet in the dummy packet is extracted, and the packet identifier table is updated,
If the selected packet is a video and / or audio packet, an extraction unit that selects and outputs only the packet having a packet identifier registered in the packet identifier table ;
The packet identifier of at least the video and / or audio packet included in the transport stream output by the transport stream output device is acquired, and the packet identifier is written in the payload part to generate a dummy packet with the packet identifier A controller that adds the dummy packet to the head of the transport stream output by the transport stream output device;
A transport stream processing apparatus.   The transport stream processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit attaches a unique packet identifier as the packet identifier of the dummy packet.   2. The transport stream processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit uses a NULL packet as the dummy packet, and adds information for identifying the packet as a normal NULL packet in the NULL packet.

Images