JP4599123B2 - Program recording apparatus, program information acquisition method, and broadcast receiving apparatus - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a program recording equipment, the program information acquisition method and a broadcast receiving apparatus that can perform recording setting program using an electronic program guide.

    With the spread of television broadcasts such as terrestrial broadcasts and satellite broadcasts, program recording apparatuses for recording and playing back broadcast programs of television broadcasts have become widespread. Conventionally, most of the program recording devices record video signals and audio signals on a tape medium or the like, but with the development of digital signal processing technology, broadcast programs are recorded as digital signals on a recording medium such as a hard disk or an optical disk. A program recording device has also appeared. In general, a program recording apparatus has a built-in timer and the like, and has a recording reservation function for automatically recording a program by specifying a date and time in advance.

Conventionally, for recording reservation, the user himself / herself has to set the date and time when a desired broadcast program is broadcast to a timer device or the like. As a method for reducing the burden on the user, there is an electronic program guide (EPG). The program recording apparatus can acquire the EPG data from a broadcast wave or the Internet and store it inside, extract program information for each broadcasting station from the EPG data, and create and display a program guide. When a desired broadcast program is selected by the user from the displayed program guide and recording reservation is instructed, the program recording device stores data such as the broadcast station and date / time of the instructed broadcast program. The EPG data is searched and set to the recording reservation function (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2004-088282 A

  Currently, EPG distribution services include a service form that distributes EPG data over broadcast waves, a form that distributes EPG data over the Internet, and other services that use telephone lines. Each of these services has its characteristics, and there are differences in details of information, the number of broadcast channels provided, and the like. There are also services specialized for specific broadcasts.

  However, in a conventional program recording apparatus, EPG data can be obtained only from a type of EPG distribution service (hereinafter referred to as “EPG source”) fixedly determined by the apparatus. For example, EPG data of a plurality of EPG sources can be obtained. It was not possible to switch and use with a high degree of freedom.

That the present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, to provide a program recording equipment, the program information acquisition method and a broadcast receiving apparatus that can be acquired by switching the program information of a plurality of program information providing service with a high degree of freedom available With the goal.

To achieve the above object, the program recording apparatus of the present invention, a channel code storing means for channel encoding of each switch Yan'neru is stored, from the program information provided from a plurality of program information providing service, the channel code storage program information obtaining means for obtaining program information for each switch Yan'neru based on channel code stored in the unit, the program information providing service using, specifying means to change specified from among the plurality of program information providing service When, characterized by comprising a channel code changing means for changing the channel coding of the channel code storage means in accordance with the contents of change due to the designation unit.

In the program recording apparatus of the present invention, the specifying means specifies the program information providing service to be changed from among the plurality of program information providing services, and the channel code of the channel code storage means is set to the designated changing destination. It is characterized by being converted into a system code corresponding to the program information providing service.

Further, in the program recording apparatus of the present invention, the designating unit designates a plurality of program information providing services to be changed from among the plurality of program information providing services, and the channel code changing unit preliminarily selects between the plurality of program information providing services. Is converted into a system code corresponding to one program information providing service.

According to the onset bright, can be acquired utilizing switches the program information of a plurality of program information providing service with a high degree of freedom.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a program recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in the figure, the program recording apparatus 100 of this embodiment has a system control unit 1 that controls the entire system. The system control unit 1 includes a CPU 2, a ROM 3 in which firmware and various data are fixedly stored, and a RAM 4 that is used as a work area of the CPU 2. An EPG management unit 6, a remote control interface unit 7, a tuner unit 8, an information recording / playback unit 9, an EPG screen configuration unit 10, a network connection unit 11, and the like are connected to the system control unit 1 through a bus 5.

  The EPG management unit 6 includes an EPG data acquisition unit 12, an EPG data storage unit 13, a program guide creation unit 14, a program guide information storage unit 15, a channel code table 16, and the like.

  In the channel code table 16, a unique code (channel code) assigned to each broadcast channel in the EPG source (program information providing service) set as the acquisition source of EPG data in the program recording apparatus 100 is registered. It is a table to be. The channel code of each broadcast channel is determined according to the type of EPG source such as ADAMS-EPG, iNET-EPG, etc. Therefore, the EPG source as the acquisition source of EPG data is changed in the program recording apparatus 100. If so, the channel code of the channel code table 16 must also be changed according to the income destination of the change destination.

    The EPG data acquisition unit 12 refers to the channel code table 16 to acquire EPG data based on broadcast waves or EPG data on the Internet and records it in the EPG data storage unit 13. The program guide creation unit 14 creates program guide information to be provided to the user using the EPG data stored in the EPG data storage unit 13. The program guide information storage unit 15 stores information on the program guide created by the program guide creation unit 14.

  The remote control interface unit 7 is an interface unit with a remote controller (hereinafter referred to as “remote control”) 17 for inputting an instruction from the user. The tuner unit 8 selects a desired broadcast wave from digital broadcast broadcast waves taken from the antenna 18 or the like. Moreover, the broadcast wave of digital broadcasting is not restricted to what is taken in from the antenna 18, but is taken in via a cable from a cable television station etc.

  The demultiplexer 19 separates the audio signal, the video signal, and the EPG data signal multiplexed on the broadcast wave, and outputs them to the decoder 20. The decoding unit 20 decodes the audio signal, video signal and EPG data signal separated by the demultiplexing unit 19, respectively, and outputs the digital audio signal, digital video signal and digital EPG data signal as an output control unit 21, information recording / reproduction Output to the unit 9 and the bus 5. The EPG screen composition unit 10 is a means for constructing program guide screen information from the information of the program guide stored in the program guide information storage unit 15 of the EPG management unit 6 and configuring various setting screens.

  The output control unit 21 converts the decoded digital audio signal and digital video signal into an output audio signal and video signal. The audio output unit 22 outputs an audio signal for output from the output control unit 21 to an audio output device (not shown) such as a speaker. The image output unit 23 outputs the video signal for output from the output control unit 21 to a display device (not shown) such as a liquid crystal display.

  The information recording / reproducing unit 9 has a rewritable recording medium such as a hard disk drive or a DVD, for example, and records the digital audio signal and digital video signal decoded by the decoding unit 20 on the recording medium. The digital audio signal and digital video signal recorded in the above are reproduced and output to the decoding unit 20.

  The network connection unit 11 is a means for connecting to the Internet in order to download EPG data from the Internet.

  The program recording apparatus 100 has a function of providing the user with an interface that can set or change the type of service from which the EPG source is acquired. When an operation for changing the acquisition source (EPG source) of the EPG data is performed by this interface, the channel code of the channel code table 16 described above is also a system code corresponding to the changed EPG source. Automatically updated. Hereinafter, the operation of the program recording apparatus 100 including the automatic conversion of the channel code will be described in detail.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of a setting screen that can change the EPG source. As shown in the figure, the setting screen 34 includes an EPG service selection unit 35 for selecting an EPG source as an acquisition source of EPG data, a ADAMS-EPG data reception channel, a reception time, and the ADAMS-EPG. An ADAMS setting unit 36 for setting the program, a color setting unit 37 for setting the background color of each program frame in the program table for each genre, and the like. In this example, the EPG service selection unit 35 includes a check unit 35a for ADAMS-EPG and a check unit 35b for iNET-EPG. The EPG source is selected by inserting a check mark in accordance with an instruction from the user into at least one of the two check units 35a and 35b. Accordingly, it is possible to select both ADAMS-EPG and iNET-EPG by checking the two check units 35a and 35b. In this example, ADAMS-EPG, iNET-EPG, and the like are cited as EPG sources from which EPG data is acquired, but the present invention is not limited to using these EPG providing services.

  Also, at the bottom of the setting screen 34, help information 38 for displaying the content of the command associated with the operation button of the remote controller 17 to the user is displayed. With this help information 38, for example, an item can be selected with the up / down / left / right cursor buttons of the remote controller 17, and the selection contents can be determined by operating a decision button between the up / down / left / right cursor buttons. Recognize. In such an operation procedure, the user can selectively check the check units 35 a and 35 b of the EPG service selection unit 35.

  Now, as shown in FIG. 3, in the channel code table 16, it is assumed that channel codes for ADAMS-EPG are set for all broadcast channels, and these are converted into channel codes for iNET-EPG. The operation will be described.

  First, the setting screen 34 of FIG. 2 is called by the user. Since ADAMS-EPG channel codes have already been set for all broadcast channels, the EPG service selection unit 35 of the setting screen 34 has a check mark only in the ADAMS-EPG check unit 35a. Here, the user operates the remote controller 17 or the like to select the ADAMS-EPG check unit 35a again and delete the check mark, and puts a check mark in the iNET-EPG check unit 35b. Finally, the registration completion button 39 on the setting screen 34 is selected and determined.

  Upon receipt of this registration completion, the system control unit 1 takes in the input contents to the setting screen 34, refers to the channel code correspondence table, and executes channel code conversion of the channel code table 16.

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the channel code correspondence table 40. As described above, the program recording apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment uses the channel code correspondence table 40 in which the one-to-one correspondence between the ADAMS-EPG channel code and the iNET-EPG channel code is registered. This channel code correspondence table 40 may be prepared in the program recording apparatus 100 from the beginning, or a server for providing the channel code correspondence table 40 is provided on the Internet so that it can be obtained by downloading from this server. May be.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of converting the channel codes of all broadcast channels registered in the channel code table 16 from DAMS-EPG to iNET-EPG. As shown in this flowchart, the system control unit 1 extracts DAMS-EPG channel codes registered in the channel code table 16 one by one (step 501), and sets the channel code to the DAMS-EPG channel code. The channel code for iNET-EPG of the same broadcast channel registered in association with the code correspondence table 40 is written back to the channel code table 16 (steps 502 and 503). This process is repeated for all channel codes registered in the channel code table 16. However, since the channel code for iNET-EPG corresponding to the channel code for DAMS-EPG may not exist in the channel code correspondence table 40 (NO in step 502), in this case, the channel for DAMS-EPG The code is left in the channel code table 16 as it is (step 504). The same process is performed when converting the channel code for iNET-EPG to the channel code for DAMS-EPG.

  Next, a case where both the ADAMS-EPG check unit 35a and the iNET-EPG check unit 35b of the EPG service selection unit 35 of the setting screen 34 in FIG. 3 are checked will be described.

  In this program recording apparatus 100, the priority order between ADAMS-EPG and iNET-EPG is set by default, and the channel code with the higher priority order is registered in the channel code table 16. This priority setting can be changed by the user. That is, by default, the priority order of ADAMS-EPG is set higher than that of iNET-EPG, for example, from the merits of information accuracy. However, since iNET-EPG is more detailed than ADAMS-EPG and covers program information for a long number of days, a user who places importance on this point gives priority to iNET-EPG as ADAMS-EPG, DIGITAL-EPG The setting can be changed to be higher than that.

  In addition, in the program recording apparatus 100, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, the user can check the channel code that has already been set and change the priority setting for each broadcast channel. A channel registration confirmation screen 24 is prepared. The channel registration confirmation screen 24 displays a channel code (CH code) 25 set for each broadcast channel. For broadcast channels in which both ADAMS-EPG and DIGITAL-EPG are set with priorities, the channel code with the higher priority is displayed. On this channel registration confirmation screen 24, if a broadcast channel whose priority is to be changed is selected by operating the remote controller 17 or the like and a button labeled “mode” is pressed on the remote controller 17, the channel code of the currently selected broadcast channel is selected. Are switched between the channel code for ADAMS-EPG and the channel code for iNET-EPG, and then the update contents of the channel code are reflected in the channel code table 16 by operating the registration button.

  Next, an operation for acquiring EPG data will be described.

  There are two EPG data acquisition procedures: a procedure for acquiring from broadcast waves and a procedure for acquiring from the Internet. The time zone in which EPG data is broadcast is determined. The EPG data acquisition unit 12 of the EPG management unit 6 selects the broadcast wave including the EPG data by controlling the tuner unit 8 when the broadcast time of the EPG data is reached. The signal including the EPG data output from the tuner unit 8 is decrypted and then separated into an audio signal, a video signal and an EPG data signal by the demultiplexing unit 19. The separated EPG data signal is demodulated into a digital signal by the decoding unit 20 and sent to the EPG management unit 6. The EPG data acquisition unit 12 of the EPG management unit 6 extracts the corresponding EPG data from the acquired EPG data based on the channel code registered in the channel code table 16 and stores it in the EPG data storage unit 13. When acquiring EPG data on the Internet, the EPG data acquisition unit 12 of the EPG management unit 6 sends a channel code table to the server that provides the distribution service of EPG data on the Internet through the network connection unit 11. The EPG data is downloaded by transmitting the EPG data request to which the channel code for iNET-EPG registered in 16 is added. The downloaded EPG data is stored in the EPG data storage unit 13 of the EPG management unit 6.

  The program guide is created by the program guide creation section 14 of the EPG management section 6 using the EPG data stored in the EPG data storage section 13 in this way, and the created program guide information is stored in the program guide information storage. Stored in the unit 15.

  When a program guide display command is input by the user using the remote controller 17 or the like, the program information of each broadcast channel stored in the program guide information storage unit 15 is sent to the EPG screen configuration unit 10, and the EPG screen configuration unit 10. Configures screen information of the program guide from the acquired program information. The screen information of the configured program guide is displayed on a display device (not shown) through the output control unit 21 and the image output unit 23. The user can refer to the program guide displayed on the display device and use the remote control 17 or the like to select a broadcast channel, program selection, recording setting, and the like. The system control unit 1 executes a recording process based on the recording setting. That is, the system control unit 1 instructs the tuner unit 8 to select a broadcast channel when the broadcast time of a program reserved for recording comes. The broadcast signal selected by the tuner unit 8 in accordance with this instruction is decrypted and then separated into an audio signal, a video signal, and the like by the demultiplexing unit 19, and a digital audio signal and a digital signal are respectively decoded by the decoding unit 20. A video signal is recorded on the recording medium by the information recording / reproducing unit 9.

  As described above, according to the program recording apparatus 100 of this embodiment, the EPG sources from which EPG data is acquired can be selected and changed for all broadcast channels on the setting screen 34. Further, the channel code of the channel code table 16 can be changed to a system code corresponding to the service to be changed by changing operation, and the burden on the user can be reduced.

  It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the illustrated examples described above, and it is needless to say that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the program recording apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the setting screen which can change an EPG provision service. It is a figure which shows the example of a conversion of a channel code table. It is a figure which shows the example of a channel code correspondence table. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement of the conversion of a channel code. It is a figure which shows a channel registration confirmation screen.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... System control part, 6 ... EPG management part, 8 ... Tuner part, 9 ... Information recording / reproducing part, 10 ... EPG screen structure part, 11 ... Network connection part, 12 ... EPG data acquisition part, 13 ... EPG data storage part , 14 ... Program information acquisition unit, 15 ... Program guide information storage unit, 16 ... Channel code table, 100 ... Program recording device.

Claims (7)

A channel code storing means for channel encoding of each switch Yan'neru is stored,
From the program information provided from a plurality of program information providing service, a program information acquisition means for acquiring program information for each switch Yan'neru based on channel code stored in the channel code storage means,
A designation means for designating and changing a program information providing service to be used from among the plurality of program information providing services ;
Program recording apparatus characterized by comprising a channel code changing means for changing the channel coding of the channel code storage means in accordance with the contents of change due to the designation unit. The specifying means specifies a program information providing service to be changed from among the plurality of program information providing services ,
2. The program according to claim 1, wherein the channel code changing unit converts the channel code stored in the channel code storage unit into a code having a system corresponding to the designated program information providing service to be changed. Recording device. The specifying means specifies a plurality of program information providing services to be changed from the plurality of program information providing services ,
3. The channel code changing means converts the code into a system code corresponding to one program information providing service according to a priority order provided in advance between the plurality of program information providing services. The program recording device described. May be provided a channel code storage means for channel encoding of each switch Yan'neru is stored, the program information acquiring unit, from the program information provided from a plurality of program information providing service, the channel code stored in the channel code storing means acquiring program information for each switch Yan'neru based on,
A step of causing the designation means to designate a change content of the program information providing service to be used;

Designating and changing program information providing service to be used from among the plurality of program information providing services ;
Follow the contents of modification by the designation unit, Ri by the channel code changing means, wherein the program information acquisition method characterized by comprising the step of changing the channel code before SL channel code storage means. The designation means designates a program information providing service to be changed from among the plurality of program information providing services ,
5. The program according to claim 4, wherein the channel code changing means converts the channel code stored in the channel code storage means into a code having a system corresponding to the designated program information providing service to be changed. Information acquisition method. The designation means designates a plurality of program information providing services to be changed from among the plurality of program information providing services ,
6. The code according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the channel code changing means converts the code into a system code corresponding to one of the program information providing services according to a priority order provided in advance between the plurality of program information providing services. The program information acquisition method described. Channel code storage means for storing a channel code for each channel;
Program information acquisition means for acquiring program information for each channel based on the channel code stored in the channel code storage means from program information provided by a plurality of program information providing services;
A designation means for designating and changing a program information providing service to be used from among the plurality of program information providing services;
Channel code changing means for changing the channel code of the channel code storage means according to the contents of the change by the specifying means;
Tuner means for receiving broadcast waves and
A broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

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