JP4779334B2 - Broadcast communication terminal - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a broadcast communication terminal having a function of receiving a broadcast such as a television broadcast and a function of receiving program content such as on-demand via a network.

  As a protocol for realizing reception of program content via a network, for example, RTSP and RTP described in RFC2326 and RFC1889, HTTP, and the like are available. Further, as means for acquiring information from a terminal device connected to a network, for example, HTTP described in RFC2626 is available. Furthermore, as means for acquiring a list of contents stored in a terminal device connected to a network, for example, UPnP described in UPnP Device Architecture 1.0 is available. With these techniques, program contents via a network are available. Can be received and content information can be acquired.

  On the other hand, as a device that receives a broadcast and displays its contents, for example, there is a television receiving device or the like.

  For example, Patent Literature 1 describes a television receiver that extracts a series program of a program based on a program title in a program guide and processes the series program as a reserved program.

  Further, according to the technique described in Patent Document 2, a program viewing apparatus capable of automatically acquiring and displaying auxiliary program information related to a broadcast program being viewed using the Internet is disclosed.

JP 2001-257916 A JP 2003-125305 A

  As described above, the terminal that receives the broadcast has been devised in various ways, either by itself or by communication, but when the broadcast program is a series work and it is an interesting program I would like to continue watching the next series. Alternatively, if the user has never watched the previous series, he / she wants to watch the previous series in advance before watching the program being broadcast. In this case, in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, it is possible to watch or reserve a series work to be broadcast at a later date, but even if it is a series work that has already been broadcast, There was a problem that it was not possible to view at a desired timing. Also, Patent Document 2 has a problem that related information regarding a program being viewed can be acquired, but a series work of the program being viewed cannot be automatically presented.

  The present invention solves these problems and provides a terminal capable of seamlessly and easily viewing a series program before and after a broadcast program.

  In the present invention, the following means are provided to solve the above-described problems.

  Broadcast receiving means for receiving broadcast program content such as television broadcast, on-demand receiving means for receiving related content related to the broadcast program content (hereinafter referred to as on-demand program content in the description and drawings), and received content Data separation means for separating audio data and video data from, audio decoding means for decoding the separated audio data, audio output means for outputting the decoded audio data, video decoding means for decoding the separated video data, In a broadcast communication terminal having display means for displaying decoded video data, program information acquisition means for acquiring a program name of program content being broadcast, program search means for searching for series program content from the program name, and search results Based on the displayed search results and display means Comprising selection means for user to allow selecting a program content to be viewed, a switching means for switching the reception and display of the receiving and display and on-demand program content of the broadcast program content.

  In addition, when the switching means switches from receiving and displaying broadcast program content to receiving and displaying on-demand program content, recording / recording control means for recording / recording the program content being broadcast, and recorded / recorded When the program content is selected, the recording / recording program content is played back, and the program search means also searches for the recorded / recorded program content, and the recorded result is recorded / recorded. The program content is also included.

  When the broadcast program is a series program, the series program contents before and after that can be viewed on demand are searched and displayed, and the series programs before and after the broadcast program can be seamlessly viewed.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an example of a system configuration diagram to which the broadcast communication terminal according to the first embodiment is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a system to which the broadcast communication terminal according to the first embodiment is applied includes a terminal device 103, a distribution server 101, a broadcast station 104, and a network 102.

  The terminal device 103 is a broadcast communication terminal according to the present invention. The terminal device 103 is connected to the distribution server 101 via the network 102, and sends a distribution request for program content to the distribution server 101. The program content distributed from 101 is received. Further, the terminal device 103 receives program content broadcast from the broadcast station 104.

  The distribution server 101 is realized by, for example, a computer system and distributes program content requested from the terminal device 103.

  The network 102 is an IP network represented by the Internet or the like, a public telephone line network, an ISDN, a PHS network, a mobile phone network, or a network using a wireless LAN.

  The terminal device 103 can receive or download the program content from the distribution server 101 via the network 102.

  The broadcast station 104 broadcasts program content using radio waves or the like. However, the broadcast station 104 may be configured to broadcast the program content to the terminal device 103 via the network 102. In this case, the distribution server 101 and the broadcast station 104 are not necessarily separate, and the distribution server 101 may have a broadcast function. Alternatively, a server having a broadcast function may be provided separately.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the broadcast communication terminal according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the broadcast communication terminal includes an on-demand reception unit 201, a broadcast reception unit 202, a switching unit 203, a data separation unit 204, an audio decoding unit 205, an audio output unit 206, and a video decoding unit. 207, a display unit 208, a program information acquisition unit 209, a program search unit 210, and a selection unit 211.

  For example, when the network is an IP network, the on-demand receiving unit 201 uses the protocol such as TCP / IP and the protocol such as RTP / RTSP or HTTP to distribute the program content to the distribution server via the network 102. A request is issued to receive or download the program content distributed from the distribution server. Note that the format of the data acquired at this time includes, for example, a transport stream standardized by ISO / IEC.

  The broadcast receiving unit 202 receives program content broadcast from a broadcasting station such as a television broadcast. Note that the format of the data acquired at this time includes, for example, a transport stream standardized by ISO / IEC. Further, in this example, the broadcast station broadcasts the program content by radio waves and the like, and the broadcast receiving unit 202 is configured to be able to receive this, but when the broadcast station broadcasts the program content via the network, The broadcast receiving unit 202 may be configured to receive broadcast program content via a network. In this case, the broadcast receiving unit 202 may be configured to have a protocol for receiving broadcast program content and be able to acquire the broadcast program content via a network.

  The switching unit 203 determines whether the program content selected by the selection unit 211 described later is broadcast program content or on-demand program content. If the selected program content is broadcast program content, the broadcast receiving unit 202 is instructed to receive the broadcast program content. On the other hand, when the selected content is an on-demand program content, a request for distributing the program content is sent to the distribution server to the on-demand receiving unit 201, and the program content distributed from the distribution server is received by streaming or Instruct to download.

  In addition, the switching unit 203 instructs the data separation unit 204, which will be described later, on the data acquisition destination. That is, when the broadcast receiving unit 202 receives broadcast program content, the broadcast receiving unit 202 is instructed to acquire data. On the other hand, when the on-demand receiving unit 201 receives on-demand program content, it instructs the on-demand receiving unit 201 to acquire data.

  The data separation unit 204 obtains reception data from the broadcast reception unit 202 or the on-demand reception unit 201 in accordance with an instruction from the switching unit 203, and separates the received data into audio data, video data, and program information data. To do. For example, when the received data is a transport stream standardized by ISO / IEC, this is realized by separating data for each identifier called PID (Packet Identifier) embedded in each packet in the stream. it can. The format of audio data and video data includes, for example, MPEG standardized by ISO / IEC, and the format of program information data includes EPG defined by ARIB.

  The audio decoding unit 205 acquires the audio data from the data separation unit 204, decodes it, and converts it into a format that can be output from the audio output unit 206 described later. For example, when the audio data format separated by the data separation unit 204 is MPEG, MPEG decoding is performed.

The audio output unit 206 outputs the audio decoded by the audio decoding unit 205.
The video decoding unit 207 acquires the video data from the data separation unit 204, decodes it, and converts it into a format that can be output from the display unit 208 described later. For example, when the video data format separated by the data separation unit 204 is MPEG, MPEG decoding is performed.

  The display unit 208 displays the video decoded by the video decoding unit 207.

  The program information acquisition unit 209 acquires program information data from the data separation unit 204, and acquires information regarding the program content being viewed. For example, when the program information data acquired from the data separation unit 204 is EPG, the program information acquisition unit 209 acquires the current time, and from the EPG and the current time, information on the program content being viewed is obtained. It can be acquired. Note that information acquired by the program information acquisition unit 209 may be the program name of the program content being viewed. In this embodiment, an example in which program information data is acquired from the data separation unit 204 is described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the program information acquisition unit 209 acquires program information data via an IP network. May be. In this case, the program information acquisition unit 209 may be configured to acquire program information data such as EPG from a predetermined URL via a network using a protocol such as HTTP, for example.

  Further, although indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 2, the display unit 208 may be configured to display information on the program content being viewed acquired by the program information acquisition unit 209 or a program name. For example, information related to the program content being viewed or the program name acquired by the program information acquisition unit 209 is converted into a data format that can be displayed on the display unit 208 such as caption data, and is sent to the display unit 208 to be displayed. This can be realized by merging with the video data acquired from the video decoding unit 207. A display example at this time will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The program search unit 210 acquires information on the program content being viewed from the program information acquisition unit 209, and searches for series program content based on this information. For example, the program search unit 210 acquires the program name of the program content being viewed from the program information acquisition unit 209, and sequentially streams it from one or more predetermined URLs via a network using a protocol such as HTTP. Alternatively, the program name or program information of the on-demand program content provided by download is searched, and the program name or program information similar to the program name or program information of the program content being viewed is retrieved and its URI. It can be realized by acquiring. When acquiring a similar program name, it is preferable to pay attention to the program name and the numerical value added to it. For example, when the program name or program information of the broadcast program content is “xxxx3”, “xxxx third time”, or “xxxxVer.3”, the part corresponding to “xxxx” is the same and the value “3” or the numerical value corresponding to the numerical value “3. The program names with different characters such as “” may be regarded as similar. In addition, for example, if the character strings that make up the program name, except for numbers, “times”, and “No.” match, or if only the Chinese characters are extracted from the character string that makes up the program name, they match. In this case, various variations can be considered as a method of considering similarity, for example, when part of the program name matches.

  In addition, when sequentially searching from one or more URLs, the search may be performed in the order specified by the user of the terminal in advance. In this case, the search may be terminated when the desired on-demand program content is found, or may be retrieved until the search is completed for a plurality or all of the URLs. This “order specified in advance by the user of this terminal” means that, for example, three URLs (URL1, URL2, and URL3) are set in a memory (not shown) as search target URLs by the user, and URL1 and URL2 In this case, it is set in a memory (not shown) so that the search is performed in the order of URL3. The character string and URI of the above similar program name are searched from the page of URL1, and when this is found, the search is terminated. And the search in URL3 is not performed. On the other hand, if it is not found, it can be realized by sequentially controlling the similar character string and URI from the URL2 and URL3 pages.

  Further, when searching for a plurality or all of the URLs until the search is completed, even if the character string and URI of the similar program name are found on the page of URL1, URL2 and URL3 are also searched. If a plurality of URIs are found, the program information acquired together with the URI and the program name of the on-demand program content is information relating to the image quality including the program content fee, transfer rate, image size, image quality, and audio quality. Etc., and the user of this terminal may be able to select on-demand program content that is actually streamed or downloaded via the network based on such information, or specified in advance by the user of this terminal. Alternatively, one program content may be automatically narrowed down among a plurality of on-demand program contents that are considered to be the same program content based on the priority order.

  This can be realized, for example, by the following. First, for the program content fee, transfer rate, image size, image quality, and audio quality, if the format is specified so that it can be written at the specified position of the page in the URL, the information is acquired from that position. Is possible. Alternatively, even if such a format has not been determined, it can be acquired by extracting keywords such as “fee”, “yen”, “bps”, “size”, “image quality”, and “voice quality”. Then, as a method for the user of this terminal to select on-demand program content to be actually streamed or downloaded via the network from the selection means described later based on these pieces of information, the information together with the program name of the content is used. It may be displayed on the screen so that the user can select it using the remote control. In addition, as a method of automatically narrowing down one program content, a memory (not shown) indicating which of “charge”, “transfer rate”, “image size”, “image quality”, and “audio quality” is to be prioritized is given. In addition, for the priority item, whether to give priority to “higher” or “lower” is written in a memory (not shown), and the program search unit 210 selects matching content based on the written method. Just choose.

  That is, for example, when it is specified that “low” of “charge” is given priority, the one with the lowest charge is selected. Of course, it may be configured such that the user can set which of the above methods is used. In this case, a method used for a memory (not shown) may be written, and the program search unit 210 may operate based on the written method. When searching for a plurality of URLs, the number of the URLs is searched. When searching for all the URLs, for example, 0 or the like is written in a memory (not shown), and the program search unit 210 searches based on the URL. What is necessary is just to control the number of.

  Further, as described above, the information on the on-demand program content searched by the program search unit 210 or the program name may be displayed on the display unit 208.

  Furthermore, when the program search unit 210 uses a timer or the like (not shown) to change the channel for a certain period of time, that is, when the program content being viewed has not been changed for a certain period of time, the series program content of the program content being broadcast May be searched and displayed.

  This is because, for example, the broadcast reception unit 202 starts counting by a timer when a received program is changed, and the timer starts the program search unit 210 when a preset time has elapsed in the timer. This can be realized by controlling the program search unit 210 to search and display the series program content of the program content being broadcast. Alternatively, it can be realized by monitoring and displaying the timer by the program search unit 210 and searching and displaying when a preset time has elapsed in the program search unit 210. This eliminates the need to search for series program contents of programs that the user is not interested in, saves system resources, and even if the program name and program information of the search results are displayed on the display unit 208 as described above, The information is not retrieved and displayed every time the user is changed, and the troublesomeness can be reduced.

  Further, the program search unit 210 may search and display the series program content of the program content being broadcast in accordance with an instruction from the user. This may be configured such that the program search unit 210 monitors input from a remote controller or the like and performs this search and display when a predetermined button is pressed by the user. Further, the program search unit 210 may directly acquire information on series program content related to the program content being broadcast from the broadcast data.

  The selection unit 211 allows the user to select program content to view from the search result in the program search unit 210. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the program content of the search result is displayed with a unique numerical value, and when the numerical value is input from the remote controller or the like, the program content with the numerical value is selected. And it is sufficient.

  The selection unit 211 notifies the switching unit 203 of the program content selected by the user. In this case, as described above, when the program content selected by the selection unit 211 is an on-demand program content, the switching unit 203 requests the on-demand receiving unit 201 to distribute the program content to the distribution server. And instructing to receive or download the program content distributed from the distribution server. Note that this is because, for example, when the user selects a program content from the result of the search by the program search unit 210 in the selection unit 211, the URI of the selected program content is acquired from the program search unit 210, and this URI is obtained. This can be realized by notifying the switching unit 203 and detecting the URI by the switching unit 203.

  As described above, in this embodiment, the program search unit 210 operates to search and present a series program being viewed after a predetermined time with the reception of a broadcast program as a trigger. On-demand reception unit 201, broadcast reception unit 202, switching unit 203, and data separation unit 204 are operated with selection of program content in selection unit 211 as a trigger, and on-demand content is received and displayed, or broadcast The content is received and displayed.

  Next, a display screen example in the broadcast communication terminal according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In this description, a case will be described in which the program name of the program content being viewed acquired by the program information acquisition unit 209 and the search result in the program search unit 210 are displayed on the display unit 208.

  In FIG. 3, 300 is a display screen, 301 is the video of the program content being received and viewed, 302 is the program name of the program content being viewed acquired by the program information acquisition unit 209, and 303 is searched by the program search unit 210 This is a display example of the search results. In addition, 304 is the program name of the series program content found as a result of searching in the program search unit 210, 305 is the program information of the series program content, and the image quality including the program content fee, transfer rate, image size, image quality, and audio quality It is information about. As shown in FIG. 3, the broadcast communication terminal according to the present embodiment displays a video 301 of the program content being viewed on the display screen 300 and is provided on demand with the program name 302 of the program content being viewed. The program name 304 of the current series program content and its information 305 are displayed.

  Further, when selecting the program content to be viewed, the user can select the program content to be viewed by inputting the numerical value shown in 306 from the remote controller. Such selection can be realized, for example, by preparing the database shown in FIG. 4 with respect to the program name of the series program content. This database is generated and stored in the program search unit 210.

  In FIG. 4, 401 is a numerical value for selecting the program content, and corresponds to 306 in FIG. 402 is the URI length of the program content or the length of the URI character string, and 403 is the URI of the program content. 404 to 408 are data fields corresponding to the series Vol. 1 to the series Vol. 6 in FIG. 3, and 409 is a field indicating the end of the data. If the URI 403 of the program content is a fixed-length field and the URI is a character string ending with NULL, the URI character string can be specified, and the field indicating one program has a fixed length. Since the program content corresponding to the number input from the remote controller can be specified, the URI length 402 of the program content is not necessarily required. In this embodiment, the storage area for the numerical value 401 for selecting the program content is 1 byte and the storage area for the URI length 402 of the program content is 1 byte. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Further, a sufficient number of bytes may be taken as an area for storing the URI 403 of the program content. Furthermore, in this description, the field 409 indicating the end of the data is filled with 0 and NULL, but this is not restrictive, and it may be configured so that it can be identified that the field indicates the end of the data.

  The selection unit 211 monitors a selection number input from a remote controller or the like, and when a numerical value 306 is input, inquires the program search unit 210 about the program content corresponding to the numerical value, and the program search unit 210 By searching the field of the same numerical value 401 as 306, the program content selected by the user can be specified.

  Next, the operation of the broadcast communication terminal according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The broadcast communication terminal according to the present embodiment first uses the broadcast receiving unit 202, the data separation unit 204, the audio decoding unit 205, the audio output unit 206, the video decoding unit 207, and the display unit 208 to display broadcast program content. Reception and display are performed (step 501). At this time, a timer counter is initialized and counting is started.

  Subsequently, the program information acquisition unit 209 acquires information on the program content being viewed, particularly the program name (step 503).

  Next, the program search unit 210 determines whether the search of the series program content is necessary by determining whether the channel has not changed for a certain period of time or whether the user has instructed the search / display of the series program content. Judgment is made (step 504). This determination is made when it is determined that the channel has not changed for a certain time when the counter started counting in step 501 exceeds a predetermined value, the program search unit 210 monitors the input from the remote controller or the like, and the user selects a predetermined button. When is pressed, it is controlled so as to determine that it is necessary to search and display the series program content.

  If it is determined in step 504 that the series program content needs to be searched, the program search unit 210 searches for the series program content of the program content being viewed (step 505).

  Subsequently, the selection unit 211 determines whether or not on-demand program content such as series program content has been selected by the user (step 506). If it is determined that the on-demand program content has been selected, switching is performed. The unit 203 switches to on-demand reception, and the on-demand reception unit 201, the data separation unit 204, the audio decoding unit 205, the audio output unit 206, the video decoding unit 207, and the display unit 208 are selected. Demand program content is streamed or downloaded and received (step 507).

  The operations from step 501 to step 507 are carried out when the broadcast communication terminal is turned on and when the reception channel is changed.

  As described above, in the broadcast communication terminal according to the present invention, when the broadcast program is a series program, the series program content before and after being provided on demand is searched and displayed, and the series program content other than the broadcast program content is displayed. When the user selects, the contents of the series program can be received by streaming or downloading and can be viewed. As a result, the series before and after the broadcast program of the series work can be viewed. For example, when the series before the broadcasted program has never been viewed, it is possible to view the previous series before viewing the broadcasted program.

  In the present invention, when the program being viewed does not change for a certain period of time in the program search means, the search for on-demand program content related to the program is performed, so that acquisition of uninteresting program information and useless content can be obtained. This has the effect of reducing consumption of system resources due to search. Each functional block in FIG. 2 may be realized by hardware or may be realized by software. In the case of realizing with software, the software operates on the hardware configuration shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 10, the communication control / input / output device 1001 is realized by, for example, a LAN card and transmits / receives data via a network connected to the terminal device. The broadcast receiving device 1002 is realized by a tuner, for example, and receives broadcast data. When receiving a broadcast from a network, the broadcast receiving device 1002 is not necessarily required, and the communication control / input / output device 1001 acquires broadcast data. The storage device 1003 is realized by, for example, a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM) or the like, and stores a program executed by the central processing unit 1004 and data to be processed. The central processing unit 1004 is implemented by a CPU and executes a program stored in the storage device 1003. The audio output device 1005 is realized by a speaker, for example, and outputs audio data included in data received by the communication control / input / output device 1001 or the broadcast receiving device 1002. The display device 1006 is realized by, for example, a display adapter, a liquid crystal panel, a projector, and the like, and includes video data included in data received by the communication control / input / output device 1001 or the broadcast receiving device 1002, or a character string generated in the terminal device. And display menus. The input device 1007 is realized by, for example, a remote controller and its interface, and allows a user to select received content.

  In addition, these devices are connected by a bus 1009 and configured to be able to exchange data with each other. In this configuration, each functional block shown in FIG. 2 is stored in the storage device 1003 as a program executed by the central processing unit 1004, and the central processing unit 1004 reads out these programs from the storage device 1003, thereby Block processing is performed. In this configuration, the broadcast receiving unit 202 acquires broadcast data from the broadcast receiving device 1002. In correspondence with the functional block diagram of FIG. 2, the on-demand receiving unit 201 and the program searching unit 210 receive on-demand program content and acquire data on the on-demand program content via the communication control / input / output device 1001, respectively. Do. Further, the selection unit 211 inputs a numerical value designated by the user via the input device 1007, and selects content corresponding to the input numerical value. The audio output unit 206 outputs the audio data decoded by the audio decoding unit 205 to the audio output device 1005. The display unit 208 displays the video data decoded by the video decoding unit 207 and the character string generated by the program information acquisition unit 209 and the program search unit 210 on the display device 1006.

  A functional block diagram of the second embodiment is shown in FIG. In the second embodiment, a recording / recording control unit 212, a storage unit 213, and a playback control unit 214 are added to the terminal device configuration of the first embodiment.

  6, when the on-demand program content is selected by the selection unit 211, the recording / recording control unit 212 receives the information, acquires the broadcast program content from the data separation unit 204, and will be described later. Store in the storage unit 213. At this time, control is performed so that the selected on-demand program content is stored in the storage unit 213 when it is a series program content before the program content being broadcast. This is realized by, for example, acquiring the numerical value added to the program name of the program content being broadcast from the program information acquisition unit 209 and comparing the numerical value added to the program name of the selected program content it can. For example, the program name or program information of the program content being broadcast is “xxxx3” or “xxxx 3rd” or “xxxxVer.3”, and the program name or program information of the selected program content is “xxxx2” or “ In the case of “xxx second time” or “xxxx Ver. 2”, “3” is compared with “2”, and when the numerical value added to the program name of the selected program content is small, the data separation unit 204 The broadcast program content may be acquired from and stored in the storage unit 213. Further, the recording / recording control unit 212 acquires the program name and program information of the program content being broadcast from the program information acquisition unit 209 and stores the program name and program information in the storage unit 213 in association with the stored program content.

  The program search unit 210 is also configured to search the storage unit 213 when searching for the series program content of the program content being viewed. At this time, the program search unit 210 first searches the storage unit 213, and when the series program content is not found in the storage unit 213, the program name or program information of the on-demand program content sequentially provided via the network Configure to search. As a result, useless network access can be reduced, the stored content can be used effectively, and a charge for viewing the content can be eliminated.

  The storage unit 213 stores the broadcast program content acquired by the recording / recording control unit 212, the program name of the program content being broadcast acquired from the program information acquisition unit 209, and the program information.

  The playback control unit 214 acquires stored program content from the storage unit 213. At this time, when the program content stored in the storage unit 213 is selected, the selection unit 211 notifies the reproduction control unit 214 of information on the program content, and the reproduction control unit 214 is associated with this information. The program content is acquired from the storage unit 213. Further, the playback control unit 214 notifies the data separation unit 204 that the program content stored in the storage unit 213 is played back, and the data separation unit 204 is configured to acquire data from the playback control unit 214. .

  When on-demand program content is selected by the selection unit 211, the switching unit 203 is notified of the selection, and the switching unit 203 instructs the broadcast receiving unit 202 to receive the broadcast program content. The on-demand receiving unit 201 issues a distribution request for the selected program content to the distribution server, and instructs the distribution server to receive or download the program content in a streaming manner. Further, the data separation unit 204 is instructed to acquire the broadcast program content from the broadcast receiving unit 202 for recording / recording, and the on-demand program content is acquired from the on-demand receiving unit 201 for viewing. Configure to direct. As a result, it is possible to view on-demand program content and record / record broadcast program content.

  On the other hand, when the program content stored in the storage unit 213 is selected in the selection unit 211, it is notified to the switching unit 203, and the switching unit 203 notifies the broadcast receiving unit 202 of the broadcast program content. Is received, and the data separation unit 204 is instructed to acquire broadcast program content from the broadcast receiving unit 202 for recording / recording. As a result, the program content stored in the storage unit 213 can be viewed and the broadcast program content can be recorded or recorded.

  In addition, by controlling the selected program content to be stored in the storage unit 213 when it is a series program content before the program content being broadcast, the series program content before the broadcast program content can be viewed. After that, the broadcast program content can be viewed. This is because, after the reproduction control unit 214 finishes reproducing the stored program content, or after the on-demand reception unit 201 finishes receiving the on-demand program content, the program retrieval unit 210 notifies the program retrieval unit 210 of the completion. Can be realized by searching for the series program content of the program content that has been reproduced or received from the program content that is stored in or stored in the storage unit 210 and presents it to the user.

  Note that the display screen example according to the second embodiment and the data structure of the database generated in the program search unit 210 are the same as those in the first embodiment, but in particular, when program content is stored in the storage unit 213, the program search is performed. The URI 403 of the program content in the database generated by the unit 210 may be configured to include a location specifying the location stored in the storage unit 213, such as a file name or directory name stored in the storage unit 213.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the broadcast communication terminal according to the second embodiment.
Compared with the first embodiment, the broadcast communication terminal according to the second embodiment receives the broadcast program content when it is determined in step 506 that the on-demand program content has been selected by the user, and stores it in the storage unit 213. The difference is that step 701 is stored.

  The hardware configuration when the functional blocks of the broadcast communication terminal according to the second embodiment are realized by software is a configuration in which a secondary storage device 1101 is additionally connected to the bus in the hardware configuration shown in FIG. . The secondary storage device 1101 is constituted by, for example, a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory or a hard disk, and is acquired from the broadcast program content and program information acquisition unit 209 acquired by the recording / recording control unit 212 according to an instruction from the storage unit 213. The program name and program information of the program content being broadcast are stored.

  FIG. 8 shows a system configuration diagram to which the broadcast communication terminal according to the third embodiment is applied.

  The system to which the broadcast communication terminal according to the third embodiment is applied has a configuration in which the terminal device 103 is arranged in the home and connected to the network 102 via the router 105 and the home network 106. In addition, a home server 107 is connected to the home network 106.

  In FIG. 8, the distribution server 101, the broadcast station 104, and the network 102 are the same as those shown in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.

  The home network 106 can be applied to an IP network represented by a LAN, or a network configuration already known as a home network, and can be mutually accessed between the terminal device 103, the home server 107, and the router 105. To do.

  The router 105 can be an existing network router, connects the home network 106 and the network 102, accesses between the home server 107 and the terminal device 103 in the home, and between the terminal device 103 and the distribution server 101. Enable access.

  Home server 107 can be a hard disk recorder or a personal computer with a broadcast program content recording / recording function and a network function, and can receive program content broadcast from broadcast station 104. In addition, the recorded / recorded program content can be distributed to the terminal device 103.

  In addition to the functions of the first embodiment, the terminal device 103 receives broadcast program content and requests for recording / recording, requests for distribution of recorded / recorded program content, and distribution of recorded program content to the home server 107. Enable reception. In order to perform recording / recording request, recording / recording content distribution request, and distribution content reception between the terminal device 103 and the home server 107, a known technology such as UPnP can be applied. .

  The third embodiment is characterized in that the recording / recording control unit 212 has a function of instructing the home server 107 to record / record using a technology such as UPnP in this system configuration.

  Also, the program search unit 210 first searches the home server 107, and when the series program content is not found in the home server 107, the program search unit 210 sequentially obtains the program name or program information of the on-demand program content provided via the network. Configure to search.

  If the storage unit 213 and the playback control unit 214 exist in the terminal device, the recording / recording control unit 212 stores the broadcast program content in the storage unit 213 or instructs the home server 107 to record / record. The user may be able to specify whether or not. In this case, the program search unit 210 searches the storage unit 213, then searches the home server 107, and if the series program is not found in the home server 107, the on-demand program content sequentially provided via the network The program name or program information is searched.

As a result, it is possible to reduce unnecessary network access, and it is possible to eliminate the charge for viewing program content. Further, when the same content is found in the storage unit 213 and the home server 107, the program search unit 210 may present only the content in the home server 107 and delete the content in the storage unit 213. . Thereby, it is possible to save the storage capacity of the storage unit 213 that is locally held. In the third embodiment, the switching unit 203 has the functions shown in the first or second embodiment. In addition, when the program content recorded / recorded on the home server 107 is selected, the on-demand receiving unit 201 issues a program content distribution request to the home server, and the program content distributed from the home server is displayed. Has the function to instruct to receive or download streaming.

  When a recording instruction is given to the home server, the switching unit 203 controls the broadcast receiving unit 202 not to receive the broadcast program content. This makes it possible to reduce unnecessary resource consumption.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the broadcast communication terminal according to the third embodiment.

  Compared with the first embodiment, the broadcast communication terminal according to the third embodiment records the broadcast program content in the home server 107 when it is determined in step 506 that the on-demand program content has been selected by the user. Step 901 for giving a recording instruction and step 902 for stopping the broadcast reception by the switching unit 203 are added. Compared to the second embodiment, step 701 for receiving the broadcast program content and storing it in the storage unit 213 includes the home server 107. The flow is replaced with step 901 for recording / recording instructions for broadcast program content and step 902 for the switching unit 203 to stop broadcast reception.

  If the storage unit 213 and the playback control unit 214 exist in the terminal device, it is set in step 901 that the broadcast program content is set to be stored in the storage unit 213 by the user or the broadcast program is stored in the home server 107. It is determined whether the content is set to be recorded / recorded. If the content is set to be stored in the storage unit 213, the broadcast program content is received, stored in the storage unit 213, and recorded in the home server 107. If it is set to record / record, the home server 107 may be instructed to record / record broadcast program content. However, when instructing the home server 107 to record / record broadcast program content, the switching unit 203 stops broadcast reception.

  The hardware configuration when the functional blocks of the terminal device according to the third embodiment are realized by software is the same as that shown in FIG.

  In the first to third embodiments, the same video decoding unit and the same audio decoding unit are used for broadcasting and on-demand. However, the present invention is not limited to this. You may comprise so that a decoding part and an audio | voice decoding part may be used. These are effective when, for example, video and audio encoding methods are different for broadcasting and on-demand. In these cases, the data separation unit 204 may be configured to switch the video decoding unit and the audio decoding unit to be used based on the data acquisition destination instructed by the switching unit 203. Alternatively, the video decoding unit and the audio decoding unit may be switched according to the data format separated by the data separation unit 204.

  Similarly, the data separation units may be configured to use different data separation units. This is effective, for example, when different data multiplexing systems are used for broadcasting and on-demand. In this case, the switching unit 203 determines whether to use the on-demand data separation unit or the broadcast data separation unit based on the program content selected by the selection unit 211, and sets the respective data The separator may be configured to acquire data from the on-demand receiver and the broadcast receiver. At this time, for example, the program information acquisition unit 209 may be configured to acquire the program information data from the broadcast data separation unit 204.

  Furthermore, in the first to third embodiments described so far, the example in which both the video and the audio are processed has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the configuration may be such that only the audio is processed. Good. In this case, the data separation unit may be configured not to acquire video data, or the broadcast reception unit and the on-demand reception unit may not receive video data. In this case, the video decoding unit is unnecessary, and the display unit may not display the video from the video decoding unit. This makes it possible to apply not only to TV and video and audio, but also to radio and audio only.

  The present invention can be applied to a television receiver or radio receiver having a network connection function, and a personal computer or portable terminal having a broadcast reception function. In particular, by using a home server for recording / recording a broadcast program instead of the terminal itself, the present invention can be applied to a television receiver, a radio receiver, and a portable terminal with limited storage capacity.

It is an example of the system block diagram to which the broadcast communication terminal which concerns on the 1st and 2nd Example of this invention is applied. It is a functional block diagram of the broadcast communication terminal which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is an example of a display screen in the broadcast communication terminal according to the present invention. It is an example of the data structure of the database produced | generated in the program search part which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the broadcast communication terminal which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the broadcast communication terminal which concerns on the 2nd and 3rd Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the broadcast communication terminal which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. It is an example of the system block diagram to which the broadcast communication terminal which concerns on 3rd Example of this invention is applied. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the broadcast communication terminal which concerns on 3rd Example of this invention. It is a hardware block diagram in the case of implement | achieving the functional block of the terminal device which concerns on the 1st and 3rd Example of this invention with software.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 ... Distribution server, 102 ... Network, 103 ... Terminal device, 104 ... Broadcasting station, 105 ... Router, 106 ... Home network, 107 ... Home server, 201 ... On-demand reception unit, 202 ... broadcast reception unit, 203 ... switching unit, 204 ... data separation unit, 205 ... audio decoding unit, 206 ... audio output unit, 207 ... video Decoding unit, 208 ... display unit, 209 ... program information acquisition unit, 210 ... program search unit, 211 ... selection unit, 212 ... recording / recording control unit, 213 ... storage unit , 214... Reproduction control unit

Claims (11)

Broadcast receiving means for receiving broadcast program content;
Program information acquisition means for acquiring program information including the program name of the broadcast program via broadcast or network;
Program search means for searching for program content capable of viewing a series program of the broadcast program from the program name acquired by the program information acquisition means via broadcast or a network;
A series program content acquisition means for acquiring a program content capable of viewing a series program of the broadcast program via a broadcast or a network;
Program content to be output to a display device, have a means for switching the program content of the series program,
The program search means refers to a table in which devices for searching the program content of the series program are registered, and accesses a predetermined device described in the table to search for the program content of the series program. Broadcast communication terminal characterized by this.   The broadcast communication terminal according to claim 1,
  As the predetermined device, including other storage device connected via the home terminal or the home network,
  The broadcast communication terminal characterized in that the program search means searches the other terminal connected to the terminal or the home network in preference to a server connected to another network.   The broadcast communication terminal according to claim 1,
  The broadcast search terminal, wherein the program search means searches a program content of the series program by accessing a predetermined connection destination.   A broadcast communication terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
  The program search means, when the broadcast program content being viewed has not changed for a certain time,
  A broadcast communication terminal that searches for program content that can be viewed in the series program.   A broadcast communication terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
  An execution instruction means for a user to execute the program search means;
  The broadcast search terminal characterized in that the program search means searches for program content that can be viewed by the series program when an instruction is given from the execution instruction means.   A broadcast communication terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
  The broadcast search terminal, wherein the program search means searches for program content that can be viewed by the series program based on a predetermined priority order and based on a transfer rate or a charge.   A broadcast communication terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
  And a recording / recording control unit for storing the broadcast program content before switching in the storage unit when the switching unit switches to display of the program content that can be viewed by the series program. Broadcast communication terminal.   The broadcast communication terminal according to claim 7,
  Comprising the storage means;
  The recording / recording control means stores the broadcast program content before switching in a storage means provided in the broadcast communication terminal.   The broadcast communication terminal according to claim 7,
  The recording / recording control means stores the broadcast program content before switching in the storage means in the other storage device when another storage device is connected via a home network. Broadcast communication terminal.   A broadcast communication terminal,
  Broadcast receiving means for receiving broadcast program content;
  Program information acquisition means for acquiring program information of the broadcast program content;
  Program search means for searching related content related to the program information;
  Selection means for storing the retrieved related content in association with the number specified from the user interface, and outputting to the display unit;
  When the specific number is input to the selection means, related content receiving means for acquiring related content corresponding to the specific number via a network;
  When the information for selecting the related content is received from the selection means, an instruction to switch the content to be received from the broadcast program to the related content is transmitted to the broadcast receiving means and the related content receiving means to switch the received content. Switching means for controlling
  Recording / recording control means,
  The recording / recording control means stores the program that was being broadcast before switching when the switching means switches from receiving broadcast program content to related content.
  The program search means refers to a table in which devices for searching for the related content are registered, accesses a predetermined device described in the table, and searches for the related content. Communication terminal.   The broadcast communication terminal according to claim 10,
  As the predetermined device, including other storage device connected via the home terminal or the home network,
  The broadcast communication terminal characterized in that the program search means searches the other terminal connected to the terminal or the home network in preference to a server connected to another network.

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