JP4862141B2 - Program recording device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a program recording apparatus that reserves and records a broadcast program.

  Conventionally, recording reservation of a broadcast program has been executed by the user setting a repeating pattern such as one time or every week or every day in addition to the broadcast station (CH) and the broadcast start / end time. However, series programs for which repetitive reservations are set are not always broadcast at the same time each time, and the broadcast start time and broadcast end time may change. For this reason, a part of the program may not be recorded, or an unnecessary program may be recorded. Another program may be broadcast for a certain week due to a special program or the like.

  In addition, for example, a situation may occur in which a daily repetitive reservation overlaps with a single reservation on Monday or a single reservation on Wednesday. When recording reservations overlap in this way, the conventional reservation management prioritizes according to the rules determined by the device, such as a program that started recording first, a program that starts recording later, or a newly reserved program. The program to be recorded was determined and recording was being performed. However, since this does not realize recording in the form desired by the user, various proposals have been made for more flexible handling.

  Patent Document 1 has a management table for each reservation so that duplication is determined at the time of reservation, and a priority is set for the user. The overlapping reservation and the priority are recorded as the user intends. Techniques to perform are disclosed. In addition, this technique can easily change the reservation status by changing the priority or deleting the reservation. Furthermore, it is also realized that recording is performed in accordance with fluctuations in the broadcast start / end time of a program by using an electronic program guide (EPG) and following the program in advance.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228688 discloses a technique that facilitates confirmation of a user's reservation status by expanding and displaying repeated reservations, and can grasp the execution time at the time of duplication.
JP 2005-217738 A JP 2006-180120 A

  However, as in Patent Document 1, even in a proposal for making a reservation more suitable for the user's intention by having duplicate management data for each reservation, there is only one reservation management information for one reservation. It is. For this reason, for example, when it is determined that a reservation for several days ahead is repeated in a daily repetitive reservation, if the scheduled broadcast time of a series program is irregular, the time reserved for recording and the actual broadcast time Therefore, it may be determined that reservations that do not actually overlap are duplicated.

  For example, when a recording reservation is made for a program a of a series program as shown in FIG. 10, a recording reservation is made at 13: 30-14: 30 from Monday to Friday, but in actual broadcasting, Tuesday is shifted by 30 minutes. Is going to be. Therefore, if the program b scheduled to be broadcast on Tuesday from 13:00 to 14:00 is set as a single shot, it is determined that the reserved time zones of the program a and the program b that do not actually overlap are duplicated. A warning is displayed. The same applies to the invention of Patent Document 2.

  Further, in the invention of Patent Document 2, it is described that the reservation list is expanded and displayed at the time of display and the reservation time zone is changed and restored when the reservation is overlapped. Since it is necessary to execute this flow, the processing becomes heavy and the display becomes slow. In addition, no correspondence is described when recording is not executed at a specific time. Further, it is not described how to store and manage the priority information, and the means for realizing it is unknown.

  In addition, the inventions of Patent Documents 1 and 2 cannot cope with broadcast programs that are irregularly operated such as one episode of broadcasting per day or two or more episodes per day. Recording and recording omission occurred. Furthermore, flexible reservation management has not been possible for cases where there is no broadcast only a specific number of times, or when recording is not performed according to the user's intention.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and even when recording a series program that is irregularly broadcast, it is possible to suppress erroneous reservation determination and to prevent erroneous recording and recording omission. Another object of the present invention is to provide a program recording apparatus that enables flexible reservation management.

  In order to achieve the above object, a program recording apparatus of the present invention includes broadcast date information, broadcast start time information, broadcast duration information or broadcast end time information, and program title name information of a plurality of programs scheduled to be broadcast. Electronic program guide acquisition means for acquiring and holding electronic program guide information for a predetermined number of days, and when making a recording reservation for a series program that is a program broadcast in a weekly or daily repetition pattern, Recording reservation setting means for setting the recording start time, recording end time, program title name, and the repetition pattern as recording reservation information, and the program title name of the series program in the same broadcasting station as the series program reserved for recording And a plurality of program title names included in the electronic program guide information, and as a result of the comparison, a total sentence of the program title names of the series program When there is a program title name having a character that matches at least a predetermined number of characters set in advance with respect to the number, the program title name is detected as a program title name that is substantially the same as the program title name of the series program. A title name detecting means, wherein the title name detecting means sets a time range from a recording start time to a recording end time in the recording reservation information of the series program and a predetermined time before and after it as a search target range, and the series program When the recording reservation information is set, the program title name is searched within the search target range of each reservation setting corresponding day of the repetitive pattern within the retention period of the electronic program guide information after the recording reservation date and the next day. The recording reservation setting means is substantially the same as detected by the title name detection means. For each program corresponding to the program title name, individual reservation information including a recording reservation date, a recording start time, a recording end time, and a program title name is set, and the individual program information corresponding to the substantially identical program title name is set. It is a means for adding and associating identifiers indicating the same group to each of the reservation information.

  The program recording apparatus according to the present invention further includes reservation list generation / display means for generating a reservation list for displaying a list of the individual reservation information belonging to the same group and displaying the reservation list. To do.

  According to the program recording apparatus of the present invention, when a series program is scheduled to be recorded, the reservation is overlapped even when the series program that is irregularly broadcast is reserved by setting an individual reservation for each broadcast. In addition to suppressing errors in judgment, erroneous recording and omissions can be suppressed, and flexible reservation management can be realized.

  The best mode for carrying out the program recording apparatus 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 FIG. 1, the program recording apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention receives a broadcast signal of a desired channel and obtains a received signal, and encodes the received signal with an encoding method such as MPEG. A digital video recorder (DVR) 3 that records encoded data, which is composed of an encoder 2, an HDD, a DVD-RW, and the like, a decoder 4 that decodes the encoded data, and a vertical blanking interval of an analog broadcast wave An EPG analyzer 5 that acquires and analyzes electronic program guide information from a signal superimposed on (VBI: Vertical Blanking Interval), a recording reservation setting unit 6 that sets a recording reservation, and a recording set by the recording reservation setting unit 6 Scheduled recording execution unit 7 for causing the DVR 3 to perform recording based on the reservation, and a reservation display for generating a display screen for displaying a list of reservation contents set by the recording reservation setting unit 6 The surface generation unit 8, an on-screen display (OSD) 9, the central processing unit is composed of a (CPU) 10, which are connected to a television monitor 11. The CPU 10 comprehensively controls each unit provided in the apparatus.

  The electronic program guide information may be obtained from program information (EIT: Event Information Table) in the program arrangement information of the digital broadcast signal or may be obtained from the Internet.

  Next, the operation of the program recording apparatus configured as described above will be described. First, the state of the DVR 3 will be described. During recording under the control of the CPU 10, the selected analog broadcast signal of the desired channel is selectively received by the tuner 1, converted into a baseband received signal, and supplied to the encoder 2, where a moving image such as MPEG is recorded. After being encoded into a digital video signal of a broadcast program of a desired channel by an encoding method, it is written in DVR 3. When a digital broadcast signal is received by a digital tuner (not shown), the received stream is recorded in the DVR 3 as it is, or down-converted and recorded in the DVR 3.

  At the time of reproduction, the digital video signal read from the DVR 3 under the control of the CPU 10 is returned to the video signal of the broadcast program of the desired channel by the decoder 4, and the operating state is added by the OSD 9, and then the television monitor 11. Is output and viewed. Further, the EPG analyzer 5 acquires electronic program guide information from the analog broadcast signal VBI, the digital broadcast signal EIT, the Internet, etc., analyzes the data content, and displays it in the OSD 9 in a display format such as a program guide. The user selects an arbitrary broadcast program by remote control operation, and sets or cancels recording reservation on the screen.

  Next, an example in which an irregular operation is performed in a program broadcast in a repetitive pattern will be described. FIG. 2 shows an example of a program operated at an irregular broadcast time. Such a program may be broadcast continuously in the same time zone, for example, by inserting a short program between the programs.

  In FIG. 2, the broadcast is performed twice on Wednesday and Thursday, but the date on which the broadcast is performed twice is not specified. Furthermore, the broadcast start time may vary depending on the day, or there may be days when there is no broadcast. The numbers in parentheses below the program A in FIG. 2 indicate the number of talks of the program, but are described only for convenience of explanation and are not included in the program information. The program information is obtained from the electronic program guide information. The program information includes at least a broadcast start time of the program, a program continuation time or a broadcast end time, a program title name (character data), and a genre code. included.

  Next, in the program recording apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, an operation in the case of setting a recording reservation for an irregularly operated series program as shown in FIG. 2 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation at the time of recording reservation setting in the program recording apparatus according to the present embodiment.

  First, in step S10, the CPU 10 analyzes the electronic program guide information, and controls the EPG analyzer 5 so as to display it on the OSD 9 in a display format such as a program guide. It is assumed that the EPG analyzer 5 has acquired and held program information for, for example, 8 days from the day when the recording reservation setting is performed. The user selects an arbitrary broadcast program by remote control operation, and sets recording reservation on the screen.

  Next, in step S20, the CPU 10 determines at least the program title name, the recording start / end date and time, the channel of the program to be recorded, for a program broadcast in a repetitive pattern as shown in FIG. The repetitive pattern is set as the recording reservation information, and the recording reservation setting unit 6 is controlled so as to hold it.

  In the conventional program recording apparatus, the recording reservation setting ends here, and the recording is updated to the next recording date and time after the recording execution is completed, but in the present embodiment, based on the repetition pattern set by the user, Automatically search for the same program.

  Therefore, in step S30, the CPU 10 acquires the program data of the next program in the same broadcasting station as the program set for recording reservation from the electronic program guide information held in the EPG analyzer 5. Here, the program data includes at least the broadcast start time of the program, the duration or broadcast end time of the program, the title name (character data) of the program, and the genre code.

  Next, in step S40, the CPU 10 determines whether the broadcast start time of the program is within a predetermined designated range based on the program data acquired in step S30. The designated range is, for example, a range including the time from the recording start time to the recording end time in the recording reservation information and a predetermined time (for example, 2 hours) before and after the time. The reason why the designated range is set is to perform an efficient search in accordance with the actual broadcast operation in the search for the program title name described later. When it is within the specified range (step S40: YES), the process proceeds to step S50, and when it is not within the specified range (step S40: NO), the process proceeds to step S70.

  In step S50, the CPU 10 determines whether or not the program title name of the acquired program data is the same as the program title name in the recording reservation information. Whether the program title name is the same is determined by, for example, decomposing the program title name in the program data that is the comparison target character by character with respect to the character string of the program title name of the recording reservation information that is the comparison source, The frequency of appearing in the comparison source in order from the first character is counted, and if the number of comparison source characters is the same, for example, 80% or more, it is determined that the program title names are the same.

  If the program title names are the same (step S50: YES), the process proceeds to step S60. If the program title names are not the same (step S50: NO), the process returns to step S30 to acquire further program data, Repeat the process.

  In step S60, the CPU 10 controls the recording reservation setting unit 6 to set individual reservation information including at least the scheduled recording date, the recording start / end time, and the program title name for the program. Here, a reservation ID indicating that programs corresponding to the same program title name belong to the same group is added to the individual reservation information. Thereafter, the process returns to step S30 to acquire the next program data, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

  In step S70, the CPU 10 determines whether or not the next reservation setting corresponding day of the repetitive pattern after the next day is within the number of days of program information held in the EPG analyzer 5 (eight days in this embodiment), that is, It is determined whether or not the EPG analyzer 5 holds the program information for the reservation setting corresponding day.

  If it is within the holding days (step S70: YES), in step S80, the CPU 10 acquires program data of the program that is broadcast first within the designated range of the next reserved setting corresponding day of the repeat pattern after the next day, Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S50. If it is not within the holding days (step S70: NO), the series of processing is terminated.

  An example of a reservation list when reservation setting is performed by the program recording apparatus of the present embodiment is shown in FIGS. FIG. 4 shows an example of a reservation list in the case where the reservation setting of the irregularly operated program A as shown in FIG. 2 is performed. FIG. 5 shows the reservation setting of the series program B scheduled to be repeated every Monday. It is an example of a reservation list in the case of.

  In FIG. 4, the upper two digits of each reservation ID are set to the same “01”, indicating that they are the same reservation group. The lower two digits are different numbers so that they can be handled as independent individual reservation information. Similarly, in FIG. 5, the upper two digits of each reservation ID are the same “02”, and the lower two digits are different numbers. Although not shown, the individual reservation information includes a program title name, a genre name, and the like.

  By individually managing reservations in this way, it is possible to easily switch and display the display for each day or day of the week as well as the display of only the reservation for the next time as in the prior art. Furthermore, it is possible to easily change settings such as shifting the time only for a specific reservation, or to change all reservation groups.

  In the program recording apparatus of the present embodiment, various display formats can be easily realized when displaying the reservation contents, and the daily, weekly, monthly reservation list, or all reservation lists are switched and displayed. can do. Such various display screens are generated by the reservation display screen generation unit 8 and displayed on the OSD 9.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of a reservation list screen displayed on the program display device of the present embodiment, in which all reservations are displayed. In addition, the reservation of program A at the top of the reservation list screen is selected. Here, when the user presses a button for confirming the selection with the remote controller or the like, the reservation display screen generation unit 8 under the control of the CPU 10 displays the reservation unit display screen in which the reservation for the program A is expanded as shown in FIG. Is generated and displayed on the OSD 9.

  With such a display screen, the user can also grasp the scheduled execution schedule of a specific program from the next time onward. Therefore, for example, the user can easily and reliably make changes such as not recording a certain time or changing the time a certain time. be able to.

  Further, in FIG. 7, the shaded portion of the time indicates that recording is not scheduled because it overlaps with other reservations. FIG. 8 shows an example of a display screen when a list of daily reservations is displayed. As in FIG. 7, the portion shaded in the time display is not scheduled to be recorded due to duplication with other reservations. Is shown. In this way, it becomes possible to clearly confirm future schedules that were simply not known in the conventional reservation list.

  6-8, if a reservation is selected and confirmed by a remote controller or the like, a reservation content correction screen is displayed, and the reservation content can be changed such as a time change or priority change. You may do it. In this way, the display format that is easy to check can be selected and changed by the repetition pattern of the reservation, so that oversight due to the reservation status confirmation can be prevented.

  As described above, according to the program recording apparatus according to the present embodiment, when a series program is reserved for recording, an irregularity such that two episodes are broadcast continuously on the same day by individually setting a reservation for each broadcast. Even when a series program that is frequently used is reserved and recorded, it is possible to suppress omissions and erroneous recording of programs desired by the user. In addition, it is easy to make settings such as changing the recording start / end time each time or not recording a certain time, and flexible reservation management can be realized. Further, the user only needs to perform the same operation as the conventional recording reservation setting, and the operation does not become complicated.

  In addition, since program follow-up using an electronic program guide can be performed for each individual reservation, management is simple, and there is no contradiction in the determination of overlapping recording reservations.

  In addition, since reservation IDs indicating the same group are added to individual reservation information for the same series program, at the time of reservation change such as recording mode or deletion of reservation, all of the individual reservation information is simultaneously It can be changed or deleted, which is convenient for the user.

  In step S50, the genre code may be compared with the program title name. In this way, a more reliable search can be achieved. Furthermore, by comparing the genre codes first, the number of programs for which the program title names are compared can be reduced, and the search process can be lightened and the processing speed can be improved.

  In the above description, when a series program broadcast in a repetitive pattern is reserved for recording, the individual recording reservation information is set as a single reservation for each broadcast as shown in FIGS. Each broadcast of a program broadcast in a daily repeating pattern may be set as a weekly reservation as shown in FIG.

  By doing this, every day, even if you make a recording reservation for a program with a different repeating pattern, such as a daily broadcast program such as Monday to Saturday, Monday to Friday, Monday to Thursday, or a program broadcast every Monday, all weekly Since it can be managed as a video recording reservation, management becomes easy. For example, the same management method can be used to determine which content should be overwritten in a recording setting for overwriting every certain period such as the next week or the next week to limit the capacity of the medium.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the program recording apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the program operated by irregular broadcasting time. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement at the time of the video recording reservation setting in the program recording device which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the reservation list | wrist at the time of making a reservation setting with the program recording apparatus which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows another example of the reservation list at the time of making a reservation setting with the program recording apparatus which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the reservation list screen displayed with the program display apparatus which concerns on this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the display screen of the reservation unit which expand | deployed the reservation of the program A. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the display screen at the time of displaying a list of daily reservations. It is a figure which shows an example of the reservation list | wrist at the time of setting each week broadcast of the program broadcast by a daily repetition pattern as a weekly reservation. It is a figure which shows the example of the program operated by irregular broadcasting time.

Explanation of symbols

1 Tuner 2 Encoder 3 Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
4 Decoder 5 EPG Analyzer 6 Recording Reservation Setting Unit 7 Reserved Recording Execution Unit 8 Reservation Display Screen Generation Unit 9 On-Screen Display (OSD)
10 CPU
11 TV monitor

Claims (2)

Electronic program guide information including broadcast date information, broadcast start time information, broadcast duration information or broadcast end time information, and program title name information of a plurality of programs scheduled to be broadcast is acquired and held for a predetermined number of days. Electronic program guide acquisition means;
When making a recording reservation for a series program that is a program broadcast in a weekly or daily repetition pattern, the recording reservation date, recording start time, recording end time, program title name, and the repetition pattern are set as recording reservation information. Recording reservation setting means,
In the same broadcast station as the series program reserved for recording, the program title name of the series program is compared with a plurality of program title names included in the electronic program guide information. If there is a program title name that has characters that match at least a predetermined percentage of the total number of characters of the program title name, the program title name is substantially the same as the program title name of the series program. Title name detecting means for detecting as a program title name,
The title name detection means uses a time from a recording start time to a recording end time in the recording reservation information of the series program and a predetermined time before and after it as a search target range, and when the recording reservation information of the series program is set The program reservation name and the program title name within the search target range of each reservation setting corresponding day of the repetitive pattern within the retention period of the electronic program guide information after the recording day and the next day,
The recording reservation setting means includes an individual recording reservation date, a recording start time, a recording end time, and a program title name for each program corresponding to the substantially identical program title name detected by the title name detection means. A program recording apparatus, characterized in that reservation information is set, and an identifier indicating the same group is added to and associated with each of the individual reservation information of programs corresponding to the substantially identical program title names .   2. The program recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising reservation list generation / display means for generating a reservation list for displaying a list of the individual reservation information belonging to the same group and displaying the reservation list. .

Images