JP5059549B2 - Television receiver and display system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a television receiver, and more particularly to a message display technique in a television receiver capable of multi-screen display.

  Along with the increase in the screen size of television receivers and the diversification of broadcasting formats, there are an increasing number of devices capable of so-called multi-screen display that displays a plurality of information on one display screen. As a method of performing a plurality of screen displays in one display screen, as will be described later, a method using a so-called multi-screen TV function in which TV broadcasts from a plurality of tuners are acquired and displayed side by side, a display based on a TV broadcast, There is a method using a so-called PinP function which is performed simultaneously with a display based on a signal input from an external input terminal.

  In such a multi-screen display device, there is a technique for displaying a message on one screen. As shown in FIG. 8, the problem in displaying such a message is that the child screen 103 of the display unit 101 is too small to secure an area enough to read the message 105 (left diagram). When the message is enlarged and displayed beyond the area 103 (107), the message is displayed over the main screen, and viewing of the main screen is blocked. As a technique for solving such a problem, for example, there is a technique described in Patent Document 1 below.

  The technique described in Patent Document 1 checks the presence or absence of sub-information (caption) on the sub-screen side during multi-screen display such as PinP, and if there is sub-information, displays “*” or the like on the screen. The technique which performs is disclosed. According to this technique, it is possible to notify the user of the presence / absence of sub information on the child screen side without interrupting the main screen.

JP-A-2005-341106

  However, according to the method described in Patent Document 1, since only the display indicating the presence or absence of sub-information (caption) is made on the sub-screen, there is a problem that the contents of the information cannot be understood unless the display is enlarged. is there. In addition, when the sub-screen is based on information from the external input device, the external input device does not recognize whether the sub-screen is displayed and outputs the information. There is a problem that it is not possible to build a mechanism for switching to the “display”.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of notifying a main screen display when a message is displayed on one screen of a multi-screen display without interrupting the main screen display.

  According to an aspect of the present invention, a plurality of screens including a first screen display and a second screen display that is displayed in an area smaller than the first display screen are displayed on one display unit. A television receiver having a multi-screen display function that can display a message on the basis of the importance of the message instead of displaying a message on the second screen display. There is provided a television receiver characterized by having a sign display control unit for displaying the entire area. Accordingly, there is an advantage that an outline of the message display can be grasped and viewing of the first display screen which is the main screen is not hindered.

  The correspondence relationship between the message and the sign is stored in a memory, and the sign display control unit displays the sign instead of the message with reference to the correspondence relation of the memory with the necessity of an additional operation as a criterion of importance. It is preferable to make it. By preliminarily storing the correspondence between the message and the sign in a memory in a table format or the like, the sign can be selected quickly. Of course, in a general technique, it is assumed that a certain operation and a message have a correspondence relationship.

  The sign display control unit may display the message or display the message on the second display screen by referring to the correspondence relationship of the memory in consideration of the reduction ratio of the second display screen. It is preferable to decide whether to do this. When the reduction rate is small (not reduced so much), the message is easy to read and displayed as it is. When the reduction rate is high, the message is difficult to read and icon display is performed.

  In addition, a multi-screen display function capable of displaying a plurality of screens including a first screen display and a second screen display displayed in an area smaller than the first display screen on one display unit. Provided to the television receiving device, a communication function capable of bidirectional communication of commands between the television receiving device and the television receiving device, and a signal for causing at least the second screen display If the external device is displaying on the second display screen by the external device, instead of displaying the message on the second screen display, the message There is provided a display system comprising: an external device including a sign display control unit configured to display a sign based on importance on the entire area of the second screen display.

  At this time, the sign can be displayed at the initiative of the external device. Thereby, the definition and display control of the sign can be independently performed on the external device side.

  The external device uses the communication function to inquire the reduction ratio of the second display screen to the television receiver, and whether or not the returned reduction ratio is a predetermined value or less. If the reduction ratio is less than a certain value, the second display screen is instructed to display the sign, and if the reduction ratio exceeds a certain value, the second display screen The message may be instructed to be displayed as it is on the display screen.

  In addition, the external device uses the communication function to inquire about the reduction ratio of the second display screen to the television receiver, and the response reduction ratio is equal to or less than a predetermined value. If the reduction ratio is equal to or smaller than a certain value, the second display screen is instructed to display the message with a character size enlarged based on the reduction ratio, and the reduction ratio If the value exceeds a certain value, it may be instructed to display the message as it is on the second display screen.

  Alternatively, the external device notifies the television receiver of the importance of the error to be displayed on the second display screen using the communication function, and the notification is sent to the television receiver side. Is received, the television receiver determines whether or not the multi-screen display is in progress. If multi-screen display is in progress, control is performed to display the indicator on the second display screen. Anyway.

  Further, the external device notifies the television receiver of the importance of an error to be displayed on the second display screen using the communication function, and the notification is sent to the television receiver side. And the television receiver determines whether or not the multi-screen display is being performed. If the multi-screen display is being performed, the character enlarged based on the reduction ratio of the display on the second display screen is displayed. You may make it perform control which displays the said message by size.

  In addition to the above, the present invention includes a display control method described below, a program for causing a computer to execute the method, a recording medium on which the program is recorded, and the like.

  According to the present invention, there is an advantage that the content of the message on the smaller display screen side can be notified without enlarging the screen and without disturbing viewing on the larger screen side.

  In addition, when the screen of the external input device is reduced as a smaller child screen, the content can be notified by outputting an error message as an icon in an easy-to-see size according to the reduced state.

  Furthermore, when the screen of the external input device is reduced as a sub-screen, the content can be notified by outputting an error message as an icon on the television receiver side. In this case, notification is made by the icon design on the television receiver regardless of the model of the external input device, so that the user does not need to remember the meaning of the icon of each model and can easily understand the meaning of the icon. There is an advantage.

  PinP is an abbreviation for Picture in Picture, and displays a smaller screen on a display screen of a television receiver or the like. For example, on one screen, video based on a television broadcast selected by a tuner is displayed on the screen, and on the other screen, content acquired from an external input terminal such as a recorder is generally displayed on the screen. Is. In addition, a television receiver having a multi-screen function has a tuner corresponding to the screen, and different images and sounds from these tuners are synthesized and displayed on one display unit.

  Hereinafter, a television receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of the television receiver according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the television receiver A according to the present embodiment includes an antenna AT, front ends 1a and 1b each including a tuner, demultiplexers 3a and 3b, and video / audio decoders A5a and B5b. ,have. Thereby, two types of broadcasts can be received simultaneously and image processing can be performed independently. These two decoded video signals and audio signals are controlled by the screen synthesis unit 17 and the audio switching unit 33, respectively, and are output to the display unit 21 and the audio output units A7a and B7b.

  Further, the television receiver A is provided with a control unit 25 for controlling the whole, a memory unit 27 for storing various information and application programs, and a remote control light receiving unit 23 for receiving a remote control signal.

  The memory unit 27 stores an icon corresponding to a message to be described later in association with the importance of the message. Control which searches icon display control part 27a of memory part 27 based on directions containing importance information from icon display control part 25a provided in control part 25, selects an appropriate icon, and displays it on a child screen I do.

  Table 1 is a table showing an example of the importance level of an error message when an error message is displayed as an example of a message. In the example shown in Table 1, the importance is determined based on whether the viewer needs to check the contents and whether or not an additional operation is required. In Table 1, as an example of importance, importance 0 is when the operation is successful or when confirmation of the contents is not necessary. As the icon, the remote control device itself, which is an operation device, is shown, and no other display is made. This icon can notify the user that the operation has been performed, but there is no display that causes the user to take any action.

  The importance level 1 notifies that the operation is prohibited, and the prohibition mark is superimposed on the remote control device as the operation device along the road sign. This icon is displayed when an operation is performed by mistake, but the operation is merely invalid and there is no particular problem, indicating that confirmation of the contents is unnecessary.

  The importance level 2 indicates guidance that does not require any operation. In this sense, the remote control device that is the operation device is excluded from the icons. For example, the start of the reservation, the update of the program information, etc. are notified, and it is sufficient to enlarge only when the reason for display is unknown. It should be noted that the display control may be performed so that the icon display is automatically switched to the actual error message when an operation for enlarging the small screen to a certain size is performed. This is because the enlargement operation can be interpreted as an intention display that the user wants to know details of the error message.

  The importance level 3 is a guide that can be operated, and is a display that manual cancellation of the reservation, video switching, and the like have been performed. This is a guide that allows the user to select “Yes”, “No”, or the like regarding whether or not to perform an operation using the operating device. Even if this guidance is ignored, the degree of importance is not so high as to cause a problem in the apparatus.

  The importance level 4 is an error message for warning that an operation is urgently required, and includes contents such as reception failure and scheduled recording failure. In such a case, the contents are immediately confirmed, and an icon indicating that the viewer has to deal with is displayed. In this case, the error message may be displayed by automatically enlarging the screen instead of the icon.

  The icons and error messages in Table 1 are examples of icon display based on the necessity of user operation, and other importance criteria or other icon types may be used.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example in which an icon that changes to an error message is displayed on the sub-screen 31 of the display unit 21. In FIG. 2A (a), the error icon 33 of the importance level 4 of Table 1 is displayed on the sub-screen 31 of the display unit 21 to notify the user that there is an urgent operation need. In FIG. 2A (b), an icon of importance 1 is displayed on the entire sub-screen 31, and an icon that does not require a special operation is displayed only by noting that a prohibited operation has been performed. . If the icon is displayed on the entire child screen, the user can recognize it even when the child screen is small.

  In this way, when it is necessary to display an error message on the PinP child screen side, instead of normal error message display, a large icon is displayed on the entire child screen without interrupting the parent screen. An easy-to-read error message can be displayed. In addition, the icon to be displayed is changed according to the importance of the error message (necessity of user operation). As a result, the user can grasp the content of the error to some extent without the text of the error message, and does not have to display the entire screen for confirmation. During the PinP process, there is an advantage that an error message can be displayed in an easy-to-see form and the error contents can be known to some extent without having to bother to release PinP.

  Next, an example in which the above technique is applied to two types of cases having different system configurations will be described. FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating an example in which an external device such as a DVD (or HDD) recorder 41 performs display control related to error display. The configuration example shown in FIG. 3 shows an example in which an external (input) device 41 and a television receiver (TV) A are connected by an HDMI cable based on the HDMI standard. It is assumed that the external (input) device 41 and the television receiver A are configured to be able to communicate using a CEC vendor definition command. The video signal is transmitted from the external device 41 to the TV (A), and the control signal is exchanged between the external device 41 and the TV (A). The control signal can be uniquely defined on the vendor side (manufacturer side). Even in this case, when the error message 41b based on the output signal 41a from the external device 41 is displayed on the sub screen 31 in the TV (A), the error message 35 is also reduced, so that it is difficult to read. Therefore, the error message display of the external device 41 can be improved by sending a manufacturer-defined signal during the PinP display process.

  More specific processing based on the configuration shown in FIG. 3A will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, when the PinP display process is started on the external device 41 side (step S1), the screen reduction rate is inquired from the external device 41 to the TV (A) (step S2). In response to this, the TV (A) notifies the external device 41, which is a sub-screen, of the screen reduction rate using an HDMI CEC command (step S3). The external device 41 displays an error message in accordance with the reduction ratio notified in step S3 by changing the icon to a size that can be recognized on the child screen instead of displaying a normal error message. Here, in step S4, if the notified reduction ratio is equal to or less than a certain value (Y in step S4), it is determined that the character is small and difficult to see. The icon corresponding to is displayed. On the other hand, in step S4, when the notified reduction ratio is larger than a certain value (N in step S4), it is determined that characters are displayed to a certain extent, so that normal error display is performed. It should be noted that the mechanism for selecting an icon in accordance with the importance is the same as in the case of the TV alone as described above. As shown in FIG. 5, instead of displaying an icon corresponding to the importance level on the entire screen in step S5 in FIG. 4, as shown in step S7 in FIG. 5, the character size divided by the reduction ratio is used. It can also be displayed. In this case, scroll display is preferable.

  According to the control method described above, it is possible to define a unique icon according to the reduction ratio on the external input device side, or to perform display control, and to perform fine control of display contents on the external device side. There is an advantage that is possible.

  Next, the second case will be described. As shown in FIG. 3B, in the second case, error message display control is performed on the TV (television) side. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of such processing. As shown in FIG. 6, first, in step S11, an error display process is started on the external device 41 side. In step S12, the importance of the error is notified to the TV (A). In step S13, a normal error display (FIG. 6) is performed. As shown in FIG. 3B, the erase message 41b is displayed on the sub-screen 31 as the output signal 41a of the external device).

  Next, in step S14, it is determined whether or not PinP is being performed on the TV (A) side. If it is during PinP (Y), the process proceeds to step S15, and an icon 35 corresponding to the importance of the message is displayed on the entire sub-screen so as to overwrite the error message 41b as shown in FIG. 3B. In step S14, if it is not in PinP (N), an icon is not displayed and a normal error display is displayed.

  As shown in FIG. 7, instead of step S15 in FIG. 6, the message may be displayed in a size divided by the reduction ratio, and the message may be scrolled as shown in FIG. 2B.

  This method has the advantage that the icon display to the user is unified to that on the TV side, so that the meaning of the icon is easy to remember.

In this case, since the error message 41b is hidden by the error display 35 on the television side, the error display on the external device side is not essential. In addition, the following effects are exhibited by always performing the normal error display in FIG.
1) There is no need to change the error display processing unit on the external device side depending on whether the television side supports error display or not. Therefore, there is little development effort.
2) Even if the error cannot be displayed on the TV side due to a problem such as communication, the error is displayed although it is difficult to read. Therefore, even when trouble occurs, it is not worse than the prior art.

  In the above, the HDMI method is described as an example of the inter-device communication method, but other standards may be used. The external device may be a device other than the recorder, such as a PC. If the PC has a small screen, for example, an incoming mail may be displayed as an icon.

  As for the error message, when the reception level is lowered or the broadcast is ended, it is stipulated that the error message is displayed in the domestic standards ARIB TR-B14 Part 2 and TR-B15 Part 2. For example, broadcasting suspension and reception abnormality are defined in ARIB TR-B14, TR-B15 Volume 2. The message at the time of operation includes, for example, a program guide, a setting menu display, and data broadcast activation as examples of operations prohibited on two screens and PinP (depending on the product). Examples of operations that cannot be performed by external input (depending on the product) include program information display.

Non-operational messages include reservation (timer) activation, reservation completion, and the like.
Also, when a prohibited operation (depending on product specifications: for example, “program guide” button during external input) is performed, an error message is generally displayed as the product specification. is there.

  The present invention can be used for a television receiver.

It is a functional block diagram which shows the example of 1 structure of the television receiver by one embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example by which the icon replaced with an error message is displayed on the subscreen of a display part. It is a figure which shows the example by which the error message is scroll-displayed on the subscreen of the display part. It is a figure which shows one structural example in which an external apparatus, for example, DVD (or HDD) recorder, performs display control regarding an error display. It is a figure which shows the example of 1 structure which performs an error display on a display apparatus, for example, the television side. It is a flowchart figure which shows an example of an error display process in the structure shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for displaying the character size divided by the reduction ratio instead of displaying the icon corresponding to the importance level on the entire screen in step S5 of FIG. It is a flowchart figure which shows the flow of a process which performs error message display control by TV side. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for displaying and scrolling a message with a size divided by a reduction ratio instead of step S15 in FIG. 6. It is a figure which shows the example of a general display of the error message in a subscreen.

Explanation of symbols

A ... TV receiver, AT ... antenna, 1a, 1b ... front end including tuner, 3a and 3b ... demultiplexer, 5a and 5b ... video / audio decoders A and B, 17 ... screen composition unit, 21 ... display unit , 23: Remote control light receiving unit, 25 ... Control unit, 25a ... Icon display control unit, 27 ... Memory unit, 27a ... Icon display control unit, 33 ... Audio switching unit.

Claims (3)

Provided with a multi-screen display function capable of displaying a plurality of screens including a first screen display and a second screen display displayed in an area smaller than the first display screen on one display unit A television receiver,
Possess the label display control unit either displays a message, or a label based on the importance of the message to be displayed on the entire area of the second screen displayed on the second screen display,
The sign display control unit determines whether or not a multi-screen display is being performed in the television receiver,
The sign display control unit
When the multi-screen display is in progress, the instruction is made to display the sign on the second display screen or to display a message with an enlarged character size based on the reduction ratio of the second display screen. ,
A television receiver characterized by instructing to display a message as it is on the second display screen when the multi-screen display is not in progress . Holding a correspondence between the message and the sign in a memory;
2. The television reception according to claim 1, wherein the sign display control unit displays a sign instead of a message with reference to the correspondence relationship of the memory, with the necessity of an additional operation as a criterion of importance. apparatus. Provided with a multi-screen display function capable of displaying a plurality of screens including a first screen display and a second screen display displayed in an area smaller than the first display screen on one display unit A television receiver;
An external device comprising a communication function capable of bidirectionally communicating commands with the television receiving apparatus and a function of providing the television receiving apparatus with a signal for causing at least the second screen display In the case where the display is performed on the second display screen by the external device, a message is displayed on the second screen display , or a sign based on the importance of the message is displayed. possess an external equipment with a marker display control unit for displaying the entire area of the second screen,
The external device uses the communication function to inquire the reduction ratio of the second display screen to the television receiver, and whether or not the returned reduction ratio is a predetermined value or less. Determine whether
The external device is
If the reduction ratio is less than or equal to the predetermined value, the indicator is displayed on the second display screen, or an instruction is displayed to display a message with an enlarged character size based on the reduction ratio And
When the reduction ratio exceeds the predetermined value, the display system instructs to display the message as it is on the second display screen .

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