JPH04185088A - Television broadcast system using character signal and television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the preset of broadcasting station of the identical system by superimposing a code signal discriminating the program contents on a broadcasting radio wave and decoding a code on the receiver side. CONSTITUTION:A broadcasting station 1 performs broadcast by superimposing a signal containing a code indicating the program contents during the period when the character signal can be superimposed in the vertical fly-back deletion period of a TV broadcasting signal. In a receiver 2, a code decoding means 8 decodes the signal including the code. The codes are stored in a code storage part 6 of the broadcasting station 1 and they are a broadcast system code, program classification code, or program code encoding the name of the program on broadcasting or the abbreviated name of the name of the program. Thus, when the signal including the required code is superimposed and transmitted during the period when the character signal can be superimposed in the vertical fly-back deletion period to obtain code information while decoded on the receiver side, the broadcasting system and the program contents can be discriminated and the information can be utilized in many ways.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] In a television broadcast signal, character information is superimposed and broadcast in a character signal superimposable period within a vertical blanking period. This character signal encoded with the broadcast series, program content classification, program name, etc. is superimposed and broadcast, and the television receiver decodes this encoded information.
To realize a system that prevents different broadcasting stations broadcasting the same content from being preset at the same time during automatic presetting, and allows easy selection by presetting only programs in a desired field.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a broadcasting system that broadcasts a signal in which information such as program content classification is encoded as a teletext signal, and a television receiver having a function to process these encoded signals, and in particular to a television receiver having an auto preset function. The present invention relates to a television receiver having a television receiver.

[Conventional technology]

The current status of the television broadcasting network in Japan is that, including broadcasting stations with an output power of 50 kW to ultra-low power television broadcasting stations, NHK has approximately 6,900 stations in general and education, and general broadcasters have approximately 6,300 stations. Climbing. In addition, the same six programs are broadcast from a plurality of different broadcast stations. Although the range in which the broadcast radio waves of micro-power broadcasting stations and micro-power broadcasting stations can be received is limited, depending on the area, for example, it is possible to receive broadcasts of the same series with the same program content from different broadcasting stations, such as NHK General. There is also. In the case of television receivers that are generally installed in homes, the antenna used is directional and the installation position is fixed, so it is not possible to assign broadcast stations of the same series to different channel buttons. almost none. However, since omnidirectional antennas are used in television receivers used in automobiles and the like, broadcast stations of the same series may be assigned to different channel buttons as described above.

In current television broadcasting, although the broadcast series may be broadcast as audio, the broadcast station, broadcast series, and even program content and program name are broadcast as mechanically identifiable coded information. Never.

Therefore, the identification of this information is made after the viewer actually receives the broadcast.

Broadcast signals for television broadcasting are specified in detail, and teletext has recently been put into practical use. This is a system in which a character signal is superimposed and broadcast during a character signal superimposable period within a vertical blanking period, and the superimposition position of the character signal is shown in FIG. 5, and the form of the signal is shown in FIG. Currently, the 21st H shown in Figure 5 is for broadcasters, and the 14th H is for broadcasters.
No. 16H from H to No. 16H is in practical use for third party operators.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Television receivers installed in cars have limited channel selection buttons, so they use an auto preset system that sequentially sweeps the received radio waves and stores frequencies in order of reception strength, corresponding to the channel selection buttons. It also has a function to store frequencies with reception strength above a certain level in frequency order corresponding to the channel selection buttons. When tuning, the user selects a broadcasting station by operating the tuning button.

However, as mentioned above, depending on the region, the received radio waves of two or more different broadcasting stations of the same broadcasting series may be strong, and two or more channel selection buttons may be preset to broadcasting stations of the same series that broadcast the same program. This may happen. Since the number of channel selection buttons in a vehicle-mounted television receiver is limited, it is not preferable to limit the channels to be selected in this way.

In addition, with all television receivers, not just in-vehicle television receivers, it is impossible to judge the program content without actually watching the program, so you can watch broadcasts in specific fields such as news programs and sports programs. Even if you want to
It is necessary to search for the desired program across all channels, which requires time to operate. In particular, in-vehicle television receivers have a limited number of channel selection buttons, so if the auto preset operation is used to assign a program to a channel selection button, it may happen that the program in the desired field is not assigned.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to avoid duplication by associating broadcast stations with the tuning buttons in an auto preset system, use the tuning buttons more effectively, and select programs. The purpose is to make it easier.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the broadcasting system of the present invention superimposes a code signal that makes it possible to identify program contents on broadcast radio waves from a broadcasting station. This code is then made decipherable on the receiver side, and if an auto preset system is provided, this code is used to prevent presetting of broadcast stations of the same series. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of a broadcasting system according to the present invention. In the following figures, similar functional parts are represented by the same number and each time a lowercase letter of the alphabet is added.

The broadcasting system of the present invention includes a broadcasting station 1 that superimposes and broadcasts a signal containing a code indicating broadcast content in a character signal superimposition possible period within a vertical blanking period of a television broadcast signal;
and a television receiver 2 equipped with code decoding means 8 for decoding signals containing codes. In FIG. 1, the above code is stored in the code storage section 6,
The codes stored in the code storage unit 6 include a series code representing the broadcasting series of a broadcasting station, a program classification code that classifies the content of the program being broadcast, or a program code that encodes the name of the program currently being broadcast or the abbreviation of the program name. It becomes a code.

Furthermore, the television receiver of the present invention receives the television broadcast in which the signal containing the series code, classification code, or program code described above is superimposed on the character signal superimposition period within the vertical blanking period. A code decoding means is provided for decoding signals containing each code.

In addition, the second part shows the basic configuration of the television receiver of the present invention, which is further equipped with an auto preset system.
It is a diagram. In FIG. 2, 12a is an auto preset system, and the inside is almost the same as a commonly used auto preset system, but the preset processing section 2
2a controls the assignment of corresponding broadcast stations to the channel selection means 26a based on the code decoded by the code decoder 8a.

[For production]

Until now, television broadcast waves did not include information such as series codes, classification codes, or program codes, making it impossible to identify broadcast series or programs. Therefore, signals containing these codes are superimposed and broadcast during the character signal superimposition period within the vertical blanking period, and the television receiver decodes the signals containing these codes to obtain code information. For example, it becomes possible to identify broadcast series and program content. This information can be used for many purposes.

In addition, when an auto preset system is provided, the preset processing section 22a determines the broadcast series based on the code decoded by the code decoding section 8a, and simultaneously selects two or more broadcast stations that simultaneously broadcast the same program. 26H can be avoided.

Furthermore, in the case of a classification code, the preset processing section 22a can preset only programs with a specific classification code based on the classification code decoded by the code decoding section 8a.

〔Example〕

In order to realize the broadcasting system of the present invention, a broadcasting station that superimposes and broadcasts a signal containing the above code is required.
Teletext equipment that is already in practical use can be used for this purpose. As mentioned above, currently character signals 14H to 16H and 21H in FIG. 5 are used. The information that can be sent with each H is 190 bits as shown in FIG. Even if this code includes a code that identifies the broadcasting station assigned to each broadcasting station, even if all the broadcasting stations are covered, there are only about 13,000 stations, so 14 bits is sufficient. Even less is needed for the series code. Table 1 shows an example of bit allocation when transmitting information using 190 pits.

Table 1 Bit Allocation Example If the content is as shown in Table 1, 256 content classifications such as sports programs, news, etc. are possible. The program name can be 8 bits and can contain up to eight kana characters, and the time can be expressed in seconds from the year.

Of course, Table 1 is just an example, and various allocation methods are possible. It is also possible to broadcast only the 14 pits of a broadcasting station as a code, and use the rest in the same way as conventional teletext broadcasting.

Of the period in which text signals can be superimposed, the broadcasting system of the present invention uses existing teletext signals from 148 to 168.
Either 138 or 21H may be used, and if there is no problem with the system, 138 may be used from IOH.

As the television receiver of the present invention, one that is almost the same as an existing teletext receiver can be used, but it is necessary to decode and process a signal on which various code signals are superimposed as a code. be.

Usually, a microcomputer is used for such processing.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a television receiver having an auto preset function using a microcomputer. FIG. 4 shows an example of the operation panel of the operation remote control 22b in FIG. 3.

The configuration shown in FIG. 3 is similar to a generally well-known teletext receiver, and detailed explanation will be omitted. However, the character signal is converted into character information by a waveform equalization section 16b, a character signal separation section 17b, and an error correction section 18b. and microcomputer system 27b
to go into. This character information contains broadcasting station codes, series codes, classification codes, etc. according to predetermined rules.

The operation of the receiving channel, etc. is performed using the operation remote control 22b. Then, by pressing the auto preset activation button 101C in FIG. 4, the microcomputer system 22b sets the corresponding broadcasting station to the channel selection button 104C. In this case, conventionally, received frequencies are scanned and frequencies having received strength equal to or higher than a predetermined value are stored in a predetermined memory address in the microcomputer system 27b in ascending order of frequency.

This memory address and the channel selection button 104C of the operation remote controller 22b correspond to each other.
When one of C is pressed, the microcomputer system 27b detects this and outputs the frequency stored in the corresponding memory address to the synchronous demodulator 7b to receive broadcast waves of this frequency.

In the case of the present invention, for example, the same series preset prevention button 10
After pressing 3C, press auto preset start button 101C
When is pressed, the microcomputer system 27b similarly scans the received frequency and checks the received strength, but at this time obtains character signals contained in the received radio waves, extracts series data from these, and compares them. If they have the same sequence code, the one with the stronger reception strength is retained and the other is excluded. Then, they are stored in order at predetermined memory addresses. This prevents broadcast stations of the same series from being assigned to the channel selection button 104C.

If the character signal contains only the broadcasting station code and no series code, the microcomputer system 27bOR
Correspondence data between broadcasting stations and broadcasting series is stored in advance in the OM, and the series code is obtained from the broadcasting station code.

Next, an example of using classification codes will be explained.

When the program classification selection button 102c shown in FIG. 11b. If the classification is not the desired program content, pressing the program classification selection button 102C changes the classification in sequence. For example, when the auto preset activation button 101C is pressed with the desired news displayed, the microcomputer system 27b scans the frequency and detects that the reception strength is above a predetermined level and that the classification code decoded from the character signal is a 22-s code. Only those that match are selected and sequentially stored in a predetermined memory address. As a result, the broadcasting station currently broadcasting the new program is associated with the channel selection button 104c, so that if the desired program is selected from among them, the desired program can be easily selected.

Although the advantages of broadcasting station codes, series codes, program codes, etc. as character signals for television broadcasting have been explained in relation to the auto preset system, this information can be widely applied to other applications. In particular, if a broadcasting station code that can identify the broadcasting station is broadcast, data storing the installation location, radio wave output, frequency, etc. of each broadcasting station should be stored in the microcomputer system 27b in correspondence with the broadcasting station code. For example, it is possible to specify the location from the broadcast stations that can be received, and this data can be used in navigation systems for automobiles and the like. In particular, if a directional antenna is used, the location can be specified with higher accuracy. Systems using satellites and the like have been considered as navigation systems for automobiles, but these systems require separate equipment, and the equipment is generally expensive. In contrast, if existing television broadcasting is used, television broadcast receivers and the like can be shared.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily broadcast and receive information about broadcast stations and programs, and the operability of the auto preset system can be greatly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a television broadcasting system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of a television receiver that controls an auto-preset system using a code signal superimposed on a character signal. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a television receiver having an auto preset function using a microcomputer, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the operation panel surface of the operation remote control, and FIG. The figure is a diagram showing the superimposition position of the character signal for teletext broadcasting, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the signal form of the character signal. In the figure, 1... Television broadcasting station, 2... Television receiver, 6... Code storage section, 8... Code decoding means.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A television broadcasting station (1) that superimposes and broadcasts a signal containing a code indicating broadcast content during a period in which character signals can be superimposed within a vertical blanking period of a television broadcast signal; and code decoding means (8) for decoding a signal containing the code.
A broadcasting system consisting of a television receiver (2) equipped with a television receiver (2). 2. A television receiver that receives a television broadcast in which a signal containing a code indicating broadcast content is superimposed in a character signal superimposition possible period within a vertical blanking period, and which receives a signal containing the code. A television receiver equipped with means for decoding codes. 3. It further includes an auto preset system that automatically assigns a received broadcast station to the selection button, and a series storage means that stores the broadcast series for each broadcast station, and the auto preset system automatically assigns a received broadcast station to the channel selection button. 3. The television receiver according to claim 2, wherein broadcast stations of the same series are not assigned to the channel selection buttons at the same time. 4. It further includes an auto preset system that automatically assigns a received broadcasting station to the channel selection button, and the auto preset system decodes a classification code indicating the program classification from the code and selects a program with the same program classification code. 3. The television receiver according to claim 2, wherein a currently broadcasting station can be selectively assigned to the channel selection button. 5. The system further includes an auto preset system that automatically assigns a receiving broadcast station to the channel selection button, and the auto preset system decodes a code indicating a program from the code,
3. The television receiver according to claim 2, wherein broadcasting stations that are broadcasting programs with matching program codes are not simultaneously assigned to the channel selection button.