JPH04355583A - Program reservation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the program reservation as to plural channels without channel switching operation by illustrating a television program list of plural channels on a display device based on program list information of all channels collected at the time of program reservation. CONSTITUTION:Program list information extracted by a decoder 7 is written to an area of a reception channel of a memory 15 and the program list information in the memory 15 is revised up-to-date. Thus, the program list information of all channels to be receptible is always collected and the newest program list information of all the channels is stored in the memory 15. When a program reservation of a VTR is commanded by the operation of a transmitter 10 or a keyboard 11, a control section 6 executes the display processing of the program list information based on the program list information stored in the memory 15 based on the information from a control section 13 based on the command. Furthermore, a changeover circuit 5 and a decoder 7 are controlled to write a display data of a program list to a memory 9 directly, read to the changeover circuit 5 and display it on a CRT via the circuit 5.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program reservation device that utilizes program reservation information of video equipment such as a VTR and a television receiver, which have the function of receiving television broadcasts and teletext broadcasts.

0002

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in Europe, teletext broadcasting (text broadcasting) of each television channel was used to broadcast VPT (
Video programming by TELE
TEXT) program guide information is being sent.

[0003] This program guide information includes program identification information of each program (television program) broadcast on each channel.

[0004] Also, in German television broadcasting, a television signal system is adopted in which the program identification information assigned to the program is transmitted during the broadcast of the television program on each channel.

[0005] Both the program identification information and the program guide information are superimposed as digital data on a specific line in the vertical blanking period of the television signal.

[0006] Conventionally, in order to perform scheduled recording and scheduled reception using only the program guide information, or to perform scheduled recording and scheduled reception using the program guide information and the program identification information of each television program being broadcast, conventionally, the program guide information is A program reservation device has been invented that selects and schedules a desired television program from a display screen of a television program guide.

[0007] Furthermore, scheduled recording using only program guide information,
In reservation reception, etc., the start time of the selected television program is set based on the program reservation information of the selected television program, and recording, display, etc. are performed by a timer operation.

[0008] Furthermore, in scheduled recording, scheduled reception, etc. using program guide information and program identification information of a TV program currently being broadcast, the program identification information of the selected TV program is set as the reservation information, and the program identification information of the selected TV program is set as the reservation information. Recording, display, etc. are performed by detecting reception of program identification information, and in this case, there is an advantage that recording, display, etc. can be performed accurately even if the broadcast time of the program is shifted.

[0009] By the way, as described in the specification and drawings of the application of Japanese Patent Application No. 2-219478, the conventional program reservation device, when reserving a VPT program, selects a predetermined page of the teletext broadcast of the receiving channel. Based on the program guide information of the channel, a TV program guide for that channel is created and displayed on the screen.

[0010] When a desired broadcast is selected from the program guide displayed on the screen by operating a cursor or the like, a reservation is made based on the program identification information of that program.

[0011]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] In the case of the conventional program reservation device described above, when reserving a VPT program, only the program list of the receiving channel is displayed on the screen, so the receiving channel must be set as the broadcast channel of the program to be reserved. First, channel switching operations and the like are required.

[0012] When the broadcast channel of the program to be reserved is unknown, or when deciding which program to reserve from the screen display of the program guide, the receiving channel must be changed and the program guide of each channel must be displayed on the screen in sequence. In the worst case, it is necessary to repeat the channel switching operation more than the total number of receivable channels, which poses the problem of extremely poor operability.

[0013] Furthermore, when reserving multiple programs, it is difficult to check whether the time slots overlap or not, resulting in problems such as reservation mistakes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a program reservation device that improves the operability of program reservations and prevents mistakes in reservations.

[0015]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the program reservation device of the present invention constantly collects program schedule information for each channel and maintains the latest program schedule information for all channels. a program list holding means;

[0016]
and program guide display processing means for displaying television program guides for a plurality of channels on a screen based on the information held in the holding means at the time of program reservation.

[0017]

[Operation] In the program reservation device of the present invention configured as described above, the program list holding means always collects and holds the latest program list information for all channels.

At the time of program reservation, the program guide display processing means displays television program guides for a plurality of channels on the screen based on the collected program guide information for all channels.

[0019] Therefore, program reservations for a plurality of channels can be easily made without any setting errors without performing channel switching operations or the like.

[0020]

Embodiment One embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 shows a configuration when applied to a program reservation device for timer recording of a VTR, for example, in which a television signal of each receivable channel captured by an antenna 1 is received and selected by a tuner 2. A television signal of a channel (receiving channel) is supplied to a video processing circuit 4 via a video intermediate frequency amplification and detection circuit (hereinafter referred to as an IF/DET circuit) 3, and this processing circuit 4 performs necessary signal processing. A video signal of a television program is processed into a display signal such as a three primary color signal, and this display signal a of the television program is supplied to a display signal switching circuit 5.

This switching circuit 5 is controlled by a display switching signal b from a teletext control section 6 configured as a microcomputer, and synthesizes either or both of the display signal a and the character signal (text signal) c from the teletext decoder 7. The signal is supplied to the CRT and displayed on the screen.

Further, digital data signals such as teletext broadcasting, which are multiplexed on a specific line in the vertical retrace period of the output signal of the IF/DET circuit 3, are extracted by a character signal sampling circuit 8 and supplied to a decoder 7. Ru.

The decoder 7 executes data extraction, decoding, etc. under the control of the control section 6, and extracts, for example, only teletext data of the designated page number and supplies it to the screen memory 9.

[0024] Furthermore, the memory 9 is written by the control unit 6.
Reading is controlled, the supplied data is written and the held data is read out, and the read data is supplied to the decoder 7 and decoded into a character signal c or the like.

Furthermore, a remote control transmitter 10
, an operation signal from the keyboard 11 of the VTR body is converted into a common code signal by an input control section 12 and supplied to a VTR control section 13 having a microcomputer configuration.

The control section 13 executes various controls such as reception channel selection control and VTR operation control in accordance with the supplied code signals, etc., and also supplies code signals and the like related to teletext broadcasting to the control section 6.

[0027] Then, by the receiving tuning control, the tuning circuit 14
The reception selection of the tuner 2 is controlled via the .

Further, by controlling the VTR operation, the operation mode of the VTR mechanism etc. is set to playback, recording, fast forwarding, rewinding, scheduled recording, etc.

Further, the control section 6 controls the switching circuit 5 and the decoder 7 and directly controls writing and reading of the memory 9 based on the supply of code signals from the control section 13 and the like.

The control section 6 has a program guide information collection control function and a program guide display control function, and the collection control function of the control section 6 and the program guide memory 15 form a program guide holding means. The display control function 6 forms a program guide display processing means.

Next, collection of program guide information and display of the program guide will be explained.

The control unit 6 starts the operation from the start shown in FIG. 2 by initial setting such as turning on the power of the VTR.

In FIG. 2, S1, . . . , S8 represent each step of the process, and the contents of the process are shown in Table 1.

[0034]

[Table 1]

The control section 6 constantly monitors the input of information (code signal) from the control section 15 in step S1, and when information is sent from the control section 15, the control section 6 performs step S1.
is passed with YES, and in step S2, the control processing of teletext broadcasting is performed according to the information, that is, the switching circuit 5,
The normal control processing of the decoder 7 is executed.

On the other hand, if there is no information from the control unit 15 and the answer is NO in step S1, it is determined in step S3 whether or not the receiving channel can be changed.

When the tuner 2 is not used, such as when the VTR is not used or when playing a tape, and the signal from the switching circuit 5 is not reproduced on the screen and can be changed, step S3 is passed with YES, and step S4 is performed to control the control unit. 13 to change the channel, the receiving channel of the tuner 2 is changed to, for example, a channel before or after the current receiving channel, and the process moves to step S5.

Note that each part in FIG. 1 is driven by regular power supply and operates at all times, regardless of whether the power switch of the VTR is turned on or off.

If the tuner 2 is being used and change is not possible, the process passes through step S3 with a NO change and proceeds to step S5 without changing the reception channel.

Then, in step S5, it is determined based on the information from the decoder 7 whether teletext is being broadcast on the receiving channel.

At this time, if the program is being broadcast, the process moves to step S6, and the decoder 7 is requested to extract (sample) a page of program guide information.

Note that the page of program guide information for each channel is set in advance in the memory within the control section 6.

Furthermore, in step S7, based on the information of the decoder 7, it is determined whether the page is a page of program guide information (whether it is being broadcast or not), and if so, the process moves to S8, and the page extracted by the decoder 7 is The received program guide information is written in the area of the reception channel in the memory 15, and the program guide information in the memory 15 is updated to the latest information.

When the receiving channel can be changed, the processes of steps S1 to S8 are repeated, and the program guide information of all receivable channels is constantly collected, and the latest program guide information of all channels is stored in the memory 15. Stored.

Next, when VPT program reservation is commanded by operating the transmitter 10 or the keyboard 11, the control unit 6 executes program guide display processing based on information from the control unit 13 based on this command. .

Then, based on the program list information (held information) of each channel stored in the memory 15, the control unit 6
synthesizes and processes the program guide information of each channel, and when displaying the program guide of all channels at once, forms the display data of the program guide for displaying all channels at once, and displays the program guide information of some channels of 2 or more channels at once. When displaying a program guide, display data for the program guide for displaying the number of channels at once is created.

Furthermore, the switching circuit 5 and the decoder 7 are controlled, and the display data of the program guide is written directly into the memory 9 and read out to the switching circuit 5, and then displayed on a CRT via the switching circuit 5, for example, as shown in FIG.
A TV program guide i for channels B and C for program reservation is displayed on the screen.

Note that FIG. 3 shows a case where part of the time period of two channels is displayed at one time.

[0049]Although not shown, the program guide i
includes a cursor for specifying the program name that can be moved in the vertical direction, and the cursor is initially displayed, for example, by blinking, at the position of the program name "NEWS" in the upper left.

[0050] This cursor is the transmitter 10, keyboard 1
In response to the cursor movement command 1, the cursor is moved up and down, left and right on the screen, and is movably displayed at the position of each program name.

Further, for example, when the cursor moves to the left side (to the A channel side) from the program name of the B channel in the display state of the program guide i, the display data of the program guide in the memory 9 is updated by the control section 6, and the display data of the program guide in the memory 9 is updated. The screen changes to the TV program guide ii for channels A and B in FIG.

Similarly, when the cursor moves from the C channel program name to the right side (D channel side) in the display state of the program guide i, the display data of the program guide in the memory 9 is updated, and the display screen changes to the one shown in FIG. The TV program schedule for channels C and D will change to iii.

By moving the cursor to the left or right, the two channels on the display screen are shifted one channel at a time to the left or right channel.

On the other hand, when the cursor is moved up or down, the two channels on the display screen do not change, but the displayed time period is scrolled up or down as shown at iv and v in FIG.

[0055] Therefore, by moving the cursor, you can watch TV programs on all channels without switching reception channels. At this time, since the time slots of each channel are aligned and displayed, you can watch TV programs on each time slot. Confirmation, comparison, etc. can be performed extremely easily.

Then, when the cursor is moved to a desired television program and a selection decision is commanded, the control unit 6 transfers the program identification information of the selected program from the memory 6 to the control unit 13, based on this command, and transfers the reserved recording information to the control unit 13. The control unit 13 sets the channel and start and end times for timer recording based on the channel and broadcast start and end times in the information.

Note that when the set start time is reached, recording is automatically started under the control of the control section 13.

In the above embodiment, the timer recording was performed based on the program identification information of the selected program, but the identification information of the selected program is set as reservation information, and the program containing this information is broadcast. Of course, this method can also be applied to the case where recording is started upon detection of reception.

Further, in the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a program reservation device for a VTR, but it is of course applicable to a program reservation device for various video equipment such as a television receiver.

[0060]

[Effects of the Invention] Since the present invention is configured as described above, it produces the effects described below. The program guide holding means always collects and holds the latest program guide information for all channels, and when making a program reservation, the program guide display processing means displays the TV program guides for multiple channels based on the collected program guide information for all channels. Since it is displayed on a screen, programs can be reserved for multiple channels without performing channel switching operations, improving operability and preventing reservation mistakes.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a program reservation device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a screen display of a television program guide.

[Explanation of symbols]

6 Teletext control section 7 Teletext decoder 8 Character signal extraction circuit 9 Screen memory 15 Program guide memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: Receives and displays on screen program guide information for reserving television programs for each channel of teletext broadcasting multiplexed during the vertical retrace period of the television signal of each channel, and displays the selected television program on the screen. A program reservation device for setting reservations includes a program list holding means that constantly collects the program list information of each channel and holds the latest program list information of all channels, and a program list holding means that constantly collects the program list information of each channel and holds the latest program list information of all channels, and a 1. A program reservation device comprising: a program guide display processing means for displaying a TV program guide of a channel on a screen.