JPH0451682A - Automatic specification displaying method for television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To clearly distinguish between a background picture and its own specification without impairing the background picture of television by blanking the video signal part of a horizontal period including a character signal so that it looks like band form on a screen, and superimposing the character signal on it. CONSTITUTION:The whole area of the video signal part of the horizontal period including the character signal is blanked so that it looks like the band form on the screen, and the character signal is superimposed on it. Namely, a microcomputer 6 on/off-controls a video blanking circuit 7 during the hoerizontal period to be blanked on the basis of the value of a synchronizing signal counter 4. Then, the video blanking circuit 7 blanks the video signal during a prescribed vertical positional period B1, at least, the video signal of the horizontal period of the period B2 to be displayed on a cathode-ray tube. Thus, the background picture and its own specification can be clearly distinguished from each other without impairing the background picture of the television by band-shaped blanking.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a television receiver (self-demo TV) with an automatic specification display function that automatically displays functions on a screen.

(B) Conventional technology Traditionally, in television receivers (hereinafter referred to as televisions), character image information created by a character generator is displayed on the screen to display channel numbers, volume values, initial setting values, etc. We provide users with various information such as:

By the way, this information is usually stored in the memory inside the television, and is read out and displayed on-screen as necessary. When displaying on-screen, it has become common to blank the background screen only for the text image in order to distinguish between text image information and the background screen, and then add the text image to the background screen. Furthermore, as another method, a method has been proposed in which the contrast of the background screen is reduced. (Refer to JP-A-52-93229, JP-A-55-52682, JP-A-60-6,8781, etc.).

Now, in recent years, supported by advances in microcomputer technology, the amount of characters that can be displayed on the on-screen of televisions has also increased. Therefore, televisions (self-demo TVs) that display specifications such as their own functions and features on-screen have been put into practical use.

Regarding this self-demo TV, please refer to JP-A-2-76381.
(HO4N5/445) and is well known.

Self-demonstration TVs are designed to move the displayed characters up and down to attract the attention of the purchaser, and even if the remote control is operated during self-demonstration, the TV returns to self-demonstration after normal operation.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention By the way, when performing the self-demonstration on the self-demonstration TV, there are the following problems.

First, since the purpose is to advertise the TV at retail stores, it is necessary to further differentiate the TV background screen from the background screen without damaging the TV background screen. If the background screen of a TV is damaged at a retail store, the purchaser's desire to purchase will be significantly reduced. Therefore, the method of reducing the contrast of the background screen cannot be used because it gives the impression to the purchaser that the screen is a dark TV. In addition, with the conventional method of blanking only the text image, if the text is displayed on the background screen of the TV, the self-demo text is
Very difficult to read.

A clear distinction between the background screen and text introducing the user's specifications (functions, features, etc.) can also be achieved by box-shaped blanking as shown in FIG. 5a. If a character signal is superimposed within this blanking, the distinction becomes clear. However, if the TV screen at this time was in a high brightness state, it would suddenly change from the high brightness state to the blanking state, and the beam current applied to the cathode ray tube would be approximately as shown in Figure 5. It will change rapidly. This sharp change in beam current causes a high voltage drop in the cathode ray tube, and has the effect of reducing the width. Therefore, box-shaped blanking is
It is not a correct rectangle, but a trapezoid as shown in FIG. 5C, and sides a and b of the trapezoid fluctuate depending on the brightness of the background screen.

Further, in the self-demo TV mentioned above, it is proposed to move the displayed characters up and down to attract the attention of the purchaser, but this is not a good idea in terms of understanding the displayed content.

Furthermore, with the above-mentioned self-demonstration TV, it is necessary to start the self-demonstration using a remote control or some other method every day at the store after turning on the TV.

(D) Structure for solving the problem The present invention provides an automatic specification display method for a television receiver that inserts a character signal indicating the specification into a video signal when displaying the specification of the television receiver. The present invention is characterized in that blanking is applied to the entire video signal portion of the horizontal period including the character signal, so that blanking is applied in a band-like manner when viewed on the screen, and the character signal is superimposed on the blanking.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the display range of the character string of the character signal is sequentially increased in accordance with the count value of the counter means (10) counted in a predetermined period.

Furthermore, in the present invention, the on/off state of the automatic specification display function is stored in the nonvolatile memory (12), and the said state is read out when the television receiver is turned on or at any time. If the data is on, the automatic specification display will be given priority over all other screen displays.

(e) Operation In the present invention, by blanking the video signal portion of the horizontal period including the character signal, blanking is performed in a band shape when viewed on the screen, and the character signal is superimposed on the blanking.

Further, the present invention uses a counter means that counts in a predetermined period, and sequentially increases the display range of the character string according to the count value of the counter means (1o).

Furthermore, the present invention stores the on/off state of the automatic specification display function in a non-volatile memory, reads out the state when the television receiver is turned on or at any time, and operates normally if it is off, and then turns it on. If so, automatic specification display will be given priority over all other screen displays.

(F) Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. In FIG. 1, (1) is a tuner, (2) is a video intermediate frequency signal processing circuit (VrF), and (3) is a video output circuit. (4) is a synchronization signal counter,
This synchronization signal counter (4) detects and outputs the horizontal scanning position of the screen based on the vertical and horizontal synchronization signals from the video output circuit (3).

(5) is a character generator, and this character generator (5) is controlled by a control signal from a microcomputer (6) so that the character generator (5) is positioned at a predetermined position on the screen by horizontal and vertical synchronization signals from the video output circuit (3). Output a predetermined self-demo sentence.

(6) is a microcomputer for channel selection, character multiplexing, etc. (7) is a video blanking circuit, which mutes the video by a signal from the microcomputer (6). (8) is a ROM memory. (9) is a clock generation circuit. (1o) is a counter, and this counter (10) outputs a pulse every 250 m5. (11
) is a signal addition and synthesis circuit, and (12) is a rewritable nonvolatile memory (eg, EEPROM). (13) is a cathode ray tube.

(14) is a remote control, (15) is a remote control receiving circuit, (
16) is an operation unit (keyboard). (17) (18
)(19) and (20) are a reference oscillation circuit, a prescaler, a low-pass filter, and a PLL IC forming a frequency synthesizer tuner.

The above operation will be explained. A television signal selected by a tuner (1) passes through a VIF (2) and a video output circuit (3) to become a video signal. The video output circuit (3) supplies a vertical synchronization signal and a horizontal synchronization signal to a synchronization signal counter (4) and a character generator (5). The synchronization signal counter (4) counts the horizontal synchronization signals after the vertical synchronization signal and outputs the count value to the microcomputer (6). The microcomputer (6) controls the video blanking circuit (7) on/off during the horizontal period during which blanking is to be performed based on the value of the intermittent signal counter. The video blanking circuit (7) controls at least the video signal of the horizontal period of the period B8 in FIG. blanking. By these means, a band-shaped blanking (B B ) as shown in FIG. 2a can be applied. Even if blanking is applied to the strip, the quiz will change, but compared to the case where the linear frame of the blanking fluctuates, the fluctuation of the characters is more difficult to discern and is not noticeable to the purchaser.

In addition, an introductory sentence (self-demonstration sentence) about the user's own use (functions, features, etc.) is stored in the memory (8). The clock generation circuit (9) generates pulses at regular intervals,
The number of pulses is counted by a counter (10).

The microcomputer (6) only counts the number of counts of the counter (1o) (counting from the beginning of the self-demo string)
The self-demonstration character string is read from the memory (8) and the self-demonstration character string to be displayed on-screen is output to the character generator (5). The character generator (5) outputs R, /G/B pulses indicating a self-demonstration character string at required positions based on the vertical synchronization signal and horizontal synchronization signal, and the signal addition and synthesis circuit (11) outputs R and /G/B pulses that indicate the self-demonstration character string. The values are added and displayed on a CRT screen. Now, assuming that the tarock generating circuit generates a pulse every 250 m5, an introduction will be added every 250 m5 as shown in Fig. 3. Incidentally, after all the introduction sentences are displayed, the next introduction sentence is displayed in the same way.

The on/off state of this self-demonstration is stored in a non-volatile memory (12), and the microcomputer (6) operates according to the self-demonstration "start signal" and "destination signal" from the remote control or main unit operation section. Operating the on/off state. In this embodiment, since the microcomputer operates according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 4, the above-mentioned state is read out when the television receiver is turned on, and if it is off, it operates normally, and if it is on, all other operations are performed. Automatic specification display will be given priority over screen display. Then, the self-demo on/off status is stored in non-volatile memory (
12), the TV enters the self-demonstration state before the power is turned off.

In addition, the horizontal synchronization signal counter (4), video blanking circuit (7), and character generator (5) shown in Figure 1 can all be realized by the software and hardware inside the channel selection microcomputer (6). It is.

(G) As is clear from the detailed description of the invention, according to the present invention, strip-shaped blanking can be used to prevent screen fluctuations from disturbing the purchaser without damaging the background screen of the TV. This has the effect of clearly distinguishing between the background screen and the text introducing its own use (functions, features, etc.) without giving any additional details.

Furthermore, since the displayed content is added at a constant speed, it is easy to read and has the effect of enhancing understanding of the content.

Furthermore, when the TV is turned on, the microcomputer operates on a flowchart that reads the non-volatile memo and determines whether or not to automatically display the specifications. If you turn on the specification display function, the specifications will be displayed automatically from now on without any operation. In other words, it has the effect of freeing the store from having to turn on the automatic specification display function every day before the store opens.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the blanking portion. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining temporal changes in the display of self-demonstration sentences. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the microcomputer for explaining writing and reading of self-demonstration on/off to a nonvolatile memory. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the drawbacks of the improved proposal. (6)...Microcomputer, (12)...Nonvolatile memory, (10)...Counter (counter means) (BB)
...Blanking screen part.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In an automatic specification display method for a television receiver that inserts a character signal indicating the specification into the video signal in order to display its own specifications, at least the video signal portion of the horizontal period that includes the character signal is An automatic specification display method for a television receiver, characterized in that by blanking the entire area, blanking is performed in a band shape when viewed on a screen, and the character signal is displayed on top of the blanking. (2) Counter means (10
2. The automatic specification display method for a television receiver according to claim 1, wherein the display range of the character string of the character signal is sequentially increased in accordance with the count value of the character signal. (3) Store the on/off state of the automatic specification display function in the non-volatile memory (12), read out the state when the television receiver is turned on or at any time, and if the data is in the off state, normal operation is resumed. An automatic specification display method for a television receiver that automatically displays specifications with priority over all other screen displays if the data is on.