JPH05168010A - Receiving system for catv home terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a toll program from being missed by automatically turning on a power source by detecting the start signal of the contracted toll program by the data signal of program start. CONSTITUTION:A program to control the operation of a home terminal T is integrated into a control circuit part (microcomputer) 16, and an automatic toll program reception selecting switch 13 is added to an operating key 10. Namely, when the automatic reception selecting switch 13 of the home terminal T is set to be automatic in the case of receiving the starting data of the toll program contracted by a subscriber in the state of turning the home terminal T to a standby state turning off the power source, a relay 14 is turned on by receiving the toll program starting data from a broadcasting center, the power source of a television 5 is turned on, and the toll program is received while tuning a broadcasting channel. On the other hand, manual operations are enabled by setting the automatic reception selecting switch 13 to any state excepting for the automatic state.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a CATV system, and more particularly to a pay program receiving system in an addressable CATV home terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the age of satellite broadcasting, the use of a joint reception television (CATV) in which a broadcasting center in a region receives broadcasting waves transmitted from a communication satellite and distributes the broadcasting waves to a relatively limited region by wire. Is becoming active. In this CATV system, while a wireless television receives a broadcast by an antenna, it receives a broadcast sent to a cable and supplies it to a conventional television receiver for viewing. Therefore, a home terminal for introducing the received radio wave into an appropriate channel of the television receiver is required between the television receiver and the cable for delivering the radio wave output from the broadcasting center.

Referring to FIG. 3, the conventionally used C
The configuration of the ATV home terminal will be described. In the figure, a home terminal T includes an input terminal 1 connected to a cable, and a broadcast signal a input to the input terminal 1
Is provided to the distributor 2. The input signal is branched into signals 1a and 2a by the distributor 2. The branch signal 1a is input to the converter 3, converted into a specific frequency signal b corresponding to an empty channel of the television 5 connected to the home terminal T, output through the output terminal 4, and connected to the home terminal T. C by the TV set
You can watch ATV. The television 5 is connected to an AC outlet 15 provided in the home terminal T to supply power.

On the other hand, the branch signal 2b is demodulated into a data signal c through the data receiver 6 and input to the control circuit 7. The control circuit 7 has a role of executing the overall control of the home terminal T based on the control content of the data signal c, and is usually composed of a microcomputer. That is, based on the data signal c, the oscillator circuit 11 is turned on to operate the buzzer 12, or the information of the data signal c is stored in the external memory 8, and the operation of reading the stored information is controlled. To do. Operation key 1
At the same time as outputting the selected channel data e input from 0 to the converter 3, control for displaying the selected channel on the CH display unit 9 is performed. The home terminal T is also provided with a relay 14 for turning on / off the power output supplied to the AC outlet 15. Since the relay 14 operates according to a command from the control circuit 7, the ON / OFF of the television 5 can be finally controlled by the control circuit 7.

A description will be given of a pay program viewing system in the CATV home terminal as described above. CATV
When a subscriber contracts for a pay program, the information is registered at the broadcasting center and sent to the subscriber side as a data signal c via a cable. The data signal c input to the home terminal T is decoded by the control circuit 7 and stored in the external memory 8. Next, when the pay program start data is sent from the broadcasting center, the control circuit 7 compares the inputted pay program data with the contents of the external memory 8 to determine whether the pay program data that has been contracted matches the stored pay program data and stores it. If it matches the information given, it is judged that you have a contract,
The oscillator circuit 11 is turned on and the buzzer 12 is activated to notify the subscriber. The subscriber knows that the pay program will start with a buzzer sound, selects the corresponding channel with the operation key 10, and views the subscribed pay program. The buzzer sound is stopped by operating the operation key 10. Next, the power of the television 5 is turned on by the operation key 10, the channel on which the pay program is being broadcast is checked and the channel is selected, and the paid program that has been contracted is searched and viewed.

The above-mentioned operation is mainly performed by the control circuit 7 controlling the above-mentioned respective parts of the home terminal T.
The case where a microcomputer is used for the control circuit 7 will be described in more detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The flow chart begins in step 1, in which the home terminal T first checks whether it has received the data signal c. As a result of the check, if not received, the process proceeds to step 2. If it has been received, it is checked whether the data is a pay program (pay-per-program) start signal. If it is a pay program (pay-per-program) start signal, the process proceeds to step 3. If the input signal is not the start signal, the control circuit 7 executes the processing based on the content instructed by the data signal as other data, and proceeds to step 2.

After detecting the start signal, in step 3, it is judged whether or not the inputted program is a contracted program, and if it is a contracted program, the buzzer 12 is turned on and the process proceeds to step 2. In step 2, it is checked whether or not a key input has been made from the operation keys 10. If there is no key input, the process returns to step 1. If there is a key input, it will be sequentially checked according to the key input. That is, it is checked whether the buzzer 12 is already on, and if it is on, it is turned off and the process returns to step 1. If the buzzer 12 is off, the process proceeds to step 4, and if the power key is pressed, the television 5 is powered on and the process returns to step 1. If the channel selection key is pressed in step 5, the pay program broadcasting channel is selected and the process returns to step 1. If the key input of the operation key 10 is neither the power key nor the channel key, the process assigned to the other key input is executed and the process returns to step 1.

[0008]

In the above-mentioned conventional CATV home terminal system, since the start of the pay program is notified by the buzzer sound, when the subscriber is in a position where the buzzer sound cannot be heard, the pay program is paid. If you miss the beginning of the program because you do not notice the broadcast of, or if an infant or a child who has not been informed of the meaning of the buzzer operates the key to stop the buzzer sound, the subscriber will There was a problem that the start of the pay program was not notified at all. Even if you hear the buzzer sound, you can turn off the buzzer sound by key operation, turn on the TV power by pressing the power key, check the pay program broadcasting channel and select the corresponding channel with the channel selection key before watching. However, it was difficult to say that the operability was good. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the conventional system, and provides a receiving system capable of automatically turning on the power of a television set in a standby state and turning off the television when a contracted pay program is broadcast to watch the pay program. provide.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in a CATV home terminal system for receiving radio waves broadcast from a center via a cable, a selection switch for selecting automatic reception of pay programs and the automatic reception selection switch are provided. In the state of automatic reception setting, the signal of the predetermined pay program sent from the broadcasting center is detected, the power of the TV receiver is turned on via the relay that operates based on this detection result, and the contract is automatically paid. A receiving system of a CATV home terminal is configured by including a control circuit for putting a program into a receiving state.

[0010]

[Operation] When the home terminal receives the pay program start data transmitted from the broadcasting center when the home terminal is in the standby state (TV power off),
If the pay program is a program subscribed to by the subscriber, and if the automatic reception selection switch of the home terminal is set to automatic, the TV power is automatically turned on when the pay program start data is received, and the pay program starts. Select the program broadcasting channel and receive the image. By setting the automatic reception selection switch to a state other than automatic, the conventional manual operation is possible and a highly versatile system becomes possible.

[0011]

1 is a block diagram and a flow chart is shown in FIG. 2, and an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The home terminal T of the embodiment has a distributor 2, a converter 3, a data receiver 6, an external memory 8, a channel display unit 9, an operation key 10 and a relay 14 as in the conventional device described above.
And a control circuit 1 for controlling each of these parts.
6, the program incorporated in the control circuit 16 for controlling the operation of the home terminal T is different from that of the conventional home terminal shown in FIG. 3, and the operation key 10 further includes a pay program automatic reception selection switch. 13 is added.

In the description of this embodiment, the description of the same parts as those of the conventional system in the first half will be omitted. A program for controlling the system is built in the control circuit 16 composed of a microcomputer, and the configuration of the program built in the microcomputer of this embodiment will be described together with the operation using the flowchart of FIG.

In step 1, it is checked whether or not the data signal c is received, and if not received, the process proceeds to step 2. If it is received, it is checked whether or not it is the pay program (pay-per-program) start data, and if it is the pay program start data, go to step 3, and if it is other data, execute the processing based on the received data and step. Move to 2.

In the above step 3, it is checked whether or not the received pay program is a contracted program, and if it is not contracted, the process proceeds to step 2, and if it is contracted, the process proceeds to step 4. In step 4, the pay program standby switch 13
Check if is on, and if it is on, control circuit 1
Reference numeral 6 turns on the relay 14 to supply electric power to the television 5, and also selects a pay program broadcasting channel, and the operation proceeds to step 2. If the standby switch 13 is off, the buzzer 12 is turned on and the process proceeds to step 2.

Next, in step 2, it is checked whether or not a key input has been made with the operation keys 10. If there is no key input, the process returns to step 1. If there is a key input, the setting state of the pay program standby switch 13 is checked, and if it is on, a process based on the key input is performed and the process returns to step 1.
If the standby switch 13 is off, the routine proceeds to step 5, where it is checked whether or not the buzzer 12 is on. If it is on, the buzzer 12 is turned off and the routine returns to step 1.
If the buzzer 12 is off, the process proceeds to step 6 to check whether the power key is pressed. If it is pressed, the control circuit 16 turns on the relay 14 to turn on the television power, and the process returns to step 1. If the power key has not been pressed, the process proceeds to step 7 to check whether the channel selection key has been pressed. If so, the pay program broadcasting channel is selected and the process returns to step 1. If the channel selection key has not been pressed, the processing based on other key inputs is executed and the process returns to step 1.

That is, the standby state (TV power off)
Then, by setting the pay program standby switch 13 to ON, the TV power is automatically turned on at the same time as the pay program subscribed to by the subscriber starts, and the channel on which the pay program is broadcast is automatically set. Tune in.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, by setting the pay program reception selection switch in advance, the television power supply in the standby state is automatically turned on at the same time as the contracted pay program starts, and the program broadcasting channel is turned on. You can tune in to prevent overlooking contracted programs. In addition, the system is normally maintained in a standby state, and since the television power is turned on at the same time as the start of the pay program, it is possible to provide a device with a power saving effect without consuming unnecessary power. In addition, whether to set the pay program reception selection means,
It is possible to select with a subscriber's switch, perform general-purpose operations depending on the situation, and obtain a system with a wide range of application.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a home terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining a pay program receiving operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional CATV home terminal.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a pay program receiving operation of a conventional home terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 T Home Terminal 1 CATV Input Terminal 2 Distributor 3 Converter 5 Television Receiver 8 External Memory 10 Operation Keys 12 Buzzer 13 Pay Program Reception Tuning Switch 14 Relay 15 AC Outlet 16 Control Circuit Section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A home terminal to which a signal from a broadcasting center is input, a television connected to the home terminal to which a broadcasting signal is supplied, a relay provided in the home terminal for controlling a television power supply, and a pay program. Selects the automatic reception of the signal, and when the above selection switch is in the automatic reception setting, it detects the signal of the predetermined pay program sent from the broadcasting center and automatically turns on the TV power via the relay. A receiving system for a CATV home terminal, comprising: a control circuit for putting a predetermined pay program in a receiving state.