JPH05252462A - Operating system for plural av apparatuses - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select an AV apparatus which becomes an operation object by moving a menu control panel drawn out by a pull-down menu, and also, to execute the operation of the AV apparatus concerned. CONSTITUTION:Slave screens 31, 32 and 33 which become a reproducing screen area of the AV apparatus connected to an external input terminal are formed against a master screen 30. When a control menu panel 23 is moved into a desired slave screen, operating keys 24, 24... of the AV apparatus displayed on its slave screen are realized. The operating keys 24, 24... are selected by a cursor moved by remote control.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applicable to a plurality of AV devices for TV.
The present invention relates to an operation method in which each AV device can be controlled by a main remote controller when an AV system is constructed by being connected to an external input terminal of a receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, VTRs (magnetic recording / reproducing devices), MDPs (multi-disc players), 8mm video tape recorders, FM tuners, tape decks, etc. have been arranged as peripheral equipments centering on large television receivers. It is performed in each home that the AV system is constructed by connecting the components to each other.

In such an AV system, the input / output of each AV device is connected to the external input of the TV receiver, and each AV device is connected via a common control bus, or data is transmitted by light. If transmission is performed mutually, one main remote commander can perform control in cooperation with each other, greatly improving usability.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, as a peripheral device of the TV receiver 1 (HDTV), VTR2 and MDP3 are used.
(Laser disc player), 8 mm VTR 4 and the like are arranged, and these peripheral devices are connected to the external input terminal and output terminal of the TV receiver 1, and a control bus CB is provided to control each AV device mutually. Keep connected.

In such an AV device system, generally, by independently operating remote commanders (remote controllers) RCo and RC1 to RC3 attached to each AV device, for example, a VTR 2 and a TV receiver 1 are provided. After turning on the power of the VTR2, the VTR2 is set to the reproduction state, and the TV receiver 1
By selecting the input terminal of, the video program on the cassette tape loaded in the VTR2 can be viewed, the power of the MDP3 and the TV receiver 1 can be turned on, and the MDP3 can be played back using each remote controller as described above. In this state, the program stored in the laser disk can be enjoyed by switching the external input terminal of the TV receiver 1.

Further, in this AV system, since the peripheral devices are connected to each other via the control bus CB, if the system control program is stored in the TV receiver 1 which is the main AV device, for example, V connected to its external input terminal using remote control RCo
The operation can be performed by turning on the power supply of TR2 and further supplying a series of command data for setting the VTR2 in a reproduction state via the control bus CB.

[0007]

However, as described above, in order to operate each AV equipment arranged in the periphery by the main remote controller RCo, what kind of equipment is connected to the input terminal of the TV receiver 1? Need to be aware of what is done. In addition, the operation keys of the remote controller RCo of the TV receiver are complicated and the operation method is difficult for a general user to understand.

[0008]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention uses the command data output from a television receiver having a plurality of AV equipments connected to external input terminals, so that each of the above AVs can be processed. In an AV system in which various operations of equipment are performed, a screen setting means for setting an output screen area of the AV equipment, a common control menu panel for controlling the AV equipment, and a cursor are provided on the monitor screen of the TV receiver. The control menu panel is moved to an output screen area of a desired AV device by operating a remote controller for operating the TV receiver, which is provided with a character / graphics generating means for displaying on a monitor screen, and then in the control menu panel. By selecting the operation key set to, with the cursor, Serial in which predetermined command data is to be transmitted to the desired AV device.

[0009]

[Function] Remote control shuttle ball (track ball)
By rotating only the control menu panel on the monitor screen, moving to the output screen area of each AV device and selecting the operation contents with the cursor, the remote controller itself and the operation by the remote controller are simplified. Will be.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The operation system of the AV equipment of the present invention will be described above with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, a screen 20
21A to 21F displayed on the screen indicate operation menu graphics. This operation menu figure is an optical signal output when the CPU of the remote controller is activated when the shuttle ball 60A attached to the remote controller for operation of the TV receiver (called remote controller) is moved as described later. Is configured to be displayed when the cursor 22 displayed on the TV screen is moved above the monitor screen, for example. The selected channel of the TV receiver 1 is, for example, the operation menu graphic 21B (10
By selecting (Keys) with the cursor 22, a pull-down menu 25 is output. Therefore, by further selecting the character in the pull-down menu 25 with the cursor 22, the reception channel is selected. When the cursor 22 is used to select the operation menu graphic 21C (Input), a pull-down menu 26 is displayed. By selecting the pull-down menu 26, the VTRs 1 and 2 connected to the external input terminals,
Video signals such as laser discs 1 and 2 and RGB inputs can be selected.

The operation menus 21D and 21E are selected when the image quality and the audio signal are set, and pull-down menus 27 and 28 are displayed, respectively. The pull-down menu 27 is used to adjust hue, color, brightness, etc., and the pull-down menu 28 is used to adjust the volume level.
The bass and treble levels and balance can be adjusted. Further, when the operation menu graphic 21F (Lay out) is selected, the monitor screen can be divided to set the HDTV system aspect ratio to a normal TV broadcast screen, or to open a pull-down menu 29 for forming a so-called parent-child screen display. it can. When the pull-down menu 29 is used to set a parent-child screen divided into four as shown in FIG. 2, for example, while displaying a normal television broadcast on the main screen 30, the child screen 3 is displayed.
1 can be designated as the reproduction screen area of the laser disk, and the small screen 32 can be designated as the reproduction screen area of the VTR. Further, the remaining sub-screen 33 can be used as an area for displaying a reproduction screen of 8 mm VTR.

By the way, in the present invention, the operation menu graphic 21A (External C) is used in such a screen division mode.
1) and 2) by selecting the
The control menu panel 23 shown in is displayed. In this control menu panel 23,
In particular, a plurality of operation keys 24, 2 for controlling the channel selection, reproduction, fast forward, stop, power on / off, etc. of the AV equipment connected to the external input terminal of the TV receiver.
4, 24, ... are displayed, and these operation keys 24,
By moving the cursor 22 to select any one of 24, 24, ..., Desired operation command data can be output to the device within the screen. For example, when the control menu panel 23 is moved to 31 in the playback screen area of the laser disc as shown by the dotted line, the operation keys 24 displayed on the control menu panel 23 at that time are the same as those of the laser disc playback device. It indicates the operation key.

Therefore, when the control menu panel 23 is stopped in the reproduction screen area 31, the desired operation key of the control menu panel 23 is selected with the cursor and the shuttle ball is clicked, the power of the laser disk device is turned on. Further, the operation command data for the reproduction state can be transmitted from the microcomputer in the TV receiver 1 via the control bus CB. Similarly, by guiding the control menu panel 23 to the VTR playback screen area 32 and then selecting the desired operation key 24 on the control menu panel 23 with the cursor, the VTR playback and fast forward operations are displayed on the screen. It is possible to The control menu panel 23 can be moved, for example, by selecting the move key 24A in the menu graphic, and the entire control menu panel 23 can be moved according to the rotation of the shuttle ball of the remote controller.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of a control circuit provided in the TV receiver for displaying the above-mentioned menu figure, pull-down menu, cursor and the like to control the AV system. .. I in this figure
Reference numerals ₁ , I ₂ , I ₃ , and I ₄ denote external input terminals of the TV receiver, and video signals supplied from the respective input terminals are control units (C
PU) 50 distributed video switch 4 controlled by
0 through video signal processing circuits 41A and 41A, respectively.
The input is switched to B, 41C, and 41D. Each video signal whose color signal is demodulated by the video signal processing circuit 41 (A to D) is converted into a video signal when the screen is divided by the multi-picture processing unit 42, and the CRT is driven via the synthesizing circuit 43. Reference numeral 44 denotes a sync separation circuit, which is a sync signal (H,
V) is supplied to the position detection circuit 45, and the beam position during scanning is output to the control unit 50 and the menu control circuit 46. The light transmitted from the remote controller 60 is received by the light receiving unit 51, and the signal converted into the operation data by the remote controller input folding unit 52 is input to the control unit 50. In particular, in the embodiment of the present invention, the remote control 60 is provided with the shuttle ball 60A, and when the shuttle ball 60A is rotated by the ball of the finger, the above-mentioned signal that the cursor 22 can freely move on the monitor screen is controlled. It is input to the section 50. Four
Reference numeral 8 denotes a character generator for forming various menu figures and cursor figures at predetermined positions on the monitor screen by the outputs of the cursor control circuit 47 and the menu control circuit 46, and the output thereof is superimposed on the video signal by the synthesis circuit 43 and displayed. To be done.

Reference numeral 53 denotes an external AV device (MDP2, VTR3, etc.) selected on the screen of the TV receiver as described above.
8 mm VTR 4) shows a remote controller output section for outputting operation command data, and the output data is converted into an optical signal from the control bus CB or the LED 55 shown in the figure and sent to each AV device. An external device information memory 54 is connected to the external input terminals I ₁ , I ₂ , and I ₃ and stores information about AV devices. The external device information memory 54 stores a series of various AV devices. The operation command data is stored therein, and desired operation command data is output by an instruction from the control unit 50 to the external AV equipment selected on the control menu panel as described above.

[0016]

As described above, a plurality of AVs of the present invention are provided.
The operation method of the device is such that the operation command data of the AV device is transmitted by moving the control menu panel to the output screen area of the AV device connected to the external input terminal of the TV receiver. Since it is provided, the user can operate the AV equipment by selecting the AV equipment to be controlled while directly looking on the screen and selecting the operation key in the control menu panel with the cursor. Therefore, there is no need to memorize the external input terminals of various peripheral devices that make up the AV system and the manufacturer's name to select a remote controller, and various operations can be performed with one main remote controller (remote controller of TV receiver). Will be possible. In addition, since the cursor movement method is used, the configuration of the remote controller is simplified, and since external AV equipment is operated on the menu screen, there are advantages that erroneous operations are reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanation of a menu screen that can be adopted in the operation system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanation of a method of selecting an AV device to be operated.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an outline of an apparatus used in the operation method of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an AV system centered on a TV receiver.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21A-21F Operation menu 23 Control menu panel 25-29 Pull-down menu

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An AV in which various operations of each of the AV devices are performed by command data output from a television receiver in which a plurality of AV devices are connected to external input terminals.
In the system, a screen setting means for setting an output screen area of the AV device on a monitor screen of the TV receiver, a common control menu panel for controlling the AV device, and a character and graphic generating means for displaying a cursor on the monitor screen. A remote controller for operating the TV receiver is operated to display the control menu panel to a desired A
By moving to the output screen area of the V device and then selecting the operation key set in the control menu panel with the cursor, the desired AV
A method for operating a plurality of AV devices, characterized in that predetermined command data is transmitted to the device. 2. A plurality of A's connected to an external input terminal
The operation method for a plurality of AV devices according to claim 1, wherein the output screen area for the V device is configured to have a plurality of child screens with respect to the main screen.