JPH0531357B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to interactive television equipment, such as CATV equipment.

Conventional configurations and their problems In recent years, two-way television systems, especially
The spread of CATV equipment is remarkable, and in addition to the conventional simple retransmission function, systems that install video tape recorders, television cameras, etc. at the center and perform independent broadcasting are rapidly increasing. With the start of satellite broadcasting in the United States, SHF broadcasting receivers were also installed at centers, making it possible to provide a wider variety of information. In this conventional CATV device, information on multiple channels (television signals) transmitted from the center can be selectively received by the terminal's television receiver. In this case, depending on the contents of the banuchi to be sent,
For example, there are channels that are morally undesirable to receive. As a countermeasure, there is a method that scrambles the video signal of that channel and sends it, so that it can only be viewed after being descrambled on the terminal, but this method is not very confidential as it cannot be decoded. There is a drawback.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION In view of the above drawbacks, the first object of the present invention is to provide a television device with high secrecy.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a television apparatus in which, when a channel to which the user wants to temporarily subscribe in addition to the previously subscribed channel arises, the subscriber can easily perform the subscription operation from the terminal side.

Structure of the Invention In the present invention, a subscriber informs the center of the data of the channel they wish to subscribe to, and the center sends address data and channel data for each subscriber to each subscriber, and the subscriber side sends the address data and channel data to each subscriber. If the addresses registered in advance on the terminal side match, the channel data is written into the non-luminous memory of the terminal. Then, when the subscriber performs a channel selection operation and the selected channel matches the channel data already registered in the non-luminous memory, the video signal of that channel is supplied to the television receiver. Therefore, when the selected channel is not stored in the non-luminescent memory, the video signal of that channel cannot be received. In this way, secrecy can be enhanced by registering the desired channel in the terminal through the center and determining whether or not to select a channel based on the presence or absence of this registration on the terminal side. If a channel that you wish to temporarily subscribe to other than the one you have subscribed to occurs, the channel data is sent from the terminal to the center side through the line, and when the center side receives that channel data, it is read out in the same way and the terminal It is registered in the device's non-volatile memory so that it can receive that channel.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
This is a block of CATV equipment. 1 in the figure is the antenna,
2 is a retransmission device that performs processing such as amplification on the television broadcast signal received from the antenna 1 and sends it out; 3 is a signal source; for example, an SHF receiver 3a capable of receiving satellite broadcasting, a video tape recorder 3b,
This corresponds to a television camera 3c, etc. 4 is a demodulator that demodulates the SHF signal received by the SHF receiver 3a into a baseband video signal, 5 is a modulator that RF modulates each baseband video, and 6 is a line controller, which is a communication control unit. A microcomputer 7 including (CCU) 7a, a memory 8 for storing each subscriber's address and desired channel data, and a keyboard 9 for performing write operations to the memory 8.
, a display device 10 , and a printer 11 . The above communication control
The unit 7a functions to read each data written in the memory 8, arrange it in a predetermined format, and send it out. 12 is a modem, which is connected to the communication control unit 7 of the line controller 6;
It has the function of transmitting each piece of data sent out from a on a carrier wave to the terminal side, while demodulating the modulated signal that has been sent out from the terminal and sending each piece of data to the line controller 6. A central control device 13 controls the line controller 6, and a plurality of line controllers 6 are connected to one central control device. 14 and 15 are modems for connecting the microcomputer 7 of the line controller 6 and the central control unit 13; Reference numeral 16 denotes a mixer which inputs each high frequency signal from the retransmission device 2 and modulator 5 and is also connected to the modem 12. Up to this point, it will be the center side.

17 is a bidirectional trunk amplifier connected to the output end of the mixer 15 via a transmission line such as a coaxial cable; 18 is any one of the bidirectional trunk amplifiers 19;
When the address sent from the center matches the subscriber's address in a converter connected to two input/output terminals, the data of the channel to which the subscriber has subscribed is written to the nonvolatile memory inside this converter, and then the selected When a station operation is performed,
The tuning operation is performed only when the selected channel has already been written in the non-volatile memory, and the tuning operation is not performed when a channel other than the channel to which the selected channel is selected is selected. ing. The converter 18 includes a tuner 19, a demodulator 20 that detects the intermediate frequency signal from the tuner 19, and an RF modulator 21 that modulates the video signal of the selected channel into a high frequency signal of a specific channel. It includes a station device 22, a keyboard 23 having a power on/off pushbutton, a channel selection pushbutton, and a volume control pushbutton, an addressable control unit 24, and a modem 25. The addressable control unit 24 is a microcomputer, a ROM (read only memory) in which each subscriber's unique address is written, and for storing subscribed channel data sent from the center side. The channel data written in this non-volatile memory and the keyboard 23 are equipped with a non-volatile memory.
The channel selection device 22 operates to perform the channel selection operation only when the channel data match when the channel selection operation is performed. Note that here, a remote control device is installed so that the same control as the keyboard 23 can be performed by remote control, and its receiver 26 is installed in the converter 18. 27 is a remote control transmitter. Further, 28 is a television receiver connected to the RF modulator 21.

In the above configuration, each subscriber informs the center of the channel he or she wishes to subscribe to, for example in writing. On the center side, the address of each subscriber and the channel data to which the subscriber wants to subscribe are written into the memory 8 via the microcomputer 7 using the keyboard 9. Memory 8 by microcomputer 7
The address and subscribed channel data for each subscriber are read out, and the communication control unit 7a reads the address data, channel data, and parity check coded as shown in FIG. 2, for example. The data is arranged in sequence and transmitted to the terminal side on a carrier wave by the modem 12. For example, television signals for 60 channels are sent out from the mixer 16 at the same time. Each of the above data is transmitted to the bidirectional trunk amplifier 17.
The address data is input to the modem 25 of the converter 18 through the converter 18, demodulated, and sent to the addressable control unit 24.
If the address matches the address stored in the ROM, the channel data following the address data is written to the nonvolatile memory. In this state, if you perform a channel selection operation using the keyboard 23 or the remote control transmitter 27, and the selected channel matches the channel data already stored in the non-volatile memory, the addressable control unit 24 will select the channel. The device 22 and tuner 19 are operated to perform a channel selection operation. Therefore, the video of that channel is displayed on the television receiver 28. When an unregistered channel is selected in advance, the addressable control unit 24 does not operate the channel selection device 22 and the channel is not received. In this case, if the addressable control unit 24 controls the television receiver 28 so that one of the subscribed channels, for example, the channel that was being received immediately before selecting an unregistered channel, is selected. The image always appears and is not unsightly. The selected channel number is displayed on the front of the converter 18 by a display device 29 consisting of a light emitting display tube or a display element.
A light emitting display is provided.

According to this configuration, the channel to which one wants to subscribe is registered in the converter 18 of the terminal through the center side, and the possibility of channel selection is determined in the converter 18 based on the presence or absence of this registration. If you exclude channels that do not have
When a channel is selected, the channel will not be selected, increasing secrecy. Furthermore, when a channel that is not registered is selected, one of the registered channels can be received, so that the user can continue to enjoy television images. In addition, channel data to which the user wishes to subscribe is stored in the converter 18 of each terminal, and this converter 18
The center monitors whether the subscribed/registered channel data and the channel selection data obtained through actual channel selection operations match or disagree. In comparison, it can easily handle even an extremely large number of terminals.

Next, a case will be explained in which a channel to which the user wants to temporarily join other than the channels to which the user has already joined arises. In order to request the center for a channel that you wish to temporarily join, a push button for creating the channel data and event data is provided on the keyboard 23 and/or transmitter 27 on the terminal side, separately from the above-mentioned operation buttons. The addressable control unit 24 is controlled by the keyboard 23 or the transmitter 27 to generate the coded event data shown in FIG.
Channel data is created, and the event data and channel data are sent to the center by the modem 25 using a carrier with a frequency different from that of the data transmitted from the center to the terminal side. On the center side, the channel data and event data to be temporarily subscribed to are processed by the microcomputer 7, written to the memory 8 to update the data, and then read out and sent to the terminal side in the same way as the previously subscribed channel. and written to the non-volatile memory of converter 18. Therefore, from now on, by operating the keyboard 23 or the remote control transmitter 27, it becomes possible to receive the channel in the same way as the channel to which the user has previously joined. When requesting a channel to temporarily join, the channel number is displayed on the display device 29 by operating the keyboard 23, and until the channel data is registered in the terminal through the center side, the channel number is displayed separately from the channel number display element. The light-emitting element installed in the channel lights up or blinks to indicate that a request is currently in progress, and when the channel data is registered to the terminal through the center, the light-emitting element is turned off to indicate that the registration is complete. I try to do that. In this way, you can easily request a channel to temporarily subscribe to.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, a channel to be subscribed to is registered on the terminal side through the center side, and the terminal side determines whether or not to select a channel based on the presence or absence of this registration. If undesirable channels are excluded, the channel will not be selected during the channel selection operation, and secrecy will be enhanced. Furthermore, when the user selects a channel to which he has not subscribed, he can continue to enjoy television images by making sure that he can receive one of the registered channels. In addition, since the terminal side monitors whether the channel data that has already been subscribed to and the channel data that is actually selected by the channel selection operation is matched or mismatched, this can be handled easily and inexpensively even when the number of terminals is extremely large. This makes it extremely practical. Furthermore, if a channel that you wish to temporarily join other than the one you have already subscribed to occurs, you can easily receive that channel by requesting the data of that channel from the center using the keyboard on the terminal side or the remote control transmitter. be able to.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a CATV device using a television device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a schematic diagram showing the format of each data signal sent from the center to the terminal in the same device.
The figure is a schematic diagram showing the format of data sent from the terminal to the center in the same device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Antenna, 2... Retransmission device, 3... Signal source, 4, 20... Demodulator, 5, 21... Modulator, 6... Line controller, 7... Microcomputer, 7a... Comiunication・
Control unit, 8...Memory, 12,
14, 15, 25...modem, 16...mixer,
17... Bidirectional trunk amplifier, 18... Converter, 19... Tuner, 22... Tuning device, 23
... Keyboard, 24 ... Addressable control unit, 26 ... Remote control receiver, 27 ... Remote control transmitter, 28 ... Television receiver, 29 ... Display device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A means for transmitting a television signal, and a means for transmitting channel data requested by a subscriber to which they wish to subscribe together with each subscriber's address data on a carrier wave separately from the television signal. is installed at the center, and the terminal that receives the television signal, channel data, and address data from the center will be able to detect if the address data sent from the center through the transmission line matches the address data stored on the subscriber side. It has a means for writing the channel data of the desired subscription into a memory, a tuner into which a television signal sent from the center via a transmission line is input, and a channel selection device for controlling the tuner; A television device characterized in that when a channel selected by operation of the channel selection device matches channel data stored in the memory, the channel selection device and tuner are operated to enable reception. 2. If the channel selected by operating the channel selection device and the channel data stored in the memory do not match, select one of the channels stored in the memory and receive the selected channel. A television apparatus according to claim 1, which is configured to enable. 3. The television apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the channel to be selected is set to the channel that was being received immediately before selecting a channel that does not match the channel data stored in the memory. 4 means for transmitting a television signal; a memory for storing channel data requested by the subscriber to which the subscriber wishes to subscribe; A terminal that receives television signals, channel data, and address data from the center is provided with a means for transmitting the data through the transmission line, and the address data sent from the center through the transmission line is stored on the subscriber side. means for writing the desired channel data into a memory when the address data matches the address data; a tuner to which the television signal sent from the center via the transmission line is input; and a channel selection device for controlling the tuner; It has means for operating the channel selection device and tuner to enable reception when the channel selected by operating the channel selection device matches the channel data stored in the memory, and temporarily subscribes to channels other than the already subscribed channel. Means is provided for transmitting the desired channel data to the center through the transmission line, and the center updates the desired channel data stored in the memory of the center in accordance with the temporarily desired channel data from the terminal. A television device that transmits information to the terminal. 5. The television device according to claim 4, wherein the television device is configured to display a channel number on a channel number display device during a period when data of a desired channel is temporarily requested. 6. The channel number display device is equipped with a light-emitting display section that temporarily indicates the processing status of the channel data that the user wishes to join, and causes the light-emitting display section to blink during the period until the channel data is input and input into the memory of the terminal. 6. The television apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the light-emitting display section is turned on and turned off when the channel data is stored in the memory.