JPH08181927A - Television broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To allow a user to surely confirm the content of a broadcast program of a channel corresponding to a frequenly viewed program having been watched at all times. CONSTITUTION: The channel selection state corresponding to programs by a channel selection means 1M by plural weeks is stored in a channel history memory 105 in a state of corresponding to weekdays and times. A channel history write means 100 stores sequentially the channel selection state corresponding to the program by the channel selection means 1M to the channel history memory 105 in a timing corresponding to weekdays and times. The storage content of the channel history memory 105 is checked and the presence of the channel corresponding to a highly frequent reception program selected by a prescribed frequency or over at the same weekday and the same time for plural preceding weeks is discriminated. When the presence of the channel corresponding to a highly frequent reception program is detected by the discrimination, the program content is displayed on a PinP slave screen.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television broadcast receiving apparatus that allows a receiver to watch a program that he or she frequently watches without missing a program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When viewing a broadcast program on a television receiver, a user often tends to watch the same program every week at a specific time. In particular, in the case of a continuous program or a program of one's liking, in many cases, the same program corresponding channel is always selected in order to watch the program at the same time on the same day.

In this specification, the term "program-corresponding channel" refers to a channel number assigned to a broadcasting station, and is distinguished from a transmission channel numbered for each frequency band obtained by dividing the transmission band of a broadcast wave. I will. By the way, in the current terrestrial television broadcasting in Japan, the number of the transmission channel and the number of the program corresponding channel are usually the same in many cases.

By the way, when a user is watching a broadcast program on a television receiver, he / she forgets the passage of time or continues to select a channel corresponding to another program so that he / she watches the program every week. A program (hereinafter, a broadcast program that is frequently viewed in this way is referred to as a high-frequency viewing program, and a program corresponding channel of this high-frequency viewing program is referred to as a high-frequency viewing channel) may be overlooked.

In view of this point, the present applicant has provided channel selection information storage means for sequentially storing the program corresponding channels selected by the tuner on the day of the week and the time, using the day of the week and the time as parameters. The frequency of each program compatible channel selected by the tuner is integrated from the stored contents of the means to determine whether or not it is a high-frequency viewing channel. When there is a frequency-watching channel, when it does not match the program-compatible channel you are currently watching, that is, when you are not watching the broadcast program you are watching all the time, advice information is displayed on the screen or by voice. We have previously proposed a receiving device that outputs and calls attention to the viewer (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-68620).
issue).

In the above-mentioned proposal, the user is provided with this advice information even when the power switch of the television receiver is off, and at this time, the above-mentioned attention is given by voice output. .

[0007]

However, as described above, even if the advice information is provided to the user from the television receiver, this is generally information such as "I am always watching channel A". However, it is not possible to directly know the contents of the high-frequency viewing program that has been alerted.

For this reason, the user remembers from his / her memory what the content of the back-view program of the high-frequency viewing that has been alerted to is, or refers to the TV program table, etc. After knowing the content of the program, it is necessary to change the channel, etc., which is very inconvenient, and the delay in switching the channel causes, for example, the first part of a detective drama to be missed or the storyline to be lost. There is a possibility that there will be a problem of not knowing.

Therefore, it is conceivable that a program of this high-frequency viewing channel is reserved and recorded by using a recording / reproducing apparatus such as a VTR. However, in general, a user who recognizes that the operation of reserved recording is complicated. However, in consideration of operation mistakes, it is not possible to expect a situation in which the user always uses the reserved recording function.

In view of the above points, the present invention ensures that when the user's favorite high-frequency viewing program exists, even if the program-corresponding channel of the program is not currently viewed, the user can reliably watch the program. An object of the present invention is to provide a television broadcast receiving device capable of grasping the program content of a frequently viewed program.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention, when the reference numerals of the embodiments described later are made to correspond, in accordance with a channel selection control signal,
The signal for the program corresponding channel is selected from the broadcast wave, and the channel selecting means 1M and 1S capable of simultaneously selecting the signals for two different program corresponding channels, the display means 6, and 2 from the channel selecting means. Broadcast reproduction means for displaying and reproducing the broadcast program by the signal of one of the program corresponding channels among the signals of one program corresponding channel, and the tuning control according to the tuning operation of the receiver. The channel selection control signal generating means 100 for generating a signal and the selection state of the program corresponding channel in the channel selection means 1M, 1S are stored in the channel history memory for a plurality of weeks in a state corresponding to the day of the week and the time. The stored contents of the channel history writing means 100 and the channel history memory are checked, and selected at a predetermined frequency or more on the same day and the same time in the past plural weeks. If the presence of the high frequency reception program corresponding channel is detected by the determination by the determination unit 100 and the determination unit 100, it is determined by the broadcast reproducing unit. When the broadcast program of the channel corresponding to the high frequency reception program is not reproduced, the broadcast program of the channel corresponding to the high frequency reception program is displayed on a child screen formed on a part of the screen of the display means. The control means 4 and 100 are provided.

[0012]

According to the present invention configured as described above, from the contents of the channel history table, if there is a program-corresponding channel being watched at a certain frequency or more on the same day of the week and the same time, When the channel corresponding to the program is received and not being watched,
In the so-called picture-in-picture sub-screen,
The content of the program of the high-frequency viewing channel is displayed.
Therefore, the user can know the program content of the high-frequency viewing channel that he or she is watching by looking at the sub-screen, and can switch the channel to view the program if necessary.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings by taking a case of a television receiver for receiving analog television broadcast waves using terrestrial waves as an example.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a television receiver of this embodiment. The television receiver of this example has a so-called picture-in-picture (hereinafter referred to as PinP) function capable of displaying a small screen in a small area of a part of the display screen, and has a built-in recording / playback device section. Then, the so-called back program can be recorded. Therefore, the television receiver of this example has a so-called double tuner configuration having two tuners. However, in this example, one of the tuners is Pin.
It is designed to be used only for displaying an image on the child screen of P and for the source of recording. Therefore, this example does not have a PinP parent-child screen switching function.

In the following description, the PinP and recording signal systems will be sub-systems, and the others will be main signal systems.

In FIG. 1, 1M is a main tuner and 1S
Is a sub tuner. Broadcast radio waves received by the antenna are distributed and supplied to these main tuners 1M and 1S. In these tuners 1M and 1S, a control circuit 1 composed of a microcomputer described later is used.
The channel selection control signal from 00 selects a channel corresponding to a predetermined program. In this case, the tuning control signal is generated by the control circuit 100 in response to a selection operation performed by the user through a remote commander, automatic recording of a frequently received program described later, or PinP of the frequently received program. In some cases, such as for displaying a child screen, the control circuit 100 itself generates it regardless of the user's selection operation.

The tuners 1M and 1S convert the selected broadcast wave signal into a video intermediate frequency signal and supply it to the video intermediate frequency and detection circuits 2M and 2S, respectively. Then, in these circuits 2M and 2S, the intermediate frequency signal is amplified and the video signal and the audio signal are demodulated.

The video intermediate frequency and the demodulated video signal from the detection circuit 2M are supplied to one input terminal TV of the switch circuit SW1, and the demodulated audio signal is supplied to one input terminal TV of the switch circuit SW3. Supplied.

Further, the video intermediate frequency and the demodulated video signal from the detection circuit 2S are supplied to the recording / reproducing device section 10 as a recording source thereof, and the switch circuit S is also provided.
It is supplied to one input terminal S of W2. The video intermediate frequency and the demodulated audio signal from the detection circuit 2S are supplied only to the recording / reproducing device section 10. This is because the child screen sound displayed as PinP is generally not reproduced.

Then, the reproduced video signal from the recording / reproducing device section 10 is supplied to the other input terminal VT of the switch circuit SW1 and the other input terminal VT of the switch circuit SW2. Further, the reproduced audio signal from the recording / reproducing device section 10 is supplied to the other input terminal VT of the switch circuit SW3.

The switch circuits SW1, SW2 and SW3 are
It is switched by a switching signal from the control circuit 100. The switch circuit SW1 and the switch circuit SW3 are switching circuits for selecting a signal from the main tuner 1M or a reproduction signal from the recording / reproducing device section 10. The switching signals for these circuits SW1 and SW3 are common. is there.

That is, when the user wants to view the broadcast program selected by the main tuner 1M and the selection operation is performed by the remote controller to be described later, the switch circuit SW1
And SW3 are switched to one input terminal TV side,
When the recording / reproducing device unit 10 is set to the reproduction mode and the user performs a selection operation to view the reproduced video signal and audio signal, the switch circuits SW1 and SW3 are switched to the other input terminal VT side.

The switch circuit SW2 is a switching circuit for selecting a video signal of a program selected by the sub tuner 1S as a PinP sub-screen or a reproduction video signal of the recording / reproducing device section 10. And the user
When selecting the one selected by the sub tuner as the sub screen of inP, it is switched to one input terminal S side, and when viewing the reproduced video screen of the recording / reproducing device section 10, it is switched to the other input terminal VT side. .

The video signal obtained from the switch circuit SW1 is supplied to the PinP synthesis circuit 4 via the video signal processing circuit 3M. The video signal obtained from the switch circuit SW2 is supplied to the PinP synthesizing circuit 4 via the video signal processing circuit 3S. Video signal processing circuit 3
In S, the image size of the input video signal is compressed so that it is displayed as a PinP child screen.

When the PinP display is performed from the control circuit 100, the control signal is supplied to the PinP synthesizing circuit 4 so that the video signal from the video signal processing circuit 3S is superimposed as a child screen. Is synthesized. Pin
When P display is not performed, this PinP synthesis circuit 4
Then, the video signal from the video signal processing circuit 3M is output as it is.

The video signal from the PinP synthesis circuit 4 is supplied to the superimposition display processing circuit 5. The superimposition display processing circuit 5 is supplied with a signal such as a character or a figure described later, and the superimposition display processing circuit 5 performs a processing of superimposing the superimposition or warning mark on the screen. This is appropriately performed by a control signal supplied from the control circuit 100. The signals to be superimposed and displayed are generated under the control of the control circuit 100, as described later. The video signal from the superimposition display processing circuit 5 is C in this example.
The image of the broadcast program received by the tuners 1M and 1S and the image by the reproduction signal of the recording / reproducing device unit 10 which are supplied to the RT display 6 are displayed in color on the screen.

The audio signal obtained from the switch circuit SW3 is supplied to the audio amplifier 8 via the audio processing circuit 7 and reproduced by the speaker 9. In this example, the control signal from the control circuit 100 causes the amplifier 8 to perform volume control and sound quality control of reproduced voice.

In this example, the recording / reproducing device section 10 is realized by a structure equivalent to that of a video tape recorder using a magnetic tape such as 8 mm video as a recording medium, and the structure thereof is well known and therefore omitted.

Next, the control circuit 100 will be described.
In the television receiver of this example, when the so-called main power switch is turned on while being connected to the AC outlet, the power can be turned on / off by the remote commander, and the main power switch is turned on. In the state, the control circuit 100 is always in the operating state.

As described above, this control circuit 100
Is configured to include a microcomputer,
CPU 101 and ROM for system bus 102
103, DRAM 104, and SRAM 105 are connected. Also, for this system bus 102,
The I / O ports 111 to 117 are connected to input / output various signals.

For example, a tuning control signal is supplied to the main tuner 1M and the sub tuner 1S via the I / O port 111. Further, control commands such as recording start, reproduction start, stop, and other control commands are supplied from the control circuit 100 to the recording / reproducing apparatus section 10 through the I / O port 112, or from the recording / reproducing apparatus section 10,
The status signal of that mode is taken into the control circuit 100 via this I / O port 112. Switch circuit SW
A switching control signal for 1, SW2, and SW3 is supplied from the I / O port 113.

Reference numeral 11 is a clock circuit which keeps the current time and, in this example, R
When the program of OM303 is started by interruption,
It also serves as a timer for generating the interrupt timing signal. The power supply voltage is applied to the clock circuit 11 even when the power switch of the television receiver is off. In this example, although not shown, the clock circuit 1
The power source voltage of 1 is supplied from another power source such as a battery or a rechargeable battery. Time information and timer information from the clock circuit 11 are transferred to the system bus 1 via the I / O port 114.
It is taken in by 02.

Further, the time of the clock circuit 11 is corrected by the execution of the program by the CPU 101.
This clock circuit 11 is not limited to hours, minutes, seconds
The information includes the month, day, and even the day of the week. However, in the case of this embodiment, if there is only day and time information, it is sufficient as a time parameter to be associated with channel history information, which will be described later.

In this specification, the channel history information is associated with a day of the week and a time of day, and is stored in a memory (SRAM 105 described later) and stored in a tuner 1M.
Information on the selection status of the program-corresponding channel (that is, the tuner 1M at a certain time on a certain day in the past, for example)
Information about how many channels were selected in), and in this example, information for a plurality of weeks.

The PinP synthesizing circuit 4 and the amplifier 8 include
A control signal is supplied via the I / O port 115.

Further, a work signal indicating whether or not the superimposed display is performed is supplied to the superimposed display processing section 5 through the I / O port 116. Examples of this superimposed display include a display that shows the number of channels that have been switched when switching channels, a display of the current receiving channel, and a display that shows how much the volume has increased by a bar display. The message display as described later is included.

Due to this superimposed display, the system bus 102
For, a video RAM 12 is connected. The video RAM 12 temporarily stores character information, symbol information, etc. formed by the control circuit 100 using the character information recorded in the ROM 103, and program control of the CPU 101 for superimposing display on the screen. According to the above, it is supplied to the superimposed display processing device 5 via the display controller 13.

In this case, the ROM 103 stores the font data of the characters and symbols necessary for the superimposed display and the image data, and the CPU 101 reads out the font data and the image data of the required characters and symbols according to the program. The image data in the video RAM 12 is transferred to an arbitrary address in the video RAM 12 and is supplied to the superimposition display processing unit via the display controller 13, so that the image data in the video RAM is combined with the video signal.
It will be displayed on the screen of the CRT display 6 for an appropriate time.

As the superimposed display, overlay processing such as so-called superimposing is performed, and the superimposed display is displayed on the CRT display 6.

Further, in the television receiver of this example, various controls are so-called wirelessly performed by the remote commander 14, and when a remote control signal by infrared rays, for example, is generated from the remote commander 14, this is transmitted to the television. The remote control signal receiving / decoding section 15 on the side of the image receiver receives the light, the received remote control signal is decoded, and the decoded signal is supplied to the system bus 102 via the I / O port 117.

The CPU 101 uses the I / O port 117
Interpret the remote control signal taken in via the program, and perform channel selection for program, volume control, PinP synthesis control, superimposition display control, switching control of switches SW1 to SW3, mode control of recording / playback device section 10, and the like. I have to.

The DRAM 104 is mainly used as a work area for calculations and the like. The SRAM 105 is used as a last memory function for the channel and volume by turning the power switch on and off, and as a recording area for holding channel history information described later. In this case, SR
The AM 105 has a configuration of a non-volatile memory that is a so-called battery power backup. Therefore, even when the power of the television receiver is off, the SRAM
The contents of 105 are backed up and will not disappear.

[First Embodiment of Channel History Information Creation Processing] In this example, the channel history information is obtained by sampling the tuning state of the main tuner IM at regular intervals, and the channel corresponding to the tuning program at that time is stored in SRAM.
It writes in 105 and it is made to memorize.

In the case of this embodiment, the main tuner 1M is subjected to a process of searching the channel selection state of the program-corresponding channel as an interrupt process at regular intervals by the timer information from the clock circuit 11 at that time. The tuning state of the program corresponding channel of the tuner 1M is stored in the SRAM 105.

In the method of creating the channel history information of this example, since the CPU 101 is an interrupt at regular intervals, if only the start time is known as the absolute time information, the time at each sampling point is known as the elapsed time from that time. Therefore, the time information at each sampling time need not be stored in the SRAM 105 as it is.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are image diagrams of the management method of the channel history information in this case.
This is an image of the memory area of the channel history information of M105. 2A, 2B, and 3, the position indicated by the arrow is the position of the pointer P. The pointer P indicates the current time memory area. As shown in FIG. 3, the memory area of the SRAM 105 conceptually manages a ring structure as channel history data. It is a thing.

In this example, n before the current time
(N is an integer of 2 or more) SR of weekly channel history information
The information is always stored in the AM 105, and new channel history information is sequentially accumulated while discarding information older than n weeks ago.

That is, in this example, for example, 10
The tuner 1M is scanned for acquisition of a channel history every minute, and the information of the channel history obtained as a result is managed by a continuous address space at intervals of 10 minutes as shown in FIG. Then, when the storage area of the ring structure as shown in FIG.
As shown in, the oldest channel history data is discarded and the newly acquired current channel history data is
Use a storage method such as storing in memory.

In this case, the channel history data stored in the SRAM 105 is stored for at least a plurality of weeks as described above. And the CPU 10
1 is the channel history data of SRAM 105,
It can be managed for each day of the week. This is because at 10-minute intervals, 144 times that amount is for one day and 7 times that amount is for one week, so it can be easily managed by counting the number of channel history data. is there.

In this case, the channel history data is fetched by the above-mentioned interrupt processing at XX hours 01 minutes, XX
Hours 11 minutes, xx hours 21 minutes, xx hours 31 minutes, etc.
It will be started when the program actually starts.

Prior to storing the channel history data in the channel history data storage area of the SRAM 105,
This area is initialized. In other words, it is cleared. At the same time, the pointer position for storing the history is also initialized. Since the history information in the past is cleared by this initialization, this initialization setting is performed, for example, in the television receiver by allocating the remote control data and the program broadcast channel, registering the current time in the clock circuit 11, and the like. This is something that is triggered.

Here, the assignment of the remote control button to the program broadcast channel means, for example, an operation in which the user assigns a specific channel of the remote control button to any program corresponding channel (broadcast station). Generally, the channel setting and the like are performed when the television receiver is purchased, but may be appropriately performed by the user.

In the case of this example, the remote commander 1
4 is provided with a channel history reset button. By pressing this reset button, the SRAM1
The contents of the 05 channel history area can be initialized as described above. In general, for example, in the case of Japanese television broadcasting, in consideration of the fact that the program content is significantly changed between spring and autumn, the program is changed by being reset by the user when the program is changed. Regardless, it is to prevent the user from being mistakenly selected as a high-frequency viewing channel by the past history.

Next, the recording operation of the channel history in the case of this example will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. That is, in the case of this example, when an interrupt occurs at intervals of 10 minutes, which is considered that broadcasting is actually performed as described above (step S0), this channel history data fetch processing routine is started.

Then, in the next step S1, SR
The pointer is updated in the channel history memory space of the AM 105. This updating of the pointer secures a new data area, and in this step S1, the processing of null clearing (zeroing) the newly secured data area is also performed. In the case of this example, since the memory area of the channel history of the SRAM 105 is managed in the ring shape as described above, after the ring-shaped channel history data area becomes full, the pointer update processing is performed. Would involve discarding the oldest channel history data.

In this case, if the address of the new data area due to the pointer update exceeds the final address of the ring-shaped memory area, the pointer is reset to the head address.

In this case, while the main power switch of the television receiver is on, the start is performed through step S0, in this case, every 10 minutes, but the main power switch of the television receiver is off. During this time, the interrupt processing to the processing routine of FIG. 4 is not activated. Therefore, in this example, since the clock circuit 11 is operating with a separate power supply, the time information is used, and in this step S1, the main power supply is turned off at the first interrupt timing after the next main power supply is turned on. The update process of the channel history area, which should be performed in a certain period, is performed.

That is, in this example, the SRAM 105 is made to hold the time of the interrupt timing performed immediately before the main power switch is turned off. And
After that, the main power switch of the TV receiver was turned on,
When the interrupt timing comes, the SRAM 105
Of the interrupt timing performed immediately before the main power switch is turned off, the number of interrupts to be performed during that period is detected, the pointer is updated for the number of interrupts, and the number of interrupts is updated. Make sure that all data areas are null-cleared. Then, the data area corresponding to the current interrupt timing is updated.

When the pointer has been updated and a new data area has been secured in this way, the flow advances to step S2 to check whether or not the broadcast is currently being viewed. That is, when the recording / reproducing device unit 10 is in the reproducing mode and is watching the same, the watching of the television here is not performed.

When the broadcast wave is being viewed, the process proceeds from step S2 to step S3, and the information of the program corresponding channel selected by the tuner 1M at that time is stored in the newly secured data area. .
The information content of the stored program-corresponding channel may be the channel number or the tuner 1
It may be the tuning control data supplied to M.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2 that the broadcast wave is not being viewed, the process proceeds to step S4 and "0" is set in the newly secured data area. Note that in this example, due to the processing during the main power-off of the television receiver in step S1 described above, even when the main power is not supplied to the television receiver, " “0” is held, and this state also means that the television broadcast is not being viewed.

After the processing of step S3 or step S4 is completed, this routine is completed from step S5.

Thus, in this example, in the channel history areas for a plurality of weeks of the SRAM 105, the information of the program-corresponding channel of the broadcast wave being viewed at that time is left as a new history every 10 minutes. Then, as described above, when the channel history areas for a plurality of weeks are full, new channel history information is sequentially written while discarding the old history.

FIG. 5 shows the channel history information for one day,
Further, FIG. 6 shows an example in which the channel history information for three weeks is represented in the form of a table, and in this example, in each channel history data area Dch, information on program-corresponding channel numbers is stored. There is. It should be noted that the time shown on the left side of the data area Dch is the time when the history data of each channel is taken in. In the case of this example,
These times do not need to be stored in the data area Dch as described above.

In this example, when referring to the channel history information for determining the presence or absence of a high-frequency viewing channel, which will be described later, it is assumed that the probability that the channel is being viewed is high before and after the time point when the channel history information is captured. It is decided to judge. The interval before and after the time point of capturing the channel history data is ± 5 minutes if the channel history data is captured at the above-mentioned 10-minute interval, for example.

In the case of this embodiment, since the channel history is updated in units of 10 minutes, 6 × 24 = 14 in one day.
Four pieces of history data are stored. Therefore, 144 × 7 = 1,008 history data items are recorded in one week. In this case, if one channel history data has a length of 1 byte, it will be 1008 bytes in one week.
As described above, since it is necessary to take the history for multiple weeks, the memory area for an integer multiple of 1008 bytes is
It is set in the AM 105 as a channel history area.

As described above, in this example, the channel history data tables are as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and the number of history data per day and week is fixed. Therefore, if the data areas having relative time relations, such as one week ago and two weeks ago, are known, it is possible to easily obtain the channel history data at the same time in the past. Therefore, as the channel history information stored in the SRAM 105, as described above,
Information on the absolute time of the acquisition time of each history data is not necessary. However, absolute time must be set in the clock circuit 11. This is because at the time of checking whether there is a high-frequency viewing channel, the channel history is referred to the channel history information table with the time indicated by the clock circuit 11 as a reference.

Therefore, when the current time of the clock circuit 11 is set again, the interrupt timer information is also obtained from the clock circuit 11, and the channel history memory (channel history table) and its pointer are Are initialized as described above.

In the above example, the pointer is updated by a fixed amount with the lapse of time. Therefore, while the main power of the television receiver is off, the pointer is updated and the data is updated as described above. Null clear of the area will be repeated. Therefore, when the main power supply is turned on next time after the main power supply switch of the television receiver is turned off, the number of interrupts that should be performed during this main power supply off is detected, and the data to be recorded in the channel history memory area is as follows. It is also possible to save the memory area by recording a code indicating the continuation of the null data for the number of times, for example, [FF **] (hex indicates the number of null data) in hexadecimal notation.

In the above example, the channel history information is fetched at intervals of 10 minutes.
It may be every 30 minutes, or every 1 minute or every 5 minutes if the memory area of the channel history information is sufficiently large. However, the broadcast time of the program is 30 minutes or 60
Since it is on a minute-by-minute basis, when channel history information is fetched periodically as in this example, every 8 minutes or 9
It is better not to have a timing that causes a unit deviation such as every minute.

In addition, the channel history information is not always fetched at a constant time interval, but in a time zone generally called a prime time, which has a high audience rating, the channel history information is fetched at a fine cycle, and other time is used. May be taken in at a rough cycle.

[Processing of High-Frequency Viewing Channel in First Embodiment] Next, processing of a high-frequency viewing program using the channel history information in the first embodiment will be described.

In this case, the past channel history is examined at a timing different from the above-mentioned channel history data fetching processing timing, and it is determined whether or not there is a program-corresponding channel that is frequently viewed. here,
Different timing means that it is preferable that the above-mentioned channel history data acquisition processing timing is started at the time when the program actually starts, whereas when the past history is checked and appropriate processing is performed. The reason is that it is better to start the program at or just before the actual start of the program.

That is, the above-mentioned channel history data is fetched at XX hour 01 minutes, XX hour 11 minutes, XX hour 2
The program is started at the time when the program actually starts, such as 1 minute and xx: 31. On the other hand, the following processing using the past history is XX hour 00, XX hour 10 minute, XX hour 20 minute, XX hour 30 minute, or XX hour 29 minute, XX hour 5
It is preferable to start the program, or just before that, such as 9. In this example, as will be described later, a program of a high-frequency viewing channel may be automatically recorded, so that it is also preferable to start the program at the timing of starting or ending the recording.

Next, the past history is aggregated using the channel history data, it is determined whether or not the high-frequency viewing channel is at that time, and when it is determined that the high-frequency viewing channel is present, A process of notifying the presence of the channel together with the program content when the user is not watching the channel will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, as described above, when an interrupt of a constant cycle is applied at a timing different from the timing of capturing the channel history (step S10), this processing routine is started.

Then, the process proceeds to step S11, where the past channel history at the same time, on the same day and at the same time is SRA
Check by referring to the channel history data table of M105. Then, information is extracted whether there is a program-corresponding channel (high-frequency viewing channel) that is always being watched at that time, and how many channels the program-corresponding channel is.

In this case, whether or not there is a high-frequency viewing channel is determined by whether or not the preset threshold value of frequency is exceeded. That is, the high-frequency viewing channel includes a state where the television receiver is turned on and a state where it is not turned on.
It means a channel being watched over a predetermined percentage, and the influence of history when the power is off is eliminated as much as possible. In other words, in the case of this example, when the television power supply is off at that time in the past and the broadcast is not being watched, the value is set to 0, which is also data for calculating the number of viewing frequencies.

For example, if the channel history is stored for the past 3 weeks, if there is a channel that has been continuously watched for 2 weeks, that channel is determined as a high-frequency viewing channel, and the TV is usually used. Although I have not seen it, if there is a history of selecting a channel even once, it is not always the channel that I am watching.

In determining the high-frequency viewing channel from the past history, the size of the memory area of the channel history information set in the SRAM 105 does not exceed the program change period of the broadcasting station. It is more convenient to use the capacity. For example, a Japanese broadcasting station divides a year into four courses and organizes programs each time,
SRAM 105 with history of up to 3 months as past information
It is better to take it in.

Next, steps S11 to S12
Then, it is checked whether or not the automatic recording is already performed in the recording / reproducing device section 10 of the television receiver. As described above, the automatic recording referred to here is to record the usual high-frequency channel, not the reserved recording for recording the program at the time set by the user.

If the automatic recording is not being performed, the process jumps to step S15. If it is determined in step S12 that the automatic recording is in progress, the process proceeds to step S13,
Referring to the result of the channel history data investigation in step S11, it is the time when there is no high-frequency viewing channel, or even if there is a high-frequency viewing channel, that high-frequency viewing channel is currently automatically recorded. Check if is not different from.

If neither of these is the case, the high-frequency viewing channel during automatic recording is
Since it indicates that the channel is a high-frequency viewing channel in the past, automatic recording is continued and the process jumps to step S15.

When it is determined in step S13 that the time is not the high-frequency viewing channel, or even if the high-frequency viewing channel is detected from the history table, it is a channel different from the one currently being automatically recorded. In this case, the process proceeds to step S14, and the automatic recording in the recording / reproducing device section 10 is stopped. Then, the process proceeds to step S15.

In step S15, it is determined whether or not there is a high-frequency viewing channel that is always being watched at the same time by referring to the result of the channel history data investigation of the SRAM 105 in step S11. If not, this processing routine starts from step S32. Exit and exit.

A case in which the high-frequency viewing channel is determined from the past history will be described with reference to the channel history table of FIG. 6 in step S15. As described above, this example is shown as the case where the history for three weeks exists, and the past viewing history at the same day and time as the interrupt processing timing when the flowchart of FIG. 7 is activated is referred to. It Then, if there is a program corresponding channel having a viewing frequency of a certain percentage or more on the same day of the week and at the same time, it is determined as a high-frequency viewing channel.

Therefore, in the example of FIG. 6, at 00:21, there are two weeks of "0" indicating that the broadcast program is not being watched, and since the last week was watching channel 10, this is It is the most viewed channel, but since the viewing frequency is one-third, it is not the channel that is always watched, that is, the high-frequency channel.

On the other hand, when the current time is 19:01, since channel 12 is selected for 3 weeks, this is determined as the high-frequency viewing channel. In this way, instead of setting the channels that are watched every week, that is, at the rate of 100% as high-frequency viewing channels, for example, two-thirds (66%) or more are determined as high-frequency viewing channels. May be.

If it is determined in step S15 that there is a high-frequency viewing channel, the process proceeds to step S16, and it is checked whether the television receiver is powered on and the program is being viewed. If the broadcast wave is being viewed, the process proceeds to step S17, and it is checked whether the program corresponding channel currently being viewed is the high-frequency viewing channel detected in step S15.

If the channels are the same, step S32
Exit from this routine and exit. If it is a different channel, the process proceeds to step S18, and a message that calls the user's attention, such as a character display such as "I usually watch channel A." or other frequently watched channel is displayed. Display pictograms such as the icon shown on the display.

At the same time, the control circuit 100 supplies the sub-tuner 1S with a tuning control signal for tuning a high-frequency viewing channel, and causes the display to display the Pin signal.
As the child screen of P, the video content received on the high-frequency viewing channel is displayed for a certain period of time. That is, the video of the high-frequency viewing channel that is always viewed is displayed in PinP for a certain period of time.

The user can know that a so-called back program is always being watched, and the contents of the program can be known on the PinP sub-screen by the message or pictogram on the display. Therefore, when the user confirms the program content of the high-frequency viewing channel and wants to view it at that time as well, the user can immediately view the high-frequency viewing channel program by switching the channel to the tuner 1M.

Then, in step S19, it is detected whether or not a predetermined time has passed without the user performing a tuning operation for selecting a high-frequency viewing channel. If the user changes the channel currently viewed by the main tuner 1M to the high-frequency viewing channel, step S23.
This processing routine is exited from. The display of PinP is appropriately deleted by the user.

On the other hand, when the user does not change the channel even after a certain period of time, the child screen display in PinP is erased and the process proceeds to step S21. Also, when it is determined in step S16 that the television broadcast wave is not being viewed (including the power-off of the television receiver) despite the high-frequency viewing channel, step S21
Proceed to.

In step S21, the recording / reproducing device unit 10
Determines whether or not recording is in progress. That is, it is detected whether or not the high-frequency viewing channel is automatically recorded, or the program reserved by the recording / reproducing device section 10 is being recorded, or the user is forced to record the program. To do.

If the recording / reproducing apparatus section 10 is in the recording state, this recording state is prioritized, and the process jumps from step S21 to step S23 and exits this routine. When it is determined in step S21 that recording is not being performed, the recording / reproducing device unit 10 starts recording of the high-frequency viewing channel determined in step S15. The recording source in this case is the sub tuner 1S as described above. Therefore, if the television receiver is not powered on, power is not supplied to the display part, but the sub tuner 1S, the video intermediate frequency amplification and detection section 2S are not supplied.
Then, the recording / reproducing device unit 10 is turned on and the recording process is performed.

FIG. 8 is an example of the message display example and the PinP sub-screen display performed in step S18. In this example, when the user is watching 10 channels, the high frequency is usually set at the same time. 4 as a viewing channel
A message alerts you to the fact that you are watching a channel, and in addition to this message, PinP
Is displayed on the PinP sub-screen, the program content of channel 4 which is the high-frequency viewing channel is displayed.

When the automatic recording is performed as in the above example, the CPU 101 stores the history of the automatic recording in the SRAM 105, and reads it out at any time, as shown in FIG. Then, the contents of the recording history are displayed.

That is, the CPU 101 sequentially stores the timing of starting the automatic recording, the ending time of the recording, and the channel information in the SRAM 105. And
For example, when the user operates the recording history call button of the remote commander, the screen of FIG. 9 is called. And
On the screen of FIG. 9, the recorded contents selected by the up / down cursor keys of the remote commander can be reproduced to enjoy the program.

In the above example, the frequency of each channel selected once is set to 1 as it is, but the frequency data is weighted for the programs that the user particularly wants to watch. Good. For this weighting, the remote commander may be provided with a weighting button for the user to weight the viewing channel.

Further, in the case of digital television broadcasting, which will be described later, the viewing frequency may be weighted according to the trend of the user's program selection at the time of program selection. For example, when a user often selects news or drama, if the channel history for news or drama is selected once, the frequency is set to be the same as if this is selected twice or twice. Information should be weighted.

In the above example, the VTR is used in the recording / reproducing device unit 10, but the recording / reproducing device unit 10 is used.
By providing an A / D converter on the input side and a D / A converter on the output side, recording may be performed as digital data on the magneto-optical disk. In this way, when recording and reproducing a video signal and an audio signal on the disc, the recorded contents are not stored sequentially, so only the portion recorded by the recording reservation is prohibited from being overwritten. , You can also continue automatic recording.

Therefore, as in the case of using the above-mentioned VTR as the recording / reproducing device section 10, there is no need to perform the process of not performing the automatic recording when the recording reservation is made, and waiting for the end of the recording. There is no need for the user to restart.

In the above-described embodiment, the recording / reproducing device is built in the television receiver. However, the television receiver is provided with a VTR connector jack having a control signal terminal and connected to the VTR. On the other hand, if a recording command and a channel selection control signal for selecting a high-frequency viewing channel are sent from the control circuit 100 of the television receiver, the recording / reproducing device section may be external, of course. Good.

[Second recording process of high-frequency viewing channel]
Embodiment] In the first embodiment described above, the channel selection data of the tuner 1M is scanned at a constant time period to create the channel history data. In the second embodiment, the user selects a channel. When an operation is performed, the contents of the selected channel are stored in the memory as channel history data, and the history data in the past is referenced at the timing of the channel selection operation to determine whether or not there is a high-frequency viewing channel. As described above, a message display, a PinP display, and further automatic recording are configured.

That is, the channel number selected by the user's remote commander operation by the remote commander or the depression of the channel selection button provided on the television receiver and the time information at that time are stored in the SRAM 105. Record as a channel history table. In this case,
Since the tuning operation is performed at an arbitrary timing, information on the selected program-corresponding channel number (or its tuning control signal data may be used) and its time information are recorded in the channel history table.

Then, when the remote control signal is received or when the button is pressed, the past channel history table is examined, and the program-corresponding channels that are viewed at a certain frequency or more on the same day and at the same time are described. It is determined whether or not there is, and if there is, it is determined as a high frequency viewing channel. Then, similar to the above, the message display and the PinP sub-screen display are performed, and the automatic recording is appropriately performed.

In the above example, the recording / playback device section 10 is used.
Since the signal of the high frequency channel is automatically recorded under a predetermined condition, the parent-child screen of PinP cannot be switched, but the television receiver can switch the parent-child screen of PinP. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied.

Further, the fact that the high-frequency channel exists as the back program can be displayed on the PinP sub-screen when the VTR playback image is being viewed instead of the broadcast wave being viewed.

[Other Embodiments of Television Broadcast Receiving Apparatus] The above examples have been described for the case of a terrestrial broadcast wave receiving system. However, in North America and the like, digital television broadcasting such as direct TV is currently being performed. It is being appreciated. In this digital television broadcasting, it is not necessary to provide two tuners, and one program selector and two decoders can replace this. Since the transmission channel of the broadcast wave does not match the program-corresponding channel representing the program, in this case, the program-corresponding channel information is stored as the channel history information as the channel selection information.

[0111]

As described above, according to the present invention, the program content of the high-frequency viewing channel is displayed on the PinP sub-screen, so that the high-frequency viewing channel can be displayed simply by a display message or a voice message. Compared with the case where the attention is given as a program, it is very convenient because the program content of the back program of the high-frequency viewing channel can be surely known.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a channel history data management method used in an embodiment of a television broadcast receiver according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a channel history data management method used in an embodiment of a television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a storage procedure of channel history data used in an embodiment of the television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining one day of channel history data used in an embodiment of the television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining channel history data for three weeks on the same day of the week used in an embodiment of the television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining an automatic recording operation of a high-frequency viewing channel in an embodiment of the television broadcast receiving device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on the display in the embodiment of the television broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display example of contents automatically recorded in the embodiment of the broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1M Main tuner 1S Sub tuner 10 Recording / playback device section 11 Clock circuit 14 Remote commander 100 Control circuit 101 CPU 103 ROM 105 SRAM for storing channel history information

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A channel selecting means for selecting a program corresponding channel signal from a broadcast wave in accordance with a channel selecting control signal, and a channel selecting means capable of simultaneously selecting two different program corresponding channel signals, and a display means. A broadcast reproduction means for displaying and reproducing a broadcast program by a signal of one of the two program corresponding channels from the channel selecting means on the display means, and a receiver selecting station Channel selection control signal generating means for generating the channel selection control signal in response to an operation, the selection state of the program corresponding channel in the channel selection means, in a state corresponding to the day of the week and time, for a plurality of weeks,
A channel history writing means for storing in the channel history memory and a storage content of the channel history memory are examined, and there is a high frequency reception program corresponding channel selected at a predetermined frequency or more on the same day and the same time in the past plural weeks. Determining means for determining whether or not there is a channel corresponding to the high frequency reception program by the determination by the determination means, and reproducing the broadcast program of the high frequency reception program corresponding channel by the broadcast reproduction means. A television broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: a control unit configured to display a broadcast program of the high frequency reception program corresponding channel on a sub-screen formed on a part of the screen of the display unit when not being displayed. 2. The television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the program corresponding channel of the program reproduced by the broadcast reproducing means in the tuning means is scanned at a predetermined time, and the scanning result is obtained. Is stored in the channel history memory in a state that can correspond to the time. 3. The television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the determined time is a fixed time interval. 4. The television broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a clock circuit for providing time information, and the broadcast reproducing means in the channel selecting means in response to a channel selecting operation of the receiver. The selected state of the program corresponding channel to be reproduced is scanned, and the program corresponding channel of the scanning result is stored in the channel history memory together with the information on the scanning time of the selected state obtained from the clock circuit. A television broadcast receiving device characterized in that