JPH08321997A - Television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an input changeover system where only required input terminals are put in toggle connection so as to attain earlier arrival of reception of an object image. CONSTITUTION: Upon receipt of a toggle loop setting signal from a remote commander 13, a microcomputer 10 generates image data for an external input menu and gives the data to a video signal processing circuit 7, by which the menu is displayed on a monitor screen of a display device 9. The microcomputer 10 controls an AV switch 3 according to a toggle loop stored by a nonvolatile memory 11 to conduct toggle connection corresponding to video input designation requiring toggle connection set on the menu. Since each entry image is sequentially displayed on the screen of the display device 9 during toggle connection and a toggle connection stop signal is raised by operating the remote commander 13 when the menu indicates a specific input menu, the user selects a preferred image and then the operability is much improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a television receiver for toggle connection of only necessary video / audio signal inputs, and more specifically, a plurality of devices connected to a plurality of input terminals of the television receiver. Among them, the present invention relates to an input switching system for selecting a device connected to an input terminal desired by a user in a short time and receiving an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recent television receivers include a video tape recorder (VTR) together with a television channel signal input from an ordinary antenna via a tuner.
Video signal from M and M used for high-definition broadcasting
USE (Multiple Sub-Nyquist-)
Various external input signals such as signals according to the Sampling Encoding method and HD signals are input, and the number of these external input signals tends to increase rapidly.

In a television receiver, one of a plurality of input terminals is selected and the input is switched by an AV switch connecting this to an image / audio signal processing circuit. The AV switch is designed to connect to one input terminal of the plurality of input terminals connected to the plurality of devices and the video / audio signal processing circuit, and is usually a remote controller (usually referred to as a remote controller). ), The input terminal designated by the input switching signal from (1) is connected to the video / audio signal processing circuit.

Conventionally, when the number of external inputs is small, the remote controller is provided with a key dedicated to each external input, and by pressing this key, a selection signal unique to each external input terminal is transmitted. For example, if the television receiver has only two external input terminals for video inputs (1) and (2), the remote controller may be provided with two dedicated keys corresponding to these two external input terminals.

However, when the number of external input terminals of the television receiver increases, it is inconvenient to provide each key for external input to the remote controller because the remote controller becomes large and the operation becomes inconvenient.

Therefore, the remote controller is provided with only one key for instructing the start and stop of input switching, and by pressing this key, an input switching start instruction signal is transmitted. A so-called toggle connection system has been developed in which the received AV switch connects all input terminals to the video / audio signal processing circuit in a predetermined order (referred to as toggle connection).

For example, when the input switch instruction key of the remote controller is pressed, an input switch start instruction signal is issued, and the AV switch responds to this signal by "tuner input → video tape recorder (1) → video tape recorder (2 )-> Video tape recorder (3)->MUSE->HD-> tuner input ".

When each of the input terminals is connected to the video / audio signal processing circuit via the AV switch, the video of the video / audio signal from the input terminal is displayed on the monitor screen,
Sound will be emitted. Therefore, when the user selects a desired input while looking at the monitor screen, he / she can operate the remote controller to issue an input switching stop signal to stop the toggle connection operation and receive the input. .

[0009]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional toggle connection system, an unnecessary input terminal, for example, a device whose power is turned off, such as an input from a video tape recorder, is connected if the turn comes. Therefore, when the number of external input terminals is large, it takes time to select a target input mode.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a television receiver capable of switching to an input mode desired by a user in a short time, and there is a problem in the structure of the input switching system.

[0011]

In order to solve the above problems, the television receiver according to the present invention comprises a control means for controlling only necessary input terminals to participate in the toggle connection operation.

That is, whether a certain input is necessary or unnecessary is set in advance by a user to set a toggle loop (a loop consisting of inputs determined to require a toggle connection).
Is stored in the memory, or the operating state of each input is sequentially examined and determined by the detecting means, or both are included.

[0013]

In the television receiver configured as described above, basically, inputs that do not require toggle connection are not connected to the video / audio signal processing circuit, but only necessary inputs are sequentially connected and an image is received. Therefore, the user can reach the reception of the desired input in the minimum necessary time.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a television receiver according to the present invention, particularly a television receiver having a system of switching a plurality of input terminals will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The first embodiment of the television receiver according to the present invention is, as shown in FIG. 1, an antenna 1, a tuner 2, an AV switch 3, an audio signal processing circuit 4, and a first embodiment.
Amplifier 5, speaker 6, video signal processing circuit 7,
A second amplifier 8, a display 9, a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as a microcomputer) 10, a non-volatile memory 11,
It is composed of an infrared receiver 12 and a remote controller 13.

The antenna 1 receives broadcast radio waves and sends the received radio waves to the tuner 2. The tuner 2 is controlled by a channel selection signal from the microcomputer 10, selects a channel, and outputs a video / audio signal of the selected channel to an AV.
Supply to the switch 3.

The AV switch 3 has one input terminal connected to the tuner 2, a plurality of external input terminals, and one output terminal. It should be noted that the video / audio signal pair is counted as one. Hereinafter, the plurality of external input terminals are assumed to be five inputs of video inputs 1 to 4 and MUSE input for convenience of description.

The output side of the AV switch 3 is connected to the respective input sides of the audio signal processing circuit 4 and the video signal processing circuit 7. The AV switch 3 is controlled by the microcomputer 10 to sequentially connect several input terminals selected from the above six input terminals by a method described later to the audio signal processing circuit 4 and the video signal processing circuit 7. (Hereinafter, referred to as a toggle connection operation).

From the output side of the AV switch 3, the audio signal from the connected input terminal is input to the audio signal processing circuit 4, and the video signal is input to the video signal processing circuit 7.

The voice signal processing circuit 4 operates under the control of the microcomputer 10 to process the input voice signal and generate a voice signal. This audio signal is amplified by the amplifier 5, and then the speaker 6 is operated.

The video signal processing circuit 7 is controlled and operated by the microcomputer 10, and mixes and processes the video signal input from the AV switch 3 and various display signals such as menus and messages generated by the microcomputer 10 for display. R for
Generates (red), G (green) and B (blue) signals. R, G,
The B signal is supplied to the display device 9 and displays an image on the monitor screen.

The microcomputer 10 constitutes the main part of the control means for switching the input, which is a feature of the present invention, and includes a crystal oscillator 14 for timing, a tuner 2, an AV switch 3, an audio signal processing circuit 4, and a video signal. 4 connected to the processing circuit 7, respectively
It has one output terminal, an input / output terminal connected to the non-volatile memory 11, and an input terminal connected to the infrared receiver 12. The operation of the microcomputer 10 will be described later.

The non-volatile memory 11 has a function of storing a flag indicating whether or not a toggle connection is necessary for each external input terminal. The contents stored in the non-volatile memory 11 are displayed on the screen of the display 9 by the microcomputer 10 in the menu 15 as shown in FIG. 2 when the input switching is started. By designating with the cursor 16, the flag corresponding to this input is set to “present” (for example, “1”), and unnecessary input is set to “absent” (“0”).

In the example of FIG. 2, the video inputs 1, 2 and the MU
SE input requires toggle connection, video input 3, 4
No toggle connection is needed. A loop formed only by inputs that are flagged as "necessary", ie, "video input 1-> video input 2->MUSE" in FIG.
The loop of “input → video input 1” is called a toggle loop and is preset by the user.

The microcomputer 10 controls the connection operation of the AV switch 3 by a toggle loop set in the non-volatile memory 11. That is, the microcomputer 10 uses the nonvolatile memory 11
Are sequentially checked from the video input 1 for the input having the flag "present", the input terminal of the AV switch 3 is connected to the output terminal, and the flag is "absent".
With respect to the input, the control is performed so that the input terminal of the AV switch 3 is not connected to the output terminal and is skipped to the next "present" input.

By the above control of the microcomputer 10, the toggle connection of the AV switch 3 is made along the toggle loop, and the unnecessary video inputs 3 and 4 are excluded from the toggle loop. Therefore, all the external input terminals are toggled. In comparison with the conventional method in which the user participates in, the user can quickly reach the image received from the desired input terminal and does not need to see an unnecessary screen.

The infrared receiver 12 is composed of a phototransistor which is turned on / off by a command signal from the remote controller 13 by infrared rays.

The remote controller 13 is an operating means operated by a user, and sends a channel selection signal, a toggle connection operation start signal, a toggle connection operation stop signal, and a toggle loop setting signal to the microcomputer 10 via the infrared receiver 12. Is sent.

The input switching operation of the television receiver of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flow chart of FIG.

1. Toggle loop settings. Upon receiving the toggle loop setting signal from the remote controller 13 (step ST1), the microcomputer 10 creates image data for the external input menu in the display memory, mixes this image data with the current output signal of the AV switch 3, and displays the image. Input to the signal processing circuit 7. As a result, the menu 15 as shown in FIG. 2 is displayed on the monitor screen of the display 9 (step ST2).

Therefore, the user can use the cursor 16 on the screen.
Inputs that require a toggle connection (video input 1,
2 and MUSE input). Then, the microcomputer 1
For 0, the flag corresponding to the necessary input of the non-volatile memory 11 is set to "1", and the flag corresponding to the unspecified input is set to "0". With this, the toggle loop of "video input 1-> video input 2-> MUSE input-> video input 1" is set (step ST
3).

2. Input Switching Operation When the user issues a toggle connection operation start signal from the remote controller 13 in the state where the toggle loop is set in the non-volatile memory 11 as described above (step ST4), the microcomputer 10 is stored in the non-volatile memory 11. According to the toggle loop, the AV switch 3 is controlled to perform the toggle connection operation (step ST5).

During the toggle connection operation, the audio signal processing circuit 4 and the video signal processing circuit 7 are connected to the respective inputs in the toggle loop.
As a result, the images of the respective inputs are sequentially displayed on the screen of the display device 9, and the sounds of the respective inputs are sequentially output from the speaker 6. Note that the connection may be sequentially performed for each predetermined time, and in this case, the input terminals set by the toggle loop are automatically connected for the predetermined time automatically.

When the desired input screen is displayed, the user operates the remote controller 13 to issue a toggle connection operation stop signal. The microcomputer 10 stops the toggle connection operation by this toggle connection operation stop signal (steps ST6 and ST7), and thereafter receives the image at the selected input (step ST8).

If the toggle connection operation start signal is not received in step ST4, operations other than the toggle connection operation such as tuning, last memory, SIRCS sense, etc. are performed (step ST9).

Next, a television receiver according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In the television receiver of the second embodiment, the user performs the necessary input setting using the remote controller 13 in the first embodiment described above, but this is automatically performed. It's something that you do.

The structure of the second embodiment is shown in FIG. 4, components having the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 have the same functions, and the description thereof will be omitted.

The difference of this embodiment from the first embodiment is that there is no non-volatile memory 11 for storing the toggle loop, a detector 17 and an on / off switch 18 are newly added, and a microcomputer 10 and Microcomputer 1 with the same configuration
The flowchart of the terminal connection of 0a and the built-in program is as shown in FIG.

The input terminal of the detector 17, which is the detecting means, is
It is connected to the common output terminal of the external input signal of the AV switch 3. The output side of the detector 17 is connected to the input terminal of the microcomputer 10a. The detector 17 detects from the input signal whether the input signal source is alive (for example, the power source is turned on), and when the input signal source is alive, the detector 17 tells the microcomputer 10a A 1 "detection signal is output.

The on / off switch 18 has one end connected to the output terminal of the AV switch 3 and the other end connected to the input terminals of the audio signal processing circuit 4 and the video signal processing circuit 7. The on / off switch 18 is controlled by the microcomputer 10a and has a function of connecting or disconnecting the AV switch 3 and the audio signal processing circuit 4 and the video signal processing circuit 7.

The microcomputer 10a controls the AV switch 3 and the on / off switch 18 as described below. 5, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 3 indicate the same operations.

When the user issues a toggle operation start signal from the remote controller 13 (step ST4), the microcomputer 10a
Controls the AV switch 3 to sequentially connect each external input to the detector 17 and check whether each external input is active (steps ST10, ST11, ST12).

When the input signal is active, the on / off switch 18 is closed and its input is connected to the audio signal processing circuit 4 and the video signal processing circuit 7 (step ST).
13, ST5). This connection may be a predetermined time connection.

The microcomputer 10a repeats the above operation until it receives the toggle connection operation stop signal from the remote controller 13, stops the toggle connection operation by the toggle connection operation stop signal (steps ST6 and ST7), and thereafter selects the selected input. To receive the image (step ST8).

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, by toggle-connecting only the necessary input terminals of the connected devices, the ability to quickly reach the intended input image can be obtained.
Since it can be added to the television receiver without increasing the cost, even if the television receiver will have more and more input terminals in the future, the user can appropriately select and connect only the desired connection. There is an effect that it can be performed and the operability can be extremely improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of a television receiver in which only necessary inputs are toggle-connected according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an external input menu display in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an input switching operation of the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second embodiment of a television receiver in which only necessary inputs are toggle-connected according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing an input switching operation of the same embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Antenna 2 Tuner 3 AV Switch 4 Audio Signal Processing Circuit 5 First Amplifier 6 Speaker 7 Video Signal Processing Circuit 8 Second Amplifier 10, 10a Microcomputer 11 Nonvolatile Memory 12 Infrared Receiver 13 Remote Controller 14 Crystal Oscillator 15 Menu 16 Cursor 17 Detector

Claims (4)

[Claims] Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A plurality of input terminals for inputting video / audio signals, and a video / audio signal for processing video / audio signals input from one input terminal appropriately selected from the plurality of input terminals.
An audio signal processing circuit, the plurality of input terminals, an operating means for switching inputs between the video / audio signal processing circuit, and the video / audio signal processing circuit and the plurality of inputs in response to the operating means. A television receiver having a switch circuit for sequentially toggle-connecting each of the terminals, comprising control means for selecting the plurality of input terminals and controlling the toggle-connection. And a television receiver. 2. The control means has a toggle loop which is set by selecting the plurality of input terminals in advance, and the toggle connection is made along the toggle loop in response to the operating means. The control is performed according to claim 1.
3. The television receiver according to item 1. 3. The control means has a detection means for detecting an operation state of a device connected to the plurality of input terminals, and is operable in response to the operation means, detected by the detection means. The television receiver according to claim 1, wherein only the input terminal in the state is controlled to be toggle-connected. 4. The control means detects a toggle loop that is set by selecting the plurality of input terminals in advance and an operating state of a device connected to the input terminals set by the toggle loop. 2. The television image receiving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a detection unit, which controls the input terminal in an operable state detected by the detection unit to be toggle-connected in response to the operation unit. Machine.