JPH09130688A - Av system provided with plural video equipments - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the AV system configured through the connection of at least two video equipments or over in which a video image sent from each video equipment is displayed on a screen of a television receiver regardless of the characteristic of each video equipment. SOLUTION: At least two video equipments or over such as digital VCRs are in daisy connection to a television receiver via a digital interface in compliance with the IEEE1394 standards. Then a function not provided to each digital VCR such as a tuner provided only to one VCR is used to display the image on the screen as if they were all provided with the function.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The AV system having a plurality of video equipment according to the present invention relates to a television receiver connected to a plurality of video equipment, for example, a digital VCR, and more specifically, for example, bidirectional. A plurality of digital VCRs are connected to a television receiver by using a digital interface conforming to the IEEE 1394 standard capable of serial communication, and each unique digital VCR is connected.
The present invention relates to an AV system in which an image transmitted from each digital VCR can be appropriately selected on the screen of a television receiver regardless of the individuality of the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Video equipment, for example, AV equipment such as a video tape recorder or audio equipment, is connected to a video display such as a television receiver in the prior art, and a picture of each AV equipment is selected to select a screen of the television receiver. When watching above, each time you press the input switching button on the remote control attached to the television receiver, "TV 1" or "Video 2" is displayed on the screen of the television receiver. You can enjoy the video by switching the displayed video.

Also, after switching, the OSD remains unchanged for a certain period of time.
In the (On Screen Display) display, it is possible to display and confirm which input terminal on the television receiver the current image is from.

Furthermore, the television receiver is a PinP (P
If you have the function of the sub-screen as realized in picture in Picture), you can see the video of the main screen and switch the video input of the sub-screen with the remote control to send the video from any video device. You can check that.

Further, in the case where the screen size of the television receiver is, for example, a wide screen of 16: 9, a method of dividing the screen in half and displaying two images respectively has also been realized.

At present, analog signals such as composite video signals, S terminal signals, and audio stereo terminals are predominantly used as signal lines coming from each AV device.

[0007] In these, when the user recognizes the so-called current connection state in which the video input terminal and the video output terminal of the television receiver are physically connected, the image can be switched by the remote control. The first video tape recorder is watching the image projected on the screen while recognizing "this video output".

[0008]

However, in the above conventional AV system, the signals of all AV devices are directly connected to the television receiver, or
It must be connected to the television receiver via a switcher. This is caused by the limitation that the physical signal itself must be directly connected to the image receiver because the image transmission method is an analog signal.

Here, when the number of AV devices increases, which AV is connected to which input terminal of the integrated television receiver.
Since it becomes difficult to recognize whether the devices are connected, it is not possible to grasp which signal corresponds to which source when switching signals such as "Video 1" and "Video 2" with the remote control. Furthermore, there is a problem that it becomes more complicated if an AV switcher is added to this.

Therefore, in an AV system in which a plurality of AV equipments are connected, particularly when a plurality of video equipments are connected, the image transmitted from the plurality of video equipments can be transmitted to the television without being particular about the unique video equipment. There is a problem in an AV system that can be appropriately selected by recognizing it on a parent screen or a child screen on a receiver.

[0011]

In order to solve the above problems, an AV system having a plurality of video equipment according to the present invention has at least two video equipments, for example, I
A television receiver connected via a digital interface conforming to the EEE1394 standard, in which the image of the video equipment is displayed on the screen of the television receiver, and a means for appropriately selecting is provided. The selecting means is adapted to appropriately select a plurality of images transmitted from a plurality of image devices by using the remote controller and display the selected images on the child screen.

With such a configuration, the video device is displayed on the screen of the television receiver without considering the connection state of a plurality of video devices, for example, the digital VCR, and without paying attention to the individuality of each digital VCR. The image transmitted from can be displayed on the screen and selected appropriately.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of an AV system provided with a plurality of video equipment according to the present invention is as shown in FIG. 139
4IF)).

The 1394IF will be described here. The 1394IF is a so-called serial bus capable of connecting a plurality of AV devices by a daisy chain connection, and each AV device forms a node in the 1394IF. Branches can also be issued from each node. Connection of each AV device is arbitrary unless a loop is formed.

That is, in FIG. 1, two branches are output from the television receiver TV, one of which is connected to the digital camera DCAM, and the other branch is connected to the digital VCR-A and the digital VCR. -B
, A digital VCR-C, a digital video disc DVD, a game machine G, a telephone TEL, a fax FAX, a music disc exchange MDC, a digital audio tape recorder DAT, a compact disc exchange CDC, a printer P, The infrared device IRU is connected to the daisy chain with a P1394 cable.

The 1394IF having such a function is
A 6-core P1394 cable, the same connector connected to both ends of the cable, and an LSI connected to each connector
It is composed of a converted physical layer, an LSI-based link layer connected to the physical layer, and a transaction layer connected to the link layer. The transaction layer consists of firmware.

The P1394 cable is composed of two pairs of shield wires and two power wires. Two pairs of them are a data line and a strobe line, which are used for data transfer and used as other power supply lines. Therefore, even if the power is off, the signal can be bypassed, so that the signal can be sent to a device ahead of the device where the power is off.

The connector has a built-in transceiver, and the transceiver and the P1394 cable form a repeater. One end of the physical layer is connected to the P1394 cable and the other end is connected to the link layer. The physical layer encodes the electric signal input from the P1394 cable and sends it to the link layer, and also decodes the code data received from the link layer into an electric signal and sends it to the P1394 cable. The physical layer also performs bus arbitration, which will be described later.

The link layer creates a packet based on the data encoded in the physical layer, transmits the packet to the transaction layer, and decodes the packet received from the transaction layer. The link layer also controls the packet transfer cycle.

The 1394IF configured as described above is
It has the following features. (1) Since all AV devices are connected serially, all AV
The equipment is A provided in the above conventional television receiver TV.
It is possible to communicate with other AV equipment without the need for a switching connection such as a V-switcher. (2) The AV equipment in the AV system is not fixed, and can be freely attached or detached at any position in the AV system by inserting / removing the connector. At this time, the ID of each AV device is automatically reset.

(3) It has a bus arbitration function for preventing a specific AV device from monopolizing the serial bus. This transfers data in packet units, and the maximum packet length is 512 bytes (1
In the case of a transfer rate of 00 Mbit / sec, it corresponds to about 40 μsec). Each AV device transmits packets for each assigned time in the order of designated node numbers.

(4) A packet cannot be transferred at any other time until it is transmitted from the link layer and its transfer is completed at regular time intervals. Each AV
When the device receives the packet, the device determines whether or not the data is necessary for itself, and performs processing or ignores it based on the determination result.

(5) The packet includes an ordinary packet, an urgent packet having a high priority, and an isochronous packet described later having a higher priority. (6) Since the P1394 cable is thin and the connector is small, it is easy to route the P1394 cable and attach / detach the connector. Also, the cost is low.

(7) The signal transfer speed is higher than that of the conventional serial transfer. This is because a signal is sent by serial transfer (transfer for each bit) using a pair of data lines and a pair of strobe lines, and "when the potential of either the data line or the strobe line changes, This is because the data is read by the DS link method according to the rule of "reading the data of." This DS link system is to cope with the temporal fluctuation of the potential of the data line. As a result, it is not necessary to insert a start bit and a stop bit every 8 bits as in the conventional serial transfer (for example, RS232C), and the transfer speed is improved.

Next, a description will be given of the AV system including a plurality of video devices connected by a digital interface conforming to the IEEE 1394 standard, mainly on the side of the control center CC of the television receiver.

In this embodiment, the IEEE13
Although the description is based on the 94 standard, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to this and includes all that conform to this standard.

An AV system equipped with a plurality of video equipment is
As shown in FIG. 2, the control center CC and P139
4 cables and multiple AV devices (eg digital VC
R) and.

The control center CC is the TV circuit 1
, Control circuit 11, and P1394 interface 23
It is composed of

The TV circuit 1 is similar to a normal TV circuit,
The video decoder 2 has a video signal processing system and an audio signal processing system, and the video signal processing system decodes a digital video signal input from the P1394 interface.
A D / A converter 3 for converting a video signal decoded by the video decoder 2 into an analog signal; an analog video signal converted by the D / A converter 3; a message signal from a display controller described later; An image multiplex processing unit 4 having a GUI (graphic user interface) for superimposing, and a display processing unit 5 for reorganizing the image data processed by the image multiplex processing unit 4 for display. , A receiver 6 for displaying the output of the display processing unit 5 on a cathode ray tube.

The audio signal processing system of the TV circuit 1 is P
An audio decoder 7 that decodes a digital audio signal input from the 1394 interface 23, a D / A converter 8 that converts the audio signal decoded by the audio decoder 7 into an analog signal, and a D / A converter 8 The audio signal amplifier 9 for amplifying the analog audio signal and the speaker 10 for converting the audio signal amplified by the audio signal amplifier 9 into sound.

The control circuit 11 includes a CPU 12 and a CPU 1.
2 and the P1394 interface 23, the bus 13, the I / O circuit 14 interposed between the video decoder 2 and the audio decoder 7 and the bus 13, and the bus 13 and the image multiplexing processing unit 4. The display controller 15 and the VRAM 16 which are interposed in the bus, the non-volatile RAM 17 connected to the bus 13, the timer 18 connected via the I / O circuit 24, the ROM 19, the remote control signal and the data from the bus 13. A remote control signal decoder 20 for receiving and decoding data, an I / O circuit 21 for transmitting / receiving data on the bus 13 to / from the remote control signal decoder 20, and a portable remote control 2 for transmitting a remote control signal
And 2.

The CPU 12 executes a program described later. The bus 13 is a normal CPU bus. I / O circuit 1
Reference numeral 4 controls the input / output timing of the video decoder 2 and the audio decoder 7 under the control of the CPU 12.

The display controller 15 is a CPU
Under the control of 12, message data and the like for one screen of the receiver 6 are created on the VRAM 16 and sent to the image multiplexing processing section 4.

The non-volatile RAM 17 stores information on the history of the AV equipment configuration connected to the P1394 interface 23. The timer 18 is composed of a counter and counts real time. The ROM 19 is a read-only memory that stores programs.

The P1394 interface 23 is an IE
It has a circuit made into an LSI according to the EE1394 bus standard and a connector socket connected to this circuit. A P1394 cable plug is inserted into this connector socket. The function of the P1394 interface 23 is also mounted on the connected AV device side.

The P1394 cable is a cable consisting of 6 core wires, and has a control center CC and a digital VC.
.. are sequentially connected in series between the video A which is R and the video C and an AV device (not shown). The P1394 cables are sequentially connected so as not to make a loop as described above. Note that, in FIG. 2, in order to explain the gist of the present invention, a connection state with three video V, video A, video B, and video C, which are digital VCRs, among a plurality of video devices is shown. Video C is equipped with a tuner so that an antenna can be connected.

As described above as a feature of the IEEE 1394 standard, the P1394 interface 23 detects that the AV device is newly connected to or removed from the P1394 cable connected to the socket, and the CPU 12 notifies to that effect. It has a function to inform.

That is, the P1394 interface 23
When a new AV device is connected or disconnected, sends a signal indicating that (hereinafter referred to as a connection signal) to the CPU 12.

The CPU 12 uses the connection signal as a trigger to change and display the AV equipment configuration and display the newly connected A
V equipment setting work, for example, automatic setting and display of the timer 18 and tuner as a channel selection means, and the removed A
It has a function of displaying V equipment.

On the television receiver side having such a configuration, a plurality of video data and audio data from a digital VCR (for example, video A, video B, video C) externally connected via a P1394 cable. Are packetized as digital signals and transmitted.

Here, the packetization of the video data and the audio data has been described above, and will be omitted. The video decoder 2 that captures video data has a function of simultaneously decoding packetized moving images of a plurality of channels, and generates video data of a parent screen and a child screen.

The video decoder 2 is controlled by the CPU 12 through the I / O circuit 14 and can select which video channel on the bus 13 of the P1394 interface 23 to decode. It also controls which channel is to be displayed on the parent screen or the child screen, the size of the child screen, and the display position of the child screen on the parent screen.

Here, the number of videos that can be simultaneously decoded is
The number is limited to two in the sense of displaying the parent screen and the child screen, but is not particularly limited.

Further, the audio decoder 7 has a function of decoding the audio corresponding to a specific video channel and decoding the audio of the main screen. This is P1
It has a function of selecting a specific channel of video and audio transmitted from the 394 interface 23.

The video and audio data are converted into analog signals by the D / A converters 3 and 8, respectively, and the analog audio signals are output to the speaker 10 via the audio signal amplifier 9, and the analog video signals are displayed on the display processing section. 5 is output to the screen of the receiver 6.

On the other hand, as described above, it is assumed that graphic data such as icon display of AV equipment displayed on the screen of the television receiver is stored in the ROM 19, and this data is written to the VRAM 16 via the bus 13. . The VRAM address, which is the display position when written, is controlled by the CPU 12 via the bus 13. Here, the display controller 15 causes the image multiplexing processing unit 4 to perform processing such as superimposing, so that the video data and the graphic data are multiplexed and displayed on the receiver 6.

On the other hand, the signal from the remote controller 22 is processed by the remote controller signal decoder 20 and analyzed by the CPU 12 as a remote controller code via the I / O circuit 21 as to which button on the remote controller 22 has been pressed. The timer 18 is used to process an interrupt or the like for a fixed time, and is controlled by the CPU 12 via the I / O circuit 24.

An AV system in which at least two video devices are provided in a television receiver having a control center CC having such a configuration is, for example,
As shown in FIG. 3, a television receiver and at least two
When a plurality of video devices (eg, digital VCRs (video A, video B, video C)) are connected via a P1394 cable, on the screen of the television receiver regardless of the individual characteristics of each digital VCR. It is possible to display a desired image by operating the icon or the like. The details will be described below.

That is, a plurality of video equipments, here, digital VCRs, three video A, video B, and video C, respectively, are connected via a P1394 cable, and the video images transmitted from these digital VCRs are transmitted to the television receiver. It is configured to pull in.

The television receiver, the video A, the video B, and the video C are connected by a daisy chain similar to the SCSI connection method. However, a terminator attached to both ends of the cable like SCSI is unnecessary, and in this embodiment, the IEEE 1394 described in detail above is used.
The specifications conform to the standard.

The function of the digital VCR is to packetize digital video data recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic tape, and use the P1394 interface 23.
And the ability to decode the video data on the bus 13 sent in packetized form and record it on the magnetic tape that is a recording medium.

Further, it is assumed that a certain channel is assigned to the digital VCR. For example, it is assumed that video A is assigned "channel 10", video B is assigned "channel 20", and only video C is equipped with a tuner for receiving radio waves. Then, the video output selected by the tuner of the video C is encoded into digital video data, or the digital video data is packetized and transmitted to the bus 13 of the P1394 interface 23. The packetized data on the bus 13, for example, the video data of "channel 10" is transmitted to the television receiver as if the video of "channel 10" from the video C is transmitted by the video A when the video A is captured. Can be sent to.

In this way, video A and video B
Although it does not have a tuner function,
Video C to P1394 with tuner function
Video data of a specific channel can be obtained through the interface 23. This is because the user watching the screen of the television receiver looks as if each video A and video B has a tuner function without any involvement.

On the other hand, for the operation on the screen, the user moves the pointing cursor on the screen of the television receiver by using the remote controller, and when the cursor moves on the icon, the image corresponding to the icon is displayed on the child screen. It is done as it is displayed. Such operations and operations will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 and FIGS. 3 and 4.

The display on the screen of the television receiver is as shown in FIG. 4A, and it is assumed that the video from video A to video B is dubbed. The video obtained from the tuner is output from the video C to the main screen 25. Here, description will be given according to the flowchart of FIG.

(1) Decode the signal from the remote controller 22 and wait until the code corresponding to the cursor button appears (steps ST1 and ST2). Here, simply by checking the code at regular intervals, the CPU 12
Idle time is doing different processing.

(2) When the code corresponding to the cursor button on the remote controller 22 appears, move the cursor in correspondence with the x, y coordinates (see FIG. 4B) on the virtual screen 26 of the previous cursor and the pressed button. The subsequent x and y coordinates are calculated (steps ST3 and ST4).

(3) The cursor is displayed via the VRAM 16 based on the x and y coordinates after the movement. (4) Rectangular areas (x1, y1), (x2, y2) on the virtual screen 26 of the icon 27 displayed on the screen (FIG. 4).
When the cursor 28 is entered in (see (B)), as shown in FIG. 4C, the channel of the video A (or the video B or the video C) of the icon 27 corresponding to the area is selected, and this channel is selected. Is instructed and displayed on the child screen 29. Then, for example, the selected video A
The channel selected in (in the embodiment, “channel 1
0 ") image is displayed on the child screen 29 (step ST
5, ST6).

(5) When the coordinates of the moved cursor 28 are in the rectangular areas (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) of the icon 27, but are in the rectangular area of the icon 27 which is the previous coordinate. , The child screen 29 is turned off, and the decoding process of the video that has been output before is completed (steps ST7, ST
8).

In this way, the display of the sub-screen 29 is switched according to the behaviors of the icon 27 and the cursor 28 on the screen,
Turns the display on / off. Here, when there is no video output for the icon 27, nothing is displayed on the child screen 29 even if the cursor 28 is moved over the icon 27. At this time, it is possible to display an image such as a blue background to indicate that there is no signal.

As a means for switching between the parent screen 25 and the child screen 29, it is also possible to switch the screen by pressing something like a decision button on the remote controller when the cursor 28 is on the child screen 29. Is.

[0062]

As described above, in the AV system including a plurality of video devices according to the present invention, a screen of a plurality of video devices connected to a television receiver via P1394IF is displayed by using a remote controller. By moving the cursor over the icon displayed above, there is an effect that the image transmitted from the video device corresponding to the icon can be selected on the screen without being caught by the specific video device. .

Further, by substituting the icon for the video device to be operated, it becomes possible to visually correspond to the actual device.

Further, there is an effect that it is possible to realize a video selection operation corresponding to a plurality of video devices connected by a digital bus.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a connection between each AV device in an AV system including a plurality of video devices according to the present invention and a digital interface.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration on the television receiver side.

FIG. 3 is the same television receiver and a plurality of digital VCs.
It is explanatory drawing which showed the connection with R.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a state of images included in a plurality of digital VCRs appearing on the screen.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of the digital VCR displayed on the screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 TV Circuit 2 Video Decoder 3 D / A Converter 4 Image Multiplexing Processing Section 5 Display Processing Section 6 Image Receiver 7 Audio Decoder 8 D / A Converter 9 Audio Signal Amplifier 10 Speaker 11 Control Circuit 12 CPU 13 Bus 14 I / O Circuit 15 Display controller 16 VRAM 17 RAM 18 Timer 19 ROM 20 Remote control signal decoder 21 I / O circuit 22 Remote control 23 P1394 interface 24 I / O circuit 25 Parent screen 26 Virtual screen 27 Icon 28 Cursor 29 Sub screen VCR-A, VCR- B, VCR-C Digital VC
R TV television receiver VTR video tape recorder DCAM digital camera DVD digital video disc G game machine TEL telephone FAX FAX MDC music disc exchange DAT digital audio tape recorder CDC compact disc exchange P printer IRU infrared device

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A television receiver connected to at least two or more video devices, wherein a plurality of videos transmitted from the video devices are displayed on a screen of the television receiver. , A provided with a plurality of video equipment characterized by providing means for selecting appropriately
V system. 2. A remote controller is used as the means for selecting,
The AV provided with a plurality of video devices according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of videos transmitted from the plurality of video devices are appropriately selected and the selected video is displayed on a sub-screen. system. 3. A television receiver connected to at least two or more video devices via a digital interface, wherein a plurality of videos transmitted from the video devices are displayed on the screen of the television receiver. An AV equipped with a plurality of video equipment, characterized by being provided with means for displaying on the screen and selecting as appropriate
system. 4. The digital interface is an IE
4. A plurality of video devices according to claim 3, wherein a plurality of AV devices are connected to a daisy chain, and equal transmission opportunities are given by packet type two-way communication in conformity with the EE1394 standard. AV system. 5. A remote controller is used as the means for selecting,
The plurality of video devices according to claim 3, wherein an icon indicating the plurality of video devices is selected, and an image transmitted from the video device selected from the icons is displayed on a sub-screen. AV system equipped.