JPH09149326A - Program guide display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To substantially magnify a range to be displayed in one screen without damaging visibility when a program to be broadcast is guided and displayed by the matrix of a time and a channel. SOLUTION: The screen is divided into plural parts along the axis of the preferable one of the time or the channel as shown in a figure so as to display program guide. A two-division case is shown in the figure and the channel number is three but the range of the time is adopted as four hours. At the time of displaying without dividing the screen, the time range becomes two hours so that the range is substantially magnified. Besides, the size of a character to be displayed is not changed so that visibility by a user is not damaged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program guide display device capable of substantially increasing the range of programs that a user can confirm at one time when selecting a program while maintaining visibility.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Hei 5-22673 receives a broadcast program guide sent from a broadcasting station, displays it on a TV screen at an arbitrary time, and reserves a received program from the displayed broadcast program guide. A television receiver capable of performing the above is disclosed. In this television receiver, the program guide is displayed for one channel, but it is also possible to display a plurality of programs in a matrix as shown in FIG. This is because the program guide information includes information about time and information about channel, and can be displayed in a matrix on the basis of these two information.

In the case of FIG. 5, the horizontal axis represents the time axis and the vertical axis represents the channel axis, and the program contents such as the title of each program are displayed in a matrix. In the example of FIG. 5, the number of displayed channels is 6, and the displayed time is 2 hours. Further, A to P in the figure represent the titles of programs.

DSS has started broadcasting in the United States
In the (digital satellite system), a little less than 200 channels are prepared, and information about broadcast programs similar to the broadcast program guide is transmitted together with the broadcast programs, as in the above-mentioned publication, as shown in FIG. The receiving device is provided with a function of program guide by various matrix displays.

In the display mode as shown in FIG. 5, the number of programs that the viewer can confirm at one time is determined by the size of the screen and the size of displayed characters. That is, if the number of programs that can be confirmed at one time, that is, the number of programs that can be displayed on one screen is increased, the display of characters and the like becomes small and the visibility deteriorates. Therefore, the number of programs displayed on one screen cannot be increased so much.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and does not reduce the size of displayed characters and the like, and thus does not impair the visibility of the display. The present invention proposes a program guide display device capable of substantially expanding the range of programs that can be confirmed at one time.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the screen is divided in the time axis direction or the channel number axis direction to display the program guide. That is, when the display screen is divided in two in the time axis direction, that is, when the display screen is vertically divided into two, the amount of information in the time axis direction is reduced, but the number of displayed channels can be doubled. When the channel number is divided in the axial direction, that is, when the display screen is divided horizontally, the number of channels can be reduced to half and the display range in the time direction can be expanded. Further, since the user can select the mode of division, the program guide can be displayed in a desired mode, and the operability of the program guide device is improved.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a flow chart showing a schematic operation of the program guide display device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a program guide screen, FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing another program guide screen, and FIG.
Is a block diagram showing a program guide display device, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the entire display, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of an input unit.

First, the structure of the program guide display device will be briefly described with reference to FIG. A high frequency signal from a parabolic antenna (not shown) is input from the antenna terminal 1. The tuner 2 inputs the high frequency signal, performs processes such as frequency conversion and QPSK demodulation, and outputs a stream of a digital video signal. The video processing circuit 3 MPEG-decodes the output of the tuner 2 to display an analog video signal for displaying on a television receiver, for example, NTSC.
Convert to signal.

The CPU 6 is a microcomputer for controlling the entire receiving apparatus, and stores programs and data in the memory 9. The input unit 5 includes a keyboard or a remote control operation button, and
A predetermined code is input to U6, and the receiving device is controlled accordingly. The on-screen guide generation circuit is a circuit for generating an on-screen display screen based on the tuner 2 output and the CPU 6 output, and the generated screen signal is supplied to the display (CRT) 8 of the television receiver via the multiplexer 7. It For example, DSS broadcasting
For example, information about a program for a period of about 48 hours is transmitted at the same time as the original program, and this information is processed and displayed on the screen.

Then, the user of the program guide display device can interactively perform operations such as selecting a program and purchasing a pay program by inputting from the input section 5 according to an instruction on the on-screen screen displayed on the display 8. Can be done.

As shown in FIG. 7, the input section 5 includes a guide button 11 for instructing display of a program guide, a mode button 12 for designating a mode of screen display, a page button 13 for instructing page switching, Cursor buttons 14, 15, 16, 17 for designating up, down, left and right directions and a select button 18 for designating selection are provided.

Next, an outline of the operation will be described with reference to FIG. When the guide button 11 of the input section is operated, a program guide screen is displayed on the CRT8 screen of the television receiver. At this time, the screen display mode is checked (process 21), and the guidance screen corresponding to the screen display mode is displayed (process 22). That is, the display of FIG. 2 is displayed in the time priority mode, and the display of FIG. 3 is displayed in the channel priority mode.
In the full screen mode, the display of FIG. 5 is performed. The screen display mode is stored in the memory 9 and the mode button 1 of the input section is used.
Each time you press 2, the mode changes. That is, each time the mode button is pressed, the screen display mode is stored as in full screen mode-> channel priority mode-> program priority mode-> full screen mode. In addition, this screen display mode is stored in the memory 9 which is an electrically rewritable ROM because it needs to be stored even when the power of the receiving device is turned off.

On the program guide display screen, the cursor button 1
When 4 to 17 or the page button 13 is operated, which button is operated is detected in the process 23, and a predetermined screen display process is performed. That is, when the cursor button is operated, the cursor on the screen sequentially moves corresponding to the operated button, and when the page button 13 is operated, the page is moved according to the displayed screen. (Process 24).

Now, the cursor will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the horizontal direction of the screen represents a time axis and the vertical direction represents a channel axis, and program guides such as titles of programs are displayed in a matrix. In this example, the display channel range is 6 channels and the display time range is 2 hours. In the figure, A to P are program titles. On the screen, currently selected
That is, the program in which the cursor is located has different colors and shades to distinguish it from other programs. Then, this distinguished portion is called a cursor. As another realization means, it is possible to actually arrange a marker having a predetermined shape.

In FIG. 5, the cursor is located at the portion D. And this cursor is cursor button 14 ~
It can be moved by operating 17. That is, when the cursor button 16 in the downward direction is pressed while the cursor is at D, and then the cursor button 15 in the right direction is pressed, the cursor moves as shown by the arrow in FIG. You will come to the position.

When the selection button 18 of the input section is operated, the process 2
5 and the corresponding process 26 is performed. Corresponding processing means that if the selected program is currently being broadcast, that program is displayed on the screen, and if it is a program that will be broadcast at a future time, processing for purchasing the program will be performed. Is performed. If the select button has not been pressed, the process returns to step 21.

Therefore, the program content display device according to the present invention repeats the processing of FIG. 1 regarding the outline of the present invention. Then, when the mode button is operated,
The screen display corresponding to the change of the screen display mode is performed by the process 22.

Now, in the time priority mode shown in FIG.
The screen is divided into upper and lower parts, the display range of channels is set to 3, and the displayable time range is expanded to 4 hours. On the other hand, in the channel priority mode, the range of channels that can be displayed is 12, as shown in FIG. 3, and the time range is shortened to 1 hour. In the time priority mode shown in FIG.
The screen is divided into upper and lower parts, the range of channels is set to 3, and the displayable time range is expanded to 4 hours. on the other hand,
In the channel priority mode, the range of channels that can be displayed is 12, as shown in FIG. 3, and the time range is shortened to 1 hour. That is, one of the time and the number of channels is sacrificed to expand the display range of the other.

The on-screen guide generation circuit 4 shown in FIG. 4 has a memory for screen display, and the contents of this memory will be displayed on the CRT 8. Therefore, the screen display is changed by rewriting the contents of this memory according to the screen display mode. Then, this rewriting instruction is issued from the CPU 6 to the on-screen guide generation circuit 4. That is, when the mode button is operated to change from the full screen display mode to the time priority mode, the contents of the screen display memory are updated so as to display the screen shown in FIG. 2, and the screen display in the time priority mode is performed. .

If the cursor is located at D in FIG. 2 when the page button 13 is operated, the cursor moves to S. In other words, it means moving to one of the divided screens on the same channel. When the page button 13 is pressed again, the cursor returns to D again. That is, the page button is a button for instructing the function of mutual movement between the divided screens.

In the case of FIG. 3, assuming that the cursor is at M now, pressing the page button moves the cursor to CC. In this case, the time zone is the same (starting time is the same), and the user moves to a different channel. On the other hand, in the whole display, when the page button is operated, it moves one screen in the time axis direction. That is, in the case of FIG. 5, what is displayed from 7:00 to 9:00 changes to a display screen from 9:00 to 11:00. In this embodiment, the screen is moved in the time axis direction, but in the case of full screen display, it is possible to move the screen by one screen in the channel axis direction when the page button is operated.

These processes are performed by the CPU 6 and the on-screen guide generation circuit 4. That is, the CPU 6
Since the current screen display mode is stored internally,
When the page button 13 is pressed, in the full-screen display mode, one screen is moved, and in other modes, the cursor is moved without updating the screen. Since the on-screen guide generation circuit 4 stores information about which program is displayed at which position on the screen, the cursor is moved corresponding to the page button operation based on this information.

The page moving process is summarized as follows. When the page button is pressed, the screen display mode at that time is called, and when in the full screen display mode, the display content advanced by one screen is written in the memory of the on-screen guide generation circuit and displayed on the screen. . If the display mode is time priority mode or channel priority mode,
The entire contents of the memory in the on-screen guide creating circuit 4 are not rewritten, and only the cursor is moved. This movement of the cursor is movement from one of the divided screens to the corresponding position of the other screen, and since the generation circuit 4 stores the position of the cursor and the display position of each program, it follows this information. The generation circuit 4 makes a determination to determine the display position of the cursor.

When the cursor button is operated, the cursor moves by one in the direction of the cursor button. One minute here is one minute on the screen. When the cursor is located at the edge of the screen and is further moved away from the screen, the screen is scrolled in the opposite direction. For example, in FIG. 5, when the cursor is located at J and the rightward movement cursor is operated, the screen scrolls,
The range displayed on the screen is from 7:30 to 9:30 (when the program next to J on channel 3 is the 30-minute program). On the other hand, when the downward operation is performed from the position P in FIG. 5, one channel is scrolled and channels 2 to 7 are displayed on the screen.

On the other hand, in the time priority display mode of FIG.
If the rightward movement button 15 is operated while the cursor is at 1, the upper screen and the lower screen are scrolled simultaneously. In other words, the displayed time range is 7:30
From 11:30 to 11:30 (upper screen is from 7:30 to 9:30, lower screen is from 9:30 to 11:30), S displayed on the upper screen (lower screen before scrolling) The cursor was located on (displayed in). Further, when the downward button 16 is operated when the cursor is located at I (eye), the display range of the channels is changed from channel 2 to channel 4 on both the upper and lower screens. That is, the cursor button cannot be used to move between screens, so the page button is provided.

In the channel priority display mode (FIG. 3),
The left and right screens scroll up and down at the same time in response to up and down movement operations that exceed the display range. For example, when the cursor is on P and is operated in the downward direction, the range of the channel display is left and right simultaneously from channel 2 to channel 13
(The left screen changes from channel 2 to channel 7, and the right screen changes from channel 8 to channel 13). On the other hand, when the leftward movement is instructed when the cursor is at H, the display range of the time on the left and right screens is from 6:30 to 7:30.

With respect to the cursor movement and the scrolling operation accompanying the cursor movement, the processing is performed according to the current display position and cursor display position of each program guide stored in the on-screen generation circuit 6. That is, when the cursor moves out of the screen as a result of the cursor movement, the screen information is scrolled and the memory information is updated so that the moved cursor remains on the screen. The cursor is displayed on.

In this embodiment, the scroll amount is in program units (size of one square), but it is also possible to set this for half screen or one screen, for example. Assuming that the scroll amount is one screen, when moving to the right in the state of FIG. 2, the upper screen is from 9:00 to 11:00 and the lower screen is 11
The display is from 1 o'clock to 13 o'clock, and when the screen is moved downward, the display from channel 4 to channel 6 is displayed on the upper and lower screens. In the channel priority display mode of FIG. 3, if the scroll amount is one screen, the downward movement displays channels 13 to 24, and the rightward movement displays 8:00 to 9:00. Will be seen.

Therefore, the processing when the movement of the cursor is instructed is summarized as follows. When the movement of the cursor is instructed, the amount of movement of the cursor is determined from the current cursor position and the direction of movement. (When moving along the channel axis, it moves by one channel, and when moving along the time axis, it moves to the next program), and when the cursor position after moving out of the current display screen, only a predetermined scroll amount. The screen will be scrolled and the cursor will be displayed at the position determined earlier.

Further, in the above example, a page button is provided,
Although the movement between the divided screens can be instructed by the page button, it is also possible to use only the cursor button without using the page button. That is, when moving further to the right from G in FIG. 2, the screen moves to the lower screen and moves to S, or P in FIG.
If you move further down from, you can move to the right screen and move to X. In this case, when the position after the cursor is moved out of the screen, it may be moved to a predetermined screen (the lower screen or the right screen in the above example).

In each of the above embodiments, the screen is divided into two, but it is also possible to divide it into more than three, for example. Furthermore, although the embodiments relate to television broadcasting, the present invention is not limited to this, and any broadcasting that can guide a program can be applied to broadcasting of audio signals.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the program range or the time range displayed on the screen can be substantially expanded without reducing the displayed characters, and thus without reducing the visibility. As a result, the operability for the user is improved, which is effective.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a schematic operation of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a display screen in a time priority mode.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a display screen in a channel priority mode.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an outline of a program guide device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a display screen in a full screen mode.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of an input unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 tuner 3 video processing circuit 4 on-screen guide generation circuit 5 input unit 6 CPU 7 multiplexer 8 CRT

Front Page Continuation (72) Inventor Masako Otsuki 2-5-5 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takahiro Kondo 2-5-5 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A program guide display device for displaying a guide of a plurality of programs having information on time and information on a channel in a matrix form, wherein a display screen is divided and displayed in a time axis direction or a channel axis direction. Characteristic program guide display device. 2. In a screen divided in the time axis direction,
2. The program guide display device according to claim 1, wherein continuous information is displayed on one screen and the other screen on a time axis. 3. The program guide device according to claim 1, wherein in the screens divided in the channel axis direction, continuous information is displayed on the channel axis on one screen and the other screen. 4. The program guide device has an input section provided with a mode button for designating a screen display mode, and a mode for displaying the program guide on the full screen and a mode for dividing in the time axis direction and / or a channel axis direction. 4. The program guide device according to claim 1, wherein the mode for dividing into two is switched. 5. The input device is provided with a cursor button, and the screen is changed according to the operation of the cursor button. The mode of changing the screen can be changed according to the screen display mode. The program guide device according to claim 5, which is characterized in that. 6. The page button is provided in the input unit, and in the split display mode, the cursor moves between the screens divided by the operation of the page button. Program guide device. 7. A program information processing circuit, a display memory corresponding to at least one screen of a display screen, an input unit for instructing an operation, and a memory for storing data and programs.
A microcomputer for controlling the operation of the device,
In a program guide device in which a display screen is created by the program information processing circuit writing in the display memory, the program information processing circuit displays a plurality of programs having channel information and time information in a matrix display screen. And a second process for dividing the display screen in the time axis direction or the channel axis direction to form the display screen. The first and second operations are performed by operating the input unit.
A program guide display device that switches the processing of. 8. The number information processing circuit has a function of displaying a cursor on a display screen and moving the cursor according to an instruction from an input unit, and according to a screen display mode stored in the memory, 8. The program guide display device according to claim 7, wherein modes of cursor movement are different.