JPH0918801A - Display controller and control method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To effectively utilize a monitor screen by synchronizing the screen composed of a video signal and the screen composed of prescribed data without changing the aspect ratio of the video signal and generating the screen of a prescribed aspect ratio. CONSTITUTION: The control circuit 28 of a receiver controls a signal processing circuit 23 so as to output the video signal from a turner 21 as it is and performs a control to extract the data for data broadcasting which is superimposed on the video signal. The control circuit 28 synthesizes the screen composed of the video signal supplied from the signal processing circuit 23 and the screen composed of the data for data broadcasting supplied from a data decoder 24 without changing the aspect ratio of the video signal, and controls a synthetic circuit 25 so as to generate the screen of the same aspect ratio as that of the screen of a monitor 13. Thus, the synthetic circuit 25 adds the screen composed of data for data broadcasting to the screen of the aspect ratio of 4:3 and the screen of the aspect ratio of 16:9 is displayed on the monitor 13.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display control device and a display control method. In particular, for example, by synthesizing a video signal of television broadcasting and data superimposed on the video signal without changing the aspect ratio of the video signal, the video signal has an aspect ratio different from that aspect ratio. The present invention relates to a display control device and a display control method capable of effectively utilizing an empty space of a screen generated by displaying on a screen.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a television receiver having a screen having an aspect ratio of 16: 9 (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as a wide screen) is becoming widespread. On the other hand, video signals from television broadcasting (screens composed of video signals)
At present, the aspect ratio of is almost 4: 3. Therefore, in a television receiver having a wide screen, for example, by enlarging only the horizontal direction of the video signal (or reducing only the vertical direction), the video signal with the aspect ratio of 4: 3 is converted into the aspect ratio. Is converted to 16: 9 and displayed. In this case, the image displayed on the television receiver is horizontally long (or vertically collapsed).

[0003]

By the way, some users do not like the horizontally distorted image as described above. Therefore, in widescreen television receivers,
In addition to converting the aspect ratio to display the video signal, it is also possible to display the video signal without converting the aspect ratio.

However, in this case, since a video signal having an aspect ratio of 4: 3 is displayed on a screen having an aspect ratio of 16: 9, there is an empty space on both sides (or either one) of the wide screen. Yes, this empty space is wasted.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and makes it possible to effectively use a screen.

[0006]

According to the display control device of the present invention, when the aspect ratio of the video signal is different from the predetermined aspect ratio and predetermined data is superimposed in the blanking period of the video signal, It is characterized by comprising a synthesizing unit for synthesizing a screen composed of signals and a screen composed of predetermined data without changing the aspect ratio of a video signal to generate a screen having a predetermined aspect ratio. .

The display control device may further include receiving means for receiving a television broadcast signal and extracting means for extracting predetermined data from the output of the receiving means. The display control device may further include a display unit.

According to the display control method of the present invention, when the aspect ratio of the video signal is different from the predetermined aspect ratio and the predetermined data is superimposed in the blanking period of the video signal, the screen formed by the video signal is displayed. And a screen composed of predetermined data are combined without changing the aspect ratio of the video signal to generate a screen having a predetermined aspect ratio.

[0009]

In the display control device of the present invention, the synthesizing means synthesizes the screen constituted by the video signal and the screen constituted by the predetermined data without changing the aspect ratio of the video signal, and predetermined. It is designed to generate screens with an aspect ratio of.

In the display control method of the present invention, a screen composed of a video signal and a screen composed of predetermined data are combined without changing the aspect ratio of the video signal to obtain a predetermined aspect ratio. It is designed to generate screens.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of a broadcasting system to which the present invention is applied. In the broadcasting station, data broadcasting is performed in the same manner as the character multiplex broadcasting together with the terrestrial television broadcasting.
That is, in the broadcasting station, the mixer 1 receives a video signal of a program to be broadcast as television broadcasting. The aspect ratio of this video signal is, for example, 4: 3. Further, in addition to the video signal, data to be broadcast by being superimposed on the blanking period (for example, vertical blanking period) of the video signal (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as data broadcasting data) is input to the mixer 1. . It should be noted that the data for data broadcasting is data that can be displayed (image data, character data, or the like) here. However, the data for data broadcasting is not limited to this, and may be, for example, data that can be output as audio (audio data) or data that can be handled by a computer (including a computer program). .

In the present embodiment, the data for data broadcasting is composed of, for example, substantial information and an icon of an index representing the content thereof. Thereby, on the user side, the icon is displayed first, and when the user sees the icon display and selects the desired icon, the substantial information corresponding to the icon is displayed.

In the mixer 1, the data for data broadcasting is superimposed during the blanking period of the video signal. That is, in the mixer 1, similar to the case of the character multiplex broadcasting, for example, the 16th H (line) and the 21th H (vertical blanking period of the video signal are for the odd field and the even field for the even field). 279H and second
84H), the data for data broadcasting is superimposed.

The video signal on which the data for data broadcasting is superimposed is output to the modulator 2. In addition to the video signal, the modulator 2 is supplied with audio (audio of a program) accompanying the video signal. In the modulator 2, the video signal and the audio signal are multiplexed (frequency-multiplexed) and further modulated. The resulting modulated signal is supplied to the transmitter 3, where it undergoes necessary processing such as amplification processing, and then is transmitted from the antenna 4 as a television broadcast signal.

The television broadcast signal is received by the antenna 11 on the user side, and the received signal (television broadcast signal) is supplied to the receiver 12. Receiving device 1
In 2, the reception signal supplied from the antenna 11 is demodulated, of which the video signal is displayed on the monitor 13 and the audio signal is output from a speaker (not shown). Furthermore, in the receiving device 12, data broadcasting data included in the blanking period is extracted from the video signal as needed, and is supplied to the monitor 13 for display.

The monitor 13 has a screen having an aspect ratio of 16: 9, which is different from the aspect ratio of the video signal.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the receiving device 12. The receiving device 12 can be remotely controlled by a remote commander (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as a remote controller) 29.

The television broadcast signal received by the antenna 11 is supplied to the tuner 21. The tuner 21 is supplied with a control signal for instructing a channel to be demodulated from the control circuit 28 in addition to the television broadcast signal, and the tuner 21 controls the control circuit 28 among the television broadcast signals received from the antenna 11. The channel corresponding to the control signal from is demodulated. Of the demodulated signals obtained as a result, the audio signal is the amplifier 22.
And the video signal is output to the signal processing circuit 23 and the data decoder 24. The audio signal is the amplifier 2
It is amplified by 2 and output from the speaker.

The signal processing circuit 23 subjects the video signal from the tuner 21 to predetermined signal processing, and further, according to a command from the control circuit 28, the aspect ratio thereof is set to 4 :.
Convert from 3 to 16: 9. That is, the control circuit 28 normally converts the aspect ratio of the video signal into the same aspect ratio as that of the screen of the monitor 13, so that the signal processing circuit 23.
Is controlled by the signal processing circuit 23.
A video signal with an aspect ratio of 4: 3 has an aspect ratio of 1
It is converted into a video signal of 6: 9. This video signal is output to the synthesis circuit 25.

At this time, the control circuit 28 controls the synthesizing circuit 25 so that the video signal output from the signal processing circuit 23 is output to the monitor 13 as it is. Therefore, in this case, in the synthesis circuit 25, the signal processing circuit 23
Is output to the monitor 13 as it is, so that the monitor 13 having a screen with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 displays the video signal with the aspect ratio converted from 4: 3 to 16: 9. . That is, in this case, the monitor 13 displays a horizontally long image, as shown in FIG.

When the user desires to view the data for data broadcasting, the user operates the information button (not shown) of the remote controller 29. In this case, the remote controller 29 outputs an RF signal corresponding to the operation of the information button. The RF signal is received by the antenna 26 and supplied to the receiving circuit 27. In the receiving circuit 27, the received signal from the antenna 26 is demodulated, and the resulting demodulated signal is the control circuit 28.
Is output to When the demodulated signal from the receiving circuit 27 corresponds to the operation of the information button, the control circuit 28 controls the signal processing circuit 23 so as to output the video signal from the tuner 21 as it is, and The data decoder 24 is controlled so as to extract the data broadcasting data superimposed on the video signal.

As a result, the video signal having the aspect ratio of 4: 3 is directly output from the signal processing circuit 23 to the synthesizing circuit 2.
5 is output. Further, the data decoder 24 extracts data for data broadcasting from the video signal. That is, the data decoder 24 is composed of a data slicer and other blocks as in the case of an ordinary character multiplex broadcasting decoder, in which the horizontal scanning line on which the data broadcasting data is superimposed is extracted from the video signal. , The data for data broadcasting is decoded into the original form. The decoded data broadcasting data is output to the synthesizing circuit 25.

Further, when the control circuit 28 receives a signal corresponding to the operation of the information button from the receiving circuit 27, the control circuit 28 supplies the screen constituted by the video signal supplied from the signal processing circuit 23 and the data decoder 24. The synthesizing circuit 25 synthesizes a screen composed of the data broadcasting data to be generated without changing the aspect ratio of the video signal to generate a screen having the same aspect ratio as the screen of the monitor 13.
Control.

As a result, in the synthesizing circuit 25, a screen composed of the video signal from the signal processing circuit 23 and having an aspect ratio of 4: 3 and a screen composed of the data for data broadcasting from the data decoder 24 are displayed. By adding, so to speak, a screen having an aspect ratio of 16: 9 is constructed and output to the monitor 13 for display. That is, in this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, on the monitor 13, a video signal having an aspect ratio of 4: 3 is displayed left-justified, and as a result thereof, the remaining portion (hatched portion in the drawing) The data for data broadcasting is displayed at.

As described above, on the monitor 13 having a screen with an aspect ratio of 16: 9, an image having an aspect ratio different from that is displayed as it is without changing the aspect ratio, and the resulting empty space portion. Since data for data broadcasting is displayed on, the screen can be effectively used without distorting the image.

As described above, displaying the video signal and the data for data broadcasting in different areas at the same time is particularly effective when, for example, the data for data broadcasting is linked to the video signal. Useful for. That is, for example, in the case of broadcasting a program such as a Western picture, when Japanese subtitles are added to the video, the subtitles are conventionally displayed overlaid on the video, so that viewing of the video (or subtitle) is hindered. It was However, according to the present embodiment, in the case of broadcasting a program such as a Western picture, if the data for data broadcasting is Japanese subtitles, it will be in an area different from the video (see FIG. 4).
In this embodiment, since the caption is displayed on the right side of the screen of the video), neither viewing of the video nor the caption is disturbed.

Further, in the past, for example, when extraordinary news came in during broadcasting of a sponsor commercial, the subtitle of the extra news is displayed on the image of the commercial in a superimposed manner. It is not preferable from the viewpoint of the sponsor that the subtitles are superimposed on the image. Even in such a case, according to the present embodiment, if the data for data broadcasting is caption of temporary news, viewing of commercials is not hindered.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The operation of the receiving device 12 will be further described. When the power of the receiving device 12 and the monitor 13 is turned on, the television broadcast image is displayed wide on the monitor 13 in step S1. That is, as described above, the tuner 21 extracts a video signal of a predetermined channel from the signal received by the antenna 11, and the signal processing circuit 23 has an aspect ratio of 4: 3 to 1
It is converted to 6: 9 and is sent to the monitor 1 via the synthesis circuit 25.
3 is output. Thereby, in the monitor 13,
As shown in FIG. 6A, a horizontally long image is displayed.

Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S2, and the remote controller 2
The control circuit 28 determines whether or not the information button 9 is operated. When it is determined in step S2 that the information button has not been operated, the process returns to step S1. If it is determined in step S2 that the information button is operated, that is, if the control circuit 28 receives an operation signal corresponding to the operation of the information button from the receiving circuit 27, the process proceeds to step S3. The control circuit 28 determines whether or not the data broadcasting data is superimposed on the signal.

That is, the data decoder 24 is the tuner 2
It is monitored whether or not the data for data broadcasting is superimposed on the video signal from No. 1, and the monitoring result is used as the control circuit 2
8 is output. The control circuit 28 is configured to perform the determination process of step S3 based on the monitoring result from the data decoder 24.

When it is determined in step S3 that the data broadcasting data is not superimposed on the video signal, the process returns to step S1. When it is determined in step S3 that the data broadcasting data is superimposed on the video signal, the process proceeds to step S4, and a screen including the video signal and the data broadcasting data is displayed. That is, as described above, in the signal processing circuit 23, the video signal from the tuner 21 is directly output to the synthesizing circuit 25 without changing its aspect ratio. At the same time, in the data decoder 24, the data broadcasting data superimposed on the video signal from the tuner 21 is extracted and output to the synthesizing circuit 25. In the synthesizing circuit 25, a screen having an aspect ratio of 16: 9 is generated by adding a screen composed of data for data broadcasting to the right side of the screen composed of the video signal from the signal processing circuit 23, and the monitor is generated. 13 is output.
As a result, in the monitor 13, for example, as shown in FIG. 6B, the data broadcasting data is added to the right side of the video signal having the aspect ratio of 4: 3, and the aspect ratio is 1
The screen of 6: 9 is displayed.

Here, from the broadcasting station, as described above,
Data for data broadcasting including an icon and a substantial information part is repeatedly transmitted.
In step S4, the data decoder 24 is configured to decode only the icon portion of such data for data broadcasting, and as a result, as shown in FIG. 6B, the video of the program is displayed. An icon is displayed on the right side of. In the example of FIG. 6B,
The letters "1", "3", "4", "6", "8", "1"
Icons with "0", "12", "U1", "U2", and "BS" are displayed.

At this time, the control circuit 28 controls the synthesizing circuit 25 to display a cursor 31 for selecting an icon as shown in FIG. 6 (B). The cursor 31 can be moved by operating the remote controller 29.

After that, the process proceeds to step S5, and the control circuit 28 determines whether or not the icon is selected. That is, when the cursor 31 is moved to the position of a predetermined icon and the remote controller 29 is operated to select the icon, the receiving circuit 27 outputs a signal corresponding to the operation to the control circuit 28. It Control circuit 28
Then, the determination processing of step S5 is performed based on the output of the receiving circuit 27.

If it is determined in step S5 that the icon is not selected, the process returns to step S4. When it is determined in step S5 that the icon is selected, the process proceeds to step S6, and the substantial information corresponding to the selected icon is displayed on the monitor 13 instead of the icon.

That is, when the icon is selected, the control circuit 28 causes the data decoder 24 to decode only the substantial information portion corresponding to the icon in the data for data broadcasting. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6C, for example, substantial information corresponding to the selected icon (in the example of FIG. 6C, weather forecast) is displayed on the monitor 13.

After that, the process proceeds to step S7, and the control circuit 28 determines whether or not the broadcasting of the data for data broadcasting is completed. That is, in the control circuit 28, as in the case of step S3 described above, the data decoder 24
The determination process of step S7 is performed based on the monitoring result from. When it is determined in step S7 that the broadcasting of the data for data broadcasting has ended, the process returns to step S1 and, as shown in FIG. 6A, the video of the television broadcast is displayed in wide again. If it is determined in step S7 that the data broadcasting data has not been broadcast, the process proceeds to step S8, and it is determined whether the unillustrated end button of the remote controller 29 is operated or not.
Is determined by

If it is determined in step S8 that the end button has not been operated, the process returns to step S6.
If it is determined in step S8 that the end button has been operated, the process returns to step S1. Therefore, when the broadcasting of the data for data broadcasting ends, or the user desires to display only on the video of the television broadcasting,
When the end button of the remote controller 29 is operated, the monitor 1
At 3, the horizontally long image is displayed again.

While the present invention has been described above with respect to the case of displaying a television broadcast transmitted by terrestrial waves, the present invention is not limited to this, and the television broadcast transmitted via, for example, a satellite or a CATV network. It is also applicable to the case of displaying.

Although not particularly mentioned in this embodiment, it is possible to display only the data for data broadcasting.

As the data for data broadcasting, it is possible to use data related to data provided by facsimile, for example. Here, the data for data broadcasting related to the data provided by the facsimile means the following. That is, recently, with the spread of facsimiles (hereinafter, referred to as FAX (fax) as appropriate), the use of FAX information services that can obtain various kinds of information such as housing information, traffic information, etc. by FAX has increased. (Hereinafter, such information handled by FAX is called FAX information as appropriate). Conventional FA
In the X information service, the user first accesses the FAX information service providing company by, for example, a telephone,
An index indicating the content of FAX information provided by the provider (for example, if the FAX information is housing information,
Ask them to send a list of housing in which area (for example, prefecture) the housing information is related to, and further, the housing information is retrieved by FAX. This list has an index and a subcode for obtaining FAX information corresponding to the index. When the user sees the list and finds a desired index, the FAX code
The telephone number of the fax (F that calls the X information service provider and outputs the fax information corresponding to the index together with the subcode attached to the index.
Enter the AX number) by operating the push button.

Upon receiving the subcode and the FAX number, the FAX information service providing company transmits the FAX information corresponding to the subcode to the FAX corresponding to the received FAX number. This allows the user to select the desired F
AX information can be obtained.

In the FAX information service as described above, a list of indexes, for example, is data for data broadcasting related to data provided by FAX.

When such data broadcasting data is transmitted, the user does not have to access the FAX information service providing company in order to obtain the index list, and the communication cost for that is required. Can be reduced.

Further, in the present embodiment, the video of the television broadcast is displayed on the monitor 13 in a left-justified manner, and the data for the data broadcast is displayed on the right side thereof. However, the video of the television broadcast and the data broadcast are displayed. The work data can be displayed at the monitor 13 by being arranged at other positions.
That is, for example, as shown in FIG. 7 (A), the video of the television broadcast is displayed right-justified, and the data for data broadcasting is displayed on the left side thereof (in the shaded portion in the drawing). Alternatively, for example, as shown in FIG. 7 (B), the image of the television broadcast is displayed in the center of the screen and is displayed on both sides (in the shaded portions in the figure) for data broadcasting. It is possible to display the data of.

Further, in the present embodiment, the case has been described in which the image of the television broadcast having the aspect ratio of 4: 3 is displayed on the monitor 13 having the screen of the aspect ratio of 16: 9. It is applicable to all cases where a video signal is displayed on a monitor having a screen with an aspect ratio different from that aspect ratio. That is, according to the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, a monitor having a screen with an aspect ratio of 4: 3 has an aspect ratio of 16: 3.
The present invention is also applicable to the case of displaying the image of the television broadcast of 9. In this case, for example, the data for data broadcasting is displayed in the shaded portion in the figure.

Further, the receiver 12 can be constructed integrally with the monitor 13. Furthermore, the synthesis circuit 2
5 can be configured as a device different from the receiving device 12.

Further, in this embodiment, the data signal for data broadcasting superimposed on the video signal of the channel is displayed together with the video signal of the channel output from the tuner 21. The output video signal of the channel can be displayed together with the data for data broadcasting superimposed on the video signals of the other channels. In this case, a tuner is provided separately from the tuner 21, and the data decoder 24
In this case, the data for data broadcasting may be extracted from the output of the tuner.

[0049]

As described above, according to the display control device and the display control method of the present invention, the screen composed of the video signal and the screen composed of predetermined data have different aspect ratios of the video signal. Instead, they are combined and a screen with a predetermined aspect ratio is generated. Therefore, it is possible to effectively use the screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a broadcasting system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a reception device 12 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display example of a monitor 13 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of a monitor 13 of FIG.

5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the reception device 12 of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a monitor 13 of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an arrangement position on a monitor 13 of video of a television broadcast and data for a data broadcast.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which an image with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 is displayed on a monitor having a screen with an aspect ratio of 4: 3.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 mixer 2 modulator 3 transmitter 4,11 antenna 12 receiving device 13 monitor (display means) 21 tuner (receiving means) 22 amplifier 23 signal processing circuit 24 data decoder (extracting means) 25 combining circuit (combining means) 26 antenna 27 Receiver circuit 28 Control circuit 29 Remote commander 31 Cursor

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Chisato Kisanuki 6-735 Kitashinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A display control device for controlling the display of a display means having a screen having a predetermined aspect ratio for displaying a video signal of a television broadcast, wherein the aspect ratio of the video signal is the predetermined aspect ratio. Different from the aspect ratio of the video signal, a screen configured by the video signal and a screen configured by the predetermined data when the predetermined data is superimposed in the blanking period of the video signal. A display control device comprising: a synthesizing unit for synthesizing without changing the image to generate a screen having the predetermined aspect ratio. 2. The display according to claim 1, further comprising: a receiving unit that receives the signal of the television broadcast, and an extracting unit that extracts the predetermined data from an output of the receiving unit. Control device. 3. The display control device according to claim 1, further comprising the display unit. 4. A display control method for controlling display of a display means for displaying a video signal of a television broadcast, the display means having a screen having a predetermined aspect ratio, wherein the aspect ratio of the video signal is the predetermined aspect ratio. In contrast to the aspect ratio of the video signal, the screen configured by the video signal and the screen configured by the predetermined data are different from each other when predetermined data is superimposed in the blanking period of the video signal. A display control method, which comprises synthesizing without changing to generate a screen having the predetermined aspect ratio.