JPH09331484A - Program guide display controller and television receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the reserved purchase of a PPV(pay per view) program in a time zone set by a user by letting the user confirm the guide of the program to be broadcasted in that time zone. SOLUTION: When the program guide is selected by an operating part 5, a channel number selected just before and current time are read, and reference cells are set from all the program guide areas. A display table is prepared with these cells as index tables, the information in the table is sent from a CPU 6 to a program guide image generation circuit 4, program image generating processing is performed, a program guide image is generated on a display memory and successively read later, and a program guide picture is displayed on a display 8. At such a time, when any time zone is set by the user, the set time zone of the picture display area and the other time zone area are displayed in different colors, a following key input is waited. In this case, program guide information is composed of a title namel, category such as sports or drama and start/end time, etc., and concerning the PPV program, its toll is added.

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 control device and a television receiver for displaying a program guide necessary for a user to select a desired program from a plurality of channels in television broadcasting.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the DSS (Digital Satellite Broadcasting System) put into practical use in the United States, a large number of channels of 150 or more are prepared, and a large number of programs are provided. In this system, guide information of a currently broadcasted program and a program to be broadcasted in the future is transmitted at predetermined time intervals together with original program data. The user terminal has a function of displaying a program guide screen (program guide table) based on the program guide information.

On the user side terminal, as shown in FIG. 8, a part of the program guide table E corresponding to the received all program guide information is displayed as a program guide screen. On the program guide screen, a plurality of program guides are displayed in a matrix with the vertical axis as the channel number axis and the horizontal axis as the time axis. In this example, the program guide screen displays programs for five channels, that is, two and a half hours of programs. At the left end, channel numbers are displayed vertically. In the row corresponding to each channel, a frame indicating the time zone of each program broadcast by that channel is displayed, and the title names (A to P) are displayed in each frame.

On the program guide screen, a program can be specified,
A cursor for scrolling the program guide screen is displayed. This cursor movement is performed by operating four cursor movement keys provided for each of the left, right, up, and down directions. Each time a cursor movement key for moving up or down is operated, the cursor moves in units of one channel. Each time a cursor movement key for moving left or right is operated, the cursor moves in a predetermined time unit.

[0005] Programs provided in DSS include DS.
There are free programs that can be viewed for free if a system usage fee such as a fee for joining S and a basic fee are paid, and paid programs that are charged separately from the system usage fee. Pay programs are purchased in advance in units of channels and those that are charged only when viewed (PPV: pay
per view).

To view a PPV program, before the program is started or when the program is being broadcast,
The purchase procedure must be done on the TV screen. P
In order to purchase a PV program, the PPV program to be purchased is selected from the program guide table shown in FIG. Then, a purchase procedure screen is displayed, and the purchase procedure is performed according to the instructions on the screen.

[0007]

The time period during which the user can watch the television program and the time period when the user wants to watch the television program are approximately fixed for each user. Therefore, the PPV pre-purchased by the user
The broadcast time zone of the program is also approximately fixed for each user. Therefore, it is possible to set a time zone in which a user wants to watch a television program for each user, and the program guide of the program broadcast in the set time zone is the program guide of the program broadcast in the time zone set by the user. It would be convenient if the user could recognize that.

According to the present invention, the user can recognize that the program guide of the program broadcast in the time zone set by the user is the program guide of the program broadcast in the time zone set by the user. An object of the present invention is to provide a program guide display control device and a television receiver.

[0009]

A program guide display control device according to the present invention is a program for displaying a plurality of program guides in a matrix on a display device with one of a vertical axis and a horizontal axis being a channel number axis and the other being a time axis. The guidance display control device is provided with setting means for allowing the user to set an arbitrary time zone and identification display means for performing a display for distinguishing the time zone set by the user from other time zones. Characterize that.

As the identification display means, for example, in the display area in which the plurality of program guides are displayed, the area corresponding to the time zone set by the user and the area corresponding to the other time zones are displayed in different colors. What is displayed is used.

As the setting means, for example, a user can set a start time and an end time of an arbitrary time zone,
For example, one that allows the user to set the start time and end time of an arbitrary time zone for each day of the week is used.

In the program guide display control device according to the present invention, since the display for identifying the time zone set by the user and the other time zones is performed, the program broadcast in the time zone set by the user is displayed. The program guide of can be recognized at a glance. Therefore, it becomes easy to make a reservation purchase of the PPV program broadcast in the time period set by the user.

A television receiver according to the present invention includes the program guide display control device.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a DSS (Digital Satellite Broadcasting System) practically used in the United States will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[1] Description of user terminal configuration

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the user side terminal.

As the user side terminal, a combination of a television receiver and a program guide display control device, or a television receiver incorporating a program guide display control circuit is used. The user terminal includes a CPU 6 for controlling the entire user terminal. CPU6
Is provided with a storage device 9 for storing the program and necessary data. The operation unit 5 including a remote controller and the like is connected to the CPU 6. CPU6
Controls the tuner 2 to display the program selected by the operation unit 5 and the program guide image generation circuit 4 for generating a program guide image.

A high frequency signal from a parabolic antenna (not shown) is input to the input terminal 1. The signal input to the input terminal 1 is sent to the tuner 2. In the tuner, processes such as frequency conversion and QPSK demodulation are performed, and a digital video signal stream is generated. The output of the tuner 2 is sent to the video processing circuit 3.

In the video processing circuit 3, the stream output from the tuner 2 is MPEG-decoded to generate an analog video signal for displaying on a display 8 such as a CRT, for example, an NTSC signal. This video signal is displayed on the display 8 by being sent to the display 8 via the multiplexer 7.

Further, the video processing circuit 3 extracts the program guide information from the output of the tuner 2 and supplies it to the CPU 6. The program guide information supplied to the CPU 6 is stored in the storage device 9.
Is stored. The storage device 9 further stores in advance setting screen information for displaying various setting screens such as a menu screen, as well as information on purchased programs.

The program guide image generation circuit 4 has a display memory (not shown). In the program guide image generation circuit 4, various setting images and program guide images are created on the display memory based on the setting screen information, the program guide information, and the like stored in the storage device 9. Then, the images created on the display memory are sequentially read and sent to the display device 8 via the multiplexer 7 to be displayed on the display device 8. The multiplexer 7 selects one of the output of the video processing circuit 3 and the output of the program guide image generation circuit 4 based on the control signal from the CPU 6 and supplies the selected output to the display 8.

The operation unit 5 includes a menu key 11 for displaying a menu screen and four cursor movement keys 12 for moving a cursor in the left-right direction and the up-down direction.
L, 12R, 12U, 12D, a select key 13 for selection input, and the like are provided. When the user wants to view the program guide screen, the menu screen is displayed by operating the menu key 11, and then the cursor movement keys 12L, 12R, 12U, 12D and the select key 13 are operated to display the program. The guide display mode may be selected.

When the time zone setting mode is selected on the menu screen, as shown in FIG. 2, the time zone setting screen for setting the time zone in which the user wants to watch the television program is displayed. When the user selects the OK button after setting the start time and end time of the time period in which the user wants to watch a television program on the time period setting screen, the start time and end time data of the time period set by the user is displayed. (Hereinafter referred to as time zone data) is stored in the storage device 9. Further, the display screen is switched from the time zone setting screen to the menu screen.

When the time zone is set, a program guide screen is displayed so that the time zone set by the user can be distinguished from other time zones. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, in the display area of the program guide screen, an area corresponding to the time zone set by the user and an area corresponding to other time zones are displayed in different colors. The example shows the case where the time zone of 12:00 to 24:00 is set by the user.

[2] Explanation of display processing of program guide screen

The process for displaying the program guide screen will be described below. The program guide information sent to the receiver includes, for example, guide information of each program for all channels from the current time to a time 24 hours ahead. The program guide information for one program is composed of a title name, a category (sports, music, drama, news, etc.), start and end times, and the like, and in the case of a PPV program, the charge (rating) is further added.

The CPU 6 regards the guide information of each program for all channels as two-dimensional array information in which the vertical direction is the channel number and the horizontal direction is the time, as shown in the upper part of FIG. And an index table that can be accessed using the slot number indicating the time. The slot number is, for example, a number assigned every 30 minutes. The area E of the two-dimensional array corresponding to all the program guide information shown in the upper part of FIG.
It is referred to as the entire program guide area.

When the program guide display is selected by the operation section 5, the CPU 6 is operated based on the channel number, the current time and the index table which were selected immediately before.
Generates a display table as shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, each small area (hereinafter,
) Is stored with program guide display information. Therefore, in this example, a display table corresponding to the program guide for 5 channels × 5 cells (corresponding to two and a half hours) is created. Each cell in the leftmost column stores a channel number (absolute channel number) or data of a station name corresponding to the channel number.

In FIG. 4, x of (x, y) described as an index for each cell is a channel relative number (a relative channel number between the cells in the display table, and is an absolute channel). Not a number)
y indicates a slot relative number (a relative slot number between cells in the display table, not an absolute slot number). The second cell S from the left in the top row
Let o be the reference cell. The reference cell So stores the program guide display information corresponding to the channel number selected immediately before and the current time.

The program guide display information stored in each cell is
It consists of a title name, the number of exclusive cells, a rating, information indicating whether or not purchased, a category, and the like. The number of exclusive cells is
The number of cells included from the cell to the cell where the program ends. Therefore, when the program ends in the cell, the number of exclusive cells becomes one. Based on the display table thus created, the program guide image generation circuit 4 generates an image corresponding to the program guide screen as shown in the lower part of FIG. 8 on the display memory. Then, the image generated on the display memory is sent to the display 8,
A program guide screen as shown in the lower part of FIG.

FIG. 5 shows a procedure of a program guide screen display process executed by the CPU 6 and the program guide image generation circuit 4.

When the program guide is selected by the operation unit 5, the channel number and the current time selected immediately before are read, and the reference cell is set from the entire program guide area E (see FIG. 8) (step 1). ).

The display table of FIG. 4 is created based on the set reference cell and index table (step 2).

The information in this display table is sent from the CPU 6 to the program guide image generating circuit 4. The program guide image generation circuit 4 performs a program guide image generation process based on the transmitted information (step 3). That is, a program guide image is generated on the display memory. The program guide images generated on the display memory are sequentially read out and sent to the display 8, so that the display 8 displays a program guide screen.

When the time zone is set by the user, as shown in FIG. 3, in the display area of the program guide screen, the area corresponding to the time zone set by the user and other time zones are supported. The area to be displayed is displayed in a different color. After that, a key input waiting state is set.

If there is a select key input by the select key 13 (YES in step 4), the program is selected,
A predetermined selection process such as program reservation is executed.

Cursor movement keys 12L, 12R, 12
If there is a cursor key input by U, 12D (YES in step 5), the processing of steps 6, 7, 8, or 9 is performed according to the operated cursor movement keys 12L, 12R, 12U, 12D.

That is, the operated key is the left movement key 12
If it is L, the process proceeds to step 6 and it is determined whether or not movement from the left end of the entire program guide area E to the left has been commanded. If the operated key is the right movement key 12R, the process proceeds to step 7, where it is determined whether or not movement from the right end of the entire program guide area E to the right has been commanded. If the operated key is the upward movement key 12U, the process proceeds to step 8, where it is determined whether or not an upward movement from the upper end of the entire program guide area E has been instructed. If the operated key is the down key 12D, the process proceeds to step 9;
It is determined whether a downward movement has been commanded from the lower end of the entire program guide area E.

When a move from the left end of the entire program guide area E to the left is commanded (YES at step 6), when a move from the right end to the right is commanded at the entire program guide area E (step 7) If YES, a command is issued to move upward from the upper end of all program guide areas E (YE in step 8).
S) Or, if a command to move downward from the lower end of the entire program guide area E is issued (YES in step 9), that is, if it is a command to move outside the entire program guide area E, the cursor Cannot be moved, and the process returns to step 4 to wait for key input.

If the cursor movement command by the cursor key input is a movement command within the entire program guide area, the position to which the cursor is moved is calculated (step 10).
If the cursor movement command is a movement command in the left and right direction, the movement amount is set to one cell (one slot) in the left and right direction, and the position of the cursor movement destination is calculated. When the cursor movement command is a vertical movement command, the movement amount is calculated as one cell (one slot) in the vertical direction, and the destination position of the cursor is calculated. Then, it is determined whether or not the position to which the cursor is moved is within the program guide screen displayed on the display 8 (step 11).

When the position of the cursor movement destination is within the program guide screen displayed on the display unit 8, the cursor image in the display memory is moved so that the cursor is displayed at the movement destination position. (Step 12).

If the position to which the cursor is moved is outside the program guide screen displayed on the display 8, the reference cell is changed in order to change (scroll) the program guide screen (see FIG. 4). Step 13). In the reference cell changing process, a position in the entire program guide area E, which is apart from the current reference cell in the cursor movement direction by the cursor movement amount, is set as a new reference cell. When a new reference cell is set by the reference cell changing process, the process returns to step 2. Therefore, the display table of FIG. 4 is created based on the newly set reference cell, and a new program guide screen is displayed on the display unit 8. That is, the program guide screen is updated.

FIG. 6 shows the detailed procedure of the program guide image generation processing (step 3 in FIG. 5) when the time zone is set by the user.

First, for each program in the display table, a frame image having a size corresponding to the occupied time of each program is written in the display memory based on the number of occupied cells (step 21).
Then, 1 is set to the variable SLOT-NUM representing the relative slot number (step 22).

Next, based on the time zone data stored in the storage device 9, is the time zone corresponding to the currently set variable SLOT-NUM included in the time zone set by the user? It is determined whether or not (step 2)
3). If it is determined that the time zone corresponding to the currently set variable SLOT-NUM is not included in the time zone set by the user, the internal area of all frames written in the display memory. Of these, the color data representing the first color is written in the area corresponding to the time zone corresponding to the currently set variable SLOT-NUM (step 2
4). Then, the process proceeds to step 26.

If it is determined in step 23 that the time slot corresponding to the currently set relative slot number SLOT-NUM is included in the time slot set by the user, it is stored in the display memory. Color data representing the second color different from the first color is written in the area corresponding to the time zone corresponding to the currently set variable SLOT-NUM among the internal areas of all the written frames. (Step 25). Then, the process proceeds to step 26.

In step 26, the variable SLOT-NUM
Is incremented by 1. That is, the variable SLOT-N
UM is updated. And the updated variable SLOT-NUM is 5
It is determined whether or not it is larger (step 27). When the updated variable SLOT-NUM is 5 or less (NO in step 27), the process returns to step 23 and the updated variable SL
Steps 23 to 26 for the time zone corresponding to OT-NUM
The process of is executed again. In this way, for each of the relative slot numbers 1 to 5, steps 23 to 26 are performed.
When the process of is executed, YES is determined in step 27,
Go to step 28.

At step 28, the cursor image is written in the display memory. Thereafter, an image (title image) representing the title name is written in each frame (step 29). Then, the program guide image generation process ends.

If the time zone has not been set by the user, color data representing the same color is written in all the frames written in the display memory in step 21.

The time zone in which the user wants to watch the program may be set for each day of the week. When the user sets the time zone in which he or she wants to watch the program for each day of the week, for example, a time zone setting screen as shown in FIG. 7 is used. On this time zone setting screen, the user sets the start time and end time of the time zone in which the user wants to watch the program for each day of the week, and selects the OK button to start the time zone set for each day of the week. Data indicating time and end time (hereinafter, time zone data) is stored in the storage device 9. When the time zone in which the user wants to watch the program is set for each day of the week, color separation is performed based on the time zone data for the current day of the week.

In the above embodiment, only one time zone is set for one day, but a plurality of time zones may be set for one day.

In the above embodiment, in the display area of the program guide screen, the area corresponding to the time zone set by the user and the area corresponding to other time zones are displayed in different colors. Therefore, since the time zone set by the user can be recognized at a glance, it becomes easy to make a reservation purchase of the PPV program broadcast during that time zone.

[0053]

According to the present invention, as for the program guide of the programs broadcast in the time zone set by the user,
The user can recognize that it is the program guide of the program broadcast in the time zone set by the user. Therefore, the PP broadcast in the time zone set by the user
It becomes easier to make reservations and purchases of V programs.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a user terminal.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a time zone setting screen.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a program guide screen displayed when a user has set a time zone.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a display table.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for displaying a program guide screen.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a detailed procedure of a program guide image generation process executed when a time zone is set by the user.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing another example of a time zone setting screen.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a program guide screen displayed on a user terminal in DSS.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Tuner 3 Video processing circuit 4 Program guide image generation circuit 5 Operation unit 6 CPU 7 Multiplexer 8 Display 9 Storage device

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. In a program guide display control device for displaying a plurality of program guides in a matrix on a display device, with one of the vertical axis and the horizontal axis being the channel number axis and the other being the time axis, an arbitrary time zone is set for the user. A program guide display control device comprising: a setting unit for displaying the time period set by the user; and an identification display unit for displaying a time period set by the user and another time period. 2. The identification display means displays an area corresponding to a time zone set by the user and an area corresponding to other time zones in different colors in the display area in which the plurality of program guides are displayed. The program guide display control device according to claim 1, wherein the program guide display control device is provided. 3. The program guide display control device according to claim 1, wherein the setting means causes a user to set a start time and an end time of an arbitrary time zone. 4. The program guide display control device according to claim 1, wherein the setting means causes a user to set a start time and an end time of an arbitrary time zone for each day of the week. 5. A television receiver provided with the program guide display control device according to claim 1. Description: