JPH11220720A - Video-on-demand system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video-on-demand system capable of immediate viewing and listening to a program at a desired time which a subscriber hopes by using an existing CATV network. SOLUTION: Image information such as a film program is converted and compressed into a digital signal, ad accumulated and stored in a data base 2/in a CATV station 1 and/or in a data base in an external data base center 9. Moreover, this data base center 9 and the CATV stations 1 and 5 are connected to each other with private speed lines 10 and 11. Also, as a converter of a terminal on the subscriber's side, the device is added to by a storage part for storing compressed image data transmitted from the data base in the data base center 9, by repeating the data base in the CATV station and/or the CATV station, an extension part for converting these compressed image, data into the original picture data and a control part for controlling operations of this storage part and the extension part, other than by a conventional converter main circuit.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cable television (hereinafter referred to as "CATV") subscriber who transmits a program selection signal to a CATV station by remote control operation, thereby requiring a desired program at a desired time. The present invention relates to a video-on-demand system that can be viewed as much as possible.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a communication karaoke that allows a user to view a desired program at a desired time while staying at home. The communication karaoke has a karaoke-on-demand system in which the performance starts immediately upon requesting the title (song number) of the song to be sung to the distribution center.

[0003] Also, some CATV stations re-run the same program, for example, a movie program many times a day or a week, or use a plurality of channels to broadcast.
A near video-on-demand system has been constructed that allows the same broadcast to be watched with a delay of about 30 minutes.

[0004]

However, such a system has not been constructed at present, even if the user wants to immediately watch a desired program, for example, a movie program, like the above-mentioned karaoke. This is because the amount of information of image data is orders of magnitude larger than the amount of information of audio data, and an infrastructure for transmitting such large-volume information at high speed is not provided.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and provides a video-on-video system that allows a subscriber to immediately watch a desired program at a desired time using an existing CATV network. The purpose is to provide a demand system.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, a video-on-demand system according to the present invention comprises:
Image information such as a movie program is converted into a digital signal and compressed, and stored and stored in a database in a CATV station and / or a database in an external database center. In addition, the database center and C
The ATV station is connected with a dedicated high-speed line.

In addition, as a converter which is a terminal device on the subscriber side, in addition to a conventional converter main circuit, a database in a CATV station and / or a compressed image data transmitted from a database in a database center via a CATV station are relayed. It is assumed that a storage unit for storing, a decompression unit for converting the compressed image data into original image data, and a control unit for controlling operations of the storage unit and the decompression unit are added.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an embodiment for constructing a video-on-demand system according to the present invention.

As a conventional CATV network, for example, an A company CATV network 4 connects the A company CATV station 1 and an A company subscriber 3, and a B company CATV network 8 uses a B company CATV network.
The V station 5 and the B company subscriber 7 are connected.

In each CATV station, it is necessary to convert the image data into a database as a means for transmitting the image data in response to a request from a subscriber. A small database such as a local program is constructed by each CATV station. For example, A
Company CATV station 1 builds company A station database 2 and B
Company CATV station 5 builds company B station database 6.
However, a large-scale database such as a movie (video) program requested by the entire subscriber including CATV stations in each region is constructed by an external database center 9.

An in-station database of each CATV station and / or
Alternatively, the database center 9 converts and compresses image information such as a movie program into a digital signal, assigns a unique program number to each image data, and stores and stores the program data in a computer database. Further, the database center 9 and the CATV stations in each region are connected by a dedicated high-speed line. In FIG. 1, a dedicated high-speed line 10 connects between a database center 9 and a CATV station 1 of a company A,
The company CATV stations 5 are connected by a company B dedicated high-speed line 11, and further connected to other CATV stations.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a converter used in the video-on-demand system of the present invention.

The converter 12 which is a terminal device on the subscriber side
Are connected to a CATV station by a cable 20. The converter 12 has a receiving unit 1 for receiving a request signal from a conventional converter main circuit 13 and a remote controller 18.
7, a storage unit 14 for storing a database in the CATV station and / or compressed image data transmitted from the database in the database center 9 by relaying the CATV station, and converting the compressed image data to the original image data. A decompression unit 16 for converting the data into the storage unit 14 and the decompression unit 1
It is assumed that a control unit 15 for controlling the operation of No. 6 is added.

Since the compressed image data is transmitted at a high speed through a CATV network, a large-capacity semiconductor memory is preferably used as the storage unit 14 for storing the compressed image data.

[0015]

Next, an embodiment of the video-on-demand system of the present invention will be described as an operation procedure.

In the video-on-demand system constructed as described above, a request is made to each CATV station in order for the subscriber to view a desired program at a desired time. The subscriber is previously delivered with a program screen distribution and program table of programs stored and stored in a database in the CATV station or / and a database in the database center 9, and selects a program number corresponding to the program. . At this time, the subscriber transmits a reception request and a program number of the program to converter 12 by remote controller 18.

The converter 12 receives the request from the remote controller 18 by the receiving unit 17 and determines that the request is a reception request. If the request is a request to the CATV station, the converter 12 sends the request to the database in the CATV station and to the database center 9. Is sent to the database in the database center 9. If the database that received the request is a database in the CATV station, the database is relayed directly through the dedicated high-speed line if the database is in the database center 9, and the compressed image data corresponding to the program number is transmitted to the CATV network of the CATV station. .

In the converter 12 on the subscriber side that has received the compressed image data, the compressed image data is instantaneously stored in the storage unit 14 and converted into instantaneous or sequential dimension image data by the decompression unit 16. The signal is transmitted to the television 19 via the circuit 13. As a result, the subscriber who has transmitted the request can view the desired program in real time.

With the above-described video-on-demand system, a CATV subscriber sends a request to a CATV station in addition to a normal CATV broadcast, so that a desired program can be viewed at a desired time. You can do it.

[0020]

As described above, according to the video-on-demand system of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained. Small-scale databases such as local programs are CATV
Using the CATV station database managed and operated by the station,
Since a video-on-demand system can be constructed simply by changing the converter to a video-on-demand compatible type, there is no need to maintain an infrastructure. Large-scale databases such as movie programs use databases managed and operated by external database centers.
Furthermore, the database center and each CATV station are connected with a dedicated high-speed line, and the converter is changed to a video-on-demand compatible type, so that the video-on-demand type can be used.
Since the system can be constructed, there is no need for a large investment in infrastructure development. Since the image data can be instantaneously stored by using a large-capacity semiconductor memory in the storage section in the converter, which is a subscriber terminal device, true video-on-demand without waiting time. A system can be built. Heretofore, there has been no means other than video recording means to view a desired program at a desired time. However, there is a problem in that the recording time is limited and the opportunity for recording is missed. However, these problems can be solved by the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing one embodiment of constructing a video-on-demand system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a converter used in the video-on-demand system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Company A CATV station 2 Company A database 3 Company A subscriber 4 Company A CATV network 5 Company B CATV station 6 Company B database 7 Company B subscriber 8 Company B CATV network 9 Database center 10 Company A dedicated high-speed line 11 Company B dedicated high-speed line 12 Converter 13 Converter main circuit 14 Storage unit 15 Control unit 16 Expansion unit 17 Receiving unit 18 Remote control 19 Television 20 Cable

Claims (2)

[Claims] An image information such as a movie program is converted and compressed into a digital signal, stored in a database in a CATV station and / or a database in an external database center, and further stored in the database center and a CATV in each region. A video-on-demand system characterized by connecting to stations via a dedicated high-speed line. 2. A converter as a terminal device on the subscriber side, in addition to a conventional converter main circuit, a database in a CATV station and / or a compressed image data transmitted from a database in a database center through a CATV station. A storage unit for storing, a decompression unit for converting the compressed image data into original image data, and a control unit for controlling the operation of the storage unit and the decompression unit. The video-on-demand system according to claim 1, wherein: