JPS6336194B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

(Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a method for detecting the operating state of a video tape recorder in an audience rating measurement system. (Prior art) Conventionally, a measuring device called a video meter has been used to measure television viewership ratings.This video meter records data such as the time when the television was turned on or off and the channels viewed on a paper tape. Or it had the function of recording on a storage device. By the way, the popularity of home video tape recorders has been remarkable in recent years, and it is becoming difficult for conventional audience rating measurement systems to cope with the spread. In other words, as long as you are using the TV alone, the content you are watching is the program that is currently being broadcast.
It was possible to accurately capture the viewing situation if the TV was turned on and off and the viewing channel data was available, but when using a TV and a video tape recorder in combination, for example, when the program is actually Various situations can be considered, such as a case where the program is only recorded without being viewed during the broadcast time, and the recorded content is later played back and viewed. However, although measuring devices such as video meters as mentioned above have the function of recording data related to programs viewed in real time, they cannot obtain any information regarding the use of video tape recorders. It had the following drawback. (Object of the Invention) The present invention has been proposed in view of the above points, and it is possible to detect the operating state of a video tape recorder, determine the viewing channel, and obtain data regarding the operation of the video tape recorder. The present invention aims to provide a method for detecting the operating state of a video tape recorder in an audience rating measurement system. (Structure of the Invention) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment embodying the present invention, and the structure will be explained below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, 1 is a distributor;
The received signals of antenna ANT ₁ for VHF and antenna ANT ₂ for UHF are transferred to a video tape recorder.
The signal is distributed and supplied to the VTR and VHF-UHF combination tuner (hereinafter simply referred to as "tuner") 3, and the antenna terminal of the TV is connected to the high frequency output terminal of the video tape recorder VTR. On the other hand, tuning voltage generation circuit 2, tuner 3, video intermediate frequency amplification/video detection circuit 4, audio intermediate frequency amplification circuit 5, frequency divider 6, comparator circuit 7, low pulse filter 8, shaping circuit 9, audio intermediate frequency amplification circuit 1
0 and the frequency divider 11 collectively constitute a circuit for determining the receiving channel of the video tape recorder VTR, and _S1 is the circuit for determining the receiving channel of the video tape recorder VTR.
This is a detector installed inside a video tape recorder (not shown) to detect the audio intermediate frequency signal of the VTR. Now, the output signal of the tuner 3 is input to one input terminal of the comparator circuit 7 via the video intermediate frequency amplification/video detection circuit 4, the audio intermediate frequency amplification circuit 5, and the frequency divider 6 in order, and is also input to one input terminal of the comparison circuit _7. The detection signal is applied to the other input terminal of the comparator circuit 7 via the audio intermediate frequency amplifier circuit 10 and the frequency divider 11 in sequence. Next, the output signal of the comparator circuit 7 is passed through a low-pass filter 8.
and the shaping circuit 9 in turn to the data encoder 15, and the data encoder 15 sends a signal for tuning to the tuning voltage generating circuit 2.
Electronic tuning of the tuner 3 is performed using the output voltage of the tuning voltage generating circuit 2. The details of the data encoder 15 will be described later, but the data encoder 15 consists of a part that encodes the reception channel of the video tape recorder VTR, and a part that encodes the operating state of the video tape recorder VTR. The signal applied to the generating circuit 2 is obtained from the part encoding the above-mentioned receiving channel. Next, the power supply detection circuits 12 and 16 are connected to the power supply lines of the video tape recorder VTR and the television TV, respectively, and their detection signals are sent to the operation determination circuit 1 along with the output signal of the erase signal amplifier 14.
3 is entered. Further, _S2 is a pickup coil for detecting an erase signal, which is installed near the erase signal generation source or head inside the set (not shown) of the video tape recorder VTR.
The detection signal is given to an erase signal amplification circuit (combining amplification and rectification) 14. The output signal of the operation determination circuit 13 is then input to a data encoder 15, and the signal encoded by the data encoder 15 is sent to a storage device or recording mechanism (not shown). FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the power supply detection circuit 12 described above in more detail.
Insert the primary winding of the current transformer CT into one of the lines between the VTR power plug and the AC power supply, rectify the power generated in the secondary winding of the current transformer CT with diode D, and then connect capacitor C. and a resistor R to provide smoothing and appropriate delay, and a determination circuit 12A determines whether the power is turned on or off and whether a driving section such as a motor (hereinafter simply referred to as "mechanical section") is turned on or off. That is, the determination circuit 12A has two comparison levels, and discriminates between the current flowing into the circuit when the power is turned on and the relatively large current flowing into the motor after the mechanical section starts operating. A power on/off signal a and a mechanical section on/off signal b are obtained. Further, the power supply detection circuit 16 for detecting power-on of the television TV may be configured in substantially the same manner, but since it is only necessary to detect whether the power is turned on or off, the comparison level is single. Note that the power supply detection circuit 16 is not limited to the one described _above , and as shown by the broken line in FIG. It is also possible to detect a 15.75KHz horizontal synchronization signal, amplify this detection signal, convert it to DC, and obtain a TV on/off signal depending on the presence or absence of the horizontal synchronization signal. In this case, there is no need to connect it to the TV power line. FIG. 3 shows an example of a specific circuit configuration of the operation determination circuit 13, which is composed of gates G ₁ , G ₂ , G ₃ , G ₄ and a decoder (for example, TTL-IC 74LS138) DEC. Signal a of the power supply detection circuit 12 indicating on/off of the power supply of the video tape recorder VTR
is commonly given to one of the input terminals of gates G ₁ , G ₂ , and G ₃ , and the other input terminal of gate G ₁ is connected to a TV.
Power supply detection circuit 16 that indicates whether the TV is powered on or off
The other input terminal of the gate _G2 receives the signal d of the power supply detection circuit 12, which indicates the operation of the mechanical part of the video tape recorder VTR, and the other input terminal of the gate _G3 receives the signal b of the erase signal amplifier 14. Output signal C
are connected to each other. Then the gate
The output terminals of G ₁ , G ₂ , and G ₃ are connected to the input terminals A, B, and C of the decoder DEC, respectively, and a signal e indicating on/off of the video tape recorder VTR is output from the output of the decoder DEC. A signal f indicating the recording state, a signal g indicating the reproduction state, and a signal h indicating the recording state are obtained via the gate _G4 . In other words, the state of the video tape recorder VTR can be roughly divided into four modes: off, monitor (viewing TV without recording or playing), and playback and recording.
Power on/off of video tape recorder VTR,
Turning on/off the mechanical part, turning on/off the power of the TV
Appropriate logical operations are performed based on the presence or absence of off and erase signals to determine the above mode. Here, the erase signal is detected even when the mechanical part of the video tape recorder VTR is operating, since it is in both playback and recording states. This is to identify recording and playback by detecting the erase signal (erasure signal). FIG. 4 shows an example of a specific circuit configuration of the data encoder 15, which includes gates G ₅ and G ₆ to which the output signal of the operation determination circuit 13 is applied, and a counter.
CNT, and data selectors DS ₁ and DS ₂ . Data selector (e.g. TTL-
IC 74LS153) DS ₁ and DS ₂ are select inputs A and B
The binary code applied to input terminal 1C ₀
~1C ₃ (same as 2C ₀ ~ 2C ₃ ) has the function of outputting the signal given to output terminal 1Y (same for 2Y), and select inputs A and B have gates G ₅ ,
The outputs of G ₆ are applied to one input terminal of gates G ₅ and G ₆ , and a signal h indicating the recording state of the operation determination circuit 13 is applied to the other input terminal of gate G ₅ . A signal e indicating power on/off is applied to the other input terminal of the gate G6, and a signal g indicating reproduction is applied to the other input terminal of the gate _G6 . On the other hand, the counter CNT has an internal clock generator,
It has the function of continuing and stopping counting depending on the value (high level or low level) of the output signal n of the aforementioned shaping circuit 9, and its binary output terminal is connected to the input terminal 1C of the data selectors DS ₁ and DS ₂ . ₀ and 2C ₀ , and also connected to the tuning voltage generation circuit 2. The operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the block diagram of FIG. First, the operation of determining the receiving channel of the video tape recorder VTR will be described. In Fig. 1, the tuner 3 independently controls VHF according to the tuning voltage of the tuning voltage generating circuit 2.
and UHF broadcasts, and Chuna 3
The output signal (frequency-converted to a video intermediate frequency) is demodulated into a composite signal by a video intermediate frequency amplification/video detection circuit 4, and then only the audio intermediate frequency signal is extracted by an audio intermediate frequency amplification circuit 5.
On the other hand, the detector _S1 detects an audio intermediate frequency signal from the receiving circuit of the video tape recorder VTR, and amplifies it to a required level by the audio intermediate frequency amplifying circuit 10. Next, the signals on both paths of the audio intermediate frequency amplification circuits 5 and 10 are frequency-divided by frequency dividers 6 and 11, respectively, and input to a comparison circuit 7. The purpose of intervening the frequency divider here is to stably compare the two signals, and in practice, stable comparison can be achieved by dividing the frequency by about 1/16. FIG. 5 shows the output signal i of the audio intermediate frequency amplification circuit 5 and the output signal j of the frequency divider 6, and the signal applied to the comparison circuit 7 is converted to a frequency of 1/16. In addition, the output signal k of the audio intermediate frequency amplification circuit 10 and the frequency divider 11
The same applies to the output signal l. Next, the comparator circuit 7 compares the voltages of both signals j and l to determine whether or not they are signals related to the same broadcast. Figure 6 shows the two signals j and l input to the comparison circuit 7 and the comparison output signal m. In the periods A and C in the figure, the comparison output signal is zero, so the same broadcast is not received. The period B indicates that the tuner 3 and the video tape recorder VTR are receiving different channels. The output signal of the comparator circuit 7 is filtered to remove high frequency components by a low-pass filter 8, and then shaped by a shaping circuit 9 into a rectangular control signal.
CNT (Figure 4). Therefore, the counter of data encoder 15
CNT is the period when the control signal n is high level, that is, the tuner 3 and the video tape recorder VTR.
Counting is performed continuously during a period in which the channels received by the tuner 3 are different, and the voltage generated by the tuning voltage generating circuit 2 is changed in accordance with a preset order, so that the channel received by the tuner 3 is the same as the receiving channel of the video tape recorder VTR. Continue until a match is made. Therefore, after the output signal n of the shaping circuit 9 has steadily settled to a low level, the binary output of the counter CNT of the data encoder 15 represents the receiving channel. Next, the operation involved in determining the operation mode of the video tape recorder VTR will be explained. In Figure 1, a video tape recorder
The operating state of the VTR is detected by power supply detection circuits 12, 16 and a pickup coil _S2 for detecting an erase signal, and the operating state is determined based on the detection output of each of these detection means. In other words, the operating state of the video tape recorder VTR that determines the television receiver is: hibernation state off...VTR; off; TV; off; operating state; monitor...VTR; on; TV; on; mechanical section;
Off playback...VTR; on, TV; on, mechanical section;
On, erase signal; off recording...VTR: on, TV: on/off, mechanical part: on, erase signal: on.The operation determination circuit 13 logically determines the above correspondence. This is done by calculation. The data encoder 15 performs encoding for recording or transmitting the above operating status and reception channel data, and outputs signals A ₀ , B ₀ , C ₀ , D ₀ in the circuit configuration shown in FIG. The table below shows the contents of each data in comparison.

[Table] Although recording data is not shown in the table above,
This is because if there is channel data, it is obvious that this is being recorded. In addition, the number of channels that can be identified is 13 stations in the above example, but it goes without saying that the number of channels can be increased as necessary by increasing the number of stages of the counter CNT of the data encoder 15 and the number of inputs of the data selectors DS ₁ and DS ₂ . stomach. Note that when used for actual audience rating measurement, time data and a circuit for detecting the viewing status of a single television are required, but the configuration of a conventional video meter can be used for these as is. (Effects of the Invention) As described above, in the present invention, the first power supply detection means detects the power-on of the video tape recorder and the increase/decrease of the inflow current, and the second power supply detecting means detects the power-on of the television. a detection means, an erase signal detection means for detecting an erase signal of the video tape recorder, and a channel determination means for detecting a reception channel of the video tape recorder, the first power supply detection means, the second power supply detection means; A logical operation is performed on the detection outputs of the means, erase signal detection means, and channel determination means to determine the operation of the video tape recorder into four modes: off, monitor, playback, and recording. Since recording can be performed using a video tape recorder, it is possible to accurately measure audience ratings even in households where a video tape recorder is used in combination with a television, and the effect is that highly reliable audience ratings can be measured.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIGS. 2 to 4 are circuit diagrams showing the specific configuration of the main circuits in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are operational diagrams. FIG. VTR...Video tape recorder, TV...Television,
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Distributor, 2...Tuning voltage generation circuit, 3...Tuner, 4...Video intermediate frequency amplification/video detection circuit, 5,
10... Audio intermediate frequency amplification circuit, 6, 11... Frequency divider, 7... Comparison circuit, 8... Low pass filter, 9...
Shaping circuit, 12, 16... Power supply detection circuit, 13... Operation determination circuit, 14... Erase signal amplification circuit, 15
...Data encoder, _S1 ...Detector, _S2 , _S3 ...Pickup coil, _ANT1 , _ANT2 ...Antenna.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first power detection means for detecting power-on of a video tape recorder and an increase/decrease in inflow current, a second power detection means for detecting power-on of a television, and an erase signal for detecting an erase signal of the video tape recorder. a detection means, and a channel determination means for detecting a receiving channel of the video tape recorder, and a logical operation is performed on the detection outputs of the first power supply detection means, the second power supply detection means, the erase signal detection means, and the channel determination means. The video tape recorder in the audience rating measurement system is characterized in that the operation of the video tape recorder is determined into four modes of off, monitor, playback and recording by applying Operating state detection method.