KR100727147B1 - Method of upgrading software and television receiver thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a software upgrade method and a television broadcast receiver according to which a manufacturer of a television broadcast receiver can automatically detect a channel for downloading software and download and upgrade the software of the television broadcast receiver.

According to the present invention, the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit of the television broadcast receiver and the model of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD (Over Air Download) stream while switching a plurality of effective channels. Comparing the information for equality; If the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream is the same as the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit, the software included in the OAD stream broadcast through the channel is downloaded to upgrade the software. Making; And when the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream is different from the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit, switching to the next channel among the plurality of valid channels.

Telecaster, software, upgrade

Description

Software upgrade method and TV broadcast receiver according to it {METHOD OF UPGRADING SOFTWARE AND TELEVISION RECEIVER THEREOF}

1 is a block diagram of a television broadcast receiver according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart of a software upgrade method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 is an OAD structure diagram.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: control unit

102: memory

104: micom

106: user interface

108: tuner

110: broadcast signal processing unit

112: video signal processing unit

114: audio decoder

116: audio signal output unit

118: Speaker

120: video signal output unit

122: display

The present invention relates to a television broadcast receiver, and more particularly, to a method for upgrading software of a television broadcast receiver and a television broadcast receiver accordingly.

Television broadcast receivers, such as digital broadcast receivers, are released with appropriate software at the time of product launch. In this case, the software is used to control the operation of the user interface or the television broadcast receiver, and the software needs to be upgraded in order to change the use environment or improve performance.

Accordingly, in the related art, a serviceman of a manufacturer directly upgrades software of a television broadcast receiver, downloads and upgrades software by accessing a manufacturer's web site, or includes a software of each manufacturer in a broadcast signal. Uses software to automatically extract and upgrade software. In particular, a method of upgrading the software of the television broadcast receiver by extracting updated software included in the broadcast signal is referred to as over air download (hereinafter referred to as OAD).

Among the above-mentioned conventional methods, it is very cumbersome for a serviceman to upgrade the software directly or to upgrade the software by accessing a manufacturer's website or the like, and thus the OAD method has been noted. Accordingly, various methods for efficiently upgrading the software according to the OAD method have been proposed.

For example, Patent Application No. 10-2003-006917 filed by the present applicant to the Korean Intellectual Property Office under the name of "How to upgrade the software of a digital broadcasting receiver", by transmitting only the software of the changed or added portion by OAD method, Disclosed is a technique for reducing the time required for upgrading.

As described above, efforts for efficient over-air download continue.

However, according to the over-air download method described above, a user who has previously recognized a channel where the manufacturer of the television broadcast receiver downloads the software should download and upgrade the software while tuning the channel. Accordingly, if the user did not know the software download channel of the manufacturer in advance, there was a problem that the software can not be upgraded normally.

Furthermore, when the software download channel is changed due to the change of the agreement between the manufacturer of the television broadcast receiver and the broadcasting station, it is difficult for the user to grasp the software, and thus it is difficult to download the software of the television broadcast receiver.

Accordingly, in the related art, it is urgently needed to develop a technology for automatically downloading and upgrading software of a television broadcast receiver even if a user does not recognize a channel from which the manufacturer of the television broadcast receiver downloads software.

The present invention is to overcome the above-mentioned problems, the software upgrade method that the manufacturer of the television broadcast receiver can automatically detect the channel to download the software to automatically download and upgrade the software of the television broadcast receiver and upgrade An object of the present invention is to provide a television broadcast receiver.

The software upgrade method of the television broadcast receiver according to the present invention for achieving the above object and solve the problems of the prior art, the manufacturer and the model of the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit of the television broadcast receiver while switching a number of effective channels Comparing the information with the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream; If the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream is the same as the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit, the software included in the OAD stream broadcast through the channel is downloaded to upgrade the software. Making; And when the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream is different from the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit, switching to the next channel among the plurality of valid channels.

In addition, the method is characterized in that the software is downloaded and upgraded only when the software version of the OAD stream and the software version stored in the memory unit of the television broadcast receiver are different.

The television broadcast receiver for automatically upgrading software includes a tuner for tuning a predetermined channel, a broadcast signal processor for recovering a TS from a broadcast signal received through the tuner, a TS encoder for recovering an OAD stream from the TS, a manufacturer, and a television. A memory unit for storing model information of a broadcast receiver, and model information of a manufacturer and a television broadcast receiver included in an OAD stream received from each channel while switching a plurality of effective channels, If the same channel information as that of the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit is detected, the OAD broadcasted through the channel is checked. The software contained in the stream Load receiving characterized in that a control unit for upgrading the software.

The memory unit of the television broadcast receiver further stores software version information, and the controller downloads and upgrades the software only when the software version of the OAD stream is different from the software version stored in the memory unit. .

The present invention automatically detects a channel for downloading software of a manufacturer and a model of a corresponding television broadcast receiver, downloads the software, and upgrades the software of the television broadcast receiver.

The configuration of a television broadcast receiver to which the present invention is applicable will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

The controller 100 not only controls the television broadcast receiver as a whole, but also performs a software upgrade according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The operation of the control unit 100 will be described in more detail. The control unit 100 tunes a plurality of channels, and makes and models added to a PACKET ID of an OAD stream among data streams of a TS (TRANSPORT STREAM) received through each channel, The software version retrieves software information such as a manufacturer, a model of a television broadcast receiver, a software version, etc. previously stored in the memory unit 102, and detects a channel on which an OAD stream corresponding to the software information is broadcast. If detected, the software downloads the OAD stream from the channel.

The memory unit 102 stores various information including a processing program of the control unit 100, and in particular, software information such as a manufacturer of the television broadcast receiver, a model of the television broadcast receiver, a software version, and the like, in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Save it.

The microcomputer 104 provides various commands or information of the user through the user interface 106 to the controller 100.

The user interface 106 receives various commands or information of the user through a keypad or a remote controller and provides the same to the microcomputer 104.

The tuner 108 tunes a broadcast signal of a channel under the control of the controller 100 among the broadcast signals and provides the tuner 108 to the broadcast signal processor 110.

The broadcast signal processor 110 restores the broadcast signal to a TS and provides the broadcast signal to the video signal processor 112.

The video signal processor 112 includes a TS decoder and a video decoder to restore an audio stream, a video stream, and a data stream from a TS provided by the broadcast signal processor 110 under the control of the controller 100. The video data is restored to the display 122 through the video signal output unit 120. In addition, the video signal output unit 120 receives OSD data under the control of the controller 100 and outputs the OSD data to the display 112.

The video signal processor 112 provides the audio stream to the audio decoder 116. The audio decoder 116 restores the audio stream to audio data and outputs the audio stream to the speaker 118 through the audio signal output unit 118.

The video signal processor 112 provides the data stream to the controller 100, and the data stream includes an OAD stream.

A software upgrade method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention applicable to the television broadcast receiver will now be described with reference to FIG.

The broadcasting station and the like load the updated software of the television broadcasting receiver in the OAD stream of the data stream of the TS according to the request of the manufacturer who manufactures the television broadcasting receiver. Here, since there are many manufacturers of television broadcast receivers, the broadcasting station broadcasts software of different manufacturers for each channel in an OAD stream.

The user of the television broadcast receiver may command the user to upgrade the software by receiving the OAD stream broadcast in the above-described manner through the user interface 106.

The control unit 100 of the television broadcast receiver checks whether the user commands a software upgrade through the user interface 106 (step 200). When the user commands a software upgrade, the controller 100 tunes one channel among the plurality of valid channels (step 204) and checks whether an OAD stream is received through the channel (step 206). If the OAD stream is not received, the controller 100 tunes another channel among the plurality of valid channels (step 216), and returns to step 206 to check whether the OAD stream is received through the corresponding channel.

When the OAD stream is received through the tuned channel, the controller 100 extracts a PACKET ID of the OAD stream (step 208).

Here, referring to FIG. 3 illustrating the structure of the OAD stream, the OAD stream is composed of a PACKET ID, TABLE ID, SECTION LENGTH, SECTION NUMBER, LAST SECTION NUMBER, MODEL NAME, MODEL VERSION, ROM FILE DATA, and CRC. In particular, the PACKET ID includes a manufacturer, a model, and a software version.

The controller 100 extracts the manufacturer and model and software version information included in the PACKET ID of the currently tuned OAD stream, and the manufacturer and model information included in the extracted manufacturer and model information and software information stored in the memory unit 102. It is checked whether the model information matches (step 210).

Here, if the manufacturer and model included in the PACKET ID of the OAD stream, the software version information and the manufacturer and model information included in the software information stored in the memory unit 102, the control unit 100 corresponds to the corresponding OAD stream. It is determined that it corresponds to the television broadcast receiver.

If the OAD stream does not correspond to the television broadcast receiver, the controller 100 tunes another channel among the plurality of valid channels (step 216), and then performs steps 206 to 210 again to correspond to the television broadcast receiver. It is checked whether the OAD stream being broadcast is a channel broadcasted.

By repeatedly performing the above steps 206 to 210 and 216, the controller 100 may detect a channel on which the OAD stream corresponding to the corresponding television broadcast receiver is broadcast.

In step 210, if the OAD stream corresponds to the corresponding television broadcast receiver, the controller 100 extracts software version information included in the PACKET ID of the OAD stream, and the extracted software version information is stored in the memory unit 102. It is checked whether it is different from the software version information stored in step 212. If the two software version information is different, the controller 100 determines that the upgrade is necessary, downloads the OAD stream broadcasted through the corresponding channel, and upgrades the software (step 214).

Embodiments of the present invention described above include a computer readable medium including program instructions for performing various computer-implemented operations. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions on the media may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well-known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Such computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like may be employed, and may include hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions. The medium may also be a transmission medium such as an optical or metal wire, a waveguide, or the like including a carrier wave for transmitting a signal specifying a program command, a data structure, or the like. The program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code executable by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

As described above, the present invention enables a manufacturer of a television broadcast receiver to automatically detect a channel for downloading software and automatically downloads and upgrades the software of the television broadcast receiver, thereby maximizing convenience in use. There is this.

As described above, the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which can be variously modified and modified by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Modifications are possible.

Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should be understood only by the claims set forth below, and all equivalent or equivalent modifications thereof will belong to the scope of the present invention.

Claims (6)

In the software upgrade method of the television broadcast receiver, While switching a plurality of effective channels, the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit of the television broadcast receiver and the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD (Over Air Download) stream are compared with each other. step; If the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream is the same as the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit, the software included in the OAD stream broadcast through the channel is downloaded to upgrade the software. Making; And If the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream is different from the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit, switching to a next channel among the plurality of valid channels; Software upgrade method of receiver. The method of claim 1, And upgrading and downloading the software only when the software version of the OAD stream and the software version stored in the memory unit of the television broadcast receiver are different. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The software upgrade method of the television broadcast receiver, characterized in that the model information software version of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver is included in the PACKET ID of the OAD stream. In the television broadcast receiver which upgrades the software automatically, A tuner for tuning a predetermined channel; A broadcast signal processor for recovering a TS from the broadcast signal received through the tuner; A TS encoder for recovering an OAD stream from the TS; A memory unit for storing model information of a manufacturer and a television broadcast receiver; And While switching a plurality of effective channels, it is checked whether the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included in the OAD stream received from each channel is the same as the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit. When the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver included is the same as the model information of the manufacturer and the television broadcast receiver stored in the memory unit, the software included in the OAD stream broadcasted through the channel is downloaded to upgrade the software. Control Television broadcast receiver comprising a. The method of claim 4, wherein The memory unit further stores software version information, And the control unit downloads and upgrades the software only when the software version of the OAD stream and the software version stored in the memory unit are different. The method of claim 4, wherein And a user interface for providing a software upgrade command to the control unit.

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