KR100774195B1 - An apparatus for replaying broadcasting and a method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a broadcast reproducing apparatus and a broadcast reproducing method. In one aspect, the present invention provides a method comprising the steps of: (a) determining whether a tuned first channel is converted; (b) when the first channel is converted to a second channel, after applying the time shift function for the first channel, the broadcast of the first channel is temporarily stored after the channel conversion time, and the time is stored in the second channel. Determining whether a shift function is applied; And (c) outputting the broadcast of the temporarily stored second channel when the time shift function is applied to the second channel as a result of the determination of step (b). According to the broadcast reproducing apparatus and the broadcast reproducing method according to the present invention, it is possible to conveniently record or watch broadcasts of a plurality of channels, and to apply a time-shift function to the plurality of channels.

Time Shift, PVR, Channel, Broadcast

Description

An apparatus for replaying broadcasting and a method

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a broadcast reproducing apparatus according to the present invention

2 is a structural diagram of an embodiment including an embodiment of a broadcast data processing unit of the embodiment of FIG.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a broadcast reproduction method according to the present invention for two channels to which a time shift function is applied;

4 illustrates an example of a storage area of a storage device of a broadcast reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a broadcast reproducing method according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols in the main part of the drawing>

10: stream decoder 20: index information generator

30: broadcasting data processing unit 31: channel comparison unit

32: channel management unit 33: storage area allocation unit

40: storage device control unit 50: storage device

51a, 51b, 51c, 51d, 51e, 51f, 51g: each storage area of the storage device

60: video decoder 70: audio decoder

80: synthesis section

The present invention relates to a broadcast reproducing apparatus and a broadcast reproducing method, and more particularly, to a broadcast reproducing apparatus and a broadcast reproducing method capable of a time shift function for a plurality of channels.

Since digital broadcasting has an advantage of maintaining high image quality even after storing and playing the broadcast, devices that can store and play received digital broadcasting are increasing.

For example, a personal video recorder (PVR) device may receive a digital broadcast signal and then store the broadcast signal in various fixed and removable storage devices such as a hard disk drive or a flash memory. Device.

The PVR device offers much better functionality than traditional VCRs, providing time-shift, instant replay, and many other trick play functions as well as basic recording capabilities. can do.

When the broadcast reproducing apparatus stores and reproduces the digital broadcasting, the user can watch digital broadcasting having a high-definition image quality at any time, and the broadcasting reproducing apparatus can also perform various additional service functions.

 In general, while watching TV, a user may watch two or more channels repeatedly at the same time rather than continuously watching a channel continuously.

To this end, the conventional broadcast reproducing apparatus may include a picture-in-picture (PIP) function. For example, when a program that a user wants to watch on different channels is broadcasted at the same time, a situation arises in which two channels must be viewed alternately.

However, there is a problem in that a conventional broadcast reproducing apparatus needs to record a program that is broadcast on one channel and continuously watch a program that is broadcast on another channel in order to completely watch both programs.

That is, a user watches a program broadcast in one channel and performs broadcast recording for another channel.

 However, if you are watching a program that is broadcasting on the channel currently selected by the user, and you want to see a program that is being broadcast on another channel that is recording, you can either perform the recording on the current channel, stop recording on the other channel, perform the playback on the channel, or shift the time. It was inconvenient because the regeneration performance step should be performed sequentially.

Therefore, in order to watch both programs with the conventional broadcast reproducing apparatus, it is possible to watch one program from the beginning to the end, and then to play the other recorded one, or to use the complicated key to change the programs from time to time. There is an uncomfortable problem that must go through the operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast reproducing apparatus and a broadcast reproducing method capable of conveniently recording or watching broadcasts of a plurality of channels.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast reproducing apparatus and a broadcast reproducing method capable of a time-shift function for a plurality of channels.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a stream decoder for decoding and outputting a received broadcast stream; It is determined whether the selected channel is a channel to which a time shift function is applied among the broadcasts received from the stream decoder, and according to the result of the determination, whether to play the broadcast stored for the time shift or the broadcast received in real time. Determining the control command by the broadcast data processor; And a storage device for outputting a temporarily stored broadcast for time shifting according to a control command of the broadcast data processing unit.

The broadcast data processing unit may include: a channel comparison unit comparing the channel information to be tuned with channel information to which the time shift function is to be applied and outputting the comparison result; A channel manager which receives the comparison result from the channel comparator, determines whether to apply a time shift function to a selected channel, and outputs the result of the determination; And a storage area allocator configured to allocate and store the broadcast of the channel to a specific storage area of the storage device when temporarily storing the broadcast of the channel selected by the channel manager for time shift.

The broadcast data processing unit may include: a channel comparison unit comparing the channel information to be tuned with channel information to which the time shift function is to be applied and outputting the comparison result; A channel manager which receives the comparison result from the channel comparator, determines whether to apply a time shift function to a selected channel, and outputs the result of the determination; And a storage area allocator configured to allocate a specific storage area of the storage device to the broadcast received in the channel when the channel manager applies the time shift function to the channel selected by the channel manager.

The storage device may include a plurality of storage areas capable of separately storing the broadcasts of the plurality of channels when the time shift function is applied to the broadcasts transmitted from the plurality of channels.

The broadcast reproducing apparatus may be a personal video recorder (PVR).

In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for determining whether a channel selected by a channel is converted; (b) when the first channel is converted to a second channel, after applying the time shift function for the first channel, the broadcast of the first channel is temporarily stored after the channel conversion time, and the time is stored in the second channel. Determining whether a shift function is applied; And (c) outputting the broadcast of the temporarily stored second channel when the time shift function is applied to the second channel as a result of the determination of step (b).

In still another aspect, the present invention provides a method of determining whether or not a tuned first channel is converted; determining whether a time shift function is applied to the second channel when the first channel is converted to a second channel; And (c) setting a time shift function for the second channel when the time shift function is not applied to the second channel as a result of the determination of step (b). do.

Hereinafter, the term 'time shift function' refers to a function of temporarily storing and playing a received broadcast.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention that can specifically realize the above object will be described.

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a broadcast reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. An embodiment of a broadcast reproducing apparatus according to the present invention includes a stream decoder 10, an index information generator 20 connected to the stream decoder 10, a broadcast data processor 30, a storage device controller 40, The storage device 50 is connected to the storage device controller 40.

In addition, a video decoder 60 and an audio decoder 70 connected to the storage device controller 40, and a signal synthesizer 80 connected to the video decoder 60 and the audio decoder 70, respectively.

 Referring to FIG. 1, the operation of the broadcast reproducing apparatus according to the present invention will be described. The stream decoder 10 receives, decodes, and outputs a broadcast transport stream of a broadcast, and outputs data in the form of a packet in which a time stamp of a predetermined size is added to the received transport stream.

In general, a transport stream having a size of 188 bytes in a packet may be stored in the storage device 50 by adding a time stamp of a predetermined size. Hereinafter, the stream having the time stamp added thereto is a time stamp transport packet. (time-stamped transport packet; TTP).

The time stamp may be determined as a system clock value at a time when a broadcast stream is received or a relative time value predetermined in the system, and the time stamp may be used for speed control when playing the stream after being stored in the storage device 50. .

The stream decoder 10 may decode the video stream among the received transport streams and output the decoded video stream to the index information generator 20.

The index information generation unit 20 receives the decoded stream, and in order to smooth trick play on the stored stream, pictures of the video stream may be stored in the storage device 50. Index information is generated and the generated information is added to the received stream and output.

The index information may be displayed in a packet unit of a transport stream and indicates a physical storage location of a frame. Therefore, when the broadcast reproducing apparatus performs a trick play such as moving to a specific position of a stream and playing the reproducing apparatus, the broadcast reproducing apparatus finds a starting point of a frame or a video section to be reproduced as index information and uses the storage device 50 to perform index play. It can be easily found from the frame or starting point.

The file storing the index information may be used to find the video data together with a table such as a file allocation table (FAT) that specifies the physical location of the file stored in the storage device 50.

The broadcast data processor 30 may receive EPG (eletronic program guide) information, which is information about a program of a received stream, and extract a broadcast title, genre information of the broadcast, and the like from the received information. In addition, the broadcast data processor 30 may determine which channel is the currently tuned channel by using channel information.

The broadcast data processor 30 may map the storage area for the time shift function and the channels to be recorded or reproduced by using the information on the channel performing the time shift function and output a control command for each operation. Detailed description thereof will be given with reference to FIG. 2.

The storage device controller 40 may control data input / output to the storage device 50. When the broadcast reproducing device performs a function such as a time shift function or a reproducing function, the storage device 50 may be controlled according to the function. The broadcast stream is stored in or output to the broadcast stream stored in the storage device 50. When the storage device controller 40 receives and outputs the stored broadcast stream from the storage device 50, the storage device controller 40 may output a time stamp transport packet (TTP) using the time stamp information.

The video decoder 60 and the audio decoder 70 receive, decode and output the video stream, the EPG data, and the audio stream stored in the storage device 50 through the storage device controller 40. The synthesis unit 80 may reproduce the broadcast by synthesizing the decoded video stream and the audio stream.

2 is a structural diagram of an embodiment including an embodiment of a broadcast data processing unit capable of controlling a time shift when a broadcast reproducing apparatus performs a time shift function for a plurality of channels. An embodiment of the broadcast data processing unit includes a channel comparator 31, a channel manager 32 connected to the channel comparator 31, a storage area assigner 33 connected to the channel manager 32, and a storage area assigner 33 The storage area control unit 40 is connected to the.

 The operation of an embodiment of the broadcast data processing unit will be described with reference to FIG. 2 as follows. The channel comparator 31 receives the selected channel information and the channel information to which the time shift function is applied from the channel manager 100, compares the two channel information, and outputs the result. The output result is information about whether the channel information selected in the channel is included in the channel information of the channel manager 100.

The channel manager 32 may have information about all channels performing the time shift function. The channel manager 32 may store channel information on which the time shift function is performed, and update the channel information.

For example, the channel manager 32 may limit the number of channels stored in the channel information to a predetermined number or less, for example, due to size limitation of the information to which the time shift function is applied. In this case, the channel information to which the time shift function was added most recently may be stored, and the channel which has been stored since the time shift function may be deleted from the channel information. Channel assignment and deletion of the channel information of the channel manager 32 may be managed as described above at the request of the user.

Accordingly, the channel manager 32 determines whether to play a time-shifted broadcast or to display a broadcast received in real time using the output result of the channel comparator 31 for the tuned channel. Can be output.

The storage area allocating unit 33 receives an output result of the channel manager 32, and when a time shift function is to be applied to the tuned channel, the storage area allocating unit 33 is assigned to any one of a plurality of time shift storage areas in the storage device 50. It may be determined whether the stored broadcast should be played. Based on the determination, the storage location for storing the broadcast to be reproduced is designated and output.

In addition, the storage area allocator 33 receives the channel information output from the channel manager 32, stops the time shift function for the channel excluded from the channel information, and stores the broadcast area of the excluded channel. Can be assigned to a new channel later.

The storage area controller 40 receives information on storage area allocation and storage area allocation from the storage area allocator 33 and generates information including address information necessary for actually controlling the storage device 50. Can be stored.

The time shift storage area is a storage space for temporarily storing a broadcast received for a time shift function in the storage device 50.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a broadcast reproduction method according to the present invention when watching two channels to which a time shift function is applied while watching.

In the example of FIG. 3, two channels to which the time shift function is applied are referred to as channels A and B. First, it is assumed that a broadcast on channel A is watched (S10). Then, it is determined whether it has moved to channel B (S20), and if it has moved to channel B (YES in S20), by applying a time shift function for channel A, a program broadcasted on channel A is temporarily stored (S30). ). If there is no channel change (NO in S20), broadcasting of channel A in step S10 is continuously watched.

Since channel B is a channel to which the time shift function is applied, the broadcaster temporarily plays the broadcast temporarily stored by the time shift function (S40).

It determines whether to convert from channel B to channel A (S50), there is a switch to channel A (YES in S50) and temporarily stores a program broadcast on channel B by performing a time shift function for channel B (S60). Then, the broadcast of the channel A temporarily stored in the step S30 is reproduced (S70). If there is no channel change (NO in S50), the broadcast of channel B in step S40 is continued.

4 is a diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a storage area of a storage device of a broadcast reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

The storage device includes an area 51a in which a file mapping table is stored, a plurality of time shift storage areas 51b, 51c, and 51d, an area 51e in which a program is to be recorded, and an area 51f in which index information is stored. ) And other additional information may be stored in the area 51g.

The area 51a in which the file mapping table is stored is a part in which information necessary for management of a file system and data input / output control of a file system in a storage device is stored, and represents information on area division in a storage device and a physical location where each file is stored. May contain information.

An example of a storage device of the broadcast reproducing apparatus according to the present invention may include a plurality of time shift storage areas in order to store programs broadcast on a plurality of channels, so that programs broadcast on a plurality of channels are separated from each other without being tangled. Can be stored.

The recording program storage area refers to an area that is deleted when a user deletes a command, unlike a time shift storage area in which a broadcast is deleted when temporarily stored and reproduced.

The area in which the additional information is stored is an area for storing additional video, audio, user information, and information for providing various services to the user, including EPG information.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a broadcast reproducing method according to the present invention. An embodiment of a broadcast reproduction method according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

First, the channel is tuned to watch a specific channel, and the tuned channel k is watched (S100). It is determined whether there is a channel movement (S110). If there is no channel movement, the broadcast of channel k, which has been continuously watched, is watched (NO in S110).

If there is a channel shift (S110 yes), a time shift function is applied to the channel k currently being watched to temporarily store the broadcast of channel k immediately after the channel shift (S120).

It is determined whether the time shift function is applied to the newly moved channel m (S130). If the channel does not apply the time shift function (NO in S130), the broadcast of the received channel m after channel conversion is watched (S150). In addition, for channel m, channel m may be added to channel information for a time shift function in operation S160.

If the channel m is a channel to which the time shift function is applied, the broadcast that was temporarily stored may be played (S140).

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications and improvements of those skilled in the art using the basic concepts of the present invention defined in the following claims are also provided. It belongs to the scope of the present invention.

The effects of the broadcast reproducing apparatus and the broadcast reproducing method according to the present invention described above are as follows.

According to the broadcast reproducing apparatus and the broadcast reproducing method according to the present invention, it is possible to conveniently record or watch broadcasts of a plurality of channels, and to apply a time-shift function to the plurality of channels.

Claims (6)

A stream decoder for decoding and outputting the received broadcast stream; It is determined whether the tuned channel among the broadcasts received from the stream decoder is a channel to which a time shift function is applied, and whether to play a broadcast stored for time shift or a broadcast received in real time according to the determination result. A broadcast data processor for determining and outputting the control command; And And a storage device for separately separating and storing the broadcasts of the plurality of channels for time shifting in the broadcasts of the plurality of channels according to a control command of the broadcast data processing unit. The method of claim 1, The broadcast data processing unit may include: a channel comparison unit comparing the channel information to be tuned with channel information to which the time shift function is to be applied and outputting the comparison result; A channel manager which receives the comparison result from the channel comparator, determines whether to apply a time shift function to a selected channel, and outputs the result of the determination; And And a storage area allocator configured to allocate and store broadcast of the channel to a specific storage area of the storage device when the channel manager temporarily stores the broadcast of the tuned channel for time shift. The method of claim 2, And the storage area allocator uses file mapping table information for managing broadcast program data for each channel and controlling data input and output. delete delete delete

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