KR101590913B1 - Apparatus and method for controlling contents download - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a content download control apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a content download control apparatus and method in various types of digital devices such as a network BD player and the like, (BD) until the downloading operation is completed, and outputs the guidance message corresponding to the guidance message, and also detects a failure of the network or a failure of the content providing server, and outputs a guidance message corresponding thereto, It is possible for the user to accurately check the download speed of the content, the download completion time, and the cause of the download error, and the user does not have to watch the idle screen in the download state for a long time .

Download speed, estimated download completion time, network failure, content delivery server failure

Description

[0001] APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING DOWNLOAD CONTROL [0002]

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling downloading of content in various digital devices such as a BD player provided with a network function, for example.

Video on demand (VOD) service, which is generally used widely, is also called an on-demand video service. For example, a plurality of users can watch video on demand through a television or a computer screen, such as a movie provided from a central content providing server VOD Title " to select a VOD Title and immediately view the VOD Title.

On the other hand, the Vodi service adopts a streaming service method in which contents received from the contents providing server are received and reproduced at the receiving end almost at the same time, and orders for movies transmitted digitally, Video conferencing, and the like, and provides various functions such as pausing while the user watches the video, slow speed or repeated viewing.

However, in order to provide the VOD service in real time in real time, a network infrastructure capable of transmitting and processing a large amount of video data at high speed is required.

On the other hand, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, if a buffer underrun occurs due to a network failure or the like while the user is viewing a video title of a moving picture, an abnormally paused screen And a graph indicating the buffering state of the video data is displayed for a long time. Therefore, the user must continuously watch the idle screen paused abnormally until the buffer underrun or network trouble is eliminated have.

For example, in various types of digital devices provided with network functions, the present invention measures and judges the download speed of a content, a download completion completion time, a failure of a network, a failure of a content providing server, And to output a guidance message of an OSD image to be displayed on the OSD image.

A content download control method according to the present invention includes: a first step of measuring a download speed of a content provided from a content providing server and outputting a guide message corresponding to the download speed if the speed is lower than a preset reference speed; And a second step of determining whether a failure of the network or a failure of the content providing server is detected and outputting a corresponding guidance message,

The first step is characterized by measuring the downloading speed of the content data in units of predetermined packets set in advance,

In the step 1, the measured download speed and the expected download completion time of the content are calculated, and the corresponding guide message is output.

The second step may include a step of performing an interface with at least one other content providing server to measure the download speed of the other content and if the download speed of the measured other content is lower than the reference speed, And judges that a failure has occurred in the content providing server if the reference speed is equal to or higher than the reference speed,

In addition, in the step 2, if it is determined that the network is a failure or a failure of the content providing server, a corresponding information message is output and a data reproducing operation of the recording medium is performed.

Further, the data reproducing operation of the recording medium may be performed according to a user's selection, or is automatically performed until the downloading of the content is completed,

Further, a content download control device according to the present invention includes: communication means for establishing connection with a content providing server via a network; Storage means for storing content provided from the content providing server; Generating means for generating and outputting a guidance message for guiding a failure of the network or a failure of the content providing server; And a control unit for measuring a download speed of the content received from the content providing server and determining whether the network has a failure or a failure of the content providing server if the rate is lower than a predetermined reference speed,

In addition, the control means may measure the downloading speed of the content data in predetermined packet units,

Further, the control means may calculate the download speed and the expected completion time of downloading of the content, and then control the operation of the generation means and output a corresponding guidance message.

The control means may perform an interface with at least one or more other content providing servers to measure the download speed of other contents and if the download speed of the other contents is less than the reference speed, And judges that a failure has occurred in the content providing server if the reference speed is equal to or higher than the reference speed,

In addition, if it is determined that there is a failure of the network or a failure of the content providing server, the control means controls operation of the generating means to output a corresponding guidance message, and performs a data reproducing operation of the recording medium In addition,

Further, the data reproducing operation of the recording medium is performed according to a user's selection, or is automatically performed until downloading of the contents is completed.

The content download control device and method according to the present invention can accurately confirm the download speed of the content, the download completion time, and the cause of the download error, for example, You do not have to watch for a long time.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of a content download control apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

For example, the network video player 100, which is one of the digital devices to which the present invention is applied, is provided with a function of, for example, The optical disk 10 includes an optical pickup 11, a digital signal processing unit 12, a decoder 13, a CPU 14, a buffer memory 15, an audio generation unit 16, a storage 17, (18), and the like.

The network module 18 is connected to a content providing server 200 that provides a content such as a VOD Title through a network such as the Internet and then provided to the content providing server 200 And temporarily stores the downloaded content in the buffer memory 15.

The decoder 13 reads a content data temporarily stored in the buffer memory 15 and decodes the content data into audio and video data to perform a series of decoding operations. For example, The decoder 13 may be divided into a first decoder for decoding data read from the optical disc 10 and a second decoder for decoding data downloaded through the network module 18.

Various types of nonvolatile storage such as a hard disk (HDD) or a flash memory are used as the storage 17, and the OSD generation unit 16 uses the nonvolatile storage such as the CPU 14 ) To generate and output the OSD image of various guidance messages.

For example, the CPU 14 monitors the data amount of the content temporarily stored in the buffer memory 15, and when the buffer underrun is insufficient for performing a normal decoding operation, the network module 18 The download speed is measured with respect to the amount of data of a certain packet (for example, 32 Kbytes) received through the network.

In addition, the download completion completion time of the content is calculated based on the measured download speed. For example, if it takes 10 seconds to download 32 Kbytes, the download speed is measured as 3.2 Kbytes / sec, If the data amount of the content to be downloaded subsequently is 1,536 Kbytes, the expected download completion time is calculated as 8 minutes, i.e., 480 seconds (= 1536 Kbytes / (3.2 Kbytes / sec)).

3, the guidance message includes a buffer under-run, a buffer under-run, and a buffer under-run. A message indicating a download speed, an expected completion time of the download, and the like are displayed.

In the meantime, the CPU 14 determines whether the cause of the buffer underrun or the like is a failure of the content providing server or a network failure, then controls the operation of the OSD generation unit 16, And outputs an image of the message. This will be described in detail as follows.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of controlling downloading of contents according to the present invention. For example, in the case of the user, After connecting to the content providing server 200 providing the content, a series of content downloading and downloading operations for downloading the content provided by the content providing server to the buffer memory 15 and playing the content is performed (S10 ).

In the meantime, the CPU 14 monitors the amount of data temporarily stored in the buffer memory 15, for example, when a buffer underrun occurs or when the predetermined period is set in advance, (For example, 32 Kbytes) of content data received via the Internet (S11).

If the measured download speed is equal to or lower than a predetermined reference speed (S12), the CPU 14 determines whether or not downloading of the content, based on the measured download speed, as described above with reference to Fig. 3 The expected completion time is calculated (S13).

Then, the OSD generation unit 16 is operated to control the OSD image for guiding the measured download speed and the calculated estimated download completion time. For example, as shown in FIG. 3 As described above, a message is displayed in the guidance message to guide the buffer underrun, download speed, estimated download completion time, and the like (S14).

In the meantime, the Cipher 14 determines whether the cause of the buffer underrun or the like is a failure of the content providing server or a failure of the network. For example, the first content providing server 200 and the connection connection The CPU 11 controls the operation of the network module 18 to connect to any other content providing server, for example, the second content providing server 201. In this case,

If the measured download speed is equal to or higher than the reference speed after the download speed of the content data of a predetermined packet unit provided by the second content providing server 201 is measured, (S15). ≪ / RTI >

On the other hand, if the measured download rate is less than the reference rate after determining the download speed of the content data of the predetermined packet unit provided by the second content providing server 201, it is determined that there is a failure in the network S16).

That is, if the download speed of the first content providing server 200 is equal to or lower than the reference speed and the download speed of the second content providing server 201 is equal to or higher than the reference speed, .

If it is determined that the download speed of the first content providing server 201 and the download speed of the second content providing server 201 are all lower than the reference speed, the OSD generation unit 16 And outputs an OSD image of the guidance message corresponding thereto (S17).

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the guidance message includes a message informing that there is a failure of a content providing server (CP Server Error) and a network OK (Network OK) A text that inquires may be displayed.

On the other hand, the video playback is inquired as to whether to play back the data recorded in the video during the waiting due to the failure of the content providing server. By the system environment setting of the user, the data playback of the video 10 or the storage 17, and the like.

As shown in Fig. 6, the guide message is accompanied by a message informing that the contents server is normal (CP Server OK) and network trouble (Network Error) A phrase can be displayed. Whether or not to play the video can be specified by the user's selection, or can be automatically performed by the user's system environment setting.

If the video playback operation is requested in response to a user's key input (S18), the CPU 14 controls operations of the digital signal processor 12 and the decoder 13, And performs a series of operations to reproduce the recorded data, and controls the operation of the network module 15 to continue the content download operation (S19).

When the downloading operation is completed in step S21, the CPU 14 stops the data reproducing operation of the video data, and then the downloaded content is played back in step S21. The video playback stop and content playback operations are performed by the user's key input, or automatically according to the user's system environment setting and the like.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. , Alteration, substitution, addition, or the like.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a general buffering idle screen,

2 shows a configuration of an embodiment of a network video player to which the present invention is applied,

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a screen on which a guide message of a download speed and an expected completion time is displayed according to the present invention,

4 is a flowchart illustrating a content download control method according to the present invention,

FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 illustrate an embodiment of a face in which a guidance message of a fault judgment is displayed according to the present invention.

[Description of Drawings]

10: optical disk 11: optical pickup

12: digital signal processor 13: decoder

14: Cipher 15: Buffer memory

16: OSD generation unit 17: Storage

18: Network module 100: Network video player

200: Content providing server

Claims (12)

A first step of measuring a download speed of a content provided from a content providing server and outputting a corresponding guide message if the download speed is lower than a preset reference speed; The download speed of the other content is measured by performing an interface with one or more other content providing servers and it is determined that the download speed of the other content is lower than the reference speed, 2 < / RTI > And And outputting a guide message corresponding to the determination. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the step (1) measures the download speed of the content data in units of predetermined packets set in advance. 3. The method of claim 2, Wherein the first step calculates the download speed and the estimated completion time of downloading the content, and outputs the corresponding guide message. delete The method according to claim 1, The method according to claim 1, wherein the step (c) comprises the steps of: outputting a guide message corresponding to a failure of the network or a failure of the content providing server, and performing a data reproducing operation of the recording medium. 6. The method of claim 5, Wherein the data reproduction operation of the recording medium is performed according to a user's selection or is automatically performed until downloading of the content is completed. A communication means for establishing connection with a content providing server through a network; Storage means for storing content provided from the content providing server; Generating means for generating and outputting a guidance message for guiding a failure of the network or a failure of the content providing server; And Wherein the control unit measures the download speed of the content received from the content providing server and measures the download speed of the other content by performing an interface with one or more other content providing servers if the download speed is lower than a preset reference speed, And control means for determining that the downloading speed is lower than the reference speed and determining that a failure has occurred in the network, and determining that the content providing server has failed if the download speed is equal to or higher than the reference speed. 8. The method of claim 7, Wherein the control means measures the download speed for the content data of a predetermined packet unit set in advance. 9. The method of claim 8, Wherein the control means calculates the download speed and the estimated completion time of downloading the content, and then controls the generation means to output the corresponding guidance message. delete 8. The method of claim 7, Wherein the control means controls operation of the generating means to output a guidance message corresponding to a failure of the network or a failure of the content providing server and performs a data reproducing operation of the recording medium, Content download control device. 12. The method of claim 11, Wherein the data reproduction operation of the recording medium is performed in accordance with a user's selection or is automatically performed until the downloading of the content is completed.

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