KR102279404B1 - Apparatus and method for receiving and playing contents - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for receiving and playing content. A method for controlling a content reception and reproduction field according to the present invention includes the steps of: receiving any one of a plurality of main contents with mutual time synchronization using a first reception channel; playing the main content received in the step and controlling it to be displayed on a first area on a display; receiving all of the sub-contents respectively corresponding to the plurality of main contents using a second reception channel; and controlling each of the sub-contents other than the sub-content corresponding to the main content currently displayed in the first region among the plurality of sub-contents received in the step to be reproduced and displayed in the second region of the display. do it with

Description

Apparatus and method for receiving and playing content

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for receiving and reproducing contents, and to an apparatus and method for reproducing and displaying respective contents received through different channels after predetermined processing.

When watching TV broadcast content, a so-called picture in picture (PIP) technology has been proposed as more and more people want to easily check content being broadcast on another channel while watching a current channel.

This is to allow a small screen to be displayed on one screen to be utilized or manipulated. In this case, if the image displayed on the main screen is called the first image and the image displayed on the relatively small auxiliary screen is called the second image, the terminal will display the first image. After receiving each of the first and second images, the first image is reproduced and displayed to fit the entire terminal screen size, while the second image is forcibly reduced to be reproduced and displayed in a small area of the screen.

However, in the conventional PIP technology, both the first image and the second image are images having a resolution that can actually cover the entire screen, and only the second image among them is reduced and reproduced on the terminal. In the same case, this was not a big problem, but considering that most broadcast contents are being transmitted through data communication, the conventional method can be said to be quite inefficient in terms of data traffic.

That is, in spite of the user only viewing the second image through the reduced area, the terminal actually receives the second image with high resolution, and thus unnecessary data consumption occurs.

This causes a bigger problem when the number of second images increases.

For example, if the first image is displayed on the main area of the screen and the relatively reduced second image, the third image, and the fourth image are simultaneously displayed on the other areas of the screen, the image is much larger than that actually viewed by the user. It can be said that traffic is generated.

Patent Publication No. 20-1998-0009974

The present invention has been devised to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art, and the purpose of the present invention is that any one of a plurality of contents simultaneously displayed on a display screen is the main content displayed on the main area on the screen, and the other is the sub-area ( An apparatus and method for receiving and reproducing content that can minimize data consumption in the case of sub content displayed in an area relatively smaller than the main area) are provided.

In order to achieve the above object, there is provided an apparatus for receiving and reproducing content according to the present invention, comprising: a first receiver for receiving any one of a plurality of main content with mutual time synchronization using a first receiving channel; a second receiver for receiving all of the sub-contents respectively corresponding to the plurality of main content using a second receiving channel; The main content received in the first receiver is reproduced and controlled to be displayed in a first area on a display, and a sub content corresponding to the main content currently displayed in the first area among the plurality of sub content received in the second receiver is reproduced. It is configured to include a display control unit for controlling the reproduction of the remaining sub contents except for the display to be displayed on the second area on the display.

In addition, in order to achieve the above object, a method for controlling a content reception and reproduction field according to the present invention includes the steps of: receiving any one of a plurality of main contents with mutual time synchronization using a first reception channel; playing the main content received in the step and controlling it to be displayed on a first area on a display; receiving all of the sub-contents respectively corresponding to the plurality of main contents using a second reception channel; and controlling the reproduction of the remaining sub-contents except for the sub-contents corresponding to the main content currently displayed in the first region among the plurality of sub-contents received in the above step to be displayed on the second region of the display.

As described above, according to the present invention, even while the main content is being viewed, it is possible to simultaneously watch the sub content while minimizing the amount of data consumption.

In particular, when a plurality of sub-contents are simultaneously viewed while viewing the main content, channel waste may occur when a separate channel for transmission of each of the sub-contents is added. When the processing according to the present invention is performed, such a channel waste can be minimized.

For example, when the number of a plurality of sub-contents is 5, a total of 5 additional channels are required to transmit the sub-contents through a separate channel, and different sub-contents must be transmitted according to the viewer's selection, as in the present invention. When only sub-contents are bundled and transmitted through one channel, the same sub-contents can be transmitted to all viewers, and only one additional channel is required.

In particular, by not displaying the sub content corresponding to the main content, confusion for viewers can be minimized, and further, when the main content is changed, the sub content of the sub area is automatically linked (that is, the sub content corresponding to the new main content is changed). By omitting display of sub content), user convenience is increased.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an entire system including a content receiving and reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
2 is a functional block diagram of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus of FIG. 1;
3 is a diagram illustrating a process in which content is received by the content receiving and reproducing apparatus of FIG. 1;
4 is a view showing an example in which each content is displayed on the display unit of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus of FIG. 1;
5 and 6 are control flowcharts of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus of FIG. 1 .

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, each embodiment according to the present invention is merely an example for helping understanding of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. In particular, the present invention may be composed of a combination of at least any one of individual components, individual functions, or individual steps included in each embodiment.

In particular, for convenience, some of the claims include an alphabet such as '(a)', but the alphabet does not define the order of each step.

In addition, each signal referred to in each embodiment according to the present invention may mean one signal transmitted by one connection, etc., but may also mean a series of signal groups transmitted for the purpose of performing a specific function to be described later. . That is, in each embodiment, a plurality of signals transmitted at a predetermined time interval or after receiving a response signal from a counterpart device may be expressed as one signal name for convenience.

The entire communication system including the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 .

In the drawing, the content providing server 200 is provided with various content that viewers can watch and provides them to the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100, for example, IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) content or VOD (Video On Demand). ) may be a server on the Internet that provides content.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the content providing server 200 includes a plurality of main contents that are time-synchronized with each other, and also includes sub contents corresponding to the plurality of main contents, respectively.

In addition, the content providing server 200 provides only one main content when there is a request from the content receiving and reproducing device 100 for the main content, and provides sub-contents in a batch when there is a request from the content receiving and reproducing device 100 . Assume

In this embodiment, as an example, the main contents are contents obtained by photographing the same stage from different angles, and the sub contents have a reduced capacity for each of the main contents as an example.

As described above, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 receives and plays various types of content provided by the content providing server 200, and may be, for example, a terminal equipped with a wireless communication function or a set-top box provided in the house. have.

An example of a specific functional block of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 is shown in FIG. 2 .

As shown in the figure, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 may be configured to include a first receiving unit 110 , a second receiving unit 120 , a display control unit 130 , and a user request sensing unit 140 , and , may further include a display unit 150 .

Here, the display unit 150 is reproduced and displayed on various contents provided by the contents providing server 200, and as shown in FIG. 1, when the contents receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 is a mobile communication terminal such as a smartphone, It may correspond to a liquid crystal display (LCD), and as another example, when the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 corresponds to a set-top box, the display unit 150 may correspond to a separately connected television or monitor.

That is, the display unit 150 may be included in the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 itself according to the configuration of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 , or may be provided externally separately from the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 . have.

The first receiving unit 110 performs a function of receiving any one of a plurality of main contents with mutual time synchronization using a first receiving channel.

As described above, the main contents are contents obtained by photographing the same stage from different angles, and time synchronization is performed. The first receiving unit 110 requests and receives any one of the main contents according to the user's selection.

For example, when the main content stored in the content providing server 200 includes the first main content, the second main content, the third main content, the fourth main content, and the fifth main content, the first receiving unit 110 can selectively receive only the first main content among them according to the user's selection.

The second receiving unit 120 performs a function of receiving all of the sub contents respectively corresponding to the plurality of main contents using the second reception channel.

As described above, the second receiver 120 performs a function of collectively receiving the sub-contents, rather than requesting and receiving only one of the sub-contents, unlike the second receiver 120 .

For example, the sub content corresponding to the first main content is the first sub content, the sub content corresponding to the second main content is the second sub content, and the sub content corresponding to the third main content is the third sub content. , assuming that the sub content corresponding to the fourth main content is the fourth sub content and the sub content corresponding to the fifth main content is the fifth sub content, even if there is a user's request or there is no user's request, the first If the first main content is being received by the receiver 110 , the second receiver 120 transmits the first sub content, the second sub content, the third sub content, the fourth sub content, and the fifth sub content through the second receiving channel. can be received collectively by requesting the content providing server 200 .

For example, the second receiver 120 may receive the first sub content to the fifth sub content in the form of an MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS). corresponds to a known technology, and thus a more detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As described above, a process in which the first receiver 110 and the second receiver 120 receive the main content and the sub content from the content providing server 200 is illustrated in FIG. 3 .

As shown in the figure, it can be seen that only one of the main contents 511 to 515 is selected and received through the first reception channel, and it can be seen that the sub contents 521 to 525 are collectively received. have.

3 shows that only sub-contents are received in streaming form to help understanding, but the main content can also be received in streaming form, and it is important that the main content is selectively received only one content, On the other hand, the sub-contents are received collectively without selection.

Meanwhile, the user request detection unit 140 detects various requests of the user, for example, may detect a content selection request for selecting a specific content. In response to the user's various requests, the display control unit 130 performs a function corresponding thereto, and a more detailed description thereof will be provided later.

The display controller 130 reproduces the main content received by the first receiver 110 and controls to be displayed in the first area (ie, the main area 501 ) on the display.

Here, the first area, that is, the main area 501 means an area in which the content that the viewer mainly views is displayed, and occupies a significant portion (eg, 50% or more) of the display screen.

In addition, the display controller 130 performs a function of controlling to reproduce at least some of the plurality of sub-contents received by the second receiver 120 to be displayed in the second region (ie, the sub-region 502 ) on the display. .

Here, the second region, that is, the sub region 502 is a region distinct from the main region 501 that the viewer mainly views, and may be, for example, an region occupying 50% or less of the display screen.

Of course, the size of the screen area is not determined. For example, since a plurality of sub contents are displayed in the second area, even if the size of the main area 501 is larger than the area in which one sub content is displayed, the overall size of the sub area 502 is that of the main area 501 . It may be larger than its size.

When displaying the sub content in the second area, the display control unit 130 reproduces only the remaining sub content except for the sub content corresponding to the main content currently displayed in the first area to display the sub content in the second area (ie, the second area) on the display. , can be controlled to be displayed in the sub-region 502).

The relationship between the main content displayed in the first area and the corresponding sub content may be checked based on information included in each content.

For example, when the main content and the corresponding sub content include the same identification ID, the display control unit 130 determines the sub content corresponding to the main content currently displayed in the first area based on the identification ID of each content. it can be done

Here, displaying a plurality of sub-contents in the second area does not necessarily mean that all sub-contents appear on the screen at the same time, but includes a case in which hidden sub-contents are made visible by a kind of scroll function.

As described above, when what is received by the second receiving unit 120 through the second receiving channel is in an MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS) format, the display control unit 130 extracts sub-contents from the MPEG-TS. Afterwards, it is possible to control so that each sub content is reproduced and displayed in the second area.

As described above, after the display unit 150 is divided into a main area 501 and a sub area 502 , a state in which one main content and a plurality of sub contents are displayed is illustrated in FIG. 4 .

Figure 4 (a) is an example of the case where the content stored in the content providing server 200 is a stage where a group of four singers sing a song, in this case, the content stored in the content providing server 200 is the main broadcast content , member 1 content, member 2 content, member 3 content, and member 4 content.

Here, the main broadcast content means a video shot of the entire group by the side that produces the broadcast content (for example, a broadcaster), the member 1 content means a video shot mainly by the first member, and the member 2 content means the second member It means a video shot mainly by , member 3 content means a video shot mainly by the third member, and member 4 content means a video shot mainly by the fourth member.

However, since it has been described that there are main content and sub content for each of these contents, therefore, referring to FIG. 3 , the content providing server 200 includes the main content 515 , the main content 525 , and the main member 1 main content. Content 511, member 1 sub content 521, member 2 main content 512, member 2 sub content 522, member 3 main content 513, member 3 sub content 523, member 4 main content ( 514), member 4 sub content 524 is stored.

Referring to FIG. 4( a ), the main broadcast main content 515 is currently displayed in the main area 501 , and the main broadcast sub content currently displayed in the main area 501 is displayed in the sub area 502 . The remaining sub content except for the content corresponding to the content) 525, that is, the member 1 sub content 521, the member 2 sub content 522, the member 3 sub content 523, and the member 4 sub content 524 are displayed. it can be seen that there is

Meanwhile, the display controller 130 may replace the main content displayed in the main area 501 with another one according to a user's request (for example, the member 3 main content 513 instead of the main broadcast main content 515) (replace with )) Since the process of requesting and receiving content for replacement is only known technology, a more detailed description will be omitted.

At this time, the display control unit 130 causes the sub content corresponding to the main content to be newly displayed in the main area 501 to be deleted from the sub area 502 (second area) and to be displayed on the main area 501 before replacement. It is possible to add sub content corresponding to the main content to be added to the sub area 502 .

This state is shown in Fig. 4(b).

Referring to FIG. 4( b ), as the main area 501 is replaced with the member 3 main content, the member 3 sub content 523 is removed from the sub area 502 , and instead the main broadcast sub content 525 is displayed. You can see that it has been added.

In particular, referring to FIG. 4(b) , the display control unit 130 sets the sub-content (ie, the main broadcast sub-content 525) corresponding to the main content displayed on the main region 501 before replacement into the sub-region 502 . It can be seen that each sub-contents are arranged to be placed in the last position of .

That is, the main broadcast sub content is not placed in the position where the member 3 sub content is removed, but the main broadcast sub content is placed in the last position, so that users can intuitively know the order of the videos they have seen before. do.

In particular, when the display control unit 130 pauses the main content being reproduced and displayed in the main area 501 according to a user's request, the display control unit 130 pauses each sub content being reproduced and displayed in the sub area 502 . Similarly, when the main content of the paused main area 501 is reproduced according to a user's request, each sub-content paused in the sub-area 502 may be reproduced at the same time.

Accordingly, the main content and the sub-contents received through separate reception channels may be reproduced in a state in which time synchronization is performed.

This time synchronization may be performed using information included in each content, and the display controller 130 compares time information included in the main content with time information included in each sub content so that each sub content is matched with the main content. It can be played back with time synchronization.

Hereinafter, an overall control flow of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 .

First, a process in which the main content and the sub-contents are displayed in the main area and the sub-area of the display unit 150 of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 will be described in FIG. 5 .

In response to a user's request, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 receives any one of a plurality of main contents through the first receiving channel (step S1), wherein the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 receives a user's separate Even if there is no request, sub-contents corresponding to the main content are collectively received through the second channel (step S3).

Subsequently, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 displays the main content received through the first channel on the main area on the screen (step S5), and among the sub-contents received through the second channel, which is currently being displayed on the main area. The sub content corresponding to the main content is determined (step S7).

Thereafter, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 reproduces and displays the remaining sub content except for the determined sub content on the sub area on the screen (step S9).

Next, a processing procedure in the case of changing the main content of the main area to another one will be described with reference to FIG. 6 .

The content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 changes the main content of the main area to another one (for example, the main content of the main broadcast is changed to the member 3 main content) according to the user's request (step S11).

At this time, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 determines the sub content corresponding to the member 3 main content from among the sub content collectively received through the second channel even without a separate request from the user (step S13).

In this embodiment, the determined sub content corresponds to the member 3 sub content, and accordingly, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 deletes the member 3 sub content from the sub area (step S15), and in addition to the main content that was previously the main content The main broadcast sub content corresponding to the main content is added to the sub area (step S17).

At this time, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus 100 arranges each sub content so that the main broadcast sub content is located at the end of the sub area (step S19).

In the above-described embodiment, the first reception channel and the second reception channel are not necessarily limited to channels divided by numbers, etc., and may each correspond to sub-channels in a general IPTV broadcasting channel. For example, one of the sub-channels of a specific channel (eg, channel 20) may be the first reception channel, and the other may be the second reception channel.

That is, the first reception channel and the second reception channel only need to have a different path or process for receiving the main content and the sub content, and the channel division does not have to be revealed on the surface.

Meanwhile, it goes without saying that the process of performing each of the above-described embodiments may be performed by a program or application stored in a predetermined recording medium (eg, computer-readable). Here, the recording medium includes an electronic recording medium such as a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic recording medium such as a hard disk, and an optical recording medium such as a compact disk (CD).

In this case, the program stored in the recording medium may be executed on hardware such as a computer or a smart phone to perform each of the above-described embodiments. In particular, at least one of the functional blocks of the content receiving and reproducing apparatus according to the present invention described above may be implemented by such a program or an application.

In addition, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, but can be practiced with various modifications and modifications within the scope without departing from the gist of the present invention. It will be apparent that such modifications and variations are included in the present invention provided they fall within the scope of the appended claims.

100: content receiving and reproducing device 200: content providing server
110: first receiver 120: second receiver
130: display control unit 140: user request detection unit
150: display unit

Claims (16)

(a) receiving any one of a plurality of main contents with mutual time synchronization using a first reception channel;
(b) playing the main content received in step (a) and controlling it to be displayed on a first area on a display;
(c) collectively receiving all of the sub-contents respectively corresponding to the plurality of main contents using a second reception channel;
(d) of the plurality of sub-contents collectively received in step (c), the remaining sub-contents except for the sub-content corresponding to the main content currently displayed in the first region are reproduced and displayed on the second region of the display controlling it to be so;
(g) temporarily pausing the main content being reproduced and displayed in the first area according to a user's request, pausing each sub content being reproduced and displayed in the second area; A method for controlling a content receiving and reproducing device. According to claim 1,
In step (c), receiving an MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS) through the second reception channel,
In the step (d), each sub content is extracted from the MPEG-TS, and then each sub content is controlled to be reproduced and displayed in the second area. According to claim 1,
(e) replacing the main content displayed in the first area with another one according to a user's request;
(f) according to the replacement of step (e), the sub content corresponding to the main content newly displayed in the first area is deleted from the second area, and the main content displayed in the first area before the replacement The method of controlling a content receiving and reproducing apparatus, characterized in that it further comprises the step of adding the sub content corresponding to the to the second area. 4. The method of claim 3,
In the step (f), each sub content is arranged so that the sub content corresponding to the main content displayed in the first area before the replacement of the step (e) is arranged at the last position of the second area A method for controlling a content receiving and reproducing device. delete According to claim 1,
The method further comprising: when the main content of the first area paused in step (g) is reproduced according to a user's request, simultaneously playing each sub content paused in the second area A method for controlling a content receiving and reproducing device. According to claim 1,
In step (d), the time information included in the main content is compared with the time information included in each sub content, and each sub content is controlled to be reproduced in time synchronization with the main content. A method for controlling a content receiving and reproducing device. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 4, 6 to 7 is recorded. 8. An application program stored in a computer-readable recording medium in combination with hardware to execute the method of any one of claims 1 to 4 and 6 to 7. a first receiving unit for receiving any one of a plurality of main contents with mutual time synchronization using a first receiving channel;
a second receiver for receiving all of the sub-contents respectively corresponding to the plurality of main content using a second receiving channel;
The main content received in the first receiver is reproduced and controlled to be displayed in a first area on a display, and a sub content corresponding to the main content currently displayed in the first area among the plurality of sub content received in the second receiver is reproduced. and a display control unit for controlling each of the other sub-contents to be reproduced and displayed on a second area on the display,
The display control unit temporarily pauses each sub content being reproduced and displayed in the second area when the main content being reproduced and displayed in the first area is paused according to a user's request. and playback devices. 11. The method of claim 10,
The second receiving unit receives an MPEG transport stream (MPEG-TS) through the second receiving channel,
The content receiving and reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit extracts each sub-contents from the MPEG-TS and controls the sub-contents to be reproduced and displayed in the second area. 11. The method of claim 10,
When the main content displayed in the first area is replaced with another one according to a user's request, the display control unit causes the sub content corresponding to the main content newly displayed in the first area to be deleted from the second area; In addition, the content receiving and reproducing apparatus characterized in that the sub content corresponding to the main content displayed in the first area before replacement is added to the second area. 13. The method of claim 12,
and the display control unit aligns each sub content so that the sub content corresponding to the main content displayed in the first area before the replacement is arranged at the last position of the second area. delete 11. The method of claim 10,
and the display control unit reproduces the paused sub-contents in the second area at the same time when the paused main content of the first area is reproduced according to a user's request. 11. The method of claim 10,
The display control unit compares the time information included in the main content with the time information included in each sub content, and controls each sub content to be reproduced in a state in which time synchronization with the main content is made. and playback devices.

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