KR19990052314A - How to Display Program Guide Screen of Composite Broadcast Receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention can improve the function of the guide screen by displaying the reception sensitivity of the broadcast signal for the corresponding CATV channel in the CATV channel field where no program information is provided in the program guide screen for each channel provided by the composite broadcast receiver. The present invention relates to a method for displaying a program guide screen of a broadcast receiver. The present invention includes: a first step of searching for an effective channel to which an actual broadcast signal is input among the plurality of cable broadcast channels; A second step of measuring a reception sensitivity of a broadcast signal for each detected effective cable broadcast channel, and storing the detected valid channel information and reception sensitivity information for each of the measured effective channels; When a key signal for displaying program information for each channel of the composite broadcast receiver is input, program information for each channel for the satellite broadcast, effective channel information for the cable broadcast, and respective reception sensitivity for each effective channel A third step of reading information; And a fourth step of displaying a program guide screen consisting of program information for each channel of the read satellite broadcast and reception sensitivity information for each cable broadcast channel.

Description

How to Display Program Guide Screen of Composite Broadcast Receiver

The present invention relates to a composite broadcast receiver, and more particularly, to a method for displaying a program guide screen of a composite broadcast receiver suitable for providing a user's convenience to a program guide screen for each channel provided by the composite broadcast receiver.

In recent years, the broadcast method using satellites, which is rapidly expanding in use, is a method of providing a broadcast signal to a wider area by using a satellite (communication satellite) located at an altitude of about tens to hundreds of kilos on the surface of the earth. In this satellite broadcasting system, for example, an old band RF signal having a frequency band of 11.7 GHz to 12.0 GHz is used.

To this end, the antenna for satellite broadcasting reception is provided with a low noise blockdown converter for converting a radio frequency (RF) signal of a very high frequency into an intermediate frequency (IF) signal, and the low noise converter converts an ultra high frequency RF signal. It converts into an IF (intermediate frequency) signal in the hundreds to thousands of MHz bands (for example, 950 MHz-2050 MHz) that can be received by a satellite broadcasting receiver (receiver).

Therefore, in the satellite broadcasting tuner provided in the satellite broadcasting receiver (receiver), the user selects and tunes a channel selected by inputting an IF signal received through a low noise converter. The satellite broadcasting receiver maximizes channel utilization, video and audio signals. Along with the improvement of quality and the ease of transmitting additional digital service data, the significant improvement of the user interface is a big advantage.

In recent years, as well as satellite broadcasting, CATV broadcasting using cable has been rapidly spreading. If a subscriber (ie, one receiver) wants to receive all of these broadcasting signals, the frequency band of each broadcasting is used. Because of this difference, a satellite tuner, a cable tuner, and a terrestrial tuner will all need to be equipped separately.

Accordingly, in order to accommodate various types of broadcasts as described above, various types of internal or external tuners may be provided, or each type of broadcast may have a separate signal processing path (that is, a satellite broadcast signal processing path and a cable broadcast signal). It may be considered that the receiver employs an integrated complex tuner for processing through a processing path, but this causes not only an unnecessary increase in hardware of the receiver itself, but also an excessive increase in the cost of the receiver. Is caused.

On the other hand, in view of the above, a complex tuner capable of simultaneously receiving a satellite broadcast signal, a cable broadcast signal, and a terrestrial broadcast signal through a single tuning path has been developed. It is also being developed.

The composite broadcast receiver controls the passband of the received signal and tunes the bandpassed signal based on the user selection signal when a satellite broadcast signal or a cable broadcast signal is received at the input side, and according to the tuned signal and the user selection. Tuning the corresponding channel of the desired broadcast signal by mixing the oscillating frequencies generated, and the tuned signals are provided to corresponding demodulators through separate signal processing paths (BS path, DSR path, CATV path) respectively provided It is.

On the other hand, since a bit stream of a general satellite broadcast signal is transmitted with program information and various additional information for each channel, more various services and information can be provided to a user.

For example, when a program guide screen for program information for each channel is requested from the user, program information for each channel inserted in the bit stream is extracted and displayed as a guide screen of a predetermined type, and the user operates a key input means. By scrolling the screen left and right, you search for the broadcast program you want.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a program guide screen provided by a general composite broadcast receiver. Referring to FIG. 4, when a user inputs a key signal for displaying a program guide screen for each channel, FIG. As shown in the figure, the CATV channel and the satellite broadcasting channel are displayed as one guide screen.

In addition, the user moves the cursor displayed on the screen by using a key input means to move between each program or channel. The CATV broadcast signal is separated from program information for each channel as in the above-described satellite broadcast signal and separately. Since additional information is not included, program information for each channel is not provided.

Therefore, the program information on the CATV channel is not provided on the displayed program guide screen as shown in FIG. 4.

That is, there is a problem in that the CATV channel column in the program guide screen for each channel does not actually provide a different function. If other additional information is provided using the CATV channel column in the program guide screen, more various services can be provided. Will be.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described points, and the program guide screen of the composite broadcast receiver capable of displaying the reception sensitivity of the broadcast signal of the corresponding CATV channel in the CATV channel field of the program guide screen provided by the composite broadcast receiver. The purpose is to provide a display method.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a broadcast signal processing path for processing a plurality of terrestrial broadcast channels and cable broadcast channels tuned through a composite tuner and a broadcast signal for processing a plurality of satellite broadcast channels tuned through the composite tuner. A method for displaying a program guide screen of a composite broadcast receiver that displays program information for each channel previously stored in a composite broadcast receiver having a processing path, the method comprising: searching for an effective channel to which an actual broadcast signal is input among the plurality of cable broadcast channels; Stage 1; A second step of measuring a reception sensitivity of a broadcast signal for each detected effective cable broadcast channel, and storing the detected valid channel information and reception sensitivity information for each of the measured effective channels; When a key signal for displaying program information for each channel of the composite broadcast receiver is input, program information for each channel for the satellite broadcast, effective channel information for the cable broadcast, and respective reception sensitivity for each effective channel A third step of reading information; And a fourth step of displaying a program guide screen including program information for each channel of the read satellite broadcast and reception sensitivity information for each cable broadcast channel.

1 is a block diagram of a composite broadcast receiver suitable for applying a method for displaying a program guide screen of a composite broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying a program guide screen of a composite broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a program guide screen of a composite broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a program guide screen provided by a general composite broadcast receiver.

<Description of the code | symbol about the principal part of drawing>

110: key input unit 120: control unit

130: tuner and demodulator 140: MPEG decoder

150: video encoder 160: NTSC processing unit

170: memory unit 180: OSD unit

190: switching unit

The above and other objects and various advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the preferred embodiments of the present invention described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

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

1 is a block diagram of a composite broadcast receiver suitable for applying a method for displaying a program guide screen of a composite broadcast receiver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and includes a key input unit 110, a controller 120, a tuner, and a demodulator ( 130, the MPEG decoder 140, the video encoder 150, the NTSC processing unit 160, the memory unit 170, the OSD unit 180, and the switching unit 190.

Referring to FIG. 1, the key input unit 110 is configured with key metrics on a remote controller or its own panel to generate a corresponding key signal by a user's operation and provide the corresponding key signal to the controller 120, and the controller 120 receives the received key. The microprocessor performs overall operation control of the system, and when a user broadcast channel selection signal (ie, an operation signal) is input from the key input unit 110, a corresponding tuning control signal is generated to generate a tuner and demodulator 130, which will be described later. ), And store each channel information provided to the composite broadcast receiver and program information for each channel of the satellite broadcast receiver in a predetermined region of the memory unit 170.

When the controller 120 needs to send a message or a guide screen to a monitor (not shown), the controller 120 extracts the corresponding OSD data from a predetermined area of the memory unit 170 and provides the OSD data to the OSD unit 180. A switching control signal is generated and provided to the switching unit 190 to be described later in order to switch the output of the broadcast signal corresponding to the broadcast mode currently being viewed or the broadcast mode that the user wants to switch based on the user manipulation signal.

In addition, when the effective channel search process of the CATV is performed in the initial state of the receiver, the reception sensitivity of the broadcast signal for each detected effective channel is received from the signal measuring unit 165 and stored in a predetermined area of the memory unit 170. Done.

Meanwhile, the tuner and the demodulator 130 are selected by the user from a broadcast signal received through a broadcast signal receiver (i.e., antenna, cable, etc.), not shown, based on a tuning control signal provided from the controller 120. The broadcast channel is tuned and the tuned broadcast channel signal is demodulated to the original signal before transmission. When the satellite broadcast signal is tuned, the demodulated satellite broadcast channel signal is provided to the MPEG decoder 140, and the cable broadcast signal or the terrestrial broadcast is broadcast. When the signal is tuned, the demodulated broadcast channel signal is provided to the NTSC processor 160.

That is, the tuner and demodulator 130 is composed of a composite tuner capable of receiving and tuning all satellite broadcast signals, CATV broadcast signals, and terrestrial broadcast signals provided through an antenna or transmission path, not shown.

In the MPEG decoder 140, the compressed and encoded video signal of the tuned satellite broadcast channel provided by the tuner and the demodulator 130, for example, the video signal having been compressed and coded in consideration of the temporal and spatial correlation of the video signal, Reconstruction is performed to the original signal before encoding using decoding techniques such as variable length decoding, inverse DCT, inverse quantization, and motion compensation, and the reconstructed digital video signal is provided to the video encoder 150 of the next stage.

Next, the video encoder 150 converts the tuned digital video signal provided by the MPEG decoder 140 described above into an NTSC or PAL analog video signal and then provides the converted signal to the switching unit 190.

In addition, the NTSC processor 160 processes the tuned analog video signal (ie, cable broadcast channel signal or terrestrial broadcast signal) provided from the tuner and demodulator 130, for example, level amplification, noise cancellation, gain control, and the like. Various signal processing is performed to provide the switching unit 190.

As described above, when the effective channel search process for the CATV channel is performed in the initial state of the composite broadcast receiver, the signal measuring unit 165 measures the reception sensitivity of each channel and provides the received signal to the controller 120.

The OSD unit 180 configures the OSD screen data based on the vertical and horizontal synchronization signals generated for the purpose of setting the position to transmit the various OSD data provided from the control unit 120, and switches through the mixer 190 through the mixer. ).

The switching unit 190 provides the video signal output of the tuned cable broadcasting or the terrestrial broadcasting (or a mixed video signal mixed with OSD data) and the video signal output of the tuned satellite broadcasting channel from the controller 120 described above. By selectively switching based on the switching control signal, the video signal of the broadcast mode is provided to the display side, not shown.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of displaying a program guide screen of a composite broadcast receiver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, which will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

On the other hand, in CATV broadcasting, since additional information (channel information and program information) embedded in the satellite broadcasting signal is not provided, an automatic search process for an effective channel to which an actual broadcast signal is input in the initial state of the receiver is required.

Therefore, when the effective channel search process of the CATV is performed in the initial standby mode of the composite broadcast receiver (step 301) (step 303), the control unit 120 generates a tuning control signal to the tuner and the demodulator 130, The effective channels are sequentially detected (step 305). At this time, the controller 120 measures the reception sensitivity of the broadcast signal for each detected effective channel (step 307).

In operation 309, information corresponding to the detected valid channel and the reception sensitivity of each valid channel is stored in a predetermined area of the memory unit 170 (step 309).

After the automatic search process for the effective channel to which the actual broadcast signal is input among the CATV channels provided to the composite broadcast receiver through the above-described process (step 311), the control unit 120 describes the operation of the composite broadcast receiver. The standby mode is switched to the same as the initial stage 301 (step 313).

Meanwhile, the key signal for displaying the program guide screen for each channel of the composite broadcast receiver is input from the key input unit 110 after pre-stored the effective channel and the reception sensitivity information of each effective channel of the CATV through the above-described process. (Step 315), the controller 120 reads satellite broadcast program information for each channel stored in the predetermined area of the memory unit 170 (step 317), and again, the effective channel information of each CATV and each CATV stored in another predetermined area. Receive sensitivity information for the channel is read (step 319).

Each read information is displayed on the program guide screen for each channel as shown in FIG. 3 through the OSD unit 180 (step 321).

That is, program information for each time zone is sequentially displayed on each channel for satellite broadcasting, and reception sensitivity of a broadcast signal for the corresponding channel is displayed on each channel for CATV broadcasting.

As described above, according to the present invention, by displaying the reception sensitivity of the broadcast signal for the channel by using the CATV channel item that is not provided with additional information on the program guide screen provided to the composite broadcast receiver, There is an effect to improve the function for, and thus there is an effect to provide a more various services.

Claims (1)

In a composite broadcast receiver having a broadcast signal processing path for processing a plurality of terrestrial broadcast channels and cable broadcast channels tuned through a composite tuner and a broadcast signal processing path for processing a plurality of satellite broadcast channels tuned through the composite tuner. In the program guide screen display method of the composite broadcast receiver to display the stored program information for each channel, A first step of searching for an effective channel to which an actual broadcast signal is input among the plurality of cable broadcast channels; A second step of measuring a reception sensitivity of a broadcast signal for each detected effective cable broadcast channel, and storing the detected valid channel information and reception sensitivity information for each of the measured effective channels; When a key signal for displaying program information for each channel of the composite broadcast receiver is input, program information for each channel for the satellite broadcast, effective channel information for the cable broadcast, and respective reception sensitivity for each effective channel A third step of reading information; And displaying a program guide screen including program information for each channel of the read satellite broadcast and reception sensitivity information for each cable broadcast channel.