KR19990056475A - Memory control method of satellite broadcasting receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present invention, the satellite broadcast receiver can efficiently allocate memory means provided for storing program information for each time zone according to the size of the information for each time zone, thereby enabling efficient use of the memory means of the satellite broadcast receiver. The present invention relates to a memory control method of a receiver. To this end, when the receiver is powered on, the present invention sequentially extracts the various packet information inserted into the satellite broadcast signal and program information for the plurality of channels sequentially for each time zone. Stage 1; A second step of sequentially storing the extracted program information for each time slot in a first area of the memory means; A third step of calculating each start position of the memory means in which the program information for each time zone is stored and the size of the information for each time zone stored; And a fourth step of storing the calculated starting position and size of the program information for each time zone in a second area of the memory means.

Description

Memory control method of satellite broadcasting receiver

The present invention relates to a satellite broadcast receiver, and more particularly, to a memory control method of a satellite broadcast receiver suitable for efficiently allocating a memory provided in the satellite broadcast receiver to store various types of information provided from a satellite.

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, which is a high frequency RF signal. Is converted into an IF (intermediate frequency) signal in the hundreds to thousands of MHz bands (for example, 950 MHz to 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 IF signal received through the low noise converter is inputted to tune the channel selected by the user. The satellite broadcasting receiver maximizes channel utilization, image and sound. Along with the improvement of signal quality and the ease of transmitting additional digital service data, the significant improvement of the user interface is a big advantage.

Meanwhile, in satellite broadcasting, a transmission signal of a digital broadcasting signal received from a satellite through a fixed channel to a satellite broadcasting receiver is restored to a transport stream through a process of converting to an intermediate frequency, demodulating, and correcting an error. The stream includes various information such as broadcast signals (video data and audio data) for each channel, an event information table (EIT), a time data table (TDT), and the like.

Then, the program guide information stored in the memory area is used to tune a specific channel selected in a transport stream received through a satellite channel when a specific channel is selected by the user, and also by the user. When the provision of broadcast program information of the channel (i.e., display) is requested, it is composed of a menu screen and displayed on the monitor.

On the other hand, as described above, program information for each channel inserted in the bit stream is typically provided with program information of one week, which is, again, EIT 1 (four hours of information from the current time) and EIT 2 (next) for each corresponding time zone. 8 hours of information), EIT 3 (the next 2.5 days of information), EIT 4 (the next 4 days of information), and so on. The size of the memory means for 3 and 4 is pre-allocated to a fixed size and stored.

However, as described above, the size of the memory means in the satellite broadcast receiver is limited to 512 Kbytes, and this is fixedly allocated to program information of each time zone. It may change accordingly.

In other words, in the program information for each channel provided from the satellite, when the holidays are continuous or when there are many programs with short broadcast times, and a time zone with a large amount of program information occurs, the size of the memory unit for the corresponding time zone is limited. Therefore, there is a problem in that some information of the transmitted program information cannot be received. On the contrary, the remaining space is generated in a time zone in which the amount of information smaller than the size of the actual divided memory area is transmitted, thereby reducing the memory utilization efficiency. Problems will arise.

Accordingly, the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, by dividing the memory means provided for storing the program information for each channel in the satellite broadcast receiver according to the size of the program information for each time zone to be transmitted The purpose of the present invention is to provide a memory control method of a satellite broadcasting receiver that can maximize memory utilization efficiency by storing program information.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is to receive a broadcast signal for a plurality of channels provided from the satellite, and to store and display various packet information and program information for the plurality of channels extracted from the broadcast signal in a memory means A memory control method of a satellite broadcasting receiver, comprising: a first step of sequentially extracting the various packet information inserted into the satellite broadcasting signal and program information for the plurality of channels when the receiver is powered on for each time slot; A second step of sequentially storing the extracted program information for each time slot in a first area of the memory means; A third step of calculating each start position of the memory means in which the program information for each time zone is stored and the size of the information for each time zone stored; And a fourth step of storing the calculated start position and size of the program information for each time zone in a second area of the memory means.

1 is a block diagram of a satellite broadcast receiver suitable for applying a memory control method of a satellite broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a view for explaining a memory control method of a satellite broadcast receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating a memory control process of the satellite broadcast receiver according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

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

110: key input unit 120: microcomputer

130 tuner and demodulator 140 memory unit

150: MPEG Decoder 160: Video Encoder

170: OSD unit 180: image synthesizing 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 satellite broadcasting receiver suitable for applying a memory control method of a satellite broadcasting receiver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and includes a key input unit 110, a microcomputer 120, a tuner, and a demodulator 130. , A memory unit 140, an MPEG decoder 150, a video encoder 160, an OSD unit 170, and an image synthesizer 180.

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 microcomputer 120, and the microcomputer 120 provides a key. Each control signal is generated based on a key signal from the input unit 110 to perform a corresponding function. For example, a user processor selects a user broadcast channel from the outside, including a microprocessor that controls overall operation of the receiver. When a signal is input, a corresponding tuning control signal is generated and provided to the tuner and demodulator 130 to be described later.

The tuner and demodulator 130 tunes a broadcast channel selected by a user in a broadcast signal received through a broadcast signal receiver (ie, a satellite reception antenna), not shown, based on a tuning control signal provided from the microcomputer 120. The tuned broadcast channel signal is restored to a transport stream through a process of converting to an intermediate frequency, demodulation, and error correction, and the restored transport stream is provided to the next MPEG decoder 150.

At this time, the microcomputer 120 stores various additional information, program information, and various packet information output from the tuner and the demodulator 130 in a predetermined area of the memory unit 140, and when arbitrary information is requested from the user, Various menu screens are displayed using this.

Meanwhile, the memory unit 140 stores information on various menu screens in another predetermined area in addition to the above-described additional information, program information, and packet information, and for each channel of the entire area of the memory unit 140. The area for storing program information is for each time zone for program information: EIT 1 (four hours of information from the current time), EIT 2 (next 8 hours of information), and EIT 3 (next 2.5 days of information). ) And EIT 4 (the next 4 days of information) and stored sequentially.

On the other hand, in the MPEG decoder 150, on the basis of a control signal provided from the microcomputer 120, a compressed and encoded audio signal and a video signal of a broadcast channel provided from the tuner and demodulator 130, for example, a video signal. Considering the spatiotemporal and spatial correlations, the compressed coded video signal is restored to the original signal before encoding using a decoding technique such as variable length decoding, inverse DCT, inverse quantization, and motion compensation, and the digital broadcast video signal reconstructed here. Is provided to the next video encoder 160, and the reconstructed audio signal is provided to an audio signal processor (not shown).

In addition, the video encoder 160 converts the selected digital broadcast video signal provided by the MPEG decoder 150 to an NTSC or PAL analog video signal and then provides the image synthesizer 180 to the video synthesizer 180. The OSD unit 170 In addition, various menu screen information and message information provided from the microcomputer 120 are configured as a guide screen in a predetermined form and provided to the image synthesizing unit 180.

Accordingly, the image synthesizing unit 180 transfers the analog satellite broadcasting signal output from the video encoder 160 to a display side, not shown, or omits a screen in which various menu screen data displayed through the OSD unit 170 are mixed. To the display side.

When the power of the satellite broadcast receiver configured as described above is turned on, the tuner and demodulator 130 restores the bit stream transmitted to the satellite through a predetermined signal processing process. Various packet information and program information for each channel are inserted, and the program information for each channel is generally composed of about one week's worth of program information, which is sequentially arranged in predetermined time units (EIT1, 2, 3, ..). Stored.

That is, the microcomputer 120 stores program information corresponding to EIT 1 first among program information for each time zone. When the program information corresponding to EIT 1 is completed, the memory unit 140 in which EIT 1 is stored is stored. Information about the start position (address) and the total size of the EIT 1 is stored in another predetermined area of the memory unit 140.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an internal configuration of an area for storing program information for each time zone among the entire areas of the memory unit 140, which will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The program information for each channel provided from the satellite is extracted by the microcomputer 120 and stored in the memory unit 140 for each time zone. When EIT 1 is stored, the microcomputer 120 starts with the start positions A1 and EIT of EIT 1. The size S1 of 1 is stored in another predetermined area of the memory unit 140.

Then, after storing program information EIT 2 of the next time zone among all the program information, the start position A2 of the EIT 2 and the size S2 of EIT 2 are similarly stored in another predetermined area of the memory unit 140. Each program information EIT 3, 4, ... also calculates the start position and the size information as described above and stores it in another predetermined area of the memory unit 140.

When the key signal for displaying program information for each channel is input from the key input unit 110 while the program information for each channel is stored in a predetermined region of the memory unit 140 through the above-described process, the microcomputer 120 is input. Is index information for program information for each time slot stored in another predetermined area of the memory unit 140, i.e., start positions A1, A2, ... for program information for each time slot, EIT 1, 2, 3 ... The program information of the time zone requested by the user is displayed on the screen through the OSD unit 170.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a memory control process of a satellite broadcast receiver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. A series of processes described above with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail.

While the overall operation of the satellite broadcasting receiver is operating in a standby mode for performing a specific command input from the key input unit 110 (step 301), the user operates the key input unit 110 to turn on the receiver. In this case (step 303), the tuner and demodulator 130 receives the satellite broadcast signal provided from the satellite (step 305) and restores the original signal before modulation through a predetermined signal processing process.

The microcomputer 120 extracts program information for each channel from the demodulated satellite broadcast signal (step 307), and separates the extracted program information into program information for each time zone (EIT 1, 2, 3, ...). As shown in FIG. 309, the memory 140 stores the data in a predetermined area of the memory 140 (step 309).

That is, the microcomputer 120 separates the entire program information for each time slot and sequentially stores them in the order of EIT 1, 2, .... First, when all of the program information of EIT 1 is stored in the memory unit 140 (step 311, the microcomputer 120 calculates the start position of the memory unit 140 in which the program information of the EIT 1 is stored, that is, the size of the address A1 and the EIT 1 (step 313) and the other predetermined area of the memory unit 140. In step 315.

Subsequently, the program information of EIT 2 is stored by extracting EIT 2 which is program information of the next time zone and repeating the process after step 307 described above, so that the program information of EIT 2 is stored and the start position A2 of EIT 2 and The size is stored in another predetermined area of the memory unit 140.

Through the process described above, program information for each time zone, program information for EIT 1, 2, 3, ..., start position (A1, A2, A3, ...) and size information of program information for each time zone (S1, S2, S3, ....) is stored in a predetermined area of each of the different memory unit 140, and when the storing process for the program information for each channel is completed (step 317), the microcomputer 120 is tuner and By generating a tuning control signal to the demodulator 130 to tune a specific channel set by the user or the most recently watched broadcast channel, the overall operation of the satellite broadcast receiver is switched to the normal viewing mode (step 319).

On the other hand, during the normal viewing mode of the satellite broadcasting receiver through the above-described process, when the version of the program information provided from the satellite is updated, the microcomputer 120 deletes all program information stored in the memory unit 140 and By repeating the process after the above-described step 307, the updated program information is sequentially stored in the memory unit 140 again for each time slot.

As a result, the microcomputer 120 dynamically stores the program information provided from the satellite by dividing the area of the memory unit 140 according to the size of each time slot.

As described above, according to the present invention, the memory means provided for storing program information for each time zone is flexibly allocated according to the size of the information for each time zone, so that the memory means of the satellite broadcast receiver can be efficiently allocated. There is an effect that can be used, there is an effect that can prevent the loss of program information.

Claims (2)

A memory control method of a satellite broadcasting receiver for receiving a broadcast signal for a plurality of channels provided from a satellite, and storing and displaying various packet information extracted from the broadcast signal and program information for a plurality of channels in a memory means. A first step of sequentially extracting the packet information inserted into the satellite broadcast signal and program information for the plurality of channels when the receiver is powered on for each time slot; A second step of sequentially storing the extracted program information for each time slot in a first area of the memory means; A third step of calculating each start position of the memory means in which the program information for each time zone is stored and the size of the information for each time zone stored; And a fourth step of storing the calculated starting position and size of the program information for each time zone in a second area of the memory means. The method of claim 1, wherein the fourth step comprises deleting all program information stored in the memory means when the version of the program information is updated during the normal viewing mode of the satellite broadcasting receiver. The memory control method of the satellite broadcasting receiver further comprising the step of repeating the process.