KR20010076436A - EPG Display methode for Digital TV - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method of displaying a program guide of a digital television set is provided to display subprogram schedule information by complementing problems of PSIP(Program system Interface Protocol) standardization when a lot of broadcasting programs is on a schedule. CONSTITUTION: The television set receives data transmitted from a broadcasting station to display an electronic program guide, and parses the received data corresponding to each attribution. Next, the television set discriminates whether a descriptor related the subprogram exists or not according to the parsing operation. Then, the television set displays the related information of the electronic program guide on a screen to easily see by a user. Accordingly, the user can obtain various broadcasting programs from the screen and enjoying desired programs.

Description

Program guide display method of digital TV {EPG Display methode for Digital TV}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to digital TVs, and more particularly to EPG (Electronic Program Guide), which is program guide information.

The PSIP (Program System Interface Protocool) specification, which defines the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) currently used in US digital broadcasting, includes an EIT (Event Information Table). The program guide informs viewers of the broadcast schedule. However, there is no table or descriptor that can indicate when a broadcaster needs to inform two viewers by organizing two or more proposals when programming a broadcast schedule. For example, even in the case of current analog TV broadcasting, one eye and two eyes are simultaneously organized when the broadcast timetable is organized, and when one eye is impossible at the time of broadcasting, two eyes are broadcast. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, digital TVs also use a method of multiple programming. FIG. 1 shows three virtual channels (10-1, 10-2) broadcasted on a physical channel having channel number 10. , Broadcast schedule for 10-3).

The current time is 17:00, and the broadcast schedule until 23:00 is shown as 1-A, 1-B, 1-E, and each time is like 2-A, 3-A for other virtual channels. This shows the programs scheduled to be broadcasted.

According to the PSIP standard, information about each program event is shown in EIT-0 from 17:00 to 18:00, EIT-1 from 18:00 to 21:00, and EIT-2 from 21:00 to 24:00. Will have

10-1 In the case of a virtual channel, 1-F and 1-G exist as a pair 2 in the case of a 1-D program in the original pair (one eye). In other words, the 1-D broadcast program is the principle, but due to the broadcasting station can be switched to broadcast 1-F and 1-G.

However, in such a standard, in the case of one broadcast program as described above, it can be expressed through the EIT of the existing PSIP standard. However, in case of Program 2, the supporting information is not included in the standard, so it cannot be supported. In addition, if there is a need for the broadcaster to inform viewers about the proposed broadcast schedule, which is subject to change, it is impossible to support the current EIT. Therefore, there is no way to use this to show viewers the programming schedule on the EPG service.

The present invention is to solve the problems as described above to supplement the problems in the currently established PSIP standard to provide the schedule information related to the plural pairs visual avenue 2 proposed.

1 is a view showing program guide information related to a plurality of programming plans related to the prior art.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart for receiving program guide information related to the program 2 as related to the present invention.

The first aspect of the present invention is to create a separate Descriptor and a method for modifying and supplementing the EIT in the PSIP standard in order to clearly convey the contents of the program in the schedule configuration 2 during digital TV broadcasting using the PSIP standard.

The second aspect of the present invention is to maintain compatibility without causing any problems with existing DTV transmitters and receivers, and to provide better EPG services to viewers with only a few S / W modifications.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 1 to 3.

The present invention proposes two methods in order to apply and use the broadcast scheduling scheme 2 to the EIT of the existing PSIP.

As a first embodiment, a method of using a new Descriptor for Secondary Events

Can be used. Secondary Event Descriptor is newly defined as in the example of Table 2 and applied to the descriptor () part of Table 1.

Table 1. Bit stream syntax of EIT of PSIP

Syntax Bits Format

event_information_table_section () {

table_id 8 0xCB

section_syntax_indicator '1'

private_indicator 1 '1'

reserved 2 '11'

section_length 12 uimsbf

source_id 16 uimsbf

zero 2 '00'

version_number 5 uimsbf

current_next_indicator 1 '1'

section_number 8 uimsbf

last_section_number 8 uimsbf

protocol_version 8 uimsbf

num_events_in_section 8 uimsbf

for (j = 0; j <num_events_in_section; j ++) {

reserved 2 '11'

event_id 14 uimsbf

start_time 32 uimsbf

reserved 2 '11'

ETM_location 2 uimsbf

length_in_seconds 20 uimsbf

title_length 8 uimsbf

title_text () var

reserved 4 '1111'

descriptors_length 12

for (i = 0; i <N; i ++) {

descriptor ()

}

}

CRC_32 32 rpchof

}

Table 2. Bitstream syntax associated with the proposed pair

Syntax Bits Format

secondary_event_descriptor () {

descriptor_tag 8 0x88

descriptor_length 8 uimsbf

number_of_events 8 uimsbf

for (i = 0; i <number_of_events; i ++) {

reserved 2 '1'

event_id 14 uimsbf

start_time 32 uimsbf

reserved 4 '111'

length_in_seconds 20 uimsbf

title_length 8 uimsbf

title_text () var

}

}

In this case, the secondary event can be composed of several events, and for this purpose, as many loops as number_of_events are formed.

In addition, the Secondary Event Descriptor is composed of descriptor_tag, number_of_events, event_id, start_time, length_in_seconds, title_text (), and the like. Each detail is as follows.

descriptor_tag: A field indicating the type of descriptor (0x88)

* descriptor_length: Number of bytes following descriptor_length

number_of_events: Number of secondary events

event_id: Identification number of the event

start_time: Event start time (GPS time)

length_in_seconds: Event duration in seconds

title_text (): Title of the event consisting of multiple string structures.

This Descriptor can be parsed to transmit and receive broadcast schedule 2 information, which can be used to accurately deliver broadcast schedules to viewers through EPG services, etc.-In addition, in front of the descriptor () part of the existing EIT as shown in Table 3. The reserved part of the 4 bits may be changed to reserved 3 bits and 1 bit of the secondary_event_flag so that the existence of the secondary event in the descriptor () can be known. Using this method, it is easy to know the existence or absence of parsing all descriptors (), which makes it easy to apply to EPG services.

Modification of Existing EIT as Second Embodiment

This method can be used by using the event in the existing EIT as it is. As shown in Table 4, the reserved field of the EIT is changed to create the secondary_event_flag and indicate that it is the secondary event.

If secondary_event_flag is 1, the event corresponds to broadcast schedule 2, and information about this event may be selectively parsed as necessary to be used in the EPG.

This method is a method that can support the broadcast scheduling schedule 2 with a minimum of modification.

The proposed method can be used to support broadcast schedule program 2, but in case of actual broadcasting, one of program 1 and program 2 should be selected for broadcasting. Therefore, EIT is determined before the broadcast time corresponding to the plan. It itself needs to be modified and the version changed.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart related to the present invention. If there is a broadcast schedule 2 proposal, the encoder encodes and transmits a broadcast signal using a descriptor or an event plug of the setup 2 during PSIP encoding. The receiver parses to extract the information, checks whether there is data related to the program 2, and if so, displays the related information to the viewer.

The present invention can be applied to inform viewers of this information in advance when a broadcasting station has a plurality of broadcast scheduling schemes at the time of DTV broadcasting. By showing the contents of the events in the viewer to the viewer there is an effect that can provide a clear broadcast information service.

Claims (1)

An EPG display method of a digital TV, comprising the steps of: receiving data transmitted from a broadcasting station, Parsing the data received in the step according to each attribute, Judging whether there is a descriptor related to the program 2 based on the result; And displaying related information to the viewer according to the determination result.