KR20060066449A - Apparatus and method for display of program schedule in digital television - Google Patents

Abstract

The apparatus for displaying a scheduled program broadcast time in the DTV according to the present invention and a method thereof may be performed when a desired broadcast program or a currently viewed broadcast program is selected from among a plurality of broadcast programs while an EPG screen is displayed according to a user's selection. By extracting the scheduled time information (including date and channel information) using the EIT information and the ETT information, and displaying the scheduled broadcast time of the extracted broadcast program, the user can select the scheduled broadcast time for the desired broadcast program. Simple and easy to check.

Description

Apparatus for displaying program scheduled time in digital TV and its method {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DISPLAY OF PROGRAM SCHEDULE IN DIGITAL TELEVISION}

1 is a system configuration diagram of a general digital TV.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an electronic program guide (EPG) screen displayed on a general digital TV.

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an ETT format displayed when a specific program including ETT information is selected on the EPG screen shown in FIG.

4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a method for displaying a scheduled program broadcast time in a digital TV according to the present invention.

5 is a view showing an example of an OSD screen for the scheduled program broadcast time displayed on the digital TV according to the present invention.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: broadcast signal receiving and demodulation unit 110: buffer

120: signal processor 130: memory

140: display unit 150: input unit

160: control unit

The present invention relates to an apparatus for displaying program scheduled time in digital TV (hereinafter referred to as DTV) and a method thereof, which is to broadcast a broadcast program selected by a user (a currently displayed program or a broadcast program selected on an EPG screen). The present invention relates to a program broadcasting scheduled time display apparatus and method for allowing a user to easily check a scheduled broadcasting time, and to perform recording and automatic turn-on reservation of a corresponding program at a predetermined time.

In general, DTV broadcasting provides a clear picture quality and vivid sound quality as compared to the analog method since all signals transmitted from the broadcasting station to the home as well as the TV receiver are all digital signals. In digital broadcasting, a program compressed and multiplexed by the MPEG standard is transmitted.

Among the MPEG standards, MPEG-2 is an international standard for transmitting video and various data for next generation television broadcasting and satellite broadcasting.

MPEG-2 specifies that packets for video, sound and other additional service information are packetized into bit streams, which include a program stream and a transport stream. .

In the multimedia communication using MPEG-2, the sender loads a lot of information in the transport stream, parses it into a transport stream containing a large amount of information, and extracts the carried information. Decrypt and use.

The transport stream includes program guide information for each broadcast program as well as broadcast programs for digital TV broadcasting. The program information included in the digital broadcast signal is provided as an electronic program guide ( It is referred to as Electric Program Guide (EPG) information.

The program and system information protocol (PSIP) is defined as one EPG and system information (SI). PSIP is a standard of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) for terrestrial and cable digital broadcasting. It is defined to provide various information about a program by parsing messages encoded by the method of MPEG-2.

PSIP consists of several tables for transmitting and receiving A / V data in MPEG-2 video and AC-3 audio format, and transmitting information about channels of each broadcasting station and information about each program of channels. . A channel may be selected to support a main function of A / V service of a desired broadcast and an EPG of a broadcast program, that is, an additional function of a broadcast guide service. In this case, channel information for channel selection and packet identification number (PID) for receiving A / V are transmitted through a virtual channel table (VCT), and EPG information of broadcast programs of each channel is EIT (Event Information Table). Each is transmitted via In this case, the EIT includes program title information and broadcast start time information, which are information on an event of a virtual channel, and one event is a typical TV program in most cases.

When there is a request for displaying an EPG screen while watching a broadcast program from a user in such a DTV, when EPG information stored in a memory is displayed according to a user's request, and a user selects an arbitrary broadcast program from the displayed EPG screen, conventionally, Since only the ETT information (if the ETT information is present) is displayed, there is a problem that a user cannot easily determine a future broadcast scheduled time for a desired broadcast program.

In addition, in order to confirm a scheduled broadcast time for a certain broadcast program, the user has to search and confirm the channel by using the date and the channel information, and by using the channel name and the broadcast station name information. There is a problem.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a scheduled broadcast time for a selected broadcast program when a user selects a broadcast program in an EPG screen (a program currently being broadcast may be selected). The present invention provides a program broadcasting scheduled time display apparatus and a method thereof in a DTV that enables a user to easily check a scheduled broadcasting time by searching and displaying the stored EIT and ETT information.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to view the scheduled broadcast time of any broadcast program displayed, and the user can perform the automatic turn on or recording reservation scheduled program broadcast time in the DTV to provide convenience to the user A display device and a method thereof are provided.

According to an aspect of the program broadcasting scheduled time display method in the DTV according to the present invention for achieving the above object, the step of displaying the stored EPG information when there is a request for EPG information from the user; Extracting broadcasting scheduled time information on the broadcast program from the EIT and ETT information when a broadcast program is selected from the displayed EPG screen; And displaying broadcast scheduled time information on the extracted corresponding broadcast program in OSD form.

The scheduled broadcast time information displayed includes at least one of corresponding broadcast program title information, scheduled broadcast date and time information, broadcast station name information, channel information, auto-on time and reserved recording selection information at a corresponding time.

Counting a time from a corresponding time point when auto-on or recording reservation is selected in a predetermined time zone from a scheduled broadcast time screen for a program selected by a user in the OSD form; As a result of the time counting, turning on the power after tuning to the channel of the broadcast program when the time is reached, or recording the broadcast signal for the program received at the corresponding time.

According to an aspect of the program broadcasting scheduled time display device in the DTV according to the present invention, a storage unit for storing EPG information, ETT, EIT information, respectively; Display the stored EPG information to which the EPG information request signal is input from the user, and if any broadcast program is selected from the displayed EPG screen, the scheduled time information for the broadcast program is extracted from the EIT and ETT information of the storage unit. And a controller for controlling display of broadcast scheduled time information on the extracted corresponding broadcast program in OSD form.

The controller, in the OSD form, when the user selects the auto-on or recording schedule at any time from the scheduled broadcast time screen for the program selected by the user, counts the time from the corresponding time point, and reaches the corresponding time as a result of time counting. After tuning to the channel of the corresponding broadcast program, the power is turned on or the recording of the broadcast signal for the program received at the corresponding time is controlled.

Hereinafter, an apparatus and method for displaying a scheduled program broadcast time in a DTV according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Prior to the description of the present invention, a general DTV configuration and EPG / ETT applied to the present invention will be described.

 FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a general DTV system in which a lot of information included in a PSIP is embodied and represented in an EPG and displays this on a screen.

As shown in FIG. 1, the DTV is stored in a broadcast signal receiver and demodulator 100 for receiving and demodulating broadcast signals and EPG information, a buffer 110 for storing demodulated EPG information, and a buffer 110. Signal processing unit 120 for separating the EPG information for each function, memory 130 for storing the EPG information for each function, display unit 140 for displaying the EPG information stored in the memory 130, EPG An input unit 150 for selecting a display selection key and program information, and a controller 160 for performing read / write control of the memory 130 in which the EPG information is stored and display control of the EPG screen. The input unit includes a remote controller, a keypad (key button) attached to the DTV, and the like.

Let us briefly explain each operation of the system configuration of the general DTV configured as described above.

The EPG signal is a channel program information signal carried with the broadcast signal. The channel program information carried on the EPG signal includes a program genre, a program title, a broadcast time, and simple additional information (ETT) of the program.

The broadcast signal receiving and demodulating unit 100 receives and separates the broadcast signal and the EPG information and demodulates the original signal. That is, since the received broadcast signal and the EPG information are not suitable for display, the received broadcast signal and the EPG information are demodulated in the original signal form in order to change to an appropriate form.

The buffer 110 stores the demodulated EPG information in the broadcast signal receiving and demodulating unit 100, and the signal processing unit 120 separates the EPG information stored in the buffer 110 for each function. That is, the event information is separated for each time zone and the event information is separated for each broadcast channel and stored in the memory 130.

In this state, when the viewer inputs an EPG on command using the input unit 150 to use the EPG information, the EPG information read from the memory 130 is displayed by the display control command of the controller 160. It is displayed through the unit 140.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a general EPG screen.

The EPG screen shown in FIG. 2 is an EPG confirmed at 6:11 pm on April 8, 2004, in which Chan means a virtual channel, Name indicates a broadcaster, and the rest shows broadcast programs of each broadcaster in each time zone. Indicates. In the figure, a system time table (STT) represents a current date and time, and the EIT represents a title, etc., which is information about an event of a virtual channel, as is well known.

In addition, the table constituting the EPG includes an ID for each information table included in the PSIP information, a size of each information table, a plurality of virtual channels (VC) included in the current physical channel, and a plurality of channels existing in one frequency. Transmitting MGT (Master Guide Table) / VCT (Virtual Channel Table) consisting of name, channel number, modulation method, ID of transport stream corresponding to channel, local and deliberation institution for program level Extended Text Table (RTT) including RRT (Rating Region Table), brief description of each channel and information about each program in each channel, Extended Text Table (ETT) including channel ETM information and event ETM information , PAT (Program Association Table), PMT (Program Map Table), and the like.

In order to view the ETT contents in the EPG, the ETT information included in the program can be obtained by clicking (selecting) the name of the program in the EPG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an ETT format displayed when a specific program including ETT information is selected on the EPG screen shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in Fig. 3, it is roughly divided into a 9-byte ETT header information portion, a 4-byte ETM_id information portion, an ETM portion of a predetermined byte M, and a 4-byte CRC 32 information portion.

As is well known, the ETT information is further divided into channel ETM information and event ETM information. Among them, the channel ETM information includes a brief description of each channel, and the event ETM information includes information about each program in each channel. The ETT information including the channel ETM information and the event ETM information is received from each physical channel (PC), stored in the internal memory means of the digital broadcast receiver, and then selectively displayed according to channel switching.

In other words, when the user inputs a channel switch key signal to switch the channel being watched, the channel information (channel ETM) and the program information (event ETM) for the currently broadcasted program are displayed on a predetermined form. (For example, a channel banner screen) and displayed on the screen for a predetermined time, the user can refer to the switched channel and program information of the corresponding channel.

On the other hand, the ETT information is transmitted with a considerable amount of size in the PSIP information and stored in the internal memory means of the digital broadcasting receiver. In the process of displaying the ETT information, the entire ETT information is not displayed but is selected by the user (viewer). Only necessary information is extracted and displayed on a guide screen of a predetermined form.

That is, the user can selectively set the banner screen option including the content of the information in the screen composed of the ETT information and whether to display the information. For example, the user sets whether to display a banner screen based on the ETT information and the type of information (brief or detailed information) of the displayed banner screen when switching channels, and the banner screen information set by the user in the digital broadcasting receiver. Based on the ETT information stored in the memory means selectively extracts and displays only the necessary information.

In the general DTV described above, the EPG information display method simply displays the broadcaster and the broadcast time and program name determined by the broadcaster. Click on the name of a specific program in the EPG to view the ETT contents of the specific program in the EPG. Select) to see the ETT information included in the program.

Hereinafter, the operation of the program broadcast scheduled time display apparatus according to the present invention in the DTV shown in FIG. 1.

First, as illustrated in FIG. 1, when the user provides the EPG screen request key input signal to the controller 160 through the input unit 150, the controller 160 may be configured to respond to the key input signal input from the input unit 150. Accordingly, the EPG information stored in the memory 130 is read and the EPG screen shown in FIG. 2 is displayed on the display unit 140.

When the user selects a broadcast program through the input unit 150 while the EPG screen is displayed on the display unit 140, the controller 160 searches for the presence or absence of ETT information of the selected broadcast program from the memory 130. do.

As a result of the search, when the ETT information on the selected broadcast program exists, the corresponding ETT information is read and displayed on the display unit 140. Therefore, the user can check the ETT information which is detailed information about the selected broadcast program.

In this case, when the user inputs a key input signal for requesting the display of the scheduled broadcast time for the selected broadcast program through the input unit 150, the controller 160 uses the EIT information and the ETT information stored in the memory 130. Search and extract the scheduled broadcast time of the broadcast program for each date to be displayed on the display unit 140.

Therefore, the user can easily check the broadcast scheduled time and channel information of the desired broadcast program.

In this case, the display such as the scheduled program broadcast time and channel information is displayed on the display unit 140 by OSD processing in the signal processing unit 120.

In addition, when displaying the scheduled time information, by displaying the icon information that allows the user to select the auto-on schedule and recording schedule, it is possible to automatically turn on the program at the scheduled broadcast time, or to schedule recording To be able.

Therefore, when the user selects an automatic on schedule or a recording schedule of the corresponding program at a predetermined broadcast time, the controller 160 counts the time and tunes to the channel where the corresponding program is broadcast when the corresponding date and time is reached. It displays the broadcast program received through the control, or controls to automatically record the broadcast signal of the received broadcast program.

A method of displaying a scheduled program broadcast time according to the present invention corresponding to the operation of the program scheduled broadcast time display apparatus in the DTV according to the present invention will be described step by step with reference to FIG. 4.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, it is determined whether an EPG screen display request signal is input from a user while watching an arbitrary broadcast program (S101).

When the EPG screen display request signal is input from the user, the EPG information stored in the memory is read and the EPG screen is displayed in the OSD form (S102). That is, the display is displayed in the screen form as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 2, it is determined whether an arbitrary broadcast program is selected from the user in the state where the EPG screen is displayed (S103).

If any broadcast program is selected from the EPG screen by the user, ETT information about the selected broadcast program is extracted from the memory and displayed as shown in FIG. 3 (S104).

As shown in FIG. 3, it is determined whether a corresponding broadcast program broadcast time confirmation request signal is input from the user while the ETT screen for the broadcast program selected by the user is displayed (S105).

When the broadcast scheduled time confirmation request signal for the broadcast program selected by the user is input, the corresponding broadcast program broadcast time is searched using the EIT information and the ETT information stored in the memory (S106).

As shown in FIG. 5, the screen is configured in the OSD form to display the broadcast scheduled time information of the found corresponding broadcast program (S107). Here, the broadcast scheduled time information may include broadcaster name information, channel information, date, and time information of the corresponding broadcast program.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, when the program broadcast scheduled time screen is displayed in the form of an OSD, a corresponding icon may be added to allow a user to select an automatic on schedule and a recording schedule of a corresponding broadcast program by date and time zone. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an OSD screen for a scheduled program broadcast time displayed on a DTV according to the present invention. That is, the scheduled broadcast time information displayed as shown in FIG. 5 includes date / time information and channel information, and includes automatic turning on of a corresponding program and recording reservation selection information.

In the above, when the user selects a desired broadcast program on the EPG screen, the ETT screen is displayed first, and then the program broadcast time information as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed according to the user's request to confirm the scheduled broadcast time. It should be understood that a program broadcast time information screen as shown in FIG. 5 may be immediately displayed when an arbitrary broadcast program is selected in the EPG screen without separately displaying ETT information using a shortcut key.

As shown in FIG. 5, the scheduled broadcast time of the program selected by the user is displayed, and it is determined whether a program auto-on or a recording icon selection signal is input in an arbitrary time zone (S108).

When the user turns on the program or the scheduled recording icon of the corresponding time zone, the time and date are counted from the selected time point.

As a result of the counting, when the corresponding time is reached (S110), the DTV power is automatically turned on and at the same time, the channel is tuned to the channel where the broadcast program is broadcast, and when the scheduled recording is set, the broadcast received from the channel of the broadcast program Recording of the signal is to be performed (S110).

As a result, in the DTV according to the present invention, the apparatus for displaying the scheduled program broadcast time and a method thereof are selected when a desired broadcast program or a currently viewed broadcast program is selected from among a plurality of broadcast programs while an EPG screen is displayed according to a user's selection. After extracting program scheduled time information (including date and channel information) using EIT information and ETT information, the program is scheduled to display the broadcast scheduled time of the corresponding broadcast program.

In addition, after confirming the scheduled broadcast time information for any of the displayed programs, the user can select the auto-on schedule and recording schedule for the broadcast program in any time zone, the time when the auto-on schedule or recording schedule is set By counting the time, DTV will automatically power on or record the program. At this time, when the automatic power-on reservation is set and the DTV power is turned on at the corresponding time, the power is turned on after tuning to the broadcast channel of the corresponding broadcast program.

 As described above, the apparatus and method for displaying scheduled program broadcast time in DTV according to the present invention are selected when a desired broadcast program or a currently viewed broadcast program is selected from among a plurality of broadcast programs while an EPG screen is displayed according to a user's selection. After extracting the scheduled broadcast time information (including date and channel information) of the broadcast program using EIT information and ETT information, the scheduled broadcast time of the extracted broadcast program is displayed. Therefore, the user can simply and easily check the scheduled broadcast time for the broadcast program he / she wants.

In addition, the present invention allows the user to select the auto-on schedule and recording schedule for the broadcast program of any time zone, after confirming the broadcast scheduled time information for any program displayed, If it is set, counting the time will automatically turn on the DTV's power or record the broadcast program at that time. At this time, when the automatic power-on reservation is set and the DTV power is turned on at the corresponding time, the power is turned on after tuning to the broadcast channel of the corresponding broadcast program. Therefore, the user can check the broadcasting time and check the channel information to eliminate the hassle of recording the desired broadcasting program, and the user can easily watch the desired broadcasting program without memorizing the broadcasting time. There is this.

Claims (6)

In the method of displaying the program broadcast scheduled time in DTV, Displaying stored EPG information when there is a request for EPG information from a user; Extracting broadcasting scheduled time information on the broadcast program from the EIT and ETT information when a broadcast program is selected from the displayed EPG screen; And displaying the extracted broadcasting scheduled time information on the extracted corresponding broadcasting program in an OSD form. The method of claim 1, The scheduled broadcast time information to be displayed is, And displaying at least one of corresponding program title information, scheduled date and time information, broadcast station name information, channel information, auto turn-on time, and scheduled recording selection information. The method of claim 1, Counting time from a corresponding time point when auto on or recording reservation is selected at a predetermined time from the scheduled broadcast time screen for the program selected by the user in the OSD form; When the time counting result is reached, the program is scheduled to be broadcast on a DTV, further comprising turning on power after tuning to a channel of a corresponding broadcast program or recording a broadcast signal for a program received at the corresponding time. Time display method. In the DTV program scheduled time display device, A storage unit which stores EPG information, ETT and EIT information, respectively; Display the stored EPG information to which the EPG information request signal is input from the user, and if any broadcast program is selected from the displayed EPG screen, the scheduled time information for the broadcast program is extracted from the EIT and ETT information of the storage unit. And a control unit for controlling to display broadcast scheduled time information on the extracted corresponding broadcast program in OSD form. The method of claim 4, wherein The scheduled broadcast time information to be displayed is, And at least one of corresponding program title information, scheduled date and time information, broadcast station name information, channel information, auto turn-on time, and scheduled recording selection information. The method of claim 4, wherein The control unit, In the OSD form, when the user selects auto on or recording schedule at any time from the scheduled broadcast time screen for the program selected by the user, the time is counted from the corresponding time point, and when the time counting result reaches the corresponding time, The apparatus for displaying the scheduled program broadcast time in a DTV for turning on a power after tuning to a channel or controlling recording of a broadcast signal for a program received at a corresponding time.

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