KR20060122079A - Television receiver and method for searching channel in ad broadcast - Google Patents

Abstract

A TV receiver for performing channel search during advertisement broadcasting and a method therefor are provided to allow a viewer to select a favorite channel by using an advertisement broadcasting time by automatically searching the channel during the advertisement broadcasting broadcasted at an interval of normal broadcasting. A tuner(101) selectively tunes a plurality of channels received from broadcasting stations. A control unit(110) analyzes broadcasting information broadcasted from the channels tuned through the tuner(101), and judges whether normal broadcasting and advertisement broadcasting are received. The control unit(110) searches the channels received in the tuner(101) while the advertisement broadcasting is received as a result of the judgement, outputs the searched channels on a screen(102), and outputs the channel selected among the searched channels on the screen(102).

Description

Television receiver and method for channel search during commercials {Television receiver and method for searching channel in AD broadcast}

1 is a block diagram of a television receiver for channel searching during commercials according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart of a method for channel searching during commercials in a television receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is an exemplary screen for explaining a channel search process during commercials in a television receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

100: TV receiver 101: Tuner

102: screen 103: speaker

104: A / D converter 105: video processing unit

106: audio processor 107: image processor

108: amplifier 109: storage unit

110: control unit

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to television receivers, and more particularly, to television receivers and methods capable of automatically searching for channels during commercials broadcast between regular broadcasts.

Along with the rapid development of science and technology, the multimedia field that combines various types of information such as video and audio, in the rapid development of information and communication, which is also called the digital revolution, the form of storage and existence of information is becoming digital from analog. Due to the development of MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) technology, which is a compression standard for moving image data to compress digital image data that requires a relatively large amount of data, the size of digital image data is gradually getting smaller. Increasingly, digital video and audio services have been applied to almost all fields such as communication and telecommunications, and digital devices for providing such services have emerged.

Among them, TV occupies an important place as an easy and effective information transmission medium in daily life, and thanks to the above digital technology, video data and audio data are compressed and transmitted by MPEG technology, which makes a large amount of information faster and more stable. With the advent of digital TV, which can be provided as an enemy, more broadcasts can be easily enjoyed at home with clearer picture quality and more vivid sound.

With the spread of digital TV, viewers can store various programs and information about the programs, and select and watch programs according to the user's preferences with the information. In addition, the spread of digital TV broadcasts a variety of programs that are dozens of times than the conventional analog TV, and if satellite digital TV is universally distributed, it is possible to watch programs around the world. This would allow viewers to sit and watch hundreds or thousands of programs in their homes. In order to find information about the program and TV guide while watching thousands of such programs, the program is searched through the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) on a limited screen. Of course, there is an advantage that the program information is easily available through the EPG, but when the viewer just wants to know what the next program is while watching TV, the EPG should be full. Or, you will see a pop-up menu to see the next program name. In this case, the OSD (On Screen Display) and information, which are not necessary to see only the next program name, may interfere with the current program. You also see information that you don't need. In addition, if hundreds of programs are pressed by pressing the remote control key to find the next program one by one, the user will have to spend a lot of time and effort to find the required program name. In order to solve this problem, Korean Patent Application No. 2002-0079801 proposes an automatic channel setting method of a multi-channel system that allows the channel to be searched without skipping the channel set to ignore when the channel is automatically set or moved. Doing. However, even if the channel is set in this way, since the regular broadcasts and commercials are broadcasted at irregular time intervals through the set channel, when a viewer watches a regular broadcast of one channel and the regular broadcast is interrupted for a while, the commercial broadcasts on the same channel It is common to explore other channels without watching commercials. At this time, the viewer had to manually search for the broadcasting channel by pressing a button on the remote control, and also because the viewer did not know how long the commercial was being performed, even though the channel was being watched manually, While searching for a broadcast channel, there was an inconvenience of selecting a channel that was watched again from time to time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a television receiver and a method for automatically searching for a channel during a commercial broadcasted between regular broadcasts.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a television receiver and a method for automatically searching for a channel during a commercial broadcast between regular broadcasts, thereby allowing a viewer to select a preferred channel using a commercial time.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a television receiver that receives regular broadcasts and commercials of each channel transmitted from broadcasting stations and outputs them on a screen, and selectively tuning a plurality of channels received from the broadcasting stations. Tuner for; And analyzing the broadcast information broadcast in the channel tuned through the tuner to determine whether to receive regular broadcasts and commercials. As a result of the determination, the channel received by the tuner is searched while the commercials are received. And a controller for outputting a channel to be displayed on the screen, and outputting a channel selected from the found channels to the screen.

The present invention provides a method for searching for a channel in a television receiver that receives regular broadcasts and commercials of each channel transmitted from broadcasting stations and outputs them on a screen. A first step of outputting; A second step of automatically searching for broadcast channels received from broadcasting stations as commercials are broadcast in the reception channel; A third step of continuously outputting the selected search channel as one search channel being output on the screen is selected in the automatic channel search process; And stopping the channel search and outputting the regular broadcast of the channel as the regular broadcast is received from the channel output before the channel search while the channel searched in the automatic channel search process is not selected.

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

1 is a block diagram of a television receiver for channel searching during commercials according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the television receiver 100 of the present invention includes a tuner 101 for receiving a composite video signal transmitted from a broadcasting station and outputting an analog video signal and a sound signal, and a screen for displaying the video signal. 102, a speaker 103 for outputting a sound signal, an A / D converter 104 for converting an analog video signal output from the tuner 101 into a digital video signal, and an A / D converter 104 The video processor 105 makes the digital image signal output from the video signal suitable for the screen 102, and the audio processor 106 makes the sound signal output from the tuner 101 into a signal suitable for the speaker 103. And an image processor 107 for outputting the video signal output from the video processor 105 to the screen 102, and an amplifier for amplifying and outputting the sound signal output from the audio processor 106 to the speaker 103. 108).

Then, the television receiver 100 of the present invention, the storage unit 109 for storing the recorded video and various information, and controls the channel search during the commercial, and control the output of the channel selected by the viewer during the channel search The control unit 110 is provided.

The tuner 101 receives broadcasts transmitted through a plurality of channels, and tunes a channel indicated by the controller 110 to output the broadcasts of the received channels, and comprises an analog video signal that forms a composite video signal of the broadcast. The sound signal is separated and output to the A / D converter 104 and the audio processing unit 106, respectively.

The screen 102 displays an image signal processed by the image processing unit 107, and also displays OSD (On Screen Display) information or a picture in picture (PIP) screen through the image processing unit 107 while the image is being output. Alternatively, when a pop-up screen is delivered, the OSD information is displayed on a screen on which an image is being output, or one side of the main screen on which a PIP screen or pop-up screen processed by the image processor 107 is output. Output to Here, predetermined menu items may be displayed on a PIP screen or a pop-up screen output on the normal screen, or a channel searched during commercial broadcasting may be output.

The image processing unit 107 processes the video signal of the channel tuned through the tuner 101 under the control of the control unit 110 as a full screen and outputs the image signal of the channel searched during commercial broadcasting. The image may be processed on a PIP screen or a popup screen and output on the screen 102. In addition, when the controller 110 controls to output the channel to be searched to the right screen, the image processor 107 may process the channel searched for during the commercial to be displayed on the screen 102.

The storage unit 109 is a storage medium for storing various types of information, and may be implemented as a memory device such as RAM or EEPROM or a hard disk driver (HDD). In 109, various execution programs, for example, execution programs related to reception and output of channels, broadcast recording execution programs and data communication execution programs, etc. are stored, and also execution programs for implementing the present invention, that is, commercial broadcasting. An executable program for automatic channel search is stored.

The control unit 110 automatically searches for channels when commercials are broadcasted between regular broadcasts.

When the regular broadcast of any one channel received through the tuner 101 is output on the screen 102, if the regular broadcast is interrupted and the commercial is broadcasted, the control unit 110 broadcasts the commercial. At the same time, the broadcast channel received through the tuner 101 is searched automatically.

In the automatic search for a broadcast channel, the controller 110 outputs a channel to be searched on the screen 102, but outputs each channel for a predetermined time, for example, each channel to be searched for only about 3 seconds. When a channel searched for a predetermined time is output in this way, when a viewer selects a channel being output by using a remote controller or the like, the controller 110 continuously outputs the currently selected channel until another channel is selected by the viewer. Let's do it.

If no channel is selected by the viewer during the automatic search for the broadcast channel, and the commercial is finished, the controller 110 stops the channel search and outputs the regular broadcast of the channel that was output before the channel search.

A process of automatically searching for a channel during a commercial broadcast by the television receiver of the present invention having the above-described configuration and function will be described in detail with reference to a flowchart.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a channel searching method during commercial broadcasting in a television receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention. However, broadcast information transmitted from a broadcasting station for the purpose of the present invention should include broadcast identification information for identification of regular broadcasts and commercial broadcasts.

Referring to FIG. 2, when the user presses the menu key of the remote controller, as shown in FIG. 3, the television receiver 100 displays a predetermined top-level menu item including the “automatic channel search” item on the screen 102. (S201). At this time, if the user selects the automatic channel search item using the remote controller (S202), the television receiver 100 sets the automatic channel search mode for allowing the viewer to select a preferred channel during the commercial broadcast (S203). Here, when the video signal is output on the right screen, the television receiver 100 may output a predetermined top menu item by an OSD method or a PIP screen or a pop-up screen.

As described above, although the present invention can be implemented so that the viewer can set the automatic channel search mode for automatically searching for channels during commercials using the remote control, the automatic channel search mode for the implementation of the present invention may be set as a default. In this case, it would be desirable to implement the present invention so that the viewer can temporarily release the automatic channel search mode using the remote controller.

After the automatic channel search mode is set, the television receiver 100 analyzes the broadcasting identification information included in the broadcasting information of the broadcasting station that transmits the current channel while receiving one channel and outputting it to the screen 102. It is determined whether the broadcast broadcast on the channel is regular broadcast or commercial broadcast (S204). If the determination result is regular broadcast, the television receiver 100 continuously outputs the regular broadcast of the current channel and maintains the standby state for automatic channel search.

If the determination result in the determination process (S204) is commercial, the television receiver 100 automatically searches for a broadcast channel received at the same time as the start of the commercial (S205). In the search process (S205), the television receiver 100 may start channel search from the next channel of the channel currently being received or start channel search from a predetermined lowest channel, which may be implemented differently according to the implementation manner of the present invention. Can be. The TV receiver 100 outputs each channel to be searched on the screen 102 only for a predetermined time, and outputs the searched channel to the right screen, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The channel searched on the screen may be implemented as a PIP screen or a pop-up screen.

In the automatic channel search process, the television receiver 100 determines whether one search channel being output on the screen 102 has been selected by the viewer (S206), and when selected, when the other channel is selected by the viewer. Continue to output the selected search channel (S207), and proceeds to the determination process (S204) of the regular broadcast or commercial.

If the search channel is not selected in the determination process (S206), the television receiver 100 determines whether the broadcast of the channel output before the channel search is a regular broadcast or a commercial broadcast while performing a channel search (S208). ), If it is a commercial, continue searching for the current channel.

If the determination result in the determination process (S208) is the normal broadcast, the television receiver 100 stops the channel search and outputs the regular broadcast of the channel that was output before the channel search (S209), and the determination process of the normal broadcast or the commercial broadcast ( S204).

Although the technical spirit of the present invention has been described in detail according to the above preferred embodiment, it should be noted that the above embodiment is for the purpose of illustration and not for the purpose of limitation. In addition, those skilled in the art will understand that various embodiments are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, the television receiver can search for a channel automatically among commercials broadcasted between regular broadcasts, thereby allowing the viewer to select a preferred channel.

Claims (9)

In the television receiver for receiving the regular broadcast and commercial broadcast of each channel transmitted from the broadcasting station and output on the screen, A tuner for selectively tuning a plurality of channels received from broadcast stations; And Analyzing the broadcast information broadcast in the channel tuned through the tuner to determine whether to receive the regular broadcast and commercial broadcast, and as a result of the search for the channel received by the tuner while the commercial is received, and the channel search process A controller for outputting a channel on the screen and outputting a selected channel among the found channels to the screen TV receiver comprising a. The method of claim 1, And the control unit outputs each channel searched in the channel searching process on the screen for a predetermined time. Claims [1] A method for searching for a channel in a television receiver that receives regular broadcasts and commercials of each channel transmitted from broadcasting stations and outputs them on a screen. Receiving a channel among a plurality of channels and outputting the channel to the screen; A second step of automatically searching for broadcast channels received from broadcasting stations as commercials are broadcast in the reception channel; A third step of continuously outputting the selected search channel as one search channel being output on the screen is selected in the automatic channel search process; And A fourth step of stopping the channel searching and outputting the regular broadcast of the channel as the regular broadcast is received from the channel output before the channel search without the channel searched in the automatic channel searching process Channel discovery method comprising a. The method of claim 3, wherein In the second step, the channel search method characterized in that for outputting the respective channel to be searched for a predetermined time. The method of claim 4, wherein A channel searching method comprising outputting a channel to be searched on the right screen. The method of claim 3, wherein In the second step, the channel search method starting from the next channel of the receiving channel before the channel search. The method of claim 3, wherein And in the second step, channel searching is started from a predetermined lowest channel. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 7, A fifth step of setting an automatic channel search mode for allowing the viewer to select a favorite channel during the commercial according to the viewer's instruction Channel search method further comprising. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 7, A channel search method, characterized in that the automatic channel search mode for automatically searching for channels during commercials is set by default.

Images