KR20070060413A - Method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving subtitle in electronic service guide in digital broadcasting system - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for transmitting and receiving subtitles in an ESG(Electronic Service Guide) in a digital broadcasting system are provided to allow a receiving terminal to effectively reproduce a main stream and subtitles of a broadcasting service and to recognize and effectively output the subtitles. Data of broadcasting services is collected(202). When the collected data includes subtitle information on broadcasting contents(204), the subtitle information is constructed as a subtitle component of an acquisition fragment, and feature fields which represent the feature of the subtitle information are encoded and inserted into the subtitle component(206). A field which represents that the subtitle information exists is encoded and inserted into a main stream component including a guide for the broadcasting contents related to the subtitle component.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING / RECEIVING SUBTITLE IN ELECTRONIC SERVICE GUIDE IN DIGITAL BROADCASTING SYSTEM}

1 is a diagram of a structured data model of an ESG.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a transmission operation according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3A is a flowchart illustrating a receiving operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3B is a flowchart illustrating a receiving operation according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4 is a block diagram showing the structure of a transmitter according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a block diagram showing the structure of a receiver according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The present invention relates to the provision of an electronic service guide (ESG) in a digital video broadcasting system, and in particular, by transmitting information about a subtitle of broadcast content in the electronic service guide. It is to provide a method and apparatus that a receiving terminal can recognize and effectively output a subtitle.

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) system is a European digital broadcasting technology that includes a transmission standard for supporting digital multimedia services for mobile and portable as well as existing digital broadcasting.

In the DVB system, it is possible to multiplex MPEG2 TS-based broadcast data and to simultaneously transmit an IP-based data stream. In addition, in the DVB system, various services may be multiplexed and transmitted in one IP stream, and the receiver, that is, the terminal, receives data of the transmitted IP stream and demultiplexes it into individual services to demodulate the service. Output to the screen to the user. At this time, the user needs information on the type of the various services provided in the DVB system and what contents each service includes.

In the DVB system, an electronic service guide (hereinafter referred to as an ESG) exists to inform information about each service. The ESG data includes time information, related content information, information necessary for receiving the content, information necessary for purchasing the content, and the like for a specific service. The ESG constructs a data model for efficient transmission and determines data to be transmitted based on the data model.

In the digital video broadcasting system according to the related art, subtitles are embedded in a corresponding main stream and transmitted. However, the typical screen size of a portable terminal has a very small feature compared to a fixed terminal, for example a television receiver. Therefore, such a portable terminal has a problem that it is difficult for the user to recognize the subtitle embedded in the main stream.

Accordingly, the present invention, which was devised to solve the problems of the prior art operating as described above, provides a method and apparatus for using an electronic service guide so that a terminal can play a main stream and a subtitle of a broadcast service more effectively.

The present invention provides an electronic service guide (ESG) in a digital video broadcasting (DVB) system in which a terminal can recognize and effectively output the subtitle by transmitting information about the subtitle in the electronic service guide. To provide.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in a method for providing a subtitle of broadcast content through an electronic service guide (ESG) in a digital broadcasting system,

Collecting relevant data on the broadcast services that can be transmitted;

If the collected data includes subtitle information for broadcast content, the subtitle information is configured as a subtitle component of an acquisition fragment, and the subtitle component is encoded by encoding property fields representing characteristics of the subtitle information. Inserting in,

Encoding and inserting a field indicating that the subtitle information exists in a main stream component including a guide for the broadcast content related to the subtitle component;

And transmitting the encoded fields of the main stream component and the encoded fields of the subtitle component to the terminal as ESG data.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a method for receiving a subtitle of broadcast content through an electronic service announcement (ESG) of a digital broadcasting system.

Receiving ESG data from a broadcast transmitter;

Identifying, from the ESG data, a subtitle component representing subtitle information of broadcast content;

Identifying, from the ESG data, a main stream component related to the subtitle component to identify a field indicating that the subtitle information included in the main stream component exists;

Identifying property fields indicating characteristics of the subtitle information and the subtitle information of the subtitle component;

And receiving the service stream of the broadcast content and outputting the service stream and the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal using the characteristic fields.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the operating principle of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. In the following description of the present invention, detailed descriptions of well-known functions or configurations will be omitted if it is determined that the detailed description of the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention. Terms to be described later are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may be changed according to intentions or customs of users or operators. Therefore, the definition should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

The main subject of the present invention to be described later is to provide an electronic service guide in a digital broadcasting system, and in particular, to transmit information on a subtitle of broadcast content in the electronic service guide.

In describing the present invention in detail, digital video broadcasting (DVB) systems and their standards will be used. However, the provision of a subtitle, which is a basic object of the present invention, is applicable to other broadcasting systems having a similar technical background and channel form with a slight modification without departing from the scope of the present invention. It will be possible at the discretion of those with skilled technical knowledge.

As the portable terminal uses a broadcast service through the DVB system, the resolution and scale adjustment of the service according to the service play capability of the terminal become one of the main performance parameters. Generally, in a portable terminal having a small screen, it is necessary to independently perform resolution adjustment and scaling of text-based subtitles (ie, subtitles) and a main stream, which is usually multimedia, according to a service reproduction capability of the terminal. There is. Therefore, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the subtitle is defined as an independent component in the electronic service guide (ESG), and its features are transmitted to the terminal.

As a result, when the subtitle is transmitted independently without being embedded in the main stream (for example, the video stream) provided with the subtitle, or in another traffic flow, the terminal receives the subtitle through the electronic service guide (ESG). Recognize the presence of In addition, by including the component feature information on the subtitle in the electronic service guide (ESG), the terminal may perform a process according to the characteristics of the subtitle.

1 is a structure of an ESG data model of a digital video broadcasting (DVB) system.

Referring to FIG. 1, each block shown represents a fragment of ESG data. That is, the ESG data model 100 includes a service fragment 102, a schedule event fragment 104, a content fragment 106, an acquisition fragment 108, and a service bundle fragment ( 110, a purchase fragment 112, and a purchase channel fragment 114.

The service fragment 102 includes a description of the overall service, the schedule event fragment 104 represents information of a service over time, and the acquisition fragment 108 displays actual data. It contains information that needs to be received in order to receive, the service bundle fragment 110 includes information on the case that bundles a number of services in one service bundle, the purchase fragment 112 is the service Informs the price information for purchasing the bundle, the purchase channel fragment 114 informs the information about the system to be used to obtain the right for the purchase.

Each fragment of the data model may refer to another fragment and arrows between blocks indicate a reference relationship. The reference refers to information related to its own fragment in each fragment using information transmitted from other fragments. For example, if a service is composed of a plurality of contents, the service fragment 102 includes a description of the entire service, for example, the name of the service, the language of the service, and the like. A description of the content itself being transmitted refers to the content fragment 106 of the corresponding content. In addition, various pieces of information necessary for the terminal to receive the service, for example, session information used in a transmitted protocol, are received and demodulated by the acquisition fragment 108 referenced by the service fragment 102. Can be obtained.

Fragments in the reference relationship must have an ID (ID) of the fragment to which they refer to in their fragment. For example, when the service fragment 102 refers to specific content, the service fragment 102 specifies the ID of the content fragment 106 to be referred to in the service fragment 102. .

The ESG data model 100 is transmitted to the terminal using a separate IP stream at a separate time from the actual data stream. Therefore, the service provider uses the ESG data model 100 to transmit information that the user should know before actually receiving the service. In addition, the ESG data model 100 is used for various purposes in addition to the guide for the program.

In addition to the session information, the acquisition fragment 108 may include information representing characteristics of components constituting a service, and a plurality of acquisition fragments 108 may be referred to for one service. For example, if there is a service consisting of a video stream, an audio stream, and a file download, and each stream is transmitted in the same session, only one acquisition fragment 108 is used, but a plurality of streams if each is transmitted in multiple sessions. The acquisition fragments 108 of are used. At this time, each acquisition fragment 108 includes information representing the characteristics of the components.

The receiver recognizes a component constituting a specific service from the component feature information in the electronic service guide and its features, and performs necessary preprocessing using the feature information before starting the service.

<Table 1> and <Table 2> are examples of syntax in the form of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) describing the definition and features of the subtitle component according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Table 1 below shows the XML syntax for declaring a video component among the components constituting the service. Components constituting the service may be a video component, an audio component, a file download component, etc. according to the characteristics of the service. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the subtitle information is defined and transmitted as an independent subtitle component for effective reproduction of the subtitle. That is, the subtitle component is processed in the same manner as the video component, the audio component, and the file download component.

When configuring a service, if there is a subtitle, the relevant main stream necessarily exists. In other words, if a subtitle component is a component of a service, an associated main stream component also exists. Therefore, in order for the receiver to receive the subtitle component and play the subtitle, it is necessary to inform the component of the associated main stream component. In order to inform the correlation between the subtitle component and the main stream component, Table 1 includes information indicating that the subtitle exists in the main stream component connected to the subtitle, and in the video component. The fields shown below represent possible embodiments of the present invention, and of course, the present invention is not limited to the following field names or types.

The video component may include a field indicating a codec characteristic of a video ('CodecCharacteristic'), a field indicating a frame rate ('FrameRate'), a field indicating an open gap language ('OpenCaptionLanguage'), and a field indicating a display language ('SignLanguage'). And a subtitle language field ('SubtitleLanguage') that may indicate that a subtitle exists. That is, the language field may indicate the language of use of the subtitle and may indicate that the subtitle exists.

In Table 2, a subtitle component (SubtitleComponentType) is defined, and a field indicating whether the encoding format of the subtitle is according to the DVB subtitle specification or the 3GPP Timed Text spec. 'Format'), and a field 'Language' indicating a language of a subtitle. In addition, the terminal may include fields 'Max_h' and 'Max_w' indicating the maximum height and the maximum width of the subtitle, respectively, to allow the terminal to scale to its screen size. The size information for scaling the text size of the subtitle may include various parameters, for example, the resolution of broadcast content, the position of the subtitle, the screen size of the terminal, in addition to the 'Max_h' and 'Max_w' fields. According to the mapping scheme of the playback method. The terminal may receive the size information and scale the subtitle and mainstream according to its screen size. In addition, in the above syntax, field names and types do not limit the present invention, but should be understood as the purpose and function of each field.

2 is a flowchart describing a transmission operation according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, in step 202, the transmitter collects data related to each of all services currently transmitted by the transmitter as data to be transmitted to the ESG. In step 204, the transmitter checks whether there is subtitle information in the collected data. If not, the transmitter proceeds to step 214 and encodes the collected information as a subtitle component according to a conventional data model. On the other hand, if there is subtitle information, in step 206, the transmitter sets the subtitle information as a subtitle component in an acquisition fragment and indicates characteristics of the subtitle component, in the above example, a format field and a language field. , A maximum height field, a maximum width field, and the like are encoded and inserted into the subtitle component. In step 208, the transmitter encodes and inserts a subtitle language field ('SubtitleLanguage') representing a connection relationship with the subtitle component into a main stream component associated with the subtitle component. And collect ESG data including the subtitle component, and transmit the ESG data as an IP stream in step 212.

3A is a flowchart describing a receiving operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3A, in step 302, a receiver receives ESG data, in step 304, identifies a subtitle component in the ESG data, and in step 306, identifies a mainstream component related to the subtitle component. In step 308, the receiver reads the aforementioned feature information of the subtitle component, that is, a format field, a language field, a maximum height field, and a maximum width field. In this case, the receiver may check a subtitle language field ('SubtitleLanguage') of the main stream component related to the subtitle component, and inform the user that the subtitle is provided in the corresponding service using a standardized browser of the ESG. After receiving the actual service stream corresponding to the main stream component in step 310, in step 312, the receiver adjusts the subtitle scale according to the terminal using the subtitle component and outputs a subtitle specific to the screen size of the terminal. .

3B is a flowchart describing a receiving operation according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3B, in step 322, the receiver receives ESG data to identify a subtitle component included in the ESG data, and in step 326, field values of the subtitle component are checked. In step 328, the receiver determines whether size information about the subtitle exists as field values for the subtitle component. If the size information does not exist, the receiver proceeds to step 330 to collect field values of the subtitle component and collects the subtitle. Set the property values for playback. Here, the field values of the subtitle component indicate, for example, the reproduction position, the reproduction color, and the like of the subtitle. In this case, even though there are default values that the receiver sets for the reproduction of the subtitle, the receiver may play the subtitle according to the field values of the subtitle component.

If the size information is present as field values of the subtitle component, the receiver determines whether there are basic setting values for reproducing the subtitle in step 332. Here, the default setting value is a setting value determined by the receiver as an appropriate level in consideration of its screen size, and may be determined when the terminal is manufactured. In step 334, the receiver having the basic setting values determines whether the maximum size indicated by the size information is smaller than the size indicated by the basic setting value. If the maximum size indicated by the size information is small or the default setting value stored by the terminal does not exist, in step 336, the receiver determines to use the maximum size indicated by the size information. On the other hand, if the maximum size indicated by the size information is smaller than or equal to the size indicated by the default setting value, the receiver determines to use the size indicated by the default setting value in step 318.

After the reproduction size, color, position, etc. of the subtitle are all determined as the characteristic values for reproducing the subtitle in steps 336, 338, and 330, in step 340, the receiver selects a mainstream component connected to the subtitle component. Check it. At this time, the receiver may check the subtitle language field ('SubtitleLanguage') of the main stream component related to the subtitle component and inform the user that the subtitle is provided in the corresponding service using the ESG standard browser. After receiving the actual service stream corresponding to the main stream component in step 342, in step 344, the receiver reads property values for reproduction of the subtitle obtained from the subtitle component, and in step 346, the receiver reads the property values. The subtitle according to the screen size of the receiver is output.

4 is a view schematically showing the structure of a transmitter according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, a plurality of MPEG 2 streams 402 which are TV streams are input to the DVB transmitter 400, and IP streams 404 and 406 are input in addition to the TV stream. The data IP stream 404 may include IP-based service data and is generated by the IP stream generator 418 based on the content data 416.

An ESG IP stream 406 is also input that includes the ESG data generated for transmitting the service guide information for the MPEG 2 TV stream 402 and the data IP stream 404. The ESG data includes a main stream component for a specific service and a subtitle component related to the main stream component in an acquisition fragment. As described above, the subtitle component may include information representing characteristics of the subtitle component.

An example of a configuration for generating the ESG IP stream is also shown in FIG. 4. In other words, the ESG data collector 422 collects ESG data from the ESG data sources 420. The ESG data includes service related information, preview data, data for a zapping service, and the like. The ESG data collector 422 classifies the ESG data collected from the ESG data sources 420 according to their characteristics to generate components, and the classified ESG data is generated by the ESG data encoder 424. And then independently encoded, and then loaded onto the ESG IP stream 406 by the IP stream generator 426.

The input IP streams 404, 406 are encapsulated in an MPEG 2 transport stream (TS) in the DVB IP encapsulator 408 and multiplexed together with the MPEG 2 TV streams 402 by the multiplexer 410. . The multiplexed TS is modulated into OFDM symbols by the DVB modulator 412 and transmitted via the antenna 414.

5 is a view schematically showing the structure of a receiver according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, the DVB receiver 500 receives a signal through the antenna 502 and undergoes OFDM demodulation in the DVB demodulator 504. The demodulated data output from the DVB demodulator 504 is divided into an IP packet stream encapsulated by the demultiplexer 506 and an MPEG 2 TS packet stream 512. The TS packet stream 512 undergoes a series of processes, such as MPEG demodulation, necessary for the data processing unit 518 to show the service to the user. The encapsulated IP packet stream is demodulated in IP decapsulator 508 into IP stream 510, which is divided into an ESG stream 514a and a data stream 514b.

The data stream 514b is input to the data processor 518 in the same manner as the TS packet stream 512. The ESG stream 514a is input to the ESG processor 516. The ESG processing unit 516 analyzes the ESG stream 514a to obtain ESG data, and reads the subtitle component of the ESG data to determine characteristics of the subtitle included in the subtitle component. The information indicated is analyzed and the user interface 520 is informed to the user that the service supports subtitles. The user interface 516 scales the subtitle included in the service component according to the information indicating the characteristic, and outputs the subtitle together with the broadcast content included in the corresponding service stream so that the user can view the subtitle.

In detail, the output method of the subtitle may be automatically determined according to the screen size of the terminal and the size of the broadcast content (a aspect ratio), or may be selected by a user's operation. As the output method of the subtitle, the subtitle is displayed on the bottom, top, left and right of the displayed area overlapping the area where the broadcast content is displayed on the display screen, or the broadcast content is displayed. The subtitles may be displayed on the bottom, top, left, and right sides of the area outside. The height and width of the subtitle are determined such that the text of the subtitle can be read by at least the eyes of the user according to the screen size of the terminal.

Meanwhile, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined not only by the scope of the following claims, but also by those equivalent to the scope of the claims.

In the present invention operating as described in detail above, the effects obtained by the representative ones of the disclosed inventions will be briefly described as follows.

The present invention effectively outputs a subtitle of a broadcast service according to a service reproduction capability of a terminal in a digital broadcasting system, thereby achieving user convenience.

Claims (17)

A method for providing a subtitle of broadcast content through an electronic service guide (ESG) in a digital broadcasting system, Collecting relevant data on the broadcast services that can be transmitted; If the collected data includes subtitle information for broadcast content, the subtitle information is configured as a subtitle component of an acquisition fragment, and the subtitle component is encoded by encoding property fields representing characteristics of the subtitle information. Inserting in, Encoding and inserting a field indicating that the subtitle information exists in a main stream component including a guide for the broadcast content related to the subtitle component; Providing a subtitle, characterized in that for generating an ESG data including the encoded field of the main stream component and the encoded fields of the subtitle component as an Internet Protocol (IP) stream, and transmitting to the terminal. Way. The method of claim 1, wherein the property fields, And providing size information for scaling the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific fields A format field indicating a coding format of the subtitle information, maximum height and maximum width fields indicating a maximum height and a maximum width for outputting the subtitle information, and a language field indicating a language used for the subtitle information. Method of providing a subtitle, characterized in that. A method for providing a subtitle of broadcast content through an electronic service announcement (ESG) of a digital broadcasting system, Receiving ESG data from a broadcast transmitter; Identifying, from the ESG data, a subtitle component representing subtitle information of broadcast content; Identifying property fields indicating characteristics of the subtitle information and the subtitle information of the subtitle component; Receiving the service stream of the broadcast content and outputting the service stream and the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal using the characteristic fields. The method of claim 4, further comprising: identifying, from the ESG data, a main stream component related to the subtitle component to identify a field indicating that the subtitle information included in the main stream component exists. Subtitle providing method. The method of claim 4, wherein the property fields, And providing size information for scaling the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal. The method of claim 4, wherein the specific fields A format field indicating a coding format of the subtitle information, maximum height and maximum width fields indicating a maximum height and a maximum width for outputting the subtitle information, and a language field indicating a language used for the subtitle information. Method of providing a subtitle, characterized in that. The method of claim 4, wherein the outputting process comprises: And scaling the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal and outputting the subtitle information together with the service stream. The subtitle of claim 4, further comprising: informing the user that the subtitle information is provided for the broadcast service according to a field indicating that the subtitle information included in the main stream component exists. How to provide a title An apparatus for providing a subtitle of broadcast content through an electronic service guide (ESG) in a digital broadcasting system, An ESG data collector for collecting relevant data on the broadcast services that can be transmitted; If the collected data includes subtitle information for broadcast content, the subtitle information is configured as a subtitle component of an acquisition fragment, and the subtitle component is encoded by encoding property fields representing characteristics of the subtitle information. An ESG data encoder inserted into the main stream component including a guide for the broadcast content related to the subtitle component and encoding and inserting a field indicating that the subtitle information exists; And an IP stream generator for generating ESG data including encoded fields of the main stream component and encoded fields of the subtitle component as an Internet Protocol (IP) stream for transmitting to the terminal. The device from which the title is provided. The method of claim 10, wherein the property fields, Apparatus for providing a subtitle, characterized in that it comprises size information for scaling the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal. The method of claim 10, wherein the specific fields A format field indicating a coding format of the subtitle information, maximum height and maximum width fields indicating a maximum height and a maximum width for outputting the subtitle information, and a language field indicating a language used for the subtitle information. Apparatus for providing a subtitle, characterized in that. An apparatus for providing a subtitle of broadcast content through an electronic service announcement (ESG) of a digital broadcasting system, A receiver for receiving a service stream of ESG data and broadcast content from a broadcast transmitter, An ESG processor for identifying a subtitle component indicating subtitle information of the broadcast content from the ESG data and identifying property fields indicating characteristics of the subtitle information and the subtitle information of the subtitle component; A data processor for demodulating a service stream of the broadcast content; And a user interface configured to output the service stream and the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal using the characteristic fields. The method of claim 13, wherein the ESG processing unit, And identifying the main stream component related to the subtitle component in the ESG data to identify a field indicating that the subtitle information included in the main stream component exists. The method of claim 13, wherein the characteristic fields, Apparatus for providing a subtitle, characterized in that it comprises size information for scaling the subtitle information according to the screen size of the terminal. The method of claim 13, wherein the specific fields A format field indicating a coding format of the subtitle information, maximum height and maximum width fields indicating a maximum height and a maximum width for outputting the subtitle information, and a language field indicating a language used for the subtitle information. Apparatus for providing a subtitle, characterized in that. The method of claim 13, wherein the user interface unit, And the subtitle information is scaled according to the screen size of the terminal and output together with the service stream.

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