KR20070113480A - Subordinate relationship program service method - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for providing a slave program service dependent on a master program is provided to allow a user to select a master program or a slave program according to the intention of the user by transmitting the slave program through a minor channel and providing information about the slave program to the user. A descriptor is added to details of a program, in which the descriptor is defined such that programs transmitted through a minor channel are dependent on a master program transmitted through a major channel. If the descriptor is transmitted as PSIP(Program and System Information Protocol) information, the PSIP information is parsed so that an EPG(Electronic Program Guide) table and a slave channel program guide are constructed and displayed, and thus a user is able to select the slave program by using the slave channel program guide(S20-S40). The EPG table shows slave channels for slave programs defined in the descriptor, and the sub-channel program guide shows the slave programs of the slave channels.

Description

Subordinate relationship program service method with dependency

1 is a flowchart of a program service providing method having a dependency according to the present invention.

2 is a schematic representation of a system for configuring a program with dependencies in accordance with the present invention;

3 is a view showing an example of an EPG table according to the present invention;

4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a dependent channel guide guide according to the present invention;

The present invention relates to a digital TV, and more particularly, to a program service providing method having a dependency of serving a slave program having a dependency on a master program.

In general digital broadcasting, unlike analog broadcasting, logical channel numbers are used for channel tuning, not high frequency channel numbers, which are physical transmission channels (PTCs). These logical channel numbers include a major channel number, which is a unique number assigned to each broadcasting station, and a minor channel number assigned by the corresponding broadcaster to implement multiple channels for one high frequency channel.

According to the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) standard of the Advanced Television Service Committee (ATSC), a terrestrial digital broadcasting standard, the digital transport stream includes major and minor channel numbers, video / audio stream information, and program details. to provide. The major channel number is a channel number allocated to a 6 MHz band used for terrestrial broadcasting, and the minor channel number is a channel number assigned to a digital service channel transmitted through a 6 MHz band.

PSIP data is a set of tables including various system information (SI) required for digital broadcasting and digital broadcast stream processing according to the PSIP, and included in all digital broadcast streams having a base PID (Base Packet ID). Is sent. PSIP data includes the MGT including the system time table (STT) to configure system time information, the rating region table (RRT) to configure regional grade information, and the PID information of the event information table (EIT) to configure detailed information of each program. (Master Guide Table) and a VCT (Virtual Channel Table) that configures information about the actual digital channels (such as the number of channels, video / audio / PCR PID) in the high frequency channel.

Therefore, channel information including information related to a channel included in the digital broadcast stream can be obtained through such system information. The channel information includes logical channel number and physical channel number, video / audio / PCR PID, broadcaster to which channel is assigned, and detailed information about a program provided in the channel. Detailed information about the program includes information about the program title, the genre of the program, and the airing time.

Since the logical channel number is not the channel number according to the high frequency band, in order to tune the channel according to the logical channel number selected by the user in the digital broadcasting receiver, the physical channel number corresponding to the logical channel number must be found first. In order to extract the program corresponding to the selected minor channel from the digital broadcast stream received from the tuned channel, PID (ie, video / audio / PCR PID) is set. And selectively decoding audio data to output a program for the selected channel.

Recently, a master program and a slave program are serviced through major channels and minor channels using the digital broadcasting service. For example, game broadcasts, which are currently being provided to young people, are each player from the point of view of the narrator. Service to the user in the form of delivering the screen that the user sees.

That is, the viewer watches the broadcast from the point of view of the player selected by the narrator. Thus, the viewpoint of the game screen continues to change regardless of the user's will. In addition, in order to provide various views of a program at the same time, a divided screen is serviced to one channel, but this also lacks a viewer's selection and has to be viewed with a limited screen size.

The present invention has been made to achieve the above object, and transmits a slave program defining a dependency on a master program to a minor channel and provides the viewer with information of a slave program having a dependency on a user, according to the viewer's will. An object of the present invention is to provide a service providing method of a program having a dependency to select a master program or a slave program.

The present invention devised to achieve the above object is as follows. The program service providing method having the dependency of the present invention provides PSIP information for providing channel numbers, video / audio stream information, and program detailed information of major and minor channels, and provides various types of the major and minor channels through the PSIP information. In the digital broadcasting service method for allowing a user to select a channel according to program information, the PSIP information is added to a program detail information by adding a descriptor that defines that each program transmitted to a minor channel has a dependency on a master program transmitted to a major channel. In this case, the user configures and displays an EPG table indicating a subordinate channel outputting a subordinate program defined in the descriptor by parsing the transmitted PSIP information and a subordinate channel program guide displaying the subordinate program of the subordinate channel. Prize It characterized in that it allows you to select the subordinate program through the subordinate channel program guide.

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

1 is a flowchart of a program service providing method having a dependency according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a system for configuring a program having a dependency according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of an EPG table according to the present invention. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a dependent channel guide guide according to the present invention.

For reference, the exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described by dividing the game channel into a master program displayed according to the commentator's time and a slave program displaying the gamer's time.

In the method of providing a program service having a dependency according to the present invention, when a viewer first selects a game channel shown in FIG. 1 (S10), the digital TV receives and parses PSIP information (S20). In this case, if there is dependency descriptor information, it is also parsed to calculate the dependency between programs.

Accordingly, in addition to displaying the master program of the game channel selected by the viewer (S30), the EPG table shown in FIG. 3 is configured through the parsed PSIP information, and the dependent channel guide guide shown in FIG. do. For reference, the subordinate channel is a channel having a dependency with a major channel, and is described separately from a general minor channel.

Meanwhile, as described above, the dependency between programs may be determined through a multi program transport stream transmitted from a broadcasting station. As shown in FIG. 2, the broadcasting station may be connected to an interpreter through a major channel and a minor channel. A video signal and an audio signal indicative of each gamer, i.e., the player's time, are transmitted together with the dependency descriptor information described above.

That is, in the major channel, the video signal and the audio signal representing the time of the commentator are the program number '1', the MPID (Mater Program ID) is set to '100', and the SPID is set to '0'. The video signal and the audio signal representing the time are set to program number '2', and the MPID is '100' and the SPID is '1'. In the minor channel, the video signal and the audio signal representing player B's time are set to program number '3' and the MPID is '100' and the SPID is '2'.

Therefore, it can be seen that a dependency relationship is established between a program serviced through a major channel and a minor channel through the MPID and the SPID.

Meanwhile, in addition to displaying the master program of the game channel selected by the viewer, the EPG table is configured according to the parsed PSIP information (S40).

For reference, an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) is to display various channel information so that a viewer can recognize program information of each channel, as shown in FIG. 3.

When the EPG table is configured as described above, the dependent channel guide guide is configured.

As shown in FIG. 4, the sub-channel guide guides the characteristics of the program serviced through the major channel and the sub-channel, and the master program provides the narrator guide broadcast according to the narrator's time, and the sub-channel 1 is the player A's guide. Service of player A according to time, and subordinate channel 2 represents service of player B according to player B's time.

When the EPG table and the sub-channel guide guide are configured, it is determined whether the EPG remote control key for displaying the EPG table is input (S50). Here, the EPG remote control key is not limited to the one provided separately, and the menu window is displayed to display the EPG. It can be said to contain all the keys that allow you to select a table.

When the EPG remote control key is input, the EPG table as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed (S60) and the E-sports program as shown in FIG. Indicates that the slave program is being serviced on the two subordinate channels so that the viewer can select it.

At this time, it is determined whether the viewer selects the master program. In the embodiment of the present invention, it is determined whether to select "E-sports (2S)" (S70). The slave channel guide guide shown is displayed (S80).

After displaying the slave channel guide, the viewer determines whether to select the slave program displayed in the slave channel guide, for example, "player A" or "player B" (S90), and then selects a specific slave program. The slave program is displayed (S100).

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and can be carried out in various modifications within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention.

According to the present invention configured as described above, by configuring the sub-channel guide guide and providing the program information of the slave channel having a dependency on the master channel to the viewer so that the viewer can select the master channel or slave channel according to their will In the digital broadcasting service, a wide range of available channels may be used to simultaneously broadcast a program at various times.

Claims (1)

Provides PSIP information that provides channel numbers, video / audio stream information, and program detailed information of major and minor channels, and allows the user to select a channel according to various program information of the major and minor channels through the PSIP information. In the digital broadcast service method, If a descriptor that defines that each program sent to the minor channel has a dependency with respect to the master program sent to the major channel is sent to the PSIP information in addition to the program detailed information, the sent PSIP information is parsed to determine the dependency defined in the descriptor. And configuring and displaying the EPG table displaying the subordinate channels outputting the program and the subordinate channel program guide displaying the subordinate programs of the subordinate channel so that a user can select the subordinate program through the subordinate channel program guide. Program service providing method having a dependency, characterized in that made.

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