KR20080044441A - Set top box, terminal device and method for performing pvr thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A set top box, a terminal device, and a method for performing a PVR(Personal Video Recorder) function therebetween are provided to transmit a broadcasting signal to an external terminal device if the external terminal device is turned on, store and output the transmitted broadcasting signal in a hard disk equipped with the external terminal device, thereby switching from a wireless TV to a wireless PVR. A signal receiver(210) receives a broadcasting signal. A wireless transmitting unit(220) transmits the broadcasting signal to one of a display device and an external terminal device. A detecting unit(240) detects whether the external terminal device is turned on. A control unit(230) transmits the broadcasting signal to the external terminal device if the external terminal device is turned on.

Description

Set top box, terminal device and method for performing PVR among them

1 is a schematic diagram schematically illustrating a process of switching from a wireless TV to a wireless PVR according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a terminal device according to an exemplary embodiment.

4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a terminal device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a PVR performing method of the set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a method of performing a PVR of an imaging system according to an exemplary embodiment.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

210: signal receiver 220: wireless transmitter

230: control unit 240: detection unit

310, 410: power supply unit 320, 420: wireless receiver

330, 430: storage unit 340, 440: wireless transmission unit

450: wireless channel search unit

The present invention relates to a set-top box, a terminal device and a method of performing a PVR therebetween, and more particularly, to a set-top box operable as a wireless TV and a wireless PVR using a terminal device equipped with an HDD, a terminal device and a PVR between them. It is about a method.

Along with the development of communication technology, many wireless interface means have been developed, such as Bluetooth (Blue Tooth), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Ultra Wide Band (UWB), and Home RF. In addition, as the transmission speed of the air interface means becomes very fast, a wireless TV receiver has been developed in which the air interface means is applied to a television receiver so that a user can easily watch a predetermined broadcast signal while moving.

A wireless communication system is a system for transmitting digital content including an image signal through a radio frequency channel, and is divided into a second device and a first device. The second device transmits digital content input from the outside to the first device through a wireless channel, and the first device processes and displays the digital content received through the wireless channel. An example of the second device is a set-top box (STB) that receives an image signal from an image source source. An example of the first device is a digital TV that receives an image signal and digitally processes it. .

That is, an image source source such as a DVD player or a broadcasting station is connected to a transmitting end, and the transmitting end transmits a transport stream (TS) and other data to the receiving end through a wireless communication module connected to the receiving end and the transmitting end. In this case, when the video signal is an analog broadcast signal, the analog broadcast signal is encoded by TS through an MPEG encoder or the like, and when the video signal is a digital broadcast signal, the analog broadcast signal is transmitted as the digital broadcast signal itself.

Meanwhile, with the recent rapid development of digital broadcasting technology, a personal video recorder (PVR), which uses a storage device such as a hard disk driver (HDD) as an image storage medium in combination with computer technology, has been in the spotlight. PVR is a personal video storage device that can digitally store the received broadcast signal in the HDD instead of the existing video tape.

The PVR can digitally record broadcasts of over-the-air TVs, cable TVs, and satellites. If a pause command is input during broadcast playback, the PVR can record until a play command is input. Accordingly, the user can watch a broadcast from the time when the pause button is pressed even after a predetermined time elapses after pressing the pause button. At this time, the broadcast signal from when the pause command is input to when the playback command is input is stored in a storage device such as an HDD.

However, in the conventional PVR, the manufacturing cost of the PVR is increased by mounting an expensive HDD inside the PVR. In addition, in the case of a PVR using an internal HDD, there is a problem in that the TV manufacturer must maintain the HDD management in the event of a HDD failure, thereby incurring inconvenience of A / S and a separate A / S cost. In addition, when the inside of the TV product is narrow, there is a case where there is insufficient free space for mounting a PVR with a HDD inside the TV. In addition, a general wireless TV receiver has a problem in that the receiver receives and displays the AV signal transmitted from the transmitter and can only watch and store and cannot record and play back. In addition, when the TV and the PVR are separately provided, driving the PVR while driving the TV requires a separate operation for each device, which causes inconvenience to the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to implement a function of a wireless PVR by using an external terminal device, and a set-top box, a terminal device, and the automatic switching of operation from a wireless TV to a wireless PVR It relates to a method of performing PVR between them.

According to an embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, a set top box capable of transmitting data to a display device and an external terminal device includes a signal receiver for receiving a broadcast signal, the display device, and an external terminal. A wireless transmitter for transmitting the broadcast signal to one of the devices, a detector for detecting whether the external terminal device is turned on, and when the external terminal device is turned on, transmitting the broadcast signal to the external terminal device. It includes a control unit to make.

On the other hand, according to another embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device capable of wireless transmission and reception, the power supply for supplying power for driving the terminal device, when the power is supplied is turned on, through the first wireless channel A wireless receiver for receiving a broadcast signal from the set-top box, a storage unit for storing the broadcast signal received from the set-top box, and a wireless transmitter for transmitting the broadcast signal stored in the storage unit to a display device.

Preferably, the apparatus further includes a radio channel searching unit searching for a second radio channel usable for transmitting the broadcast signal to the display apparatus.

On the other hand, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the method of performing a PVR of the set-top box, determining whether the external terminal device is turned on, if the external terminal device is turned off, transmits the received broadcast signal to the display device If the external terminal device is converted to a turn-on state, confirming priorities respectively given to the external terminal device and the display device, and according to the identified priority, the external terminal device and the Connecting the wireless channel to one of the display apparatuses, and transmitting the broadcast signal.

       Preferably, in the connecting of the wireless channel, when the priority of the external terminal device is higher than that of the display device, connecting the external terminal device and the first wireless channel to transmit the broadcast signal, and the broadcast The operation of transmitting a signal to the display device may be terminated.

On the other hand, according to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of performing a PVR of a video system having a display device, an external terminal device and a set-top box, the set-top box transmitting a broadcast signal to the display device, the external terminal device When turned on, the set-top box connects the first wireless channel with the external terminal device to transmit the broadcast signal to the external terminal device, and the set-top box finishes transmitting the broadcast signal to the display device. And transmitting, by the external terminal device, the broadcast signal by connecting the display device and the second wireless channel.

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

1 is a schematic diagram schematically illustrating a process of switching from a wireless TV to a wireless PVR according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, a broadcast signal is transmitted from the set top box 120 to the display apparatus 110 by using a radio frequency channel (A). Subsequently, when the power of the terminal device 130 is turned on, the set-top box 120 senses the turn-on of the external terminal device 130 to the external terminal device 130 through the radio frequency channel B-1. The broadcast signal is transmitted. In this case, the set top box 120 may transmit the broadcast signal to the external terminal device 130 using the same frequency band as the radio frequency channel A for transmitting the broadcast signal to the display apparatus 110. Accordingly, broadcast signal transmission to the display device 110 may be stopped.

The terminal device 130 searches for another radio frequency channel and transmits the broadcast signal received from the set-top box 120 to the display device 110 through the searched radio frequency channel B-2. As a result, the operation as the wireless TV is switched to the wireless PVR operation.

In this case, data transmission between the display device 110, the set-top box 120, and the terminal device 130 may be performed according to the priority given to each device. For example, if the priority of the display apparatus 110 is lower than the priority of the terminal apparatus 130, the set-top box 120 terminates the data transmission to the display apparatus 110 and the terminal apparatus 130 is finished. Data transfer to the network can be initiated. This principle may be equally applied when the display apparatus 110 receives data from the set-top box 120 or the terminal apparatus 130.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2, the set top box 120 includes a signal receiver 210, a wireless transmitter 220, a controller 230, and a detector 240. The set top box may be applied to the set top box 120 of FIG. 1.

The set top box 120 may transmit data to the display device 110 and the external terminal device 130. Here, the display device 110 may be representatively implemented as a TV receiver, or may be implemented as a monitor. The external terminal device 130 may be representatively implemented as a personal computer (PC), or may be implemented as a storage medium such as a PDA, a mobile phone, or an MP3. In this case, data transmission between the display apparatus 110, the set-top box 120, and the terminal device 130 may be wireless. The wireless local area network (UWB), the ultra wide band (UWB), Home RF may be used.

The signal receiver 210 serves to receive a broadcast signal from a broadcast station. The signal receiver 210 may be specifically implemented as a tuner that tunes and receives a broadcast signal input through an antenna or a cable. The broadcast signal received by the signal receiver 210 is transmitted to a signal processor (not shown) under the control of the controller 230. In addition, when the broadcast signal received from the signal receiving unit 210 is an analog signal, the signal processing unit (not shown) may compress a compression format such as MPEG.

The wireless transmitter 220 transmits a broadcast signal received through the signal receiver 210 and input from a signal processor (not shown) to one of the display apparatus 110 and the external terminal device 130. The wireless transmitter 220 may be implemented as a wireless transmitter module to perform wireless data transmission. The wireless transmission module may operate by receiving control information through a serial port such as a universal asynchronous receiver and a transmmiter (UART).

The detector 240 detects whether the external terminal device 130 is turned on. The sensing unit 240 may detect whether the external terminal device (not shown) is turned on by sensing a voltage or a current input from the external terminal device 130.

When the turn-on of the external terminal device 130 is detected by the detector 240, the controller 230 controls the wireless transmitter 220 to receive a broadcast signal received through the signal receiver 210 from the external terminal device 130. ) Is used to send. That is, the controller 230 may transmit a control signal for allowing the wireless transmitter 220 implemented as a wireless module to operate as a transmitter using a serial port such as a universal asynchronous receiver and a transmitter (UART).

Meanwhile, operation switching of the controller 230 may be determined according to priority. That is, the broadcast signal may be transmitted to a device having a high priority by comparing the priority of the display device 110 with that of the external terminal device. Thereby, it is possible to selectively use the function as a wireless TV or the function as a wireless PVR.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a terminal device according to another exemplary embodiment. According to FIG. 3, the terminal device includes a power supply unit 310, a wireless receiver 320, a storage unit 330, and a wireless transmitter 340. The terminal device can be applied to the external terminal device 130 of FIG. 1.

The terminal device 130 is capable of wireless transmission and reception with an external device, specifically, the display device 110 and the set-top box 120.

The power supply unit 310 serves to supply power for driving the terminal device 130.

When the power is supplied from the power supply unit 310 and the turn-on of the terminal device 300 is turned on, the wireless receiver 320 receives a broadcast signal from the set-top box through the first wireless channel. The wireless receiving unit 320 may be implemented as a wireless receiving module, and the wireless receiving module may be inserted into a Peripheral Connect Interface (PCI) card or an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) card.

The storage unit 330 stores a broadcast signal received from the set top box 120. Here, the storage unit 330 may be implemented as an HDD provided in a PC, etc. The HDD controller (not shown) may allow the HDD to store a broadcast signal received from the outside under the control of a CPU (not shown).

The wireless transmitter 340 transmits the broadcast signal stored in the storage 330 to the display apparatus 110. The wireless transmitter 340 may be implemented as a wireless receiving module, and the wireless receiving module may be inserted into a PCI card or an AGP card.

When the wireless receiver 320 receives a broadcast signal from the set-top box 120, the broadcast signal currently broadcast in the storage unit 330 is digitally stored and reproduced simultaneously. Therefore, when the user presses the stop button provided on the external control device such as a remote controller and then presses the play button again, the stored broadcast signal is replayed from the point where the broadcast signal is stopped. In addition, according to the user's adjustment, the currently broadcast program can be viewed again or played in a slow motion.

4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a terminal device according to another embodiment of the present invention. According to FIG. 4, the terminal device includes a power supply unit 410, a wireless receiver 420, a storage unit 430, a wireless transmitter 440, and a wireless channel search unit 450. Detailed descriptions of parts overlapping with those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 among the elements shown in FIG. 4 will be omitted. The terminal device can be applied to the external terminal device 130 of FIG. 1.

The wireless channel searcher 450 searches for a second wireless channel available for transmitting the broadcast signal to the display apparatus 110. For example, if the terminal device 130 is receiving a broadcast signal from the set-top box 120 through the wireless channel 48, the wireless channel search unit 450 searches for available wireless channels other than the wireless channel 48. If the wireless channel 56 is available as a result of the search by the wireless channel searcher 450, the wireless transmitter 440 may transmit a broadcast signal to the display apparatus 120 through the wireless channel 56. This is because if the broadcast signal transmission from the set-top box 120 to the terminal device 130 and the wireless signal transmission from the terminal device 130 to the display device 110 use the same frequency band, the transmission error is reduced due to the interference and attenuation of the same frequency. This is because it is likely to occur.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a PVR performing method of the set-top box according to an embodiment of the present invention. According to FIG. 5, it is determined whether the external terminal device is turned on (S510). As a result of the determination in step S510, if the external terminal device is turned off, the set-top box transmits the broadcast signal received from the broadcasting station to the display device (S550). In this case, the set top box and the display device can operate as a general wireless TV.

As a result of the determination in step S510, if the external terminal device is converted to the turn-on state (S510: Y), it is checked whether the priority of the external terminal device is higher than the priority of the display device (S520).

As a result of checking in step S520, if the priority of the external terminal device is higher than the priority of the display device (S520: Y), the broadcast signal received from the broadcasting station is transmitted to the external terminal device (S530). In this case, the set top box may transmit a broadcast signal by connecting an external terminal device to a first wireless channel. Subsequently, when transmission of the broadcast signal to the external terminal device is started, the operation of transmitting the broadcast signal to the display device is terminated (S540). In this case, the set top box and the external terminal device can operate as a wireless PVR using an HDD provided in the external terminal device.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a method of performing a PVR of an imaging system according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Here, the imaging system includes a display device, an external terminal device, and a set top box.

According to FIG. 6, first, the set-top box transmits a broadcast signal to the display device (S610). Next, it is determined whether the external storage device is turned on (S620).

As a result of the determination in step S620, if the external terminal device is turned on (S620: Y), the set-top box connects the first terminal with the external terminal device, and transmits the broadcast signal received from the broadcasting station to the external terminal device ( S640). Subsequently, the set top box terminates the transmission of the broadcast signal to the display apparatus (S640). Thereafter, the external terminal device connects the display device and the second wireless channel to transmit a broadcast signal (S650). In this case, since the broadcast signal transmitted from the set-top box to the external terminal device can be stored and output in a hard disk or the like provided in the external terminal device, the broadcast signal can be operated as a PVR.

Accordingly, the operation can be switched from the wireless TV to the wireless PVR using the set top box and the external terminal device.

As described above, according to the present invention, the operation can be switched from the wireless TV to the wireless PVR using the set top box and the external terminal device.

In addition, since the operation switching is automatically performed only by turning on the power of the terminal device, user convenience is greatly increased.

In addition, although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and the technical field to which the present invention pertains without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the claims. Of course, various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art, and these modifications should not be individually understood from the technical spirit or the prospect of the present invention.

Claims (6)

In a set top box that can transmit data to a display device and an external terminal device, A signal receiver for receiving a broadcast signal; A wireless transmitter for transmitting the broadcast signal to one of the display device and an external terminal device; A detector configured to detect whether the external terminal device is turned on; and, And a controller for transmitting the broadcast signal to the external terminal device when the external terminal device is turned on. In the terminal device capable of wireless transmission and reception, A power supply unit supplying power for driving the terminal device; A wireless receiver configured to receive a broadcast signal from a set-top box through a first wireless channel when the power is supplied and turned on; A storage unit for storing the broadcast signal received from the set top box; And, And a wireless transmitter for transmitting the broadcast signal stored in the storage to a display device. The method of claim 2, And a radio channel search unit for searching for a second radio channel usable for transmitting the broadcast signal to the display device. In the method of performing a PVR of the set-top box, Determining whether the external terminal device is turned on; Transmitting the received broadcast signal to a display device when the external terminal device is turned off; Checking the priority given to the external terminal device and the display device, when the external terminal device is converted to a turn-on state; And, And connecting the wireless channel to one of the external terminal device and the display device according to the identified priority, and transmitting the broadcast signal. The method of claim 4, wherein Connecting the wireless channel, When the priority of the external terminal device is higher than that of the display device, connecting the external terminal device to the first wireless channel to transmit the broadcast signal and ending the transmission of the broadcast signal to the display device. PVR performing method of the set-top box characterized in that. In the PVR performing method of the video system having a display device, an external terminal device and a set-top box Transmitting, by the set top box, a broadcast signal to the display device; When the external terminal device is turned on, connecting the external terminal device to a first wireless channel by the set top box, and transmitting the broadcast signal to the external terminal device; The set top box terminating the broadcast signal transmission to the display device; And And transmitting, by the external terminal device, the broadcast signal by connecting the display device to a second wireless channel.

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