KR20120083024A - Multimedia device for sharing at least one of channel information and the method for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A multimedia device for sharing at least one of channel and a control method of the multimedia device are provided to rapidly collect a channel present condition of outside multimedia devices. CONSTITUTION: A first network TV(510) receives a channel information request signal from a control server(500). The first network TV transmits current channel information to the control server. The first network TV receives data indicating a channel selection present condition from the control server. The first network TV displays the selection present condition of a first channel and selection present condition of a second channel based on the received data on a screen.

Description

MULTIMEDIA DEVICE FOR SHARING AT LEAST ONE OF CHANNEL INFORMATION AND THE METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME}

The present invention relates to a multimedia device technology, and more particularly, to a multimedia device and at least one control method for sharing at least one channel information.

The image display device is, for example, a device having a function of receiving and processing a broadcast image that a user can watch. The image display device displays, for example, a broadcast selected by a user on a display among broadcast signals transmitted from a broadcasting station. Currently, broadcasting is shifting from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting worldwide.

Digital broadcasting refers to broadcasting for transmitting digital video and audio signals. Digital broadcasting is more resistant to external noise than analog broadcasting, so it has less data loss, is advantageous for error correction, has a higher resolution, and provides a clearer picture. In addition, unlike analog broadcasting, digital broadcasting is capable of bidirectional services. On the other hand, smart TV (Smart TV) that combines the function of the video display device and the function of the multimedia device has recently been discussed.

In particular, according to the prior art, two tuners are used to construct an entire channel browser. For example, one tuner may be fixed to the current broadcast to receive a signal, and the other tuner may access one channel sequentially while generating one image.

However, in this design, there is a hardware limitation that two tuners must be provided, and there is a problem in that contents which are consumed by other external multimedia devices cannot be identified.

One embodiment of the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional simple channel browsing technology and to provide a solution that can quickly collect the channel status of the external multimedia devices.

In addition, another embodiment of the present invention is to provide a GUI (Graphic User Interface) technology that can selectively grasp the channel status for a particular group preferred by the user.

In addition, another embodiment of the present invention is intended to define a protocol that can include a private broadcast, not a general broadcast provided by a broadcasting station, in a channel browsing target.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of controlling a multimedia device sharing at least one channel information includes receiving a channel information request signal from a control server that collects channel information from at least one multimedia device, and currently viewing the channel information. Transmitting channel information of a channel being used to the control server, receiving data indicating, from the control server, the channel selection status currently being watched by multimedia devices located in a first region; and Based on the data, distinguishing the selection state of the first channel and the selection state of the second channel and displaying the selected state on the screen.

In addition, the multimedia device sharing at least one channel information according to an embodiment of the present invention, the control server receives a signal for requesting the current channel selection status of the multimedia devices belonging to the pre-registered limit range, the control server A transmission module of a network interface for transmitting to the network interface, a reception module of a network interface for receiving data from the control server to indicate a channel selection status currently being watched by multimedia devices belonging to the previously registered restricted range, and the reception And a controller for controlling the channel selection status of each multimedia device to be output to each area of the screen based on the data.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a solution that solves the problems of the simple channel browsing technique according to the prior art and quickly collects the channel status of external multimedia devices.

In addition, another embodiment of the present invention, there is an advantage to provide a GUI (Graphic User Interface) technology that can selectively grasp the channel status for a particular group preferred by the user.

In another embodiment of the present invention, there is an effect that can define a protocol that can be included in the channel browsing target, even private broadcasts provided by the broadcast station.

More specific effects of the invention will be described later in detail in the table of contents.

1 is a view schematically showing an example of an entire system including a multimedia apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a multimedia device and a control server according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram illustrating an IP address system of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a view for explaining a control server for collecting channel information of each multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart sequentially illustrating operations of a multimedia device and a control server according to an embodiment of the present invention in chronological order. FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device illustrated in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a second embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device illustrated in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a third embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device shown in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result.
FIG. 9 illustrates a fourth embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device shown in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result.
FIG. 10 is a flow chart sequentially illustrating operations of a multimedia device and a control server according to another embodiment of the present invention in chronological order.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a fifth embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device illustrated in FIG. 10 outputs a channel browsing result.
12 illustrates a sixth embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device shown in FIG. 10 outputs a channel browsing result.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Furthermore, the suffixes "module" and "unit" for components used in the following description are merely given in consideration of ease of writing the present specification, and the "module" and "unit" may be used interchangeably with each other. Can be designed in hardware or software.

Meanwhile, the multimedia devices described herein correspond to various types of devices that receive and process broadcast data, for example. Furthermore, the multimedia device may correspond to a connected TV. The connected TV may include a wired / wireless communication device as well as a broadcast reception function, and thus may be more convenient to use, such as a handwritten input device, a touch screen, or a motion recognition remote controller. It can have In addition, by being connected to the Internet and a computer with the support of a wired or wireless Internet function, it is possible to perform functions such as e-mail, web browsing, banking or gaming. Standardized general-purpose operating systems may be used for these various functions.

Therefore, the connected TV can be freely added or deleted, for example, on a general-purpose OS kernel, so that various user-friendly functions can be performed. More specifically, the connected TV may be, for example, a web TV, an Internet TV, an HBBTV, a smart TV, a DTV, or the like, and may be applicable to a smartphone in some cases.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG.

As used herein, terms used in the present invention are selected from general terms that are widely used in the present invention while taking into account the functions of the present invention, but these may vary depending on the intention or custom of a person skilled in the art or the emergence of new technologies. In addition, in certain cases, there is a term arbitrarily selected by the applicant, and in this case, the meaning will be described in the corresponding description of the invention. Therefore, it is intended that the terminology used herein should be interpreted based on the meaning of the term rather than on the name of the term, and on the entire contents of the specification.

1 is a diagram schematically showing an example of an entire broadcasting system including a multimedia apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Although the multimedia apparatus of FIG. 1 may correspond to, for example, a connected TV, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the connected TV alone, and the scope of the present invention should be defined by the claims.

As shown in FIG. 1, an entire system including a multimedia apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a content provider (CP) 10, a service provider (SP) 20, and a network provider. (Network Provider; NP) (30) and HNED (40) can be divided. The HNED 40 corresponds to, for example, the client 100 which is a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The content provider 10 produces and provides various contents. As shown in FIG. 1, the content provider 10 includes a terrestrial broadcaster, a cable system operator or a multiple system operator, a satellite broadcaster, and an internet broadcaster. An internet broadcaster, etc. may be exemplified, etc. In addition, the content provider 10 may provide various applications and the like in addition to the broadcast content.

The service provider 20 may provide a service package of contents provided by the content provider 10. For example, the service provider 20 of FIG. 1 may package and provide a first terrestrial broadcast, a second terrestrial broadcast, a cable MSO, satellite broadcast, various internet broadcasts, applications, and the like to a user.

The network provider 30 may provide a network for providing a service to the client 100. The client 100 may establish a home network end user (HNED) to receive a service.

On the other hand, the client 100 can also provide content through the network. In this case, unlike the above, the client 100 may be a content provider, and the content provider 10 may receive content from the client 100. In the case of designing as described above, an interactive content service or a data service is possible.

2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a multimedia device and a control server according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, a multimedia device and a control server according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2 as follows.

As shown in FIG. 2, the control server 200, the first network TV 201, the second network TV 202, the third network TV 203, and the Nth network TV according to an embodiment of the present invention. Each 210 is connected by wired or wireless communication. For example, it may be assumed that the network is connected to an IP (Internet Protocol) network.

At this time, the control server 200 is designed to be able to collect information about the channel that each network TV is currently watching through the signal polling periodically with the network TV.

Meanwhile, the network TV 200 may be designed to collect channel information of all network TVs, or may be designed to restrict only channel information of network TVs belonging to a certain range. This will be described later in detail with reference to FIG. 3.

3 is a diagram illustrating an IP address system of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 3, a method of performing channel browsing in a limited range by using an IP address allocated to each multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, network TVs connected to the control server are assigned unique IP addresses. An IP address takes the form of, for example, four numbers from 0 to 255 separated by a period (.). If the numbers corresponding to a certain number of digits are the same and the numbers corresponding to the remaining digits belong to a certain range, it may be assumed that the IP address belongs to a region of a specific unit. However, this is one embodiment, and it is also possible to estimate a certain region by an IP address using another method.

Therefore, the control server can retrieve channel information only for network TVs located in a predetermined region by using IP unique addresses of the network TVs. This will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS. 5 to 9.

Or, it may be designed to obtain more limited channel browsing results only for network TVs having an IP address directly input by the user. This will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS. 10 to 12.

4 is a view for explaining a control server for collecting channel information of each multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 4, a method of skipping overlapping portions of channel information of each multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention and selectively collecting only non-overlapping channel information will be described.

As shown in FIG. 4, the control server 460 scans all network TVs connected to the network or network TVs 410, 420, 430, 440, 450 belonging to a limited range and currently outputs from each network TV. It is designed to collect all channel information of a broadcast.

However, since both the first network TV 410 and the second network TV 420 are watching the A channel, it is sufficient to acquire the capture screen for the A channel only once. Therefore, there is an effect that can reduce the waste of resources and time required due to the duplicated capture.

Further, the control server 460 collects a capture screen for the B channel of the third network TV 430 and a capture screen for the C channel of the fourth network TV 440. Although not shown in detail in FIG. 4, the fifth network TV 450 corresponds to a case in which a personal broadcast is output instead of a channel of a general broadcasting station. Therefore, there is an advantage that can be included in the channel browsing target personal broadcast that is being broadcast via a cam rather than a general broadcast station.

That is, according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention described above, a separate control server 460 is provided to perform screen capture of a plurality of TVs. In addition, in the same channel, the screen designed and skipped is transmitted to the control server 460 along with other metadata.

The control server 460 communicates with the network TV every predetermined time in order to continuously update the capture screen for the channel being watched on each network TV. And, using the IP address shown in FIG. 3, only channel information for a certain region may be selectively collected, or only channel information for a specific network TV registered by a user may be collected.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart sequentially illustrating operations of a multimedia device and a control server according to an embodiment of the present invention in chronological order. FIG. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 5, the entire process of collecting only channel information of multimedia devices located in a specific region will be described. However, the steps shown in FIG. 5 are for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should be determined in principle by the claims.

As shown in FIG. 5, the control server 500 according to an embodiment of the present invention requests channel information from an arbitrary first network TV 510 (S501). In addition, the control server 500 requests channel information for another network TV 520 belonging to the same first region range as the first network. The channel information may be, for example, broadcast station information, channel number information, or captured image data of a screen currently being output.

Further, the first network TV 510 transmits channel information of a channel currently being watched to the control server 500 as a response to the step S501 (S502).

In addition, the control server 500 transmits data indicating the current channel selection status of the multimedia devices (510, 520, etc.) located in the first region to each network TV (510, 520) (S503). ).

In addition, the first network TV 510 is designed to distinguish the selection state of the first channel and the selection state of the second channel based on the received data and display them on the screen (S504). The channel browsing screen output by the step S504 will be described later in more detail with reference to FIGS. 6 to 9.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device illustrated in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 6, a method of outputting a capture screen having a different size according to a channel browsing result, according to an embodiment of the present invention, will be described.

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the network TV 610 performing the steps of FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result to a predetermined area 620 of the entire screen. In particular, among network TVs belonging to the same regional range, there is no possibility to exclude the possibility that there are many network TVs watching the same channel.

Therefore, based on the data received in step S503, the network TV 610 distinguishes the first channel viewed most and the second channel viewed least among the multimedia devices located in the same first region.

As shown in FIG. 6, the network TV 610 is designed to display a selection state of the first channel in a first size and to display a selection state of the second channel in a second size. . However, by setting the second size smaller than the first size, the user can more clearly identify a channel that is being watched more among network TVs in the same region. For example, the size can be designed to be adjusted in proportion to the number of network TVs being viewed. An area of each channel shown in FIG. 6 may correspond to a corresponding capture screen, and as described above with reference to FIG. 4, a capture screen of the same channel is omitted in the scanning process.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a second embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device illustrated in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 7, the multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a method of outputting a capture screen having different contrast ratios according to a channel browsing result.

As shown in FIG. 7, the network TV 710 performing the steps of FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result to a predetermined area 720 of the entire screen. In particular, among network TVs belonging to the same regional range, there is no possibility to exclude the possibility that there are many network TVs watching the same channel.

Therefore, based on the data received in step S503, the network TV 710 distinguishes between the first channel viewed most and the second channel viewed least among the multimedia devices located in the same first region.

As shown in FIG. 7, the network TV 710 is designed to display the selection state of the first channel at a first contrast ratio and to display the selection state of the second channel at a second contrast ratio. . However, by setting the second contrast ratio lower than the first contrast ratio, the user can more clearly identify a channel that is being watched more among network TVs in the same region. For example, the contrast ratio may be designed to be adjusted in proportion to the number of network TVs being viewed. An area of each channel shown in FIG. 7 may correspond to a corresponding capture screen. As described above with reference to FIG. 4, a capture screen of the same channel is omitted in the scanning process.

In addition, FIG. 6 shows the preference of each channel differently only by the size difference of the capture screen, while FIG. 7 shows the preference of each channel only by the difference of contrast ratio of the capture screen. Further, according to another embodiment of the present invention, it is also possible to combine the Figure 6 and Figure 7, it is possible to design to highlight the channel currently being viewed a lot by using both the size and contrast ratio.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a third embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device shown in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result. Hereinafter, a method of distinguishing and outputting a paid channel and a free channel according to a channel browsing result of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 8.

As shown in FIG. 8, the network TV 810 performing the steps of FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result to a predetermined area 820 of the entire screen. In particular, as a result of channel browsing, there may be both a paid channel for outputting paid content and a free channel for outputting free content. At this time, if the user accesses any channel, an unexpected charging problem occurs. In addition, the pay channel consumed a lot in the same area network TV, because the user is likely to select with curiosity, GUI design to guide this is necessary.

Therefore, based on the data received in step S503, the network TV 810 distinguishes between a paid channel and a free channel among channels that multimedia devices located in the same first region are watching.

As illustrated in FIG. 8, the network TV 810 displays the paid screen capture screens 830 and 840 in a highlighted form, and the free screen capture screens are displayed in an unhighlighted form. . Therefore, a user using the network TV 810 is more likely to select and view a pay channel that is currently watched on a network TV in the same region, and thus acts as a new revenue source from a broadcasting station.

FIG. 9 illustrates a fourth embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device shown in FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 9, another method of distinguishing and outputting a paid channel and a free channel according to a channel browsing result of a multimedia device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

As shown in FIG. 9, the network TV 910 performing the steps of FIG. 5 outputs a channel browsing result to a predetermined area 920 of the entire screen. In particular, as a result of channel browsing, there may be both a paid channel for outputting paid content and a free channel for outputting free content. At this time, if the user accesses any channel, an unexpected charging problem occurs. In addition, the pay channel consumed a lot in the same area network TV, because the user is likely to select with curiosity, GUI design to guide this is necessary.

Therefore, based on the data received in step S503, the network TV 910 distinguishes between a paid channel and a free channel among channels that multimedia devices located in the same first region are watching.

As shown in FIG. 9, the network TV 910 displays the screen shot of the differentiated pay channel in the first area 930 of the screen, and the screen shot of the differentiated free channel is displayed. It is designed to display on the second area of the screen.

That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the capture area of the pay channel and the capture area of the free channel are completely distinguished, thereby solving the problem of time loss and billing caused by access of the pay channel that the user does not want.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart sequentially illustrating operations of a multimedia device and a control server according to another embodiment of the present invention in chronological order. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 10, the entire process of collecting only channel information for a specific range of multimedia devices selected by a user will be described. However, the steps shown in FIG. 10 are for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention should in principle be defined by the claims.

In addition, in the case of FIG. 5 described above, network TVs belonging to a restricted region are automatically set, whereas in FIG. 10, the user can actively select network TVs that he / she wants to monitor regardless of region. exist.

First, although not shown in FIG. 10, the multimedia device (for example, network TV) 1010 according to another embodiment of the present invention may display the current channel selection status of the multimedia devices belonging to the previously registered limited range. A transmission module of a network interface for transmitting a request signal to the control server 1000 and data indicating, from the control server 1000, a channel selection state currently being watched by multimedia devices belonging to the previously registered limited range. And a control unit for controlling a channel selection status of each multimedia device to be output to each area of the screen based on the reception module of the network interface for receiving the received data. In particular, the transmission module of the network interface described above may be easily designed by those skilled in the art with reference to step S1002 of FIG. 10, step S1004 of FIG. 10, and the control unit of step S1005 of FIG. 10. .

As shown in FIG. 10, the first network TV 1010 according to another embodiment of the present invention pre-registers information on another network TV 1020 that the user wants to monitor with the control server 1000 ( S1001). For example, in step S1001, IP address information and the like shown in FIG. 3 may be used. In addition, in consideration of personal privacy, it is another embodiment of the present invention to add steps requiring confirmation of the second network TV 1020 user.

In addition, the first network TV 1010, to the control server 1000, the information requesting the currently displayed broadcast screen for the external network TVs (1020, etc.) registered as the monitoring target in step S1001. It transmits (S1002).

The control server 1000 connects to external network TVs 1020 registered as the monitoring target in step S1001 and collects captured image data currently being output (S1003). In addition, the control server 1000 transmits channel information (eg, captured image data, etc.) collected from at least one network TV 1020 to the first network TV 1010.

The first network TV 1010 controls the channel selection status of each multimedia device 1020 registered in step S1001 to be output to each area of the screen based on the data received in step S1004 (S1005). ). The step S1005 will be described later in more detail with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a fifth embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device illustrated in FIG. 10 outputs a channel browsing result. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 11, a process of outputting a capture screen of a channel being watched by a pre-registered external multimedia device according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described.

As shown in FIG. 11, the network TV 1110 performing the steps of FIG. 10 outputs a channel browsing result to a predetermined area 1120 of the entire screen. Unlike FIG. 6 to FIG. 9 described above, FIG. 11 outputs a capture screen for a specific registered multimedia device (for example, a network TV), and simultaneously provides information about a user of each specific multimedia device.

Accordingly, a user using the network TV 1110 can check the TV screen of acquaintances registered with him / her in real time, and can share information about a TV channel through an SNS service. This will be described later in detail with reference to FIG. 12.

12 illustrates a sixth embodiment of a screen on which the multimedia device shown in FIG. 10 outputs a channel browsing result. Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 12, a multimedia device according to another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a method of quickly starting an SNS service with a user of an external network TV.

First, it is assumed that a region of a specific capture screen is selected among the channel capture screens of the friends displayed in FIG. 11. To this end, the multimedia device according to another embodiment of the present invention is designed to further include a user interface for receiving a signal output from the pointing device for selecting each area of the aforementioned capture screen.

Furthermore, when the region of the specific capture screen shown in FIG. 11 is selected, the network TV 1210 according to another embodiment of the present invention may display the channel currently being watched by the multimedia device in the first region 1220 of the screen. The display apparatus may further include a display configured to display video data, and to display a web page capable of connecting to a user of the corresponding multimedia device and a social networking service (SNS) in the second region 1230 of the screen.

In addition, the second area 1230 is overlaid on the first area 1220, or only the second area 1230 is designed as a semi-transparent image processing type, so that the user can use both areas at once. To be designed.

According to one embodiment of the present invention designed as described above, by periodically updating the database (DataBase) of the control server, there is an advantage that can always ensure reliable channel browsing data.

In addition, according to one embodiment of the present invention, for a channel that a lot of registered acquaintances are watching, when a thumbnail is displayed in a large size or in a different border color, the channel is clicked on an area displaying the corresponding channel. This has the effect of providing quick access to SNS.

In addition, by reflecting the local information, it is possible to check in real time a particular popular program preferred by people in the same region as the region where they live.

On the other hand, in the present specification, both the object invention and the method invention are described, and the description of the invention can be supplementally applied as necessary. In addition, for convenience of description, each drawing is divided and described, but implementing another embodiment by combining the drawings or embodiments is also within the scope of the present invention.

Method invention according to the present invention are all implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means can be recorded on a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

As described above, the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains various modifications and variations from such descriptions. This is possible.

Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the claims below but also by the equivalents of the claims.

200: control server
201: first network TV
202: Second Network TV
203: Third Network TV
210: N Network TV

Claims (11)

A control method of a multimedia device sharing at least one channel information,
Receiving a channel information request signal from a control server collecting channel information from at least one multimedia device;
Transmitting channel information of a channel currently being watched to the control server;
Receiving, from the control server, data indicating a current channel selection status of multimedia devices located in a first region; And
Based on the received data, distinguishing a selection state of a first channel and a selection state of a second channel and displaying the same on a screen;
Control method of a multimedia device comprising a. The method of claim 1,
The displaying step,
Distinguishing a paid channel from a free channel based on the received data;
Displaying selection status of the differentiated pay channel in a first area of the screen; And
Displaying the selected free channel selection status in a second area of the screen;
Control method of a multimedia device comprising a. The method of claim 1,
The displaying step,
Distinguishing, based on the received data, a first viewing channel and a least viewing second channel among multimedia devices located in the first region;
Displaying the selection status of the first channel in a first size; And
Displaying the selection status of the second channel in a second size, wherein the second size is smaller than the first size
Control method of a multimedia device comprising a. The method of claim 1,
The displaying step,
Distinguishing, based on the received data, a first viewing channel and a least viewing second channel among multimedia devices located in the first region;
Displaying the selection status of the first channel at a first contrast ratio; And
Displaying a selection state of the second channel at a second contrast ratio, wherein the second contrast ratio is lower than the first contrast ratio;
Control method of a multimedia device comprising a. The method of claim 1,
The displaying step,
And simultaneously displaying at least one or more of a capture screen, a channel number, and a broadcast station name of each channel. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 5 is recorded. In a multimedia device that shares at least one channel information,
A transmission module of a network interface for transmitting a signal for requesting a channel selection status currently being watched by multimedia devices belonging to a pre-registered limit range to a control server;
A reception module of a network interface for receiving, from the control server, data indicating a current channel selection status of multimedia devices belonging to the previously registered limited range; And
A control unit for controlling the channel selection status of each multimedia device to be output to each area of the screen based on the received data
Multimedia device comprising a. The method of claim 7, wherein
When each area is selected,
A first area of the screen displays video data of a channel the multimedia device is currently watching, and
A display unit for displaying a web page that can be connected to the social networking service (SNS) and the user of the multimedia device in the second area of the screen
Multimedia device further comprising. The method of claim 8,
And wherein the second area is overlaid on the first area or the second area is in a translucent image processed form. The method of claim 7, wherein
User interface for receiving a signal output from the pointing device for selecting each area
Multimedia device further comprising. The method of claim 7, wherein
The multimedia device,
A multimedia device corresponding to at least one of a network TV, a connected TV, a smart TV, a web TV, and an Internet TV.

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