KR20000061567A - Method for channel selecting - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a channel selection method in a digital broadcasting receiver such as a digital television (TV). In particular, when a program guide command is input, the screen is divided into a plurality of areas, and the program guide information is displayed in each area as a still image or a moving picture. You can select the desired program while viewing the program information of the current program and other channels directly with a still image and a video, thereby facilitating the identification of the viewer. In addition, by displaying the displayed program information in the sorting order reflecting the viewer's will, it is easy to select a program during the multi-channel broadcasting, such as digital broadcasting.

Description

Method for channel selecting}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to channel selection of a digital broadcast receiver such as a digital television (TV). More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of selecting a channel by displaying information about each program in a program guide screen.

As digital dispatch has recently become visible, various digital broadcast receivers have been developed and marketed. Such digital broadcasting usually has a large number of broadcasting channels, so it is not easy for a user to select a desired program.

Therefore, conventionally, a program guide is provided to assist the channel and the program search.

1 is a block diagram of a conventional digital broadcasting receiver having the above-described program guide function. After the received digital audio / video (A / V) signal is tuned and received by the head end unit 101, Demodulation yields a transport stream. At this time, most digital broadcasting methods follow the MPEG standard.

Therefore, the transport stream can be largely divided into a header part and a payload part. In this case, the header portion includes information indicating the start of a signal and a PID (Packet Identifier) number indicating which signal is contained in the payload portion. The payload portion includes image information, audio information, Or additional information.

The PID number provides a means for demultiplexing a time multiplexed signal. The PID number provides additional information such as whether the current packet is video information or video information, and program information. SI) can be identified.

Accordingly, the transport demultiplexer 102 receives the time multiplexed transport stream through the head end 101 to perform demultiplexing. Here, demultiplexing refers to identifying a PID number and separating the video signal sequence, the audio signal sequence, and the additional information signal sequence. The separated video signal stream and the audio signal stream are output to the digital A / V decoder 103.

The digital A / V decoder 103 restores the compressed video signal stream and the audio signal stream to the original signal by decoding, and the TV signal encoder 104 encodes the decoded digital video signal into a TV signal, that is, an NTSC signal. After the adder 106 outputs to a general TV or monitor.

On the other hand, the additional information signal sequence such as the program information separated by the transport demultiplexer 102 is databased in the memory 107 through the microcomputer 100 and then On Screen Display (OSD) processing unit as necessary. The OSD is processed at 105 and output to the adder 106. The adder 106 synthesizes the OSD-processed additional information and the TV signal output from the TV encoder 104 and displays them on the TV screen.

2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a general digital broadcasting receiver. That is, the receiver is receiving the initial program information (step 201), and when the viewer selects one program (step 202), the selected program is decoded (step 203), and video and audio are displayed on the TV screen ( Step 204).

At this time, if a program guide command is input (step 205), the existing received program information is displayed on the OSD screen of the program guide in a specified order (step 206).

That is, the viewer visually informs the viewer of the selected program with the cursor on the screen, and the receiver reads the ID of the program indicated by the current cursor and prepares to tune (steps 207 and 208).

If the viewer selects the program indicated by the current cursor (step 209), channel switching is performed by tuning and decoding the selected program (step 213) and displaying it on the main screen (step 214).

On the other hand, if the user moves the cursor in step 209 without selecting the program indicated by the current cursor (step 210), information of the program shown in the moved position is derived and prepared for tuning (steps 211 and 212). At this time, if the viewer selects the program indicated by the current cursor (step 209), the selected program is tuned and decoded (step 213) and displayed on the TV screen to assist in program selection (step 214).

3 is an example of a program guide screen, when a program guide command is received, program guide information is displayed on the screen in an OSD form.

In this case, the program broadcasted today may be guided by channel and time zone. In other words, first press the "broadcast guide" button, the channel and time of the program being broadcast today is displayed as shown in FIG. The order of the programs displayed here is displayed based on the order already specified in the broadcaster or receiver. In addition, a program to be selected on the screen appears by a method such as cursor highlighting, and the viewer can switch channels by selecting a program by a command such as "viewing".

Therefore, when the viewer selects a desired program by using an input device such as a remote controller or a front panel, the viewer can switch to the corresponding channel to watch the selected program.

However, the above-described method has a problem in that the user's will is not reflected because the order of the programs displayed in the OSD form is displayed based on the order already specified in the broadcaster or the receiver.

Conventional methods for solving this problem include a method of sorting and displaying channels and programs by program, genre, and the like.

However, the above-described method also displays the program guide information after sorting using only the text information, so that visual identification is difficult on a screen for guiding a very large number of channels and program information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a channel selection method for dividing a program guide screen into a plurality of areas and displaying information on channels as image information in each area.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a channel selection method of applying previously selected channel information to a display order of an image screen in the divided area.

1 is a block diagram of a conventional digital broadcast receiver

2 is a diagram illustrating a process of displaying program guide information in the digital broadcasting receiver of FIG. 1.

3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a program guide screen processed in FIG. 2;

4 is a block diagram illustrating a digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention.

5 is a diagram illustrating a process of displaying program guide information in the digital broadcast receiver of FIG. 4.

6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a program guide screen processed in FIG. 4;

Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

100: micom 101: head end portion

102: transport demultiplexer 103: digital A / V decoder

104: TV signal encoder 105: OSD processing unit

106: adder 107: memory

401: still image processing unit

In the channel selection method according to the present invention for achieving the above object, when a program guide command is input, the screen is divided into a plurality of areas, the programs are sequentially tuned and decoded in a sorted order, and then the still picture is captured and divided. Sequentially displaying each of the regions, and selecting a region in which the cursor is located among the program information displayed in each region, and switching the channel to the program displayed in the region, and displaying the selected program on the main screen. Characterized in that made.

In the displaying of the program guide screen, the program guide information of the region where the cursor is located is displayed as a moving image through tuning and decoding.

In the displaying of the program guide screen, the guide information of the program last selected by the viewer is displayed as a moving image through tuning and decoding.

Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

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

According to the present invention, when a program guide command is input, the program guide screen is divided into a plurality of areas, and the program guide information is displayed in each of the divided areas as still and moving pictures.

4 is a block diagram of a digital broadcast receiver according to the present invention, in which a still picture processing unit 401 is further provided in the structure shown in FIG. 1. In this case, the adder 106 synthesizes three signals such as a TV signal, an OSD screen, and a still image and displays them on the TV screen.

When the program guide command is input, the still picture processing unit 401 divides the screen into a plurality of areas and displays one of the currently received screens as the still picture in the divided area.

5 is a flowchart for performing a channel selection method according to the present invention.

In the present invention configured as described above, the receiver is receiving the initial program information (step 501). At this time, when the viewer selects one program (step 502), the selected program is decoded (step 503). Display (step 504).

Then, the selected program number is sorted and stored in order of the most recently selected program (step 505). This process is performed every time a program is selected, decoded and displayed. In the present invention, the program is arranged in the order of the most recently selected order, which may be arranged by genre or name, which can be set by the programmer or the viewer.

At this time, if a program guide command is input (step 506), the program guide information is displayed as an image rather than a text. To this end, the screen is first divided into n regions (steps 507 and 508), the previously selected programs are sequentially tuned (step 509), decoded (step 510), and then a still picture is captured (step 511). ). Then, the captured still image is reduced and displayed on any one of the divided regions (step 512).

Then, it is determined whether the display is completed in all the divided regions (step 513), and if it is not completed, the non-overlapping program among the previously selected program numbers is tuned and decoded to capture a still image and then reduce the divided image. Display in another area of the area (steps 509 to 514).

After repeating the above method by the number of screen divisions (step 513), the receiver recognizes the position of the current cursor and the program number (steps 515 and 516), tunes and decodes the recognized program and displays it as a video (step 517). ). In this case, the video may be displayed at a position pointed to by the current cursor, or an arbitrary region may be designated and displayed only in that region. In addition, the video may be a video of a program at a location indicated by the cursor, or may be a video of a program last selected.

If the viewer selects the video displayed in step 517 (step 518), the selected program is stored at the highest level aligned with the existing program information (step 521) and then decoded (step 522). It is displayed on the screen (step 523).

On the other hand, when the user moves the cursor without selecting the program pointed to by the current cursor, that is, the video in step 518 (step 519), the position and program number of the cursor appearing in the moved position are recognized (steps 521, 516). The program information at the cursor position is tuned and decoded and displayed as a moving image in the corresponding region (step 517). Accordingly, when the viewer selects the video (step 518), the selected program is stored at the highest level, sorted from the existing program information (step 521), and then displayed on the main screen through decoding (step 522) ( Step 523).

6 shows the above example.

Referring to FIG. 6, when a program guide command is input, the screen is divided into nine areas, each program is decoded according to a program order selected by the user, and a still picture is displayed in each area. Display the information to help you choose the program.

As described above, in the channel selection method according to the present invention, when a program guide command is input, the screen is divided into a plurality of areas and the program guide information is displayed in each area as a still image or a video, thereby displaying a program currently being broadcast and a program of another channel. Since the desired program can be selected while viewing the information as a still image or a moving image, the identification of the viewer can be facilitated. In addition, the displayed program information is displayed in a sorted order in which the viewer's will is reflected, thereby facilitating selection of programs during multi-channel broadcasting such as digital broadcasting.

Claims (3)

When a program guide command is input, the screen is divided into a plurality of areas, the programs are sequentially tuned and decoded in an aligned order, and the still screen is captured and sequentially displayed in each divided area; And selecting an area in which the cursor is located among the program information displayed in each area, converting the channel into a program displayed in the area, and displaying the selected program on the main screen. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying of the program guide screen comprises: The program guide information of the region where the cursor is located is displayed as a video through tuning and decoding. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying of the program guide screen comprises: The guide information of the program last selected by the viewer is displayed as a video through tuning and decoding.