JPH0352066Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention is a CATV converter with a two-way communication function, and in particular detects the operating state of a television receiver that receives signals from the CATV converter. , has a function to perform billing operations correctly according to the pay broadcast viewing status on the TV receiver.
Regarding CATV converter.

[Conventional technology]

Today's CATV (cable television) broadcasts are divided into two types: service broadcasting, which can be viewed for a regular subscription fee, and pay broadcasting, which cannot be viewed without making a viewing contract and paying a special fee for each channel or program. There are two types of billing methods: one in which you are charged upon signing a contract, and the other in which you are charged according to the programs you actually watch.

In the case of the latter billing method, the broadcasting station uses CATV
Using the network's two-way communication function, the operating status of each household's CATV converter (hereinafter referred to as a terminal) is obtained through a method called polling.

In CATV broadcasting, various signals are sent out as broadcast signals in addition to television signals, one of which is a control signal. The control signal is sent on a frequency unrelated to the TV channel, for example in the US, 106.5MHz FM waves, and the terminal responds to this control signal to report whether or not it is watching pay broadcasting. is now being sent back to the broadcast station. Other signals include identification signals that are included in pay broadcast channels and are used by terminals to identify the broadcast as pay broadcasts, and so-called so-called identification signals that are used to identify the broadcast as pay broadcast on a TV receiver, so that it cannot be recognized as an image even if it is received by a television receiver. It includes a restoration signal for reproducing the scrambled pay broadcast television signal into a format that can be recognized as an image on a television receiver.

FIG. 2 is a system diagram of a conventional terminal device and television receiver used in such a CATV system, and the operation of each circuit will be explained below based on FIG. 2.

In Figure 2, 1 is a terminal, 2 is an input terminal, 3 is a branch, 4 is a channel selection circuit, 5 is a control circuit, 6 is a channel selection device, 7 is a detection circuit, 8 is a signal restoration circuit, 10 is a power outlet for the TV receiver, 11 is an output terminal, 12 is a TV receiver, 13 is an antenna terminal,
14 is a power cord of the television receiver, and 15 is a connection line.

The terminal device 1 not only receives television signals sent from a broadcasting station, but also has a function of transmitting a response signal back to the broadcasting station in response to the control signal, that is, has a two-way communication function.

Therefore, the broadcast signal sent by wire from the broadcasting station to the terminal 1 in each home is sent to the input terminal 2 of the terminal 1.
The signal is inputted from the branching device 3 and branched into the channel selection circuit 4 and the control circuit 5. Meanwhile, the viewer uses the channel selection device 6
A channel selection signal corresponding to the channel selection operation performed by the channel selection device 6 is given to the control circuit 5, and the control circuit 5 instructs the channel selection circuit 4 to select the channel concerned.

Furthermore, the detection circuit 7 to which the detection signal from the detection circuit 7 is inputted to the control circuit 5 is a power supply provided in the terminal 1 and whose output is turned on and off in conjunction with the power on and off of the terminal 1. Detecting whether the current supplied from the outlet 10 to the television receiver 12, that is, the current consumption of the television receiver 12, is equal to or higher than a predetermined value,
If the value is greater than or equal to the predetermined value, a detection signal is output to the control circuit 5. The control circuit determines whether the television receiver 12 is powered on or off based on the presence or absence of this detection signal.

When the control circuit 5 determines that the television receiver 12 is powered on when a pay broadcasting channel is selected by the channel selection operation of the channel selection device 6, the control circuit 5 responds to a control signal from the broadcasting station. and sends back to the broadcasting station a viewing signal indicating that pay broadcasting is being viewed. That is, the viewing signal is sent back from the control circuit 5 to the broadcasting station via the branch 3 and the input terminal 2, and the broadcasting station performs billing operations based on the viewing signal. In addition, even though the pay broadcasting channel is selected, if the current consumption from the power outlet is less than a predetermined value due to reasons such as the TV receiver 12 not being in operation, the TV receiver 12 may Since the power of the device 12 is off, it is determined that the pay broadcast is not being viewed, and no viewing signal is transmitted to the broadcast station, and therefore no billing operation is performed.

The channel selection circuit 4 selects the TV signal of the channel from among the broadcast signals input from the branching device 3 according to the channel selection instruction from the control circuit 5, and selects the TV signal of the channel from among the broadcast signals inputted from the branching device 3, and selects the TV signal of the channel from among the TV channels that are broadcast in that area. is converted into a signal with a frequency of an unassigned empty channel and inputted to the signal restoration circuit 8.
This signal is converted to the frequency of the TV channel, but if the selected TV signal is a pay broadcast, the signal has been subjected to so-called scramble processing, and if left as is, the TV receiver will
2, it cannot be configured as a screen on the display.

There are various methods of scrambling processing, and one example is a method in which the synchronization signal in the television signal is suppressed so that synchronization cannot be achieved on the television receiver. To restore this signal, the level relationship between the synchronizing signal and other signals can be restored correctly by amplifying this signal only during the period of the synchronizing signal, or attenuating it only during periods other than the period of the synchronizing signal. For this purpose, the above-mentioned restored signal is included in the pay broadcast signal. This restored signal is a pulse synchronized with the synchronization signal that is amplitude-modulated and superimposed on the audio carrier wave.

In addition to the above two functions, the control circuit 5 has a function of controlling a signal restoration circuit 8 that restores the scramble of pay broadcasting. That is, when the selected broadcast is a pay broadcast, the control circuit 5 extracts the restored signal from the broadcast signal and sends it to the signal restoration circuit 8.
Output to.

Based on the restoration signal input from the control circuit 5, the signal restoration circuit 8 restores the pay broadcast signal input from the channel selection circuit 4 and converted into an empty TV channel into a state that can be viewed on the television receiver 12. After adjusting the output level, it is output from the output terminal 11. Furthermore, if the selected broadcast is a service broadcast, the restored signal is not included in the television signal and the restored signal is not input to the signal restoration circuit 8, so the television signal is output by the signal restoration circuit 8. The signal is output from the output terminal 11 only with the level adjusted.

The television signal output from the output terminal 11 is input to the television receiver 12 from the antenna terminal 13 via the connection line 15. Then, a channel switching device (not shown) of the television receiver 42 is used to switch to the empty channel and the broadcast selected by the terminal 1 can be viewed.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

As mentioned above, in the terminal device 1 with the conventional configuration,
Even if the terminal device 1 selects a pay broadcast, the system is configured such that no charge is made when the television receiver 12 that should watch the broadcast is not operating, that is, when it is determined that the broadcast is not actually being viewed. As a means of determining this, the operating state of the television receiver 12 is estimated based on whether the current consumption from the power outlet 10 provided in the terminal 1 is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.

Therefore, pay broadcasting can be viewed even if the power cord 14 of the television receiver 12 is not connected to the power outlet 10 of the terminal 1, but is operated by connecting it to another outlet. In this case, if nothing is connected to the power outlet 10, the control circuit 5 determines that the television receiver 12 is not in an operating state and does not transmit viewing signals to the broadcast station. Therefore, there was a problem in that users were not charged even though they were watching pay broadcasts.

The present invention solves this problem and provides a terminal that charges users correctly depending on whether or not they receive pay broadcasts, that is, they do not charge when they are not watching pay broadcasts, and they do not charge when they are not watching pay broadcasts. The purpose is to obtain a terminal that sometimes charges a fee.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve this purpose, the CATV of this invention
The converter is a CATV converter that has a two-way communication function with broadcasting stations, and includes a tuning device that outputs a tuning signal operated by a viewer, and a tuning device that outputs a tuning signal operated by the viewer, and a scrambled pay broadcast signal that is sent to a television receiver. a signal restoration circuit that restores the signal to a viewable state and outputs it to the television receiver, a power outlet for connecting the television receiver, and detects the current output from the power outlet to the television receiver; a detection circuit that outputs a detection signal when the current is equal to or higher than a predetermined value; and a detection circuit that is connected to the channel selection device and the detection circuit, inputs a channel selection signal for receiving the channel selection of a pay broadcast signal, and a control circuit that outputs a pay broadcast viewing signal to be transmitted to a broadcast station when a signal is input, and a restoration signal for operating the signal restoration circuit; and a control circuit that outputs a restoration signal for operating the signal restoration circuit; provided between the restoration signal transmission path and connected to the detection circuit;
The present invention is characterized by comprising a gate circuit that makes the restoration signal transmission path conductive when the detection signal is input.

〔Example〕

Fig. 1 is a system diagram of a CATV converter and a television receiver showing an embodiment of the present invention. In Fig. 1, circuits and devices that are the same as those in Fig. 2 (conventional example) are given the same reference numerals and are duplicated. Omit the explanation.

The difference between FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is that a gate circuit 9 is provided in the terminal 1'. The gate circuit 9 is provided between the control circuit 5 and the signal restoration circuit 8 and has a function of intermittent the restoration signal outputted from the control circuit 5 to the signal restoration circuit 8. In order to perform this function, the gate circuit 9 obtains a detection signal from the detection circuit 7. The detection circuit is
As mentioned above, it detects whether the current supplied from the power outlet 10 provided in the terminal 1 to the television receiver 12 is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and if it is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, a detection signal is output. When the terminal device 1 selects pay broadcasting, it is determined whether or not to be charged depending on the presence or absence of the detection signal.
That is, if the current consumption from the power outlet 10 is less than a predetermined value, no charge will be made. At this time, the gate circuit 9 blocks the path from the control circuit 5 to the signal restoration circuit 8, and the restoration signal is no longer input to the signal restoration circuit 8. Therefore, the scrambled pay broadcast signal input from the channel selection circuit 4 to the signal restoration circuit 8 is not restored to a state that can be viewed on the television receiver 12.

Furthermore, if the terminal 1 is selecting a pay broadcast and the current consumption from the power outlet 10 is above a predetermined value, the control circuit 5 transmits a viewing signal to the broadcasting station based on the detection signal from the detection circuit 7. At the same time, the gate circuit 9 connects the path from the control circuit 5 to the signal restoration circuit 8 and supplies the restoration signal to the signal restoration circuit 8. As a result, the scrambled pay broadcast signal is transmitted to the TV. The video is restored to a viewable state on the receiver 12.

When the terminal device 1 is selecting a service broadcast, the functions of the detection circuit 7 and the gate circuit 9 are not necessary and do not interfere with viewing.

[Effect of idea]

As explained above, according to the CATV converter according to the present invention, when pay broadcasting is selected, depending on whether the current consumption from the power outlet provided in the CATV converter exceeds a predetermined value,
Determine whether or not you are watching pay broadcasting, and if it is determined that you are watching, you will be billed in response to that fact to the broadcasting station, and you will also be able to watch the scrambled TV signal on your TV receiver. However, if it is determined that the TV is not being viewed, no charges will be made, and since the scrambled TV signal will not be restored, the TV will not be able to be viewed on a TV receiver. Therefore, the effect of being able to correctly charge charges according to the viewing status of pay broadcasting on a television receiver was obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of a CATV converter and television receiver according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a system diagram of a conventional CATV converter and television receiver. 1...CATV converter, 5...control circuit,
7...Detection circuit, 8...Signal restoration circuit, 9...Gate circuit, 10...Power outlet, 12...TV receiver.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] Has two-way communication function with broadcasting stations
The CATV converter includes a tuning device that outputs the tuning signal operated by the viewer, and a scrambled pay broadcast signal that restores the signal to a state that can be viewed on the television receiver and outputs it to the television receiver. a signal restoration circuit, a power outlet for connecting the television receiver, and a detection circuit that detects a current output from the power outlet to the television receiver and outputs a detection signal when the current is equal to or higher than a predetermined value. is connected to the channel selection device and the detection circuit, and inputs a channel selection signal for tuning reception of a pay broadcast signal, and when the detection signal is input, a pay broadcast to be transmitted to a broadcast station. a control circuit that outputs a viewing signal and a restoration signal for operating the signal restoration circuit; and a detection circuit provided in the restoration signal transmission path between the control circuit and the signal restoration circuit. A CATV converter comprising: a gate circuit that is connected to the gate circuit and makes the restoration signal transmission path conductive when the detection signal is input.