JPH10208327A - Program reservation recording method and program reservation recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] Even if the broadcast time of a reserved program is changed, the reserved program can be reliably recorded. SOLUTION: Program broadcast schedule information is provided to a receiver side together with a program identifier for identifying each program from a broadcast side in advance.
A broadcast program schedule is displayed on a display screen based on the provided program broadcast schedule information. By selecting a program from the displayed broadcast program schedule, the program identifier for storing the program identifier in the memory is reserved. The broadcaster broadcasts each program by including the program identifier in a broadcast signal. The program identifier stored in the memory is compared with the program identifier included in the broadcast signal of the broadcasted program, and the recording of the reserved program is executed by detecting the coincidence between the two.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program reservation recording method and apparatus for reserving and recording, for example, a television program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a VTR or the like, a program reservation recording function is used to record a desired broadcast program even when a user is absent, or to record a so-called counter program.

This program reservation recording function is such that when a user sets a program start time and a program end time in advance and makes a program reservation, recording of the reserved program is automatically started from the program start time, The recording of the reserved program is automatically terminated.

[0004] Usually, a user directly sets and inputs a program start time and a program end time of a desired broadcast program based on a broadcast program schedule described in a newspaper or a magazine. Recently, a code number indicating a program start time and a program end time of each broadcast program is described in a broadcast program schedule table described in a newspaper or a magazine. May be set.

[0005]

By the way, during the broadcast,
The broadcast time may be changed, for example, a temporary program may be inserted in the middle or the start time and end time of the reserved program may be advanced to extend the broadcast time of baseball broadcasting. As described above, when the broadcast time of a broadcast program is changed, as described above, the conventional program reservation is performed only based on the broadcast start time and end time that are scheduled in advance. There has been a problem that the program is recorded from the middle, the last part of the reserved program is not recorded, or a program different from the reserved program is recorded.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a program reservation recording method and a program reservation apparatus capable of reliably recording an intended reserved program even when the broadcast time is changed. The purpose is to:

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing a program broadcast schedule information together with a program identifier for identifying each program from a broadcast side to a receiver side. And a second step of displaying a broadcast program schedule on a display screen based on the program broadcast schedule information provided in the first step, and a broadcast program schedule displayed in the second step. A third step of reserving a recorded program that stores the program identifier in a memory by selecting a program from a third step, and a fourth step of broadcasting each of the programs by including the program identifier in a broadcast signal from a broadcasting side. The program identifier stored in the third step is compared with the program identifier included in the broadcast signal of the program broadcasted in the fourth step. Run A fifth aspect of the present invention is to provide a program reservation recording method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a program reservation recording method on a display screen based on provided program broadcast schedule information including a program identifier for identifying each program; Display means for displaying a broadcast program schedule; reserved program receiving means for receiving a program selection of a reserved program by a user on the display screen; and a program identifier of the reserved program received by the reserved program receiving means stored in a memory. Reserved program identifier storage means, a program identifier extraction means for extracting the program identifier included in a broadcast signal broadcast including the program identifier for each program, a program identifier extracted by the program identifier extraction means, Recording means for comparing the program identifier stored in the reserved program identifier storage means and executing recording of the program reserved when the two match. It is to provide a program reservation recording device to obtain.

According to the present invention having the above configuration, program reservation is performed by storing a program identifier contained in a broadcast signal of a program actually broadcast later in the reserved program identifier storage means. Then, the recording of the reserved program is performed when the program identifier in the broadcast signal is compared with the program identifier of the reserved program stored in the reserved program identifier storage means, and when both match. Therefore, even if the broadcast time is changed, when the reserved program is actually broadcast, the reserved program is recorded.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which a program reservation recording apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a VTR will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a VTR according to this embodiment. VTR 1 of this embodiment
, The broadcast wave signal from the antenna 2 is
Supplied to The broadcast wave signal received by the antenna 2 through the distributor 11 is transmitted to the external television receiver 3.
Is supplied to the antenna input terminal.

The broadcast wave signal from the distributor 11 is also supplied to a tuner 12. The tuner 12 converts a broadcast channel signal selected by a user's channel selection using a remote control infrared transmitter (hereinafter referred to as a remote commander) 4 described later into a video intermediate frequency signal,
It is amplified and output.

The video intermediate frequency signal from the tuner 12 is supplied to a video detector 13 for detection, and the video detection output signal is supplied to a video signal processing unit 15.
The video signal processing unit 15 performs video signal processing based on a control signal such as image quality from a microcomputer (hereinafter abbreviated as a microcomputer) 18. Then, the output video signal from the video signal processing unit 5 is supplied to the recording / playback unit 16 and also to the video external input terminal of the external television receiver 3.

An audio signal is detected by the audio detector 14 from the video intermediate frequency signal from the tuner 12 and is obtained. This audio signal is supplied to the recording / playback unit 16 and also to an external audio input terminal of the external television receiver 3.

The video detection output of the video detector 13 is
In this embodiment, it is supplied to a character multiplex decoder 17. The character multiplex decoder 17 extracts character information superimposed on a predetermined horizontal period in the vertical blanking period of the video signal, decodes the character information, and supplies the character information to the microcomputer 18.

In this embodiment, for example, one week of program broadcast schedule information, in this example, program table data is broadcast from the broadcast side as text information in addition to a normal text broadcast program. When an actual program is broadcast, an identifier of the program, in this example, a program code is superimposed as character information. In the case of this example, the program code is superimposed on the broadcast signal at the time of starting and ending the broadcast of the program.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a signal format of the program guide data and data superimposed during actual program broadcasting. That is, FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B)
This section explains the program table data of this example, and includes a header section Ha.
And a data section Da. The header section Ha includes an identifier indicating that the character information is program guide data. The data section Da includes a program code ID which is an identifier for each program, and information indicating a scheduled start time, a scheduled end time of the program, a program title, performers, and other broadcast contents.

FIGS. 2C, 2D, and 2E show examples of character information superimposed on a broadcast signal at the start and end of the actual broadcast of a program. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 2 (C), it comprises a header section Hb and a data section Db. Then, in the header portion Hb, the character information is
In the case of this example, an identifier indicating that it indicates the start and end of the program is included. The data section Db includes a program code ID, which is an identifier for each program, and information on a broadcast program start instruction (FIG. 2D) or a broadcast program end instruction (FIG. 2E). It is.

The microcomputer 18 receives the data from the character multiplex decoder 17 and sequentially stores the data in the memory 19 when the data is program table data.

The microcomputer 18 receives a remote control signal (hereinafter, referred to as a remote control signal) from the remote commander 4 through the infrared receiver 21 and executes a process according to the remote control signal. That is, for example, the microcomputer 18
Supplies a tuning control signal to the tuner 12 in accordance with the channel selection operation by the user. In addition, the video signal processing unit 15 is controlled so that the image quality is in accordance with the user's image quality adjustment operation. When a teletext program is selected by the user, the text screen program is stored in the text screen forming circuit 20 to form a text screen for one screen. 16 and the television receiver 3.

Further, in this embodiment, VT
R1 has a broadcast program schedule display function, a program reservation function for selecting a program to be recorded from the displayed broadcast program schedule and making a program reservation, and a reserved program recording function for executing recording of the reserved program. , And is managed and executed by the microcomputer 18. These functions are executed by the microcomputer 18 when a predetermined button provided on the remote commander 4 is operated.

The broadcast program schedule display function transmits a program schedule data stored in the memory 19 to the character screen forming circuit 20 when the user issues a broadcast program schedule display request through the remote commander 4. The image signal of the schedule is formed, the image signal is supplied to the television receiver 3 through the video signal processing unit 15, and the broadcast program schedule is displayed on the screen of the television receiver 3.

A program reservation function is provided on the screen of the broadcast program schedule displayed by the broadcast program schedule display function.
This function allows the user to select the program that he / she wants to reserve. With this function, when the user performs a program reservation operation,
The program code of the reserved program is stored as an identifier of the reserved recorded program in the reserved recorded program recording area of the memory 19, which is separate from the program table data.

The reserved program recording function is a function that, when there is a program reserved for recording by the program reservation function, character information of a program code included at the start and end of the program as character information in the broadcast signal, The start and end of the recording of the reserved program are controlled by comparing the program code of the reserved program stored in the recorded program recording area with the program code of the reserved program. In this embodiment, since a program start instruction and a program end instruction are sent as character information together with the program code, the start and end of recording of the reserved program are controlled using these.

In this example, the VTR 1 can switch between a mode for receiving program table data and a mode for not selecting the program table data. 12, the video detector 13, the character multiplex decoder 17, the microcomputer 18, and the memory 19 are always supplied with power. Similarly, when the reserved program recording function is selected, similarly, the power is always supplied to the respective units to be in a reserved recording standby state, and the recording is started as described above. Then, the power is turned on to the video signal processing unit 15 and the recording / reproducing unit 16, and recording is performed.

[Procedure of Program Reservation Recording Method] (1) Broadcasting and Reception of Broadcasting Program Schedule As described above, a broadcasting program schedule for one week, for example, is broadcast as character multiplex information from a broadcasting station. This text multiplex broadcasting may be broadcast at a time other than the program broadcasting time zone, such as early morning or late night.

As described above, when the mode for receiving the program guide data is selected, the VTR 1 includes the distributor 11, the tuner 12, the video detector 13, the character multiplex decoder 17, the microcomputer 18, and the memory 19, Power is supplied at all times, and the program table data is sequentially stored in the memory 19.
To memorize.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process performed by the microcomputer 18 when character information is received from the character multiplex decoder 17 in the program guide data receiving mode.

That is, in step 101, character multiplex data from the character multiplex decoder 17 is fetched. Next, at step 102, it is determined from the identifier of the header Ha in FIG. 2 whether or not the character multiplexed data is program guide data. If it is the program table data, the process proceeds to step 103, and the program table data is sequentially stored in the memory 19. Then, returning to step 101, the next character multiplexed data is fetched, and the above processing is repeated. Step 102
If it is determined in step 1 that the data is not program guide data, step 1
Returning to 01, the next character multiplexed data is fetched, and the above processing is repeated. Thus, the memory 19 stores, for example, one week's worth of program guide data.

(2) Display of broadcast program schedule As described above, when the user operates the broadcast program schedule display request button of the remote commander 4, this broadcast program schedule display operation is executed. . FIG. 4 shows a processing routine for displaying a broadcast program schedule and a subsequent selection of a reserved program.
The processing is executed in steps 201 to 207.

That is, when a display request for a broadcast program schedule arrives from the remote commander 4, the processing routine shown in FIG. 4 starts. In step 201, program table data is read from the memory 19. Next, in step 202, the program guide data for one screen is supplied to the character screen forming circuit 20 to create display data of a broadcast program schedule. Then, in the next step 203, the display data is output to the television receiver 3 through the video signal processing unit 15, and the display screen 3D is displayed.
5, an image Ps of a broadcast program schedule, in which the vertical axis is the broadcast time and the horizontal axis is the channel (broadcasting station), is displayed. Note that a date display MD indicating how many days the displayed broadcast program schedule is is displayed at the upper left of the screen.

At this time, in step 204,
At this time, the position of the program currently selected as the reserved recording program is identified and displayed as shown by adding a shadow line to the program column in the case of the drawing. Initially, regarding this selection identification,
For example, the upper left corner is the selected position.

In this case, since the area displayed on one screen is small, displaying all broadcast programs on one screen makes it difficult to identify the contents of each program. Therefore, a part of the broadcast program schedule is displayed on one screen, and as shown in the display screen 3D of FIG. 5, scrolling can be performed in a time direction (Time) and a channel (CH) direction by a scroll key. Have been. In the next step 205, it is determined whether or not a key operation corresponding to these scroll keys has been performed on the remote commander 4. And
When it is determined that the key operation of the scroll key has been performed, the process proceeds to step 206, where the read address is changed according to the scroll direction.
Then, the data of the broadcast program schedule table portion designated by scrolling is read from the memory 19.

Then, in the same manner as described above, step 20
The display data of the broadcast program schedule to be displayed on the screen is generated in step 2, and the display data generated in step 203 is output to the television receiver 3 and displayed on the screen 3D.

If it is determined in step 205 that the scroll key has not been operated and it is determined in step 207 that the end key has been pressed, the broadcast program schedule display processing ends.

[Recording Program Reservation] In this embodiment, the user can directly make a reservation operation for a program to be recorded from the broadcast program schedule displayed as described above. Further, it is not necessary to set the start time and end time of the reserved program as in the related art.

Steps 208 to 208 in the flowchart of FIG.
Step 211 is a processing step at the time of reservation of the recorded program. That is, if it is not determined in step 207 that the end key has been pressed, the process proceeds to step 208, where it is determined whether the program reservation determination key has been pressed. If it is not determined that the enter key has been pressed, the process proceeds to the next step 209, where it is determined whether the reserved program selection key has been pressed.

If it is determined in step 209 that the reserved program selection key has not been pressed, step 204
Then, the program immediately returns to the above step, the same program column as the current situation is identified and displayed as the selected program, and the steps from step 205 onward are repeated. If it is determined that the reserved program selection key has been pressed, the process proceeds to step 210, where the newly selected program column is recognized. Is changed, the position of the identification display of the selected program is changed. Then, step 20
Repeat step 5 and subsequent steps.

If it is determined in step 208 that the program reservation decision key has been pressed, the flow advances to step 211 to store the program code of the selected program in the recording reservation program recording area of the memory 19 as a recording reservation program. I do. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step 212, where the VTR 1 is set to the standby state for programmed recording, and the processing routine for displaying the broadcast program schedule and program reservation is terminated.

[Execution of Actual Program Broadcasting and Scheduled Recording Processing] As described above, the broadcast station, when broadcasting an actual program, displays a video signal at the start of the broadcast of the program and at the end of the broadcast of the program. The broadcast signal is transmitted by superimposing the program start / end data shown in 2 (C) to (E) as character information. The program start / end data is not superimposed only once each at the time of the program start and at the end of the program, but is superimposed continuously plural times at the time of the program start and at the end of the program in consideration of safety.

The VTR 1 controls recording start and end based on the program start / end data in the broadcast signal in the reserved recording standby state. That is, in the scheduled recording standby state, the distributor 1
1, the tuner 12, the video detector 13, the character multiplex decoder 17, the microcomputer 18, and the memory 19 are always supplied with power, and the tuner 12 is fixed in a state of selecting a broadcast channel of a reserved program. Then, the character information in the broadcast signal is constantly monitored, and when the same program code as the reserved program code is detected, the recording is started by the broadcast program start instruction and is ended by the broadcast program end instruction.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of the timer recording process in the VTR 1. That is, in step 301, the character multiplex data from the character multiplex decoder 17 is fetched. Next, in step 302, it is determined whether or not the character multiplexed data is program start / end data in FIG.
From the identifier of the header Hb. If the data is not the program start / end data, the process returns to step 301 to fetch the next character multiplexed data and continue the following processing.

Then, as a result of the determination in step 302,
If the captured character information is program start / end data,
Proceeding to step 303, the program code ID included in the program start / end data is compared with the program code ID of the reserved program stored in the memory 19. Then, in the next step 304, it is determined whether or not both program codes match.

If the result of determination in step 304 is that the two program codes do not match, the flow returns to step 301 to fetch the next character multiplexed data, and the processing from step 301 onward is continued. If the result of the determination in step 304 is that the two program codes match, the flow advances to step 305 to determine whether or not a program start instruction has been issued. And
If the instruction is a program start instruction, the process proceeds to step 306 to start recording. Note that this program start instruction is determined by
Instead of detecting the program start instruction once, the program start instruction may be detected a plurality of consecutive times. afterwards,
Returning to step 301, the next character multiplexed data is fetched, and the processing from step 301 onward is continued.

If it is determined in step 305 that the instruction is not a program start instruction, step 307
To determine whether it is a program end instruction. And
If it is determined that the instruction is not a program end instruction, step 3
Returning to step 01, the next character multiplexed data is fetched, and the processing from step 301 onward is continued. If it is determined that the instruction is a program end instruction, the process proceeds to step 308 to end the recording, and the processing routine of the scheduled recording ends. The determination of the program end instruction may be made not by one detection of the program end instruction but by a plurality of consecutive detections.

As described above, in this embodiment, when a program is actually broadcast, scheduled recording is executed in accordance with the program code included in the broadcast signal. Even if the broadcast time is changed up or down, the desired reserved program can be reliably recorded.

Since the recording is performed on the recording medium only during the time when the target program is being broadcast, the recording medium is not wasted.

As described above, in this embodiment, a recorded program can be reserved simply by selecting a program to be reserved from a broadcast program schedule displayed on the display screen. Will be very easy.

[Modification] In the above example, when broadcasting from a broadcasting station, a program code is superimposed on a video signal in combination with a program start instruction and a program end instruction. Of course, the code may be superimposed on the video signal as character information. In that case,
The receiving side starts recording when a program code equal to the program code of the reserved program is detected, and ends recording when the same program code can no longer be obtained.

In the case where the program code is always superimposed on the video signal as character information during the broadcast of the program as described above, the program code is not superimposed during the broadcast of the commercial, so that the recording without the commercial portion is performed. It can be performed.

In the above example, the program start / end data including the program code is superimposed on the video signal as character multiplexed data, but the superimposition method is not limited to this. For example, spectrum information of additional information including a program code may be superimposed on a video signal at a low level that does not cause noise in a reproduced image of the video signal.

The program identifier is not limited to the program code, but may be any type as long as it can identify each program.

Further, in the above example, the program guide data is provided by being superimposed on the video signal as character multiplexed data. Instead, it may be recorded on a recording medium and periodically distributed to viewers. For example, when the recording device is a VTR as described above, a tape cassette on which program guide data is recorded is distributed to viewers, for example, on a monthly basis. In that case, the VTR is
The distributed tape cassette is reproduced and stored in the memory 19.
The program table data is read from the memory 19 in the same manner as described above in response to a request from the user, and a broadcast program schedule table is generated.

Further, it is also possible to mount a modem on the recording device and provide the program guide data to the recording device through a telephone line.

The program broadcast schedule information may not be the program table data itself as in the above example, but may be only the data necessary for generating the broadcast program schedule table. In that case, a function for generating a broadcast program schedule is provided on the receiving side.

It should be noted that the recording apparatus uses a VT like the one described above.
It is not limited to R, but may be a DVD (digital video disk) device. In addition, the present invention can be applied to not only recording of a video signal of a television broadcast but also so-called absence recording of an audio signal of a radio broadcast.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if the broadcast time is changed, it is possible to reliably record the intended program reserved. Then, since the target program is recorded only during the time it is being broadcast, the recording medium is not wasted.

Further, by simply selecting the program to be reserved from the broadcast program schedule displayed on the display screen, the program to be recorded can be reserved, and the program reservation operation becomes very simple.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of a program reservation recording device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining information superimposed on a broadcast signal in the program reservation recording method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of a process of receiving program table data in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for displaying a broadcast program schedule and selecting a reserved program in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a broadcast program schedule displayed on a display screen in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of a timer recording process in the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... VTR, 2 ... antenna, 3 ... TV receiver, 4 ... remote commander, 11 ... distributor, 12 ... tuner, 13
... video detector, 14 ... audio detector, 15 ... video signal processing unit, 16 ... recording and reproduction unit, 17 ... character multiplex decoder, 18
... microcomputer, 19 ... memory, 20 ... character screen forming circuit, 21 ... infrared receiving unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] A first method for providing program broadcast schedule information to a receiver side together with a program identifier for identifying each program from a broadcast side in advance.
A second step of displaying a broadcast program schedule on a display screen based on the program broadcast schedule information provided in the first step; and a broadcast program schedule displayed in the second step. A third step of reserving a recorded program by storing the program identifier in a memory by selecting a program from a memory; a fourth step of broadcasting each program by including the program identifier in a broadcast signal from a broadcast side; The program identifier stored in the third step is compared with the program identifier included in the broadcast signal of the program broadcasted in the fourth step. A fifth step to be executed, and a program reservation recording method. 2. The program reservation recording method according to claim 1, wherein the program broadcast schedule information is provided to a receiver while being included in the broadcast signal. 3. The program reservation recording method according to claim 1, wherein the program broadcast schedule information is stored in a recording medium and provided to a receiver. 4. A display means for displaying a broadcast program schedule on a display screen based on provided program broadcast schedule information including a program identifier for identifying each program, and displaying a scheduled program by a user on the display screen. Reserved program receiving means for receiving a program selection; reserved program identifier storing means for storing the program identifier of the reserved program received by the reserved program receiving means in a memory; and a broadcast broadcast including the program identifier for each program. A program identifier extracting unit for extracting the program identifier included in the signal; a program identifier extracted by the program identifier extracting unit; and a program identifier stored in the reserved program identifier storing unit. Recording means for recording the program for which the program has been reserved. 5. The program reservation recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the program broadcast schedule information is provided to a receiver while being included in the broadcast signal. 6. The program broadcast schedule information is stored in a recording medium and distributed in advance to recipients. The recording medium is reproduced by a reproducing means, and a broadcast program schedule is displayed on a display screen by the display means. 5. The program reservation recording device according to claim 4, wherein the program reservation is displayed.