KR100793788B1 - Method and apparatus of storing and playing broadcasting program - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast program storage method and apparatus for summarizing a broadcast program according to importance.

The broadcast program storage method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: storing summary information consisting of the importance information for each section of the broadcast program; If the user is requested to store a summary of a certain importance or more, a section of a broadcast program corresponding to the importance or more is extracted according to the summary information, and a portion of the broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section is stored. It is characterized by consisting of steps.

In addition, the broadcast program reproduction method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: storing summary information consisting of the importance information for each section of the broadcast program; If a user is requested to play a summary of a certain importance or more, a section of a broadcast program corresponding to the importance or more is extracted according to the summary information, and a part of the broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section is played. Characterized in that it comprises a step.

PVR, broadcast program, summary storage

Description

Broadcasting program storage and playback method and device {METHOD AND APPARATUS OF STORING AND PLAYING BROADCASTING PROGRAM}

1 is a block diagram of a television broadcast receiver having an applicable PVR of the present invention.

2 is a flowchart of a broadcast program storage and playback method according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a flow chart of a broadcast program storage and playback method according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart of a method for storing importance information according to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention.

 <Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

100: controller

102: control unit

104: memory section

106: user interface unit

108: tuner

110: digital broadcast signal processing unit

112: TS decoder

114: first switching part

116: analog broadcast signal processing unit

118: second switch

120: NT (NTSC) decoder

122: PVR unit

124: PVR Control and Encoder

126: storage medium

128: broadcast signal output unit

130: third switching unit

132: Audio and Video Decoder

134: audio and video processing unit

136: audio and video output

138: OSD generation unit

The present invention relates to an apparatus for storing a broadcast program, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for summarizing or reproducing a broadcast program.

The rapid development of television broadcasting technology not only improves the quality of television broadcasting, but also improves the performance of the processor included in the television broadcasting receiver and increases the resources of the memory, thereby providing various functions as well as the television broadcasting award.

For example, a television broadcast receiver equipped with a personal video recorder (PVR) includes a hard disk driver as a storage medium, so that not only a broadcast program received on the hard disk but also an external input signal and the like can be stored. It allows you to meet a variety of needs.

However, since the PVR function is limited only to a function of storing and playing a broadcast program, efforts to provide a more differentiated service to a user by using the PVR function have been continued.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned problems and an object thereof is to provide a broadcast program storage method and apparatus for summarizing and storing broadcast programs according to importance.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a broadcast program playing method and apparatus for summarizing playback according to importance in playing a broadcast program.

The broadcast program storage method according to the present invention for achieving the above object and to solve the problems of the prior art, the method comprising the steps of: storing summary information consisting of the importance information for each section for the broadcast program; If the user is requested to store a summary of any importance or more, a section of the broadcast program corresponding to the importance or more is extracted according to the summary information, and a portion of the broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section is extracted. Characterized in that the step of storing.

In addition, the broadcast program reproduction method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: storing summary information consisting of the importance information for each section of the broadcast program; If a user is requested to play a summary of a certain importance or more, a section of a broadcast program corresponding to the importance or more is extracted according to the summary information, and a part of the broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section is played. Characterized in that it comprises a step.

The present invention can be applied to all storage devices for storing and reproducing audio and video signals from various media such as digital broadcast signals, analog broadcast signals, and external input signals. In the following description, only the example applied to a television broadcast receiver having a PVR will be described. It explains in detail.

The configuration of a television broadcast receiver having a PVR to which the present invention described above is applicable will be described with reference to FIG.

The television broadcast receiver includes a control device 100 that generally controls the television broadcast receiver, a tuner 108 that performs tuning of a broadcast channel under the control of the control device 100, and a digital broadcast signal for processing a digital broadcast signal. Processor 110, an analog broadcast signal processor 116 for processing an analog broadcast signal, a PVR unit 122 for storing and reproducing a digital broadcast signal or an analog broadcast signal, a digital broadcast signal processor 110, or an analog broadcast signal processor ( 116 or a broadcast signal output unit 128 for outputting a broadcast signal provided by the PVR unit 122.

The control device 100 includes a control unit 102, a memory unit 104, and a user interface unit 106.

The controller 102 controls the television broadcast receiver as a whole, and in particular, the PVR control and the encoder 124 to store the broadcast program in the storage medium 126 of the PVR unit 122 according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. do .

In particular, the controller 102 extracts summary information on a broadcast program to be stored from an EPG (ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GIUDE) or a PID, or is provided through a user interface unit 106 to correspond to the broadcast program. The PVR control and the encoder 124 are controlled to be stored in the storage medium 126.

The summary information is divided into a plurality of sections according to the importance of the broadcast program, and is composed of importance information given for each of the plurality of sections.

That is, as shown in Table 1, the summary information is composed of section information and importance information on the corresponding broadcast program.

Section information of broadcasting program Materiality Information

At least one summary information configured as described above is stored in the memory unit 104 and simultaneously stored in the storage medium 126 corresponding to the corresponding broadcast program as shown in Table 2.

 A broadcast program 1st summary information (1st section information + importance information) Second Summary Information (Second Section Information + Materiality Information) ... N summary information (N section information + importance information)

In addition, the controller 102 controls the PVR unit 122 to selectively reproduce only a section corresponding to the importance information selected by the user according to a user's request through the user interface unit 106, thereby enabling summary reproduction. .

The memory unit 104 stores various information including a processing program of the control unit 102.

The user interface unit 106 provides various commands or information input from the user to the controller 102 by using a keypad or a remote controller.

The tuner 108 tunes a channel according to the control of the control unit 102 among broadcast signals received through airwaves or a cable, and the digital broadcast signal among the broadcast signals received through the tuned channel is a digital broadcast signal processing unit ( 110, and the analog broadcast signal is provided to the analog broadcast signal processor 116.

The digital broadcast signal processor 110 includes a TS decoder 112 and a first switching unit 114.

The TS decoder 112 decodes the digital broadcast signal provided by the tuner 108, converts the digital broadcast signal into an audio, video stream, and data stream and transmits the same to the first switching unit 114.

The first switching unit 114 provides the audio and video streams and the data streams to the PVR unit 122 and / or the broadcast signal output unit 128 under the control of the control unit 102.

The analog broadcast signal processing unit 116 includes a second switching unit 118 and an NT (NTSC) decoder 120.

The second switching unit 118 receives an analog broadcast signal and an external input signal provided from the tuner 108, selects one of the two signals under the control of the control unit 102, and sends the signal to the NT (NTSC) decoder 120. to provide.

The NT decoder 120 receives the analog broadcast signal or the external input signal, decodes the audio data and the video data to provide the PVR unit 122 and the broadcast signal output unit 128.

The PVR unit 122 includes a PVR control and an encoder 124 and a storage medium 126.

The PVR control and encoder 124 receives the audio and video streams and data streams output by the digital broadcast signal processor 110 under the control of the controller 102 and stores them in the storage medium 126 or the analog broadcast signal processor ( The audio and video data output by 116 is MPEG encoded into an audio and video stream and stored in the storage medium 126.

The storage medium 126 is a hard disk driver including a hard disk and stores audio and video streams and data streams provided by the PVR control and encoder 124.

As described above, the storage medium 126 stores the broadcast-received audio and video streams, data streams, and audio and video streams encoding external input signals. However, the present invention implements summary storage or reproduction of broadcast programs. One or more broadcast programs are stored in the storage medium 126.

The broadcast signal output unit 128 includes a second switching unit 130, an audio and video decoder 132, an audio and video processor 133, an audio and video output unit 136, and an OSD generator 138. It is composed.

The second switching unit 130 selects one or more of the outputs of the digital signal processing unit 110, the analog signal processing unit 110, and the PVR unit 122 under the control of the control unit 102 to control the audio and video decoder ( 132).

The audio and video decoder 132 decodes the video and the audio data into the audio and the video processing unit 134 when the video and the audio stream are provided, and provides the audio and the video processing unit 134 as the video and the audio data are provided. do.

The audio and video processor 134 processes and provides audio and video data provided by the audio and video decoder 132 to the audio and video output unit 136. In addition, the audio and video processor 134 mixes the OSD data provided by the OSD generator 138 with the video data and provides the audio and video output unit 136.

The audio and video output unit 136 outputs audio and video data output by the audio and video processing unit 134 through a display device and a speaker not shown.

The OSD generator 138 generates OSD data under the control of the controller 102 and provides the OSD data to the audio and video processor 134.

A method for storing and reproducing a broadcast program summary according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention applicable to a television broadcast receiver having the PVR will now be described with reference to FIG.

The control unit 102 checks whether the user is requested to store a broadcast program through the user interface unit 106 (step 200).

When the broadcast program is requested to be stored, the controller 102 controls the OSD generator 138 to generate OSD data for displaying an OSD for guiding selection of importance for summary storage (step 204). Under the control of the controller 102, the OSD generator 138 generates OSD data for guiding the importance selection and provides the OSD data to the audio and video processor 134 to display the screen of the display device. An OSD is displayed on the screen to guide the importance selection.

According to the guided OSD, the user can select the importance level such as up and down through the user interface unit 106.

After the OSD is displayed, when the user selects the importance level (step 206), the controller 102 controls the PVR unit 128 to store only the section corresponding to the importance selected by the user among the stored broadcast programs (208). step).

In more detail, the controller 102 extracts summary information on the corresponding broadcast program received through the EPG or PID, corresponds to the importance selected by the user among the summary information, or includes importance information more than the selected importance. PVR control and encoder to extract summary information, to extract broadcast program section information included in the extracted summary information, and to store a portion of a broadcast program corresponding to the extracted broadcast program section information in a storage medium 126. 124).

As described above, the present invention stores only the portion of the broadcast program corresponding to the importance selected by the user or corresponding to the portion of the importance or more, thereby allowing the user to summarize and store the broadcast program according to the importance.

When the storing of the broadcast program is completed, the controller 102 checks whether the user requests reproduction of the summary stored broadcast program through the user interface unit 106 (step 210).

If the user is requested to play the summary stored broadcast program, the controller 102 controls the PVR control and the encoder 124 to read and reproduce the summary stored broadcast program from the storage medium 126 (step 212). Accordingly, the PVR control and the encoder 124 read out and reproduce the broadcast program stored in the storage medium 126 under the control of the control unit 102.

The first preferred embodiment of the present invention discloses a method for storing a summary of a broadcast program using the summary information. However, the second preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a method of summarizing and reproducing a broadcast program using the summary information. It starts.

A method of reproducing a summary of a broadcast program according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention described above will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3.

The control unit 102 checks whether the user requests the storage of the broadcast program through the user interface unit 106 (step 300).

When the storage of the broadcast program is requested, the control unit 102 stores the broadcast program requested to be stored in the storage medium 126 and corresponds to summary information of the broadcast program received through the EPG or PID. The PVR control and the encoder 124 are controlled to be stored in the storage medium 126 (step 304).

After storing the broadcast program, the controller 102 checks through the user interface 106 whether the user commands a summary playback of the broadcast program (step 306). When the summary playback of the broadcast program is commanded, the controller 102 controls the OSD generator 138 to generate OSD data for displaying an OSD for guiding selection of importance for summary playback (step 308). Under the control of the controller 102, the OSD generator 138 generates OSD data for guiding the importance selection and provides the OSD data to the audio and video processor 134 to display the screen of the display device. An OSD is displayed on the screen to guide the importance selection.

According to the guided OSD, the user can select the importance level such as up and down through the user interface unit 106.

After displaying the OSD, when the user selects the importance level (step 310), the controller 102 controls the PVR unit 128 to play only a section corresponding to the importance selected by the user among the stored broadcast programs.

That is, the controller 102 reads summary information stored corresponding to the program selected by the user from the storage medium 126 and corresponds to the importance selected by the user among the importance information included in the read summary information, The PVR control and the encoder 124 are controlled to extract summary information that is greater than or equal to the selected importance and to read and reproduce only a part of a broadcast program corresponding to the section information included in the extracted summary information from the storage medium 126 (312). step). The PVR control and the encoder 124 read and reproduce only a portion of the broadcast program corresponding to the importance selected by the user or under the control of the controller 102 from the storage medium 126.

In the above-described first and second embodiments, only the summary information is received and stored. However, in order to provide the summary storage and playback as in the present invention, the broadcast is not provided by the user. You can also enter the information directly.

A third preferred embodiment of the present invention for directly inputting summary information on the broadcast program is described in detail with reference to FIG. 4.

The controller 102 checks whether the user requests to input summary information about the broadcast program stored in the storage medium 126 through the user interface 106 (step 400).

When the input of the summary information is requested, the controller 102 controls the OSD generator 138 to generate OSD data for guiding input of section information and importance information for the corresponding broadcast program (404). step). Under the control of the control unit 102, the OSD generating unit 138 generates OSD data for guiding input of the interval and importance information of the broadcast program, and outputs the OSD data to the audio and video processing unit 134. By providing, an OSD for guiding the importance selection is displayed on the screen of the display device.

In accordance with the guided OSD, a user may input section and importance information of one or more broadcast programs through the user interface 106.

When the section and importance information of the one broadcast program is input, the controller 102 stores the section and the importance information of the one or more broadcast programs as one or more summary information corresponding to the broadcast program. The storage medium 126 or the memory unit 104. ) To enable summary storage and playback of the broadcast program according to FIG. 2 or 3.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4, only the summary information is provided for the stored broadcast program. However, the summary information may be configured by inputting importance information by designating a start time and an end time for the currently received broadcast program. Is apparent to those skilled in the art by the present invention.

In addition, the above-described embodiment of the present invention includes a computer-readable medium including program instructions for performing various computer-implemented operations. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. The program instructions on the media may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well-known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts.

As described above, the present invention has an advantage of providing a differentiated service to a user by using a PVR function by summarizing or reproducing a broadcast program according to importance.

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-described embodiments, which can be variously modified and modified by those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. Modifications are possible.

Accordingly, the spirit of the present invention should be understood only by the claims set forth below, and all equivalent or equivalent modifications thereof will belong to the scope of the present invention.

Claims (6)

Storing summary information consisting of section information of the corresponding broadcast program and importance information for each section included in the received broadcast signal, or summary information according to sections and importance of one or more broadcast programs input by a user in a memory; Wow; Receiving a summary storage of any importance or more from the user through an OSD for guiding selection of importance according to summary storage; And Extracting a section of a broadcast program corresponding to the importance or higher according to the requested summary storage information, and storing a portion of the broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section in a PVR; . When the storage signal for the received broadcast program is input, the summary information including the importance information for each section of the broadcast program is stored in the PVR corresponding to the broadcast program, or one or more broadcast programs for the broadcast program stored in the PVR. Storing interval and importance information as one or more summary information in a PVR or a memory corresponding to the broadcast program; Receiving a summary playback of any importance or more from a user through an OSD for guiding selection of importance according to the summary playback; And Extracting a section of a broadcast program corresponding to the importance or higher according to the importance selected by the user, and reproducing a section of the broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section. delete A memory unit for storing summary information including section information included in the received broadcast program and importance information for each section, or a program section and importance information input by a user as summary information; An OSD generator for generating an OSD for guiding selection of importance for storing or playing the received broadcast program; A PVR unit for storing the broadcast program; And If a summary storage of one or more importances of the received broadcast program is requested, a section of a broadcast program corresponding to the importance or more is extracted according to the summary information, and a broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section is extracted. And a control unit controlling to store a portion of the broadcast program storage device. The method of claim 4, wherein the control unit When a summary reproduction of the broadcast program stored in the PVR is requested, a section of the broadcast program corresponding to the importance or higher is extracted according to the importance selected by the user, and a portion of the broadcast program corresponding to the extracted section is played. Broadcast program storage device, characterized in that the. delete

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