KR20060022470A - Device and method for relaying TV received signal to internet - Google Patents

Abstract

1. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, a method thereof, and a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the method.

2. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

The present invention converts a TV received signal received in an analog form into a digital signal, encodes it into a specific video signal format, and then transmits the TV received signal to a remote user terminal connected through the Internet to the Internet. An object of the present invention is to provide a relay apparatus, a method thereof, and a computer-readable recording medium storing a program for realizing the method.

3. Summary of the Solution of the Invention

According to an aspect of the present invention, in a device for relaying a TV reception signal to the Internet, a signal of a channel (a user requests to watch) selected by a video reception terminal among broadcast signals received from a TV reception terminal under control of a control means; Channel selection means for selecting a; Signal processing means for converting the analog broadcast signal received through the channel selection means into a digital signal; Encoding processing means for encoding the digital signal received from the signal processing means; Transmitting the IP (IP) address and channel selection information received from the video receiving terminal connected through the Internet to the control means, and as a result, transmitting the video data received from the encoding processing means to the video receiving terminal. Network processing means for; And controlling the channel selecting means and the network processing means according to an IP address and channel selection information of the image receiving terminal received through the network processing means, so that the image data of the channel selected by the image receiving terminal is received. And the control means for transmission to the terminal.

4. Important uses of the invention

The present invention is used for TV relay devices and the like.

TV, MPEG, Channel Selection, Internet Broadcasting

Description

Apparatus and its method for relaying TV signal using internet}             

1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an internet broadcasting service system to which the present invention is applied;

2 is a configuration diagram of another embodiment of an internet broadcasting service system to which the present invention is applied;

3 is a configuration diagram of an apparatus for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet according to the present invention;

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet according to the present invention;

5 is a flowchart illustrating another embodiment of a method for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet according to the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawing

11,21: TV receiving terminal 12,22: TV repeater

13: modem 14,24: video receiving terminal

15,25: address registration server 23: access point (AP)                 

31: tuner 32: signal processing unit

33: central processing unit 34: video codec

35: network processing unit

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, a method and a computer readable recording medium recording a program for realizing the method, and more particularly, to a television (TV) received in analog form. An apparatus and method for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet for converting the received signal into a digital signal, encoding the specific video signal format, and then transmitting the received signal to a remote user terminal connected through the Internet. A computer readable recording medium having recorded a program.

Recently, a service for watching TV broadcasts at home through the Internet has been widely used. In many cases, the video on demand (VOD) service provided by the broadcaster's internet site is often used. Wherever and whenever the Internet is available, the content (a broadcast program such as a drama, a movie or a show program) is available. It has the advantage of being able to download (or stream) it.                         

However, since the TV broadcasting service provided on the Internet is downloaded from the central server, there are problems in that, when there are many accessors, the service of desired quality cannot be provided due to the speed decrease.

In addition, conventionally, since each broadcaster operates a different Internet site, there is an inconvenience of having to visit the corresponding site whenever the user wants to change the channel.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, and converts a TV (TV) signal received in an analog form into a digital signal, encodes it into a specific video signal format, and then connects the user to a remote site via the Internet. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet for transmission to a terminal, a method thereof, and a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the method.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention can be understood by the following description, and will be more clearly understood by the embodiments of the present invention. In addition, it will be readily appreciated that the objects and advantages of the present invention may be realized by the means and combinations thereof indicated in the claims.

The apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object, in the apparatus for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, according to the control of the control means selected by the video receiving terminal of the broadcast signal received from the TV (TV) receiving terminal (user Channel selection means for selecting a signal of a channel that the user has requested to watch; Signal processing means for converting the analog broadcast signal received through the channel selection means into a digital signal; Encoding processing means for encoding the digital signal received from the signal processing means; The IP address and channel selection information received from the video receiving terminal connected through the Internet are transmitted to the control means, and as a result, the video data received from the encoding processing means is transmitted to the video receiving terminal. Network processing means; And controlling the channel selecting means and the network processing means according to an IP address and channel selection information of the image receiving terminal received through the network processing means, so that the image data of the channel selected by the image receiving terminal is received. And the control means for transmission to the terminal.

On the other hand, the method of the present invention, a method for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, comprising: receiving an IP (IP) address and channel selection information from an image receiving terminal connected through the Internet; Receiving a TV broadcast signal of a corresponding channel according to channel selection information received from the video receiving terminal; Converting the received TV broadcast signal into a digital signal and then encoding the received TV broadcast signal; And transmitting the encoded image data to the image receiving terminal by using an IP address of the received image receiving terminal.

In addition, the method of the present invention, the address registration step of receiving a floating IP address, and transmits a signal requesting to map the assigned floating IP address to a fixed address to an external address registration server. It characterized in that it further comprises.

On the other hand, the present invention, a TV (TV) relay device having a processor, receiving side information acquisition function for receiving an IP (IP) address and channel selection information from a video receiving terminal connected through the Internet; A broadcast reception function of receiving a TV (TV) broadcast signal of a corresponding channel according to channel selection information received from the video reception terminal; An encoding function for converting the received TV broadcast signal into a digital signal and then encoding the received TV broadcast signal; And a computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing a video data transmission function of transmitting the encoded video data to the video receiving terminal by using an IP address of the received video receiving terminal. .

In addition, the present invention, to further realize the address registration function for receiving a floating IP (IP) address, and transmits a signal requesting to map the assigned floating IP address to a fixed address to an external address registration server. A computer readable recording medium having recorded a program is provided.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, whereby those skilled in the art may easily implement the technical idea of the present invention. There will be. In addition, in describing the present invention, when it is determined that the detailed description of the known technology related to the present invention may unnecessarily obscure the gist of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of an internet broadcasting service system to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the Internet broadcasting service system to which the present invention is applied includes a TV receiving terminal 11, a TV relay device 12 according to the present invention, a modem 13, and a remote image receiving terminal connected through the Internet. 14, and an address registration server 15.

The TV receiving terminal 11 is a connection point connected to an antenna to receive a TV signal, and is generally located on a wall.

The TV relay device 12 is a device for relaying a TV reception signal to the Internet, and in real time, the TV broadcast signal of a corresponding channel under the control of the video reception terminal 14 connected through the Internet. Send to).

That is, the TV relay device 12 converts a signal of a corresponding channel among TV signals received through the TV receiving terminal 11 into a digital signal according to channel selection information from the image receiving terminal 14 connected through the Internet. The video signal is converted and encoded into an MPEG video signal, and then transmitted to a remote video receiving terminal 14 connected through the Internet. At this time, the TV relay 12 encapsulates an MPEG video signal encoded with a TV signal into a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet or a Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) packet. After the transmission through the modem (13) by wire.

Meanwhile, the TV relay 12 may be assigned a fixed IP address or a dynamic IP address. If a fixed IP address is allocated, the remote video receiving terminal 14 may directly access the fixed IP address, and in the case of a dynamic IP address, the address registration server 15 may map the floating IP address to the fixed address. Register the assigned IP address.

The modem 13 is a device that modulates and transmits a digital signal into an analog signal and demodulates the received analog signal into a digital signal. The modem 13 includes various digital subscriber line (xDSL) modems. For reference, the digital subscriber line (xDSL) is one of transmission methods for widening the subscriber network by additionally securing a high speed data line by using an existing copper subscriber line. In other words, by installing optical cables from the telephone company to the demand-intensive area, and connecting the end of the optical cable to subscribers using existing copper telephone lines, various services such as high-speed Internet, video on demand (VOD), and general cable broadcasting (CATV) as well as existing telephone service are provided. Multimedia services can be provided. Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL), High Speed Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL), Ultra High Speed Digital Subscriber Line (BDSL) and so on.

On the other hand, the remote image receiving terminal 14 is connected to the TV relay device 12 through the Internet, and transmits its IP address and channel selection information desired to watch to the TV relay device 12. At this time, the remote image receiving terminal 14 is directly connected by using a fixed IP address of the TV relay device 12 or by using an IP address registered in the address registration server 15.                     

In addition, the remote image receiving terminal 14 plays a role of decoding and playing MPEG image data transmitted from the TV relay 12. Accordingly, the remote image receiving terminal 14 may be connected to the Internet and may be a computer (PC), a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile communication terminal, or the like capable of processing MPEG image data.

On the other hand, the TV relay device 12 may be connected to the modem 13 that already exists in the home as in the embodiment described above, may be used, the TV relay device 12 itself may include a modem (13) It may be.

2 is a configuration diagram of another embodiment of an internet broadcasting service system to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 2, the Internet broadcasting service system to which the present invention is applied is connected via a TV receiving terminal 21, a TV relay device 22 according to the present invention, an access point (AP) 23, and the Internet. Remote image receiving terminal 24, and address registration server 25.

The TV receiving terminal 21 is a connection point for receiving a TV signal connected to the antenna.

The TV relay device 22 is a device for relaying a TV reception signal to the Internet, and the TV signal received through the TV reception terminal 21 according to channel selection information from the image reception terminal 14 connected through the Internet. The signal of the corresponding channel is converted into a digital signal, encoded into an MPEG video signal, and then transmitted to a video receiving terminal 24 of a remote location connected through the Internet. At this time, the TV relay 22 encapsulates an MPEG video signal into a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packet or a Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP / IP) packet, and then wirelessly Is converted to the access point (AP) 23 and transmitted.

Then, the access point (AP) 23 converts the wireless signal received from the TV relay device 22 into a wired signal, and then transmits it to the video receiving terminal 24 connected through the Internet.

Meanwhile, the TV relay device 22 may be assigned a fixed IP address or a dynamic IP address. If a fixed IP address is assigned, the remote video receiving terminal 24 can directly access the fixed IP address. If the fixed IP address is assigned to the address registration server 25 that maps the dynamic IP address to the fixed address. Register the assigned IP address.

In addition, the TV relay device 22 changes the channel under the control of the video receiving terminal 24 connected through the Internet.

The remote image receiving terminal 24 accesses the TV relay device 22 through the Internet, and transmits its own IP address and channel selection information through the access point (AP) 23 to the TV relay device. Transfer to 22. At this time, the remote image receiving terminal 14 is directly connected by using a fixed IP address of the TV relay device 12 or by using an IP address registered in the address registration server 15.

In addition, the remote image receiving terminal 24 plays a role of decoding and playing MPEG image data transmitted from the TV relay 22. Accordingly, the remote image receiving terminal 24 may be connected to the Internet and may be a computer (PC) capable of processing MPEG image data, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile communication terminal, or the like.

Hereinafter, referring to FIG. 3, the TV relay devices 12 and 22, that is, a device for relaying a TV reception signal according to the present invention to the Internet will be described in more detail.

3 is a configuration diagram of an apparatus for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the apparatus for relaying a TV reception signal according to the present invention to the Internet includes a tuner 31, a signal processor 32, a central processor 33, an image codec 34, and a network processor ( 35).

The tuner 31 performs a function of selecting a signal of a channel that the user requests to watch among TV signals received from the TV receiving terminal under the control of the central processing unit 33.

The signal processor 32 converts an analog signal received from the TV receiving terminal 21 into a digital signal through the tuner 31.

The image codec 34 encodes (compresses) the digital signal received from the signal processor 32 into MPEG image data.

The network processor 35 transmits the IP address and channel selection information of the image receiving terminals 14 and 24 received from the modem 13 or the access point 23 to the central processing unit 33, and the image codec 34 The MPEG video data transmitted from the MPC is transmitted to the video receiving terminals 14 and 24 through the modem 13 or the AP 23.

The central processing unit 33 controls the respective components as a whole. That is, the central processing unit 33 controls the tuner 31 to select the corresponding channel according to the IP addresses and channel selection information of the image receiving terminals 14 and 24 received through the network processing unit 35. When its IP address is a dynamic IP address, a signal for requesting the address registration servers 15 and 25 to map the floating IP address to a fixed address is transmitted through the network processor 35.

The overall operation of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of relaying a TV received signal according to the present invention to the Internet, which is a process for the case where the TV relay devices 12 and 22 according to the present invention have a fixed IP address.

First, the image receiving terminals 14 and 24 connected through the Internet while the TV relay devices 12 and 22 according to the present invention are connected to the modem 13 by wire or wirelessly to the access point (AP) 23. In step 401, a TV remote viewing request signal including an IP address and channel selection information is received. At this time, since the TV relay devices 12 and 22 have a fixed IP address, the video receiving terminals 14 and 24 located at remote locations can access the TV relay devices 12 and 22 using the fixed IP address. have.

Then, the TV relay apparatuses 12 and 22 transmit from the TV receiving terminals 11 and 21 according to the TV remote viewing request signal including the IP address and channel selection information transmitted from the video receiving terminals 14 and 24. The TV broadcast signal of the channel is received (402), converted into a digital signal, and encoded (compressed) into MPEG video data (403).

The encoded (compressed) MPEG image data is transmitted to the image receiving terminals 14 and 24 using the IP addresses of the image receiving terminals 14 and 24 received in step 401 (step 404).

Thereafter, when the TV relay devices 12 and 22 receive the channel change request information from the video receiving terminals 14 and 24, the TV relay apparatuses 12 and 22 change the channel to receive the TV broadcast signal of the corresponding channel.

Meanwhile, the above process is performed until the TV viewing stop request signal is received from the video receiving terminals 14 and 24.

5 is a flowchart of another embodiment of a method of relaying a TV received signal according to the present invention to the Internet, which is a process for the case where the TV relay devices 12 and 22 according to the present invention are assigned a floating IP address.

First, the IP relay 12 or 22 according to the present invention is assigned a floating IP address while being connected to the modem 13 by wire or wirelessly to the access point (AP) 23 to register the address registration server 15, 25) (501).

Subsequently, when the TV relay apparatus 12 or 22 receives a TV remote viewing request signal including an IP address and channel selection information from the image receiving terminals 14 and 24 connected through the Internet (502), the TV receiving terminal. The TV broadcast signal of the corresponding channel is received from (11, 21) (503), converted into a digital signal, and then encoded (compressed) into MPEG video data (504). In this case, the video receiving terminals 14 and 24 located at remote locations may access the TV relay devices 12 and 22 using IP addresses registered in the address registration servers 15 and 25.

In operation 505, the encoded (compressed) MPEG image data is transmitted to the video receiving terminals 14 and 24 using the IP addresses of the video receiving terminals 14 and 24 received in step 502.

Thereafter, when the TV relay devices 12 and 22 receive the channel change request information from the video receiving terminals 14 and 24, the TV relay apparatuses 12 and 22 change the channel to receive the TV broadcast signal of the corresponding channel.

Meanwhile, the above process is performed until the TV viewing stop request signal is received from the video receiving terminals 14 and 24.

As described above, the method of the present invention may be implemented as a program and stored in a recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.) in a computer-readable form. Since this process can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art will not be described in more detail.

The present invention described above is capable of various substitutions, modifications, and changes without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention for those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains. It is not limited by the drawings.

As described above, the present invention is not a method of downloading from a central server as conventionally, when watching TV broadcasts on the Internet, but by receiving a signal received from a TV receiving terminal provided in each home by using a remote image receiving terminal. Therefore, it is effective to receive stable TV watching service regardless of the number of users.

In addition, the present invention can change the channel at one access point without the inconvenience of visiting each site corresponding to each channel as in the prior art has the effect of improving the convenience of the user.

Claims (10)

In the apparatus for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, Channel selecting means for selecting a signal of a channel selected by a video receiving terminal (a user requests to watch) among broadcast signals received from a TV receiving terminal according to the control of the control means; Signal processing means for converting the analog broadcast signal received through the channel selection means into a digital signal; Encoding processing means for encoding the digital signal received from the signal processing means; The IP address and channel selection information received from the video receiving terminal connected through the Internet are transmitted to the control means, and as a result, the video data received from the encoding processing means is transmitted to the video receiving terminal. Network processing means; And The image data of the channel selected by the image receiving terminal is controlled by controlling the channel selecting means and the network processing means according to an IP address and channel selection information of the image receiving terminal received through the network processing means. Said control means for being transmitted to Device for relaying a TV received signal comprising the Internet. The method of claim 1, The control means, And a function of receiving a floating IP address and transmitting a signal requesting to map the allocated floating IP address to a fixed address to an external address registration server through the network processing means. A device for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The encoding processing means, Device for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, characterized in that for encoding the digital signal received from the signal processing means according to the MPEG (MPEG) format. The method of claim 3, wherein The network processing means, Receiving an IP (IP) address and channel selection information of the video receiving terminal connected through the Internet via a modem connected by wire and transmitting to the control means, and as a result the video data received from the encoding processing means Device for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, characterized in that for transmitting to the video receiving terminal via a modem. The method of claim 3, wherein The network processing means, Receiving an IP address and channel selection information of the video receiving terminal connected through the Internet through a wirelessly connected access point and transmitting the received data to the control means, and as a result, the image data received from the encoding processing means Device for relaying a TV received signal to the Internet, characterized in that for transmitting to the video receiving terminal through the access point. In the method of relaying the TV received signal to the Internet, Receiving side information obtaining step of receiving an IP (IP) address and channel selection information from an image receiving terminal connected through the Internet; A broadcast receiving step of receiving a TV broadcast signal of a corresponding channel according to channel selection information received from the video receiving terminal; An encoding step of converting the received TV broadcast signal into a digital signal and then encoding the received TV broadcast signal; And The image data transmission step of transmitting the encoded image data to the image receiving terminal using the IP (IP) address of the received image receiving terminal. How to relay the TV received signal comprising the Internet. The method of claim 6, An address registration step of receiving a floating IP address and transmitting a signal requesting to map the assigned floating IP address to a fixed address to an external address registration server. The TV receiving signal further comprising a method for relaying to the Internet. The method according to claim 6 or 7, The encoding step, And converting the received TV broadcast signal into a digital signal according to an MPEG format and encoding the received TV broadcast signal to the Internet. In a TV (TV) relay device having a processor, A receiving side information obtaining function for receiving an IP address and channel selection information from an image receiving terminal connected through the Internet; A broadcast reception function of receiving a TV (TV) broadcast signal of a corresponding channel according to channel selection information received from the video reception terminal; An encoding function for converting the received TV broadcast signal into a digital signal and then encoding the received TV broadcast signal; And An image data transmission function of transmitting the encoded image data to the image receiving terminal by using an IP address of the received image receiving terminal. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing this. The method of claim 9, An address registration function that receives a floating IP address and transmits a signal requesting to map the allocated floating IP address to a fixed address to an external address registration server. A computer-readable recording medium that records a program for further realization.

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