Television receiver

• US 20010024565A1
• Filed: 11/30/2000
• Published: 09/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/1999
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Aratani, Shuntaro, Yui, Hideaki
• Application Number:
  US09/725,815
• Publication Number:
  US 20010024565A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/83
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/82 the transmission system being the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42676 for modulating an analogue carrier signal to encode digital information or demodulating it to decode digital information, e.g. ADSL or cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 : IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 : comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/658 : Transmission by the client directed to the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A receiving apparatus includes: a receiver circuit for receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed; a program information input circuit for inputting program information on a program selected from the plurality of programs, from an external apparatus; and a program table generating unit for generating a program table in accordance with the program information input to the program information input circuit and outputting data representative of the program table.

Claims

1. A receiving apparatus comprising:

receiving means for receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

information output means for outputting information of an information signal received by said receiving means;

selecting means for selecting an arbitrary program from the plurality of programs; and

transmitting means for transmitting program information of a program selected by said selecting means to an external apparatus.

2. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein the broadcasting signal is further multiplexed with program attribute data of the plurality of programs, and said transmitting means includes program information generating means for generating the program information by using the program attribute data of a program selected by said selecting means.

3. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 2

, further comprising program table generating means for generating a program table by using the program attribute data, and said selecting means selects an arbitrary program from a plurality of programs contained in the program list.

4. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 1

, further comprising information inputting means for inputting arbitrary comment information of a program selected by said selecting means, and said transmitting means includes program information generating means for generating the program information by using the comment information.

5. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein said selecting means searches the plurality of programs in accordance with a predetermined retrieval condition and selects a program in accordance with a search result.

6. A receiving apparatus comprising:

receiving means for receiving a broadcasting signal in which video signals and program information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

video signal processing means for processing the video signal of a program selected from the plurality of programs and outputting the processed video signal to a display device;

program information extracting means for extracting program information from the broadcasting signal received by said receiving means;

program table generating means for generating a program table in accordance with the program information extracted by said program information extracting means and outputting data representative of the program table to the display device;

selecting means for selecting an arbitrary recommended program from programs described in the program table;

file generating means for generating an output file of the recommended program selected by said selecting means by using the program information of the recommended program among the program information extracted by said program information extracting means; and

transmitting means for transmitting the output file of the recommended program generated by said file generating means to an external apparatus.

7. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 6

, wherein the output file of the recommended program includes a plurality of information items, and said file generating means generates an identification tag of each of the plurality of information items.

8. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 7

, wherein the information item includes information representative of a recommendation index of each program.

9. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 7

, wherein the information item includes information representative of a make-up person of the output file of the recommended program.

10. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 6

, wherein said transmitting means transmits the output file of the recommended program to a network connected to said receiving means.

11. A receiving apparatus comprising:

receiving means for receiving a broadcasting signal in which video signals and program information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

video signal processing means for processing the video signal of a program selected from the plurality of programs and outputting the processed video signal to a display device;

program information extracting means for extracting program information from the broadcasting signal received by said receiving means;

program table generating means for generating a program table in accordance with the program information extracted by said program information extracting means and outputting data representative of the program table to the display device;

selecting means for searching the plurality of programs in accordance with a predetermined retrieval condition and selecting a recommended program in accordance with a search result;

file generating means for generating an output file of the recommended program selected by said selecting means by using the program information of the recommended program among the program information extracted by said program information extracting means; and

transmitting means for transmitting the output file of the recommended program generated by said file generating means to an external apparatus.

12. A receiving apparatus comprising:

receiving means for receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

program information input means for inputting program information of a program selected from the plurality of programs, from an external apparatus; and

program table generating means for generating a program table in accordance with the program information input to said program information input means and outputting data representative of the program table.

13. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 12

, further comprising control means for judging from the program information whether said receiving means can receive the information signal of the selected program and for controlling a generation process of the program table by said program table generating means in accordance with a judgement result.

14. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 13

, wherein the program information includes time information representative of a broadcasting time of the selected program, and said control means controls said program table generating means to inhibit a display of a program judged that the broadcasting time is incompatible.

15. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 12

, wherein the program information includes service information indicating a type of broadcasting service of the selected program, and said control means controls said program table generating means to inhibit a display of a program of broadcasting service having a different type of broadcasting service receivable by the receiving apparatus.

16. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 13

, wherein the program information includes pay-per-view information indicating the selected program is a payper-view program, and said control means performs a judgement process in accordance with the pay-per-view information.

17. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 13

, wherein the program information includes audio-visual restriction information indicating audio-visual restriction of the selected program, and said control means performs a judgement process in accordance with the audio-visual restriction information.

18. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 13

, further comprising recording means for recording a received information signal, and said control means judges whether the information signal recorded in said recording means contains the information signal of the selected program, and controls a generation process of the program table.

19. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 12

, wherein said program information input means inputs a plurality of program information sets, and said program table generating means generates the program table containing only programs of a selected program information set among the plurality of program information sets.

20. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 12

, wherein said program table generating means generates a two-dimensional program table having a broadcasting time as one axis and a channel as the other axis.

21. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 20

, wherein said program table generating means generates the two-dimensional program table in which only the program information of the selected program is displayed in a corresponding area of the program table and the program information of other programs is inhibited to be displayed in other areas.

22. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 20

, wherein in the broadcasting signal, program attribute data of the plurality of programs is further multiplexed, and said program table generating means generates the program by using the program attribute data.

23. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 20

, wherein said program table generating means generates the program table in which a predetermined frame is multiplexed with in a predetermined area of the selected program.

24. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 20

, wherein said program generating means generates the program table multiplexed with a predetermined mark image in a predetermined area of the selected program in the program table.

25. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 12

, further comprising:

designating means for designating an arbitrary program from a plurality of programs contained in the program table; and

signal processing means for processing the information signal of a program designated by said designating means, among the information signals received by said receiving means.

29. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 20

, wherein said program table generating means generates the program table in which an area corresponding to the selected program and the area of the program selected in accordance with the retrieval result are displayed at different brightness.

26. A receiving apparatus comprising:

receiving means for receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

information output means for outputting information of the information signal received by said receiving means;

retrieving means for retrieving a program from the plurality of programs in accordance with a predetermined condition;

program information input means for inputting program information of the program selected from a plurality of programs, from an external apparatus; and

program table generating means for generating a program table in accordance with a retrieval result by said retrieving means and the program information input to said program information input means and for outputting program table data representative of the program table.

27. An apparatus according to

claim 26

, wherein said program table generating means generates a two-dimensional program table having a broadcasting time as one axis and a channel as the other axis.

28. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 27

, wherein said program table generating means generates the program table in which only the program information of the selected program and the program information of the program selected in accordance with the retrieval result are displayed in corresponding areas of the program table and the program information of other programs is inhibited to be displayed in other areas.

30. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 27

, wherein said program table generating means generates the program table in which only information of a program coincident with a program which is selected from the selected programs according to the retrieval result is displayed in a corresponding area.

31. A receiving apparatus according to

claim 27

, wherein in the broadcasting signal, program attribute data of the plurality of programs is further multiplexed, and said program table generating means generates the program in which program information generated by using the program attribute data of the selected program among the program attribute data and program information of the selected program are displayed.

32. A television signal receiving apparatus, comprising:

receiving means for receiving a television broadcasting signal in which digital image signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

program information input means for inputting program information of a program selected from the plurality of programs, from an external apparatus;

program table generating means for generating a program table in accordance with the program information input to said program information inputting means and displaying the program table on a display device;

designating means for designating an arbitrary program in the program table; and

image processing means for extracting a digital image signal of the program designated by said designating means from the television broadcasting signal and displaying an image of the extracted program on the display device.

33. A receiving method for a receiving apparatus comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

outputting information of an information signal received at said receiving step;

selecting an arbitrary program from the plurality of programs; and

transmitting program information of a program selected at said selecting step to an external apparatus.

34. A receiving method for a receiving apparatus comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which video signals and program information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

processing the video signal of a program selected from the plurality of programs and outputting the processed video signal to a display device;

extracting program information from the broadcasting signal received at said receiving step;

generating a program table in accordance with the program information extracted at said program information extracting step and outputting data representative of the program table to the display device;

selecting an arbitrary recommended program from programs described in the program table;

generating an output file of the recommended program selected at said selecting step by using the program information of the recommended program among the program information extracted at said program information extracting step; and

transmitting the output file of the recommended program generated at said file generating step to an external apparatus.

35. A receiving method for a receiving apparatus comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which video signals and program information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

processing the video signal of a program selected from the plurality of programs and outputting the processed video signal to a display device;

extracting program information from the broadcasting signal received at said receiving step;

generating a program table in accordance with the program information extracted at said program information extracting means and outputting data representative of the program table to the display device;

searching the plurality of programs in accordance with a predetermined retrieval condition and selecting a recommended program in accordance with a search result;

generating an output file of the recommended program selected at said selecting step by using the program information of the recommended program among the program information extracted at said program information extracting step; and

transmitting the output file of the recommended program generated at said file generating step to an external apparatus.

36. A receiving method for a receiving apparatus comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

inputting program information of a program selected from the plurality of programs, from an external apparatus; and

generating a program table in accordance with the program information input at said program information input step and outputting data representative of the program table.

37. A receiving method for a receiving apparatus comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

outputting information of the information signal received at said receiving step;

retrieving a program from the plurality of programs in accordance with a predetermined condition;

inputting program information of the program selected from a plurality of programs, from an external apparatus; and

generating a program table in accordance with a retrieval result at said retrieving step and the program information input at said program information input step and for outputting program table data representative of the program table.

38. A television signal receiving method for a television signal receiving apparatus, comprising the steps of:

receiving a television broadcasting signal in which digital image signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

inputting program information of a program selected from the plurality of programs, from an external apparatus;

generating a program table in accordance with the program information input at said program information inputting step and displaying the program table on a display device;

designating an arbitrary program in the program table; and

extracting a digital image signal of the program designated at said designating step from the television broadcasting signal and displaying an image of the extracted program on the display device.

39. A recording medium storing a program of a receiving method for a receiving apparatus, said receiving method comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

outputting information of an information signal received at said receiving step;

selecting an arbitrary program from the plurality of programs; and

transmitting program information of a program selected at said selecting step to an external apparatus.

40. A recording medium storing a program of a receiving method for a receiving apparatus, said receiving method comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which video signals and program information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

processing the video signal of a program selected from the plurality of programs and outputting the processed video signal to a display device;

extracting program information from the broadcasting signal received at said receiving step;

generating a program table in accordance with the program information extracted at said program information extracting step and outputting data representative of the program table to the display device;

selecting an arbitrary recommended program from programs described in the program table;

generating an output file of the recommended program selected at said selecting step by using the program information of the recommended program among the program information extracted at said program information extracting step; and

transmitting the output file of the recommended program generated at said file generating step to an external apparatus.

41. A recording medium storing a program of a receiving method for a receiving apparatus, said receiving method comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which video signals and program information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

processing the video signal of a program selected from the plurality of programs and outputting the processed video signal to a display device;

extracting program information from the broadcasting signal received at said receiving step;

generating a program table in accordance with the program information extracted at said program information extracting means and outputting data representative of the program table to the display device;

searching the plurality of programs in accordance with a predetermined retrieval condition and selecting a recommended program in accordance with a search result;

generating an output file of the recommended program selected at said selecting step by using the program information of the recommended program among the program information extracted at said program information extracting step; and

transmitting the output file of the recommended program generated at said file generating step to an external apparatus.

42. A recording medium storing a program of a receiving method for a receiving apparatus, said receiving method comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

inputting program information of a program selected from the plurality of programs, from an external apparatus; and

generating a program table in accordance with the program information input at said program information input step and outputting data representative of the program table.

43. A recording medium storing a program of a receiving method for a receiving apparatus, said receiving method comprising the steps of:

receiving a broadcasting signal in which information signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

outputting information of the information signal received at said receiving step;

retrieving a program from the plurality of programs in accordance with a predetermined condition;

inputting program information of the program selected from a plurality of programs, from an external apparatus; and

generating a program table in accordance with a retrieval result at said retrieving step and the program information input at said program information input step and for outputting program table data representative of the program table.

44. A recording medium storing a program of a television signal receiving method for a television signal receiving apparatus, said television signal receiving method comprising the steps of:

receiving a television broadcasting signal in which digital image signals of a plurality of programs are multiplexed;

inputting program information of a program selected from the plurality of programs, from an external apparatus;

generating a program table in accordance with the program information input at said program information inputting step and displaying the program table on a display device;

designating an arbitrary program in the program table; and

extracting a digital image signal of the program designated at said designating step from the television broadcasting signal and displaying an image of the extracted program on the display device.