Digital broadcast receiving apparatus, method, and program

• US 20030233665A1
• Filed: 06/12/2003
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hayashi, Tsutomu, Kawase, Hiroshi, Tsujino, Manabu
• Application Number:
  US10/389,124
• Publication Number:
  US 20030233665A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/134
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91328 the copy protection signal being a copy management signal, e.g. a copy generation management signal [CGMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8063 using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals

Abstract

A digital broadcast receiving apparatus that receives a TS and stores into an HDD a partial TS which contains a broadcast program selected by a TS decoder. A CPU creates broadcast program attachment information from PMT or the like in which control information of the selected broadcast program is written, and stores the broadcast program attachment information into a flash ROM. The broadcast program attachment information contains copy control information, bit rate information, and PIDs of CAT and EMM. When outputting the partial TS to an external VCR for copying, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus refers to the broadcast program attachment information, and gives instructions as necessary to update PMT or set the recording mode in the VCR, prior to the output of the partial TS to the external VCR.

Claims

1. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus connected to an external storage apparatus, comprising:

a first storage unit;

a first control unit operable to store into the first storage unit a partial transport stream which is contained in a transport stream sent from outside and includes (i) elementary streams constituting a broadcast program and (ii) control information for controlling the broadcast program, and to create, from the control information, broadcast program attachment information which is used in outputting the partial transport stream to the external storage apparatus;

a second storage unit operable to store the created broadcast program attachment information with indication of a correspondence with the partial transport stream stored in the first storage unit;

a second control unit operable to, in accordance with the broadcast program attachment information, give an instruction to update the control information in the first storage unit; and

an interface operable to receive the update instruction from the second control unit, read the partial transport stream from the first storage unit, update the control information contained in the read partial transport stream, and output the partial transport stream with the updated control information, to the external storage apparatus.

2. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 1 further comprising

a receiving unit operable to receive an instruction to copy or move a broadcast program, wherein

the second control unit obtains from the second storage unit a piece of broadcast program attachment information that corresponds to a partial transport stream containing the broadcast program specified in the received instruction.

3. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 2, wherein

the first control unit includes:

a copy control information reading subunit operable to read copy control information written in a Program Map Table contained in the control information, and

the second control unit includes;

a copy control information update instructing subunit operable to, if copy control information in the piece of broadcast program attachment information is set to “

copy_once”

, give an instruction to set the copy control information in the Program Map Table to “

copy_once” and

“

moving”

, and

the interface updates the Program Map Table in accordance with the instruction given by the copy control information update instructing subunit and outputs the updated Program Map Table.

4. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 3, wherein

the second control unit further includes

a deleting subunit operable to, if the interface has output the partial transport stream by setting the control information in the Program Map Table to “

moving”

, delete the output partial transport stream from the first storage unit, and after the outputting is completed, delete the piece of broadcast program attachment information from the second storage unit.

5. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 2, wherein

the control information contains a Conditional Access Table and an Entitlement Management Message,

the first control unit includes

a packet ID information reading subunit operable to read a packet identifier of the Entitlement Management Message from the Conditional Access Table,

the second control unit includes

an ID information notifying subunit operable to notify the interface of packet identifiers of (i) a Conditional Access Table and (ii) an Entitlement Management Message, which are both included in the packet ID information in the broadcast program attachment information, and

the interface outputs the partial transport stream, from which the Conditional Access Table and the Entitlement Management Message have been deleted, in conformance with a protocol defined in IEEE1394.

6. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the partial transport stream stored in the first storage unit includes at least two broadcast programs that are sequential to each other in a time domain,

the first control unit includes

a bit rate information reading subunit operable to read bit rate information for each broadcast program from a Program Map Table included in the control information,

the second control unit includes

a recording mode instructing subunit operable to obtain bit rate information from the broadcast program attachment information stored in the second storage unit, and if a bit rate for a preceding broadcast program is different from a bit rate for a succeeding broadcast program, give an instruction to set a recording mode corresponding to the bit rate for the succeeding broadcast program, and

the interface, upon receiving the instruction to set the recording mode from the recording mode instructing subunit, instructs the external storage apparatus to set a recording mode at a time a predetermined time period earlier than a time when the partial transport stream containing the broadcast program starts to be output.

7. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 6, wherein

the predetermined time period ranges from a time when the external storage apparatus receives the instruction to set the recording mode to a time when a recording operation is stabilized.

8. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the broadcast program in the partial transport stream stored in the first storage unit has been recorded by a timer-controlled recording as a target program, and the partial transport stream also includes, as an offset, another broadcast program that precedes the target program,

the first control unit includes:

an offset time extracting subunit operable to extract a time period of the offset from an Event Information Table contained in the control information;

a copy control information creating subunit operable to create, from a Program Map Table contained in the control information, copy control information in relation to the target program and the offset,

the second control unit includes;

a control information updating subunit operable to extract a piece of control information, which corresponds to a point in time a predetermined time period a later than a start of the target program, and update the extracted control information, a default value of the time period a being determined from the control information;

an output start instructing subunit operable to, if the copy control information is set to “

free”

for both the target program and the offset, give an instruction to start recording in the external apparatus, and give an instruction to output the partial transport stream from a start of the offset; and

an update information notifying subunit operable to give an instruction to set the piece of control information updated by the control information updating subunit in the partial transport stream starting at a point in time a predetermined time period N earlier than the start of the target program, the predetermined time period N ranging from a time when the external storage apparatus receives an instruction to set a recording mode to a time when a recording operation is stabilized, wherein

the interface outputs to the external storage apparatus the instruction to start recording, then outputs the partial transport stream from the start of the offset, and sets the updated piece of control information in the partial transport stream starting at a point in time the predetermined time period N earlier than the start of the target program, then outputs the partial transport stream.

9. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 8, wherein

if the copy control information is set to “

free”

for the target program and is set to “

once”

for the offset, the output start instructing subunit gives an instruction to stand by for recording in the external storage apparatus, then after the update information notifying subunit gives an instruction to set the updated piece of control information in the partial transport stream, gives an instruction to output the target program in the partial transport stream to the external storage apparatus so as to start recording.

10. A digital broadcast receiving method for use in a digital broadcast receiving apparatus connected to an external storage apparatus, comprising:

a first control step for storing into a first storage area a partial transport stream which is contained in a transport stream sent from outside and includes (i) elementary streams constituting a broadcast program and (ii) control information for controlling the broadcast program, and creating, from the control information, broadcast program attachment information, which is used in outputting the partial transport stream to the external storage apparatus, and storing into a second storage area the created broadcast program attachment information with indication of a correspondence with the partial transport stream stored in the first storage area;

a second control step for, in accordance with the broadcast program attachment information, giving an instruction to update the control information in the first storage area; and

an outputting step for receiving the update instruction, reading the partial transport stream from the first storage area, updating the control information contained in the read partial transport stream, and outputting the partial transport stream with the updated control information, to the external storage apparatus.

11. A digital broadcast receiving program applied to a digital broadcast receiving apparatus which includes a computer connected to an external storage apparatus, the digital broadcast receiving program causing the computer to execute:

a first control step for storing into a first storage area a partial transport stream which is contained in a transport stream sent from outside and includes (i) elementary streams constituting a broadcast program and (ii) control information for controlling the broadcast program, and creating, from the control information, broadcast program attachment information, which is used in outputting the partial transport stream to the external storage apparatus, and storing into a second storage area the created broadcast program attachment information with indication of a correspondence with the partial transport stream stored in the first storage area;

a second control step for, in accordance with the broadcast program attachment information, giving an instruction to update the control information in the first storage area; and

an outputting step for receiving the update instruction, reading the partial transport stream from the first storage area, updating the control information contained in the read partial transport stream, and outputting the partial transport stream with the updated control information, to the external storage apparatus.