Receiving apparatus and receiving method

• US 20040068745A1
• Filed: 09/23/2003
• Published: 04/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Takashi, Kikkawa, Teruki, Mizutome, Atsushi
• Granted Patent: US 7,690,019 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4823 using a channel name
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64738 Monitoring network characteristics, e.g. bandwidth, congestion level data switched network analysis H04L41/14; monitoring functioning in data switched networks H04L43/0817; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

In order to make it possible to easily judge a time until a program can be actually audio visually enjoyed after the program is selected, a receiving apparatus includes a controller which receives plural contents such as plural streaming broadcasts via a network, outputs video data of the contents to a display apparatus, estimates a time until each of the plural broadcast contents becomes audio visually enjoyable, and displays information on the estimated time on the display apparatus in association with program names of the plural contents data.

Claims

1. A receiving apparatus comprising:

reception means which receives plural contents data via a network;

contents processing means which processes the contents data received by the reception means to generate video data;

output means which outputs the video data to a display apparatus; and

control means which estimates a time until each of the plural contents data becomes audio visually enjoyable and controls the output means so as to output information on the estimated time in association with the corresponding plural contents data.

2. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control means detects at least one of a first time required for a procedure for connecting to a distribution source of the contents data and a second time required for receiving a predetermined amount of the contents data, and controls the output means so as to output information on at least one of the first time and the second time or a total time of the first time and the second time.

3. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control means compares the detected times with a predetermined threshold value and controls the output means so as to display a result of the comparison.

4. A receiving apparatus according to claim 3,

wherein the control means compares the detected time with plural threshold values, which are different from each other.

5. A receiving apparatus according to claim 2,

wherein the control means controls the reception means so as to sequentially execute processing for connection to a distribution destination of the respective contents data and detects the first time and the second time based upon the processing for connection.

6. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control means judges that reception is impossible in the case in which a time required for a procedure for connection to a distribution destination of the contents data has exceeded a predetermined time, and controls the output means to display information indicating to that effect.

7. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control means judges that reception is impossible in the case in which a time required for a procedure for receiving a predetermined amount of the contents data has exceeded a predetermined time, and controls the output means to display information indicating to that effect.

8. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the reception means is capable of receiving N pieces of the contents data in parallel with each other, and the control means detects the time for the N pieces of the contents data in parallel with each other, which are received by the reception means in parallel with each other among the plural contents data.

9. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control means controls the output means so as to display the video data while changing an order of display of program names based on a length of the detected time.

10. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the reception means has storage means which is capable of storing a predetermined amount of the N pieces of the contents data, respectively, and the control means controls the reception means so as to store the predetermined N pieces of the contents data among the plural contents data in the storage means.

11. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control means executes estimation processing of the time again according to an instruction to stop reception of selected contents data.

12. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the reception means further receives contents list data indicating the plural contents data from a predetermined distribution source via the network, and the control means estimates a time until each of the contents data indicated in the contents list data becomes audio visually enjoyable.

13. A receiving apparatus according to claim 12,

wherein the contents list data includes information indicating a connection destination for receiving the plural contents data.

14. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the control means detects whether or not a connection procedure to a distribution source of the contents data has been completed within a predetermined time.

15. A receiving apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the time is estimated based upon a transfer rate of detected data.

16. A receiving method comprising:

a reception step which receives plural contents data via a network;

a contents processing step which processes the contents data received in the reception step to generate video data;

an output step which outputs the video data to a display apparatus; and

a control step which estimates a time until each of the plural contents data becomes audio visually enjoyable and controls the output step so as to output information on the estimated time in association with the corresponding plural contents data.