Digital broadcast receiving apparatus

• US 20070010327A1
• Filed: 07/10/2006
• Published: 01/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (Funai Electric Holdings Company Limited)
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,631,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/25 Arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0887 for the transmission of programme or channel identifying signals

Abstract

Provided is a digital broadcast receiving apparatus that enables real-time viewing of information about a program of a current channel and a next program to be broadcast, and that can deal with a change in program, if any. In this digital broadcast receiving apparatus, when program information is found in the VBI of a television broadcast signal of a selected channel, the program information is temporarily stored in a memory. When program information display setting is enabled, the program information is read from the memory, and then a program information screen showing the program information including start time, end time, title, and VideoPlus number is displayed in a predetermined area of a display screen. Program information obtained when a predetermined time has elapsed is newly stored in the memory. When it is found that the newly stored program information is different from the program information that has already been stored in the memory, program information to be displayed is updated to the new program information.

Claims

1. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus that receives a television broadcast signal multiplexed with video data, audio data, and program information and then transmitted thereto, selects a desired channel, outputs a video signal and an audio signal of the channel, and has a function of displaying an electronic program guide based on the program information, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

a system control portion that

when program information is found in a VBI of the television broadcast signal and program information display setting is enabled, displays a program information screen showing program information including start time, end time, title, and VideoPlus number in a predetermined area of a display screen based on the program information,

if a change in the program information is found when a predetermined time has elapsed, updates the program information displayed on the program information screen to new program information, and

if an update of the program information is detected when program information display setting is disabled, displays a program information screen showing updated program information on the display screen.

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

the system control portion includes

a program information checking portion that checks whether program information is found in a VBI of the television broadcast signal or not,

a program information screen display portion that, when the program information is found in the VBI of the television broadcast signal and program information display setting is enabled, displays a program information screen showing program information including start time, end time, title, and VideoPlus number in a predetermined area of the display screen based on the program information,

a program information comparison portion that, when a predetermined time has elapsed, compares new program information with the current program information, and

a program information update portion that, when the comparison reveals a difference, updates program information to be displayed to the new program information.

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

the system control portion includes

a program information checking portion that checks whether program information is found in a VBI of the television broadcast signal or not,

a program information comparison portion that, when program information is found in the VBI of the television broadcast signal, compares new program information obtained when a predetermined time has elapsed with the current program information,

a program information update portion that, when the comparison reveals a difference, program information to be displayed to the new program information, and

a program information update/display portion that, if the comparison reveals a difference when program information display setting is disabled, updates the program information displayed on the program information screen to the new program information.

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

the system control portion includes

a program information checking portion that checks whether program information is found in a VBI of the television broadcast signal or not,

a first program information storage portion that, when the program information is found in the VBI of the television broadcast signal, temporarily stores the program information in a memory,

a program information screen display portion that, when program information display setting is enabled, reads the program information from the memory and displays a program information screen showing program information including start time, end time, title, and VideoPlus number in a predetermined area of the display screen,

a second program information storage portion that, when a predetermined time has elapsed, new program information in the memory,

a program information comparison portion that compares the program information stored in the memory by the first program information storage portion with the new program information stored in the memory by the second program information storage portion,

a program information update portion that, when the comparison reveals a difference, updates program information to be displayed to the new program information, and

a program information update/display portion that, if the comparison reveals a difference when program information display setting is disabled, updates the current program information to the new program information and displays a program information screen on the display screen.

5. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus that receives a television broadcast signal multiplexed with video data, audio data, and program information and then transmitted thereto, selects a desired channel, outputs a video signal and an audio signal of the channel, and has a function of displaying an electronic program guide based on the program information, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

a system control portion including

a program information checking portion that checks whether program information is found in a VBI of the television broadcast signal or not,

a first program information storage portion that, when the program information is found in the VBI of the television broadcast signal, temporarily stores the program information in a memory,

a program information screen display portion that, when program information display setting is enabled, reads the program information from the memory and displays a program information screen showing program information including start time, end time, title, and VideoPlus number in a predetermined area of a display screen,

a second program information storage portion that, when a predetermined time has elapsed, new program information in the memory,

a program information comparison portion that compares the program information stored in the memory by the first program information storage portion with the new program information stored in the memory by the second program information storage portion,

a program information update portion that, when the comparison reveals a difference, updates program information to be displayed to the new program information, and

a program information update/display portion that, if the comparison reveals a difference when program information display setting is disabled, updates the current program information to the new program information and displays a program information screen on the display screen.