Information descriptor and extended information descriptor data structures for digital television signals

• US 20100005491A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Corl, Mark T.
• Granted Patent: US 7,877,773 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• 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 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• 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

According to an aspect, there is provided a digital television (DTV) data stream including program and system information protocol (PSIP) data associated with content of the DTV data stream, the PSIP data including a virtual channel table (VCT) and an event information table (EIT), the EIT comprising: a source identification field identifying a source of an associated event in a DTV data stream; an event identification field indicating an identification of the event; a start time field indicating a star time of the event; a title field indicating a title of the event; and a descriptor comprising: a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor; a descriptor length indicating a total length of the descriptor; and at least one category code for an associated event in a DTV data stream, each category code specifying genre, program type, or category information of the associated event, wherein the at least one category code specifies at least one of a set of basic categories.

Claims

1-17. -17. (canceled)

18. A method of processing digital broadcast data in digital television (DTV) receiver, the method comprising:

receiving a digital television (DTV) steam of data packets, the DTV stream containing a program and system information protocol (PSIP) table;

parsing a descriptor from the PSIP table, the parsed descriptor comprising;

descriptor tag information identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor;

descriptor length information specifying a length of data immediately following the descriptor length information up to an end of the descriptor; and

at least one attribute information specifying a basic genre or category or a detail attribute for a broadcast program; and

generating an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) as a function of the at least one attribute information.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one attribute information is ordered within the descriptor based on their category levels.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one attribute information characterizes the broadcast program at one or more category levels.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the basic genre or category is any one of education, entertainment, movie, news, religious, sports, and other.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein the attribute information specifies the basic genre or category and the detailed attribute of the broadcast program.

20. (canceled)

24. A method of processing digital broadcast data in a digital television (DTV) receiver, the method comprising:

receiving a digital television (DTV) stream of data packets, the DTV data stream containing a program and system information protocol (PSIP) table; and

parsing a genre descriptor from the PSIP table, wherein the parsed genre descriptor comprises;

a descriptor tag identifying the descriptor as a genre descriptor;

attribute count information; and

at least one attribute information for an associated event in the DTV data stream, wherein a total number of the at least one attribute information is determined by the attribute count information.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the at least one attribute information is ordered within the genre descriptor based on their category levels.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the at least one attribute information characterizes the associated event in the DTV data stream at one or more category levels.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein each attribute information characterizes the associated event as any one of education, entertainment, movie, news, religious, and sports.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein each attribute information specifies genre, program type, or category information of the associated event.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein each attribute information further specifies a detailed attribute of the associated event.