BROADCAST RECEIVER AND OUTPUT CONTROL METHOD THEREOF

• US 20100169925A1
• Filed: 09/18/2009
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Takegoshi, Masatoshi
• Granted Patent: US 7,975,285 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/439 Processing of audio elementary streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/60 for the sound signals

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a broadcast receiver is configured to receive a broadcast signal and output the broadcast signal to an external device. The broadcast receiver includes a program information obtaining module, a storage module, and a channel selection detector. The program information obtaining module obtains program information from the broadcast signal. The storage module stores the program information obtained by the program information obtaining module. The channel selection detector detects an operation of selecting a channel. When the channel selection detector detects that a channel is selected, the broadcast receiver controls the external device to mute audio output. The channel selection detector also reads program information corresponding to the selected channel from the storage module and output the program information.

Claims

1. A broadcast receiver configured to receive a broadcast signal and output the broadcast signal to an external device, the broadcast receiver comprising:

a program information obtaining module configured to obtain program information from the broadcast signal;

a storage module configured to store the program information obtained by the program information obtaining module; and

a channel selection detector configured to detect selecting a channel, wherein

the broadcast receiver is configured to control the external device to mute audio output, and to read program information corresponding to the selected channel from the storage module to output the program information, when the channel selection detector detects the channel selecting.

2. The broadcast receiver of claim 1, further comprising:

an end time calculator configured to calculate end time of a first program currently being displayed based on the program information stored in the storage module;

an extracting module configured to extract category information indicating category of a second program to be displayed corresponding to the first program from the program information stored in the storage module; and

a notification module configured to notify the external device of the category information extracted by the extracting module and display information indicating that the first program is being displayed a predetermined time before the end time of the first program and to gradually adjust the audio output based on the category information.

3. The broadcast receiver of claim 2, further comprising a sound state detector configured to detect either muted or low volume of sound from audio data, wherein

the notification module is configured to notify the external device of the category information and the display information when the sound state detector detects either muted or low volume of sound after a predetermined time before the end time of the first program.

4. A broadcast receiver configured to receive a broadcast signal and to output the broadcast signal to an external device, the broadcast receiver comprising a category information obtaining module configured to obtain first category information indicating category of a first program currently being displayed from the broadcast signal, wherein

the broadcast receiver is configured to output second category information together with information indicating that a second program is being displayed and to gradually adjust audio output based on the second category information, when the first category information changes to the second category information indicating category of the second program.

5. An output control method applied to a broadcast receiver configured to receive a broadcast signal and to output the broadcast signal to an external device, the output control method comprising:

obtaining first category information indicating category of a first program currently being displayed from the broadcast signal; and

outputting a second category information together with information indicating that a second program is being displayed to gradually adjust audio output based on the second category information, when the first category information changes to the second category information indicating category of the second program.