Channel control apparatus of digital television and method thereof

• US 6,598,233 B1
• Filed: 10/05/2000
• Issued: 07/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Choi, Kyung Rok
• Primary Examiner(s): Faile, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): HUYNH, AN SON PHI
• Application Number:
  US09/679,637
• Time in Patent Office: 1,020 Days
• Field of Search: 348/731, 725/68, 725/70, 725/134, 725/131, 725/139, 725/142, 725/151, 725/38
• US Class Current: 725/151
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control

Abstract

The present invention is capable of reducing a time required for channel switching, and selecting or searching a user request channel quickly by storing a packet identifiers of a video and an audio signal of a digital television channel, extracting the stored packet identifiers according to a channel switching request of a user, and outputting the video and audio signal corresponding to the user select channel.

Claims

1. A channel control apparatus of a digital television, comprising:

a transport packet parser configured to extract a packet identifier of a video, audio and additional information of a user select channel;

a microcomputer configured to receive the extracted packet identifier from the transport packet parser, store the extracted packet identifier on a memory, and set the stored packet identifier on the transport packet parser; and

a decoder configured to decode the video and audio signal after receiving the signals through the set packet identifier, wherein the microcomputer judges whether the packet identifiers are stored on the memory, and when the packet identifiers are stored on the memory the microcomputer sets the packet identifiers on the transport packet parser, feedback-receives a decoding video and audio signal output from the decoder through the set packet identifiers, and judges whether the decoding video and audio signal are completed.

2. The channel control apparatus of the digital television according to claim 1, wherein the transport packet parser selectively extracts the video, audio and additional information from a reception antenna, or sets the packet identifier after receiving the packet identifier of the video, audio and additional information from the memory.

3. The channel control apparatus of the digital television according to claim 1, wherein the decoder decodes the video and audio signal by receiving the video and audio signal through the packet identifier of the video, audio and additional information extracted from the transport parser or by receiving the video and audio signal by the packet identifier set on the transport packet parser.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the microcomputer receives a video decoding signal and an audio decoding signal from the decoder through the set packet identifiers to determine whether the decoding is complete.

5. A channel control apparatus of a digital television, comprising:

a transport packet parser configured to extract packet identifiers of video, audio and additional information from a reception antenna;

a microcomputer configured to set the packet identifiers on the transport packet parser when the packet identifiers are stored on a memory after determining whether the packet identifiers are stored on the memory; and

a decoder configured to decode a video and audio signal after receiving the video and audio signal through the set packet identifiers, wherein the microcomputer determines whether the decoded video and audio signal.are completed by receiving the decoded video and audio signal outputted from the decoder through the set packet identifiers.

6. The channel control apparatus of the digital television according to claim 5, wherein the decoder decodes the video and audio signal by being inputted the video and audio signal through the packet identifiers of the video, audio and additional information extracted from the transport packet parser or being inputted the video and audio signal through the packet identifiers set on the transport packet parser.

7. A channel control method of a digital television, comprising:

receiving packet identifiers from a transport packet parser into a memory;

judging whether the packet identifiers of a video and audio signal corresponding to a user selected channel are stored in the memory when the user selects a channel;

setting the packet identifiers of the video and audio signal on the transport packet parser when the packet identifiers of the video and audio signal are stored in the memory;

decoding the video and audio signal after receiving the video and audio signal corresponding to the user selected channel through the set packet identifiers of the video and audio signal; and

receiving a video decoding signal and an audio decoding signal from a video decoder and an audio decoder respectively through the set packet identifiers to determine whether the decoding is complete.

8. The channel control method of claim 7, wherein determining comprises;

temporarily stopping the video and audio signal when the user selects the channel; and

determining whether the packet identifiers of the video and audio signal corresponding to the user selected channel are stored in the memory when the video and audio signal are temporarily stopped.

9. The channel control method of claim 7, wherein setting comprises:

storing the packet identifiers of the video and audio signal by extracting the packet identifiers of the video and audio signal after parsing a PAT (Program Association Table)/PMT (Program Map Table) or a TVCT Terrestrial Virtual Channel Table) through the transport packet parser when the packet identifiers of the video and audio signal are not stored in the memory.

10. A system for controlling a television, comprising:

a first memory area for storing a PAT (Program Association Table)/PMT (Program Map Table) or a TVCT (Terrestrial Virtual Channel Table), said PAT/PMT or TVCT including packer identifiers corresponding to a plurality of television channels respectively;

a second memory area; and

a processor which stores in the second memory area a packet identifier which corresponds to one of said plurality of television channels, wherein the processor retrieves the packet identifier from the second memory area when said one of said plurality of television channels is selected by a user.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor sets a transport packet parser based on the packet identifier retrieved from the second memory area, said transport packet parser forwarding for display at least one of video and audio information corresponding to said one of said plurality of television channels based on said setting.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor searches the second memory area in response to a channel-select signal from a user, and wherein if the processor does not find a packet identifier in the second memory area which corresponds to information in the channel-select signal, the processor searches the PAT/PMT or TVCT in the first memory area to retrieve a packer identifier which corresponds to said information in the channel-select signal.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a decoder which decodes at least one of audio and video information corresponding to said one of said plurality of television channels selected by the user, wherein the processor determines whether the information output from the decoder was properly decoded.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein if the information was not properly decoded, the processor instructs a transport packet processor to extract the packet identifier corresponding to said one of said plurality of television channels from an input television signal.

15. A method for controlling a television, comprising:

storing a PAT (Program Association Table)/PMT (Program Map Table) or a TVCT (Terrestrial Virtual Channel Table) in a first memory area, said PAT/PMT or TVCT including packet identifiers corresponding to a plurality of television channels respectively;

storing one of the packet identifiers in a second memory area;

receiving a signal designating one of said television channels; and

retrieving said one of the packet identifiers from the second memory area in response to the signal designating one of said television channels.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

setting a transport packet parser based on said one of the packet identifiers retrieved from the second memory area.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

forwarding at least one of video and audio information corresponding to said designated one of said television channels based on said setting step.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

searching the second memory area to locate a second one of said packet identifiers corresponding to a second one of said television channels; and

if the second one of said packet identifiers is not found, searching the first memory area to retrieve said second one of said packet identifiers.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

decoding at least one of audio and video information corresponding to said one of said television channel; and

determining whether the information output from the decoder was properly decoded.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

instructing a transport packet processor to extract said one of the packet identifiers from an input television signal, if the information output from the decoder was not properly decoded.

21. A processing system for controlling a television, said television including a first memory area for storing a PAT (Program Association Table)/PMT (Program Map Table) or a TVCT (Terrestrial Virtual Channel Table), said PAT/PMT or TVCT including packet identifiers corresponding to a plurality of television channels respectively, said system comprising:

a processor which stores one of the packet identifiers corresponding to one of the television channels in a second memory area, receives a signal from a user designating said one of the television channels, determines whether said one of the packet identifiers is stored in the second memory area in response to said user signal and if so, retrieves said one of the packet identifiers from the second memory area.

22. The processing system of claim 21, wherein the processor sets a transport packet parser based on said one of the packet identifiers retrieved from the second memory area.

23. The processing system of claim 21, wherein if said one of the packet identifiers is not stored in the second memory area, the processor searches the second memory area to locate said one of the packet identifiers.

24. The processing system of claim 21, wherein the processor determines whether at least one of audio and video information output from a decoder and corresponding to said one of the television channels was properly decoded.

25. The processing system of claim 24, wherein the processor instructs a transport packet processor to extract said one of the packet identifiers from an input television signal, if said at least one of the audio and video information output from the decoder was not properly decoded.