Digital broadcast receiving apparatus

• US 7,489,685 B2
• Filed: 02/13/2001
• Issued: 02/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Sugimoto, Keishi, Kato, Naoe
• Primary Examiner(s): Orgad; Edan
• Assistant Examiner(s): PARK, JUNG H
• Application Number:
  US09/781,239
• Publication Number:
  US 20010015986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,919 Days
• Field of Search: 370/389, 370/477, 370/537
• US Class Current: 370/391
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/28 Arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/60 characterised in that the receiver comprises more than one tuner
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/18 Arrangements characterised by circuits or components specially adapted for receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4341 Demultiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4344 Remultiplexing of multiplex streams, e.g. by modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream

Abstract

Based on PIDs registered in a necessary-PID table, a second TS-packet extracting section extracts necessary packets from a second TS. Based on packets registered in the table, a detecting section detects unnecessary-packet areas in a first TS. A TS-packet overwriting section overwrites the extracted necessary packets to unnecessary-packet areas in the first TS, performs multiplexing thereof, and thereby generates a CTS, which is common to the TSs. Thereby, while a broadcast program in the first TS is viewed, image-recording of a broadcast program in the second TS can be performed. Since the configuration can be made using a separating section, a decoder, a digital interface, and the like for handling single-system TSs, reduction in the cost and size can be implemented.

Claims

1. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising a packet-overwriting device capable of overwriting unnecessary-packet areas corresponding to unnecessary packet identifiers (PIDs) in a first transport stream (TS) using packets corresponding to necessary PIDs in a second TS;

and necessary-packet extracting means for extracting packets corresponding to necessary PIDs in a second TS input from a second one of said demodulator sections, where the first one of said demodulator sections is different from the second one of said demodulator sections; and

packet-overwriting means for overwriting packets extracted by said necessary-packet extracting means to said unnecessary-packet areas detected by said unnecessary-packet detecting means, wherein a custom transfer stream output from said packet-overwriting means is output to at least one of said output destinations specified by said input section.

2. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein when packets to be multiplexed by the overwriting, the packets in at least one of the first and second TSs are rewritten to make the packets to be different from one another.

3. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein PIDs of packets in the first TS where packets are rewritten through the overwriting are rewritten.

4. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein NULL-packet areas are the unnecessary-packet areas corresponding to the unnecessary PIDs and are given priority.

5. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined claim 1, wherein a plurality of TSs including packets to be multiplexed through the overwriting are input as objects, the plurality of TSs being selectable from (a) a TS including viewing-desired broadcast program data, (b) a TS including broadcast-program-table related data, (c) a TS including downloadable data, (d) a TS including image-recording-desired broadcast program data, and (e) TSs including other broadcast program data;

and packets in the plurality of selected TSs are multiplexed.

6. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the apparatus is one of (a) an image-playback apparatus, (b) an audio-recording apparatus, and (c) a digital-image recording apparatus.

7. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

unnecessary-packet detecting means for detecting unnecessary-packet areas corresponding to unnecessary packet identifiers (PIDs) in a first transport stream (TS) that is input;

necessary-packet extracting means for extracting packets corresponding to necessary PIDs in a second TS input from a second one of said demodulator sections, where the first one of said demodulator sections is different from the second one of said demodulator sections; and

packet-overwriting means for overwriting packets extracted by said necessary-packet extracting means to said unnecessary-packet areas detected by said unnecessary-packet detecting means in the first TS, wherein a custom transfer stream output from said packet-overwriting means is output to at least one of said output destinations specified by said input section.

8. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined in claim 7, comprising:

identical-PID determining means for determining whether identical PIDs exist in both the first and second TSs for the packets that are to be multiplexed with each other through said overwriting; and

PID-converting means for performing rewriting of PIDs of packets in at least one of the first and second TSs so that the identical PIDs in the first and second TSs are differentiated for packets that are determined by said identical-PID determining means to have the identical PIDs.

9. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the PID-converting means is configured to convert said PIDs so as to be opened to a user.

10. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined in claim 7, comprising:

NULL-packet counting means for counting NULL packets coming from said first TS;

packet counting means for counting post-extraction NULL packets in the second TS comparing means for comparing a NULL-packet count value output by said NULL-packet counting means with a packet count value output by said packet counting means; and

NULL-packet-priority specifying means for specifying NULL-packet areas with priority as unnecessary-packet areas corresponding to said unnecessary PIDs when said NULL packet count value is equal to or greater than the packet count value.

11. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus as defined in claim 7, wherein said packet-overwriting device is capable of giving NULL-packet areas priority as overwrite objects, when a detection frequency of NULL packets in the first TS is high and performing overwriting to other unnecessary-packet areas when overwriting of said extracted packets to NULL packets is suspended, and the number of packets held pending for the overwriting reaches a predetermined value.

12. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising:

tuners for receiving modulated waves of digital broadcast waves;

a plurality of groups of demodulator sections for demodulating signals output from said tuners to thereby output transport streams (TSs);

an input section for selecting a plurality of desired TSs and for specifying output destinations;

unnecessary-packet detecting means for detecting unnecessary-packet areas corresponding to unnecessary packet identifiers (PIDs) in a first TS input from a first one of said demodulator sections;

necessary-packet extracting means for extracting packets corresponding to necessary PIDs in a second TS input from a second one of said demodulator sections, where the first one of said demodulator sections is different from the second one of said demodulator sections; and

packet-overwriting means for overwriting packets extracted by said necessary-packet extracting means to said unnecessary-packet areas detected by said unnecessary-packet detecting means, wherein a custom transfer stream output from said packet-overwriting means is output to at least one of said output destinations specified by said input section.

13. A digital-broadcast receiving method comprising the steps of:

registering necessary packet identifiers (PIDs) regarding a first transport stream (TS) that is input;

registering necessary PIDs regarding a second TS that is input;

detecting unnecessary PIDs in said first TS extracting packets corresponding to said registered necessary PIDs regarding the second TS from the second TS;

overwriting packets extracted from said second TS to unnecessary-packet areas corresponding to said unnecessary PIDs in said first TS;

necessary-packet extracting means for extracting packets corresponding to necessary PIDs in a second TS input from a second one of said demodulator sections, where the first one of said demodulator sections is different from the second one of said demodulator sections; and

packet-overwriting means for overwriting packets extracted by said necessary-packet extracting means to said unnecessary-packet areas detected by said unnecessary-packet detecting means, wherein a custom transfer stream output from said packet-overwriting means is output to at least one of said output destinations specified by said input section.

14. A computer-readable recording medium containing a digital-broadcast-receiving software program, which, when read by the computer, causes the computer to execute the steps of:

registering necessary packet identifiers (PIDs) regarding a first transport stream (TS) that is input;

registering necessary PIDs regarding a second TS that is input;

detecting unnecessary PIDs in said first TS extracting packets corresponding to said registered necessary PIDs regarding the second TS from the input second TS;

overwriting packets extracted from said second TS to the unnecessary-packet areas corresponding to the unnecessary PIDs detected in said first TS;

necessary-packet extracting means for extracting packets corresponding to necessary PIDs in a second TS input from a second one of said demodulator sections, where the first one of said demodulator sections is different from the second one of said demodulator sections; and

packet-overwriting means for overwriting packets extracted by said necessary-packet extracting means to said unnecessary-packet areas detected by said unnecessary-packet detecting means, wherein a custom transfer stream output from said packet-overwriting means is output to at least one of said output destinations specified by said input section.