CN1941868B - A fast channel switching method for the same broadcast TV channel information - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a same broadcast TV channel association table and a method for fast channel switching using the association table. The same broadcast television channel association table associates two or more broadcast television channel information to form an association relationship. Wherein, the program contents included in the associated two or more broadcast television channels are the same. When the user is watching TV, he can read the channel information by using the association table, and switch channels as needed, so that the user can not only choose the source with the best signal quality to watch in the case of coexistence of multiple sources, Moreover, in the process of mobile reception, you can find the program you want to watch according to your own habits, or make the user's viewing process uninterrupted through automatic switching.

Description

A fast channel switching method for the same broadcast TV channel information

technical field

The invention relates to the management of radio and television channels, in particular to a method for switching channels by using an association table for channels of the same program content in multiple sets of television channels.

Background technique

At present, with the development of technology, especially the development and popularization of digital broadcast TV technology, TV broadcast receiving devices that can be used for mobile reception are becoming more and more mature in technology. The radio and TV receiving device must not only be compatible with traditional analog signals, but also adapt to new digital signals. At the same time, it must also consider receiving satellite signals, terrestrial signals, and cable signals. In addition, with the rise of mobile TV, differences in signals in different regions will cause trouble for users. Therefore, how to find the programs you want in different signal sources and choose to broadcast them; how to allow users to choose programs in a familiar way when watching programs in different regions; The channel remains the same, etc. These are the problems that the current TV channel management needs to solve urgently.

Contents of the invention

The present invention provides an association table of the same broadcast and television channel information, which is convenient for users to watch their favorite programs according to their past channel selection habits. The object of the present invention includes a method for channel switching using the above association table.

The idea of the present invention is: for the existing different TV signal receiving modes, although there are differences in the receiving and processing of each signal, a tuner is required to select the program required by the user. In such a multi-channel broadcast TV receiving device, there are various programs that may be received. For the same set of programs or the same channel, or the same program stream, it is possible to be sent in multiple ways, such as analog, digital, or at different frequencies, as well as cable, wireless and satellite, etc. way of sending. In other words, there are multiple ways for the device to get the same program. After the same set of programs transmitted in multiple ways are associated, a same program association table is formed, which is convenient for the user to select the program signal with the best quality to watch. In order to establish the above-mentioned association table, the user must search for channels at the beginning. For each channel or information source installed on the receiving device, the user needs to search the program channel to generate a channel association table corresponding to the information source; if mobile reception is considered, different information sources in different areas pass through The channel list produced after the search is also different, which is extremely inconvenient for users who are accustomed to the channel selection method (channel number) in the past.

An association table of the same broadcast television channel information of the present invention includes the following channel information content: the association table associates two or more broadcast television channel information to form an association relationship, and the associated two or The content of programs contained in more than two broadcast TV channels is the same.

Wherein, the two or more broadcast TV channels are received by the broadcast TV receiving device in different geographical areas or in different sources. The signal source may be one or more of cable signals, terrestrial signals or satellite signals.

All channels in the association table have the same program content, and the same feature of the program content can be judged manually by the user based on the recognition of the image or sound signal; it can also be judged automatically by the CPU according to the identification information in the broadcast TV channel information.

The above-mentioned association table can be published through broadcast television signals or the Internet, and can also be stored in an external removable memory.

The method for channel switching using the association table of the present invention includes the following steps: (1) selecting a channel; (2) selecting another channel that has an association relationship with the selected channel of step (1) through the same broadcast television channel information association table channel, and switch to the channel, wherein the program content contained in the two or more associated broadcast television channels is the same.

Wherein, step (2) can be carried out in the following two situations: a, when the information related to the signal transmitting station contained in the broadcast TV signal received by the receiving device changes, the user is prompted to perform or the system automatically performs the step ( 2) channel switching operation; b. When the receiving device learns that the current actual location information has changed through some means, it prompts the user to perform or the system automatically performs the channel switching operation of step (2).

For the second case, the current actual location information is obtained by communicating with the mobile communication network or the global positioning system.

For the second case, the current actual location information is obtained by communicating with the mobile communication network or the global positioning system.

In addition, when performing the above-mentioned channel switching, in order to cooperate with the user's operating habits, after the channel in the association table is selected to play, the previous channel number is still displayed on the display screen.

By adopting the method of the present invention, the user can not only select the source with the best signal quality to watch under the coexistence of multiple sources, but also, in the process of mobile reception, can find the source according to his own habits. The program you want to watch or through automatic switching so that the user's viewing process is not interrupted. In addition, the association table can be obtained by editing by the user, carried by radio and television signals, or through the Internet, which is convenient for the user to use.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a multi-channel TV receiving device,

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a digital TV receiving device,

Fig. 3 is a configuration diagram of a channel association table in the first embodiment,

Fig. 4 is a structure diagram of a channel association table in the second embodiment,

Fig. 5 is a structure diagram of a channel association table in a third implementation manner,

Fig. 6 is the user interface of the association generating method in the first embodiment,

Fig. 7 is a flow chart of the association generation method in the first embodiment,

Fig. 8 is the user interface of the association generation method in the second embodiment,

Fig. 9 is a flow chart of the association generating method of the second implementation,

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of multi-channel broadcast television signal reception,

Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of mobile reception of multi-channel broadcast television signals,

Fig. 12 is a flow chart of automatically switching channels or program streams due to signal strength changes when multi-channel broadcast television signals are received,

Fig. 13 is a flow chart of automatically switching channels or program streams due to geographic location changes when multi-channel broadcast television signals are received,

Fig. 14 is a flow chart of a receiving device obtaining an association table from a broadcast television signal,

Fig. 15 is a flow chart for the receiving device to acquire the association table from the Internet.

Detailed ways

The technical solution of the present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.

First, the principle diagram of the multi-channel television receiver will be described. As shown in Figure 1, the system targets all existing broadcast TV signals, including FM, AM broadcast, cable TV signal, terrestrial TV signal, satellite TV signal, analog signal, digital signal, and so on. All these radio and television signals pass through a digital tuner to obtain an intermediate frequency signal, and the intermediate frequency signal is demodulated and sent to the decoder, and then input to the back end. Due to the difference of signals, different signals require different tuners, demodulators, and decoders. For traditional analog TV, the digital tuner is tuned by the microcontroller MCU. The full TV signal generated by tuning is driven by the line and field to output the video signal from the picture tube, and the audio signal is output from the speaker. There is a TV software program in the ROM memory of the microcontroller MCU to drive the entire TV system to work normally. The tuning data of each channel and some related settings of the channel are stored in the memory E ² PROM. When searching for TV programs, all The channel information is recorded and the same channel information is created. The same channel information has the same certain characteristics and can be displayed on the display interface together, and the above channel information is stored in the E ² PROM as basic data. The remote controller is used to send remote control commands to the TV receiving and processing system, and at the same time, the system responds correctly after receiving the remote control commands. For the channel switching control information of the TV, the MCU reads the channel information in the E ² PROM, and displays the associated channel information at the same time; the user selects the channel from the associated channels according to his own needs, and after confirmation, the TV automatically switches .

As for the digital TV module, its schematic diagram is shown in Figure 2. This module also includes MCU, tuner, E ² PROM and so on. The MCU, E ² PROM and the tuner are controlled through the I2C bus. There are tuning data of each channel and some relevant settings of the channel in E ² PROM.

For satellite TV signals, the downlink Ku-band (11.7-12.75GHz) digital signal of the satellite transponder is received by the antenna of the receiving device, and then converted into the first intermediate frequency signal of 950-2050MHz in the low-noise box (LNB) of the outdoor unit of the receiver , fed to the tuner of the indoor unit of the receiver, the tuner converts the digital signal of the selected channel into a second intermediate frequency signal of 479.75MHz, and demodulates I and Q signals through the QPSK demodulator, and then feeds For the decoder of the receiver, after decoding is completed, it is sent to the backend for processing.

As mentioned above, each signal is processed differently, but all need a tuner to select the program that the user needs. After the same set of programs sent in multiple ways are associated, a same program association table is formed for users to choose to watch. What needs to be explained here is that the association table referred to in the present invention is essentially an association relationship, which can be a virtual association of multiple channels of the same program content through pointers or storage table headers, or multiple channels of the same program content. Channels are actually stored together.

In order to establish the above-mentioned association table, the user must search for channels at the beginning. For each channel or information source installed on the receiving device, the user needs to search the program channel to generate a channel list corresponding to the information source; if mobile reception is considered, different information sources in different areas are searched The resulting channel list is also different.

There are various methods for associating the above-mentioned same channel, and the present invention lists the following three methods here:

Fig. 3 is a diagram of the composition of the association table of the first type of same channel or program stream. There are three tables here: channel table list, channel list, same channel association table. Wherein, the channel table list includes channel tables of different sources or different regions, and each channel table has a unique identification number. In addition, the channel table list also includes some attributes of each channel table. The basic attributes include name, region, such as Shanghai, Beijing or a user-defined virtual area, and information source, such as cable digital TV, satellite, Cable analog TV, FM radio and more. The channel list is used to store all channel information, such as channel attributes, and each channel will have a unique number. In addition, there will be a channel table number to which the channel belongs in the channel list, and the channel table number comes from the channel table list. Channel attributes include channel frequency parameters, channel identification information, and other useful information such as color system, sound system, etc. In addition, different source channel attributes will also be different. Another table is the same channel association table, which contains the channel number, which comes from the channel list, and the same channel number, which also comes from the channel list. In this way, for a known channel, including its channel number, its channel list number and the attributes of the channel are all known, through the channel list number, the information source and area information corresponding to the channel can be known, through its Channel number, we can find all the same channels corresponding to it from the same channel list, that is, if the channel number of each set of data in the same channel list is the same as the known channel number, then the corresponding same channel number is For the same channel of this channel, all the same channels of this channel can be obtained by searching the table from the beginning to the end. Select a channel number from all the same channels, get its channel table and channel attributes through the channel list, and then query the channel table to get its source and area information. After obtaining these information, you can switch.

Fig. 4 is a structure diagram of an association table of the second type of same channel or program stream. Compared with the first method, it lacks the same channel association table. This method puts the same channel into the same channel number of the channel list, which contains all the same channel numbers as the channel, and the corresponding switching method is basically the same as the first method.

The composition diagram of the association table of the third kind of same channel or program stream is more simple, as shown in Figure 5, it only has a channel list, has included information such as source, geographic location in its channel attribute item, through these information also The same channel switching can be done.

The above three schemes can all realize the same channel association, and the first way is mainly described here.

Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 are a scheme of the same channel association setting. Figure 6 is the setting menu, and Figure 7 is the operation flow. The target channel is the selected channel, and other channels are compared with it to see if it is the same channel. First select the target channel list, and then select the channel. When selecting, the display content will also change accordingly, and find the same channel from the existing same channel association table and display the corresponding menu items. After selecting the target channel, select the current channel and the channel table. If it is judged that the current channel is the same as the target channel, set it as the same channel and save it in the same channel association table. When the menu is first displayed, target channel and target channel list, current channel and current channel list are all current values.

FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are another solution for setting the same channel association, mainly for television receivers with a picture-in-picture function. Figure 8 is the setting menu, and Figure 9 is the operation flow. The difference from the above scheme is that the target channel table and target channel are selected in the sub-screen, while the current channel and the current channel table are selected in the main screen. When the menu is just displayed, the target channel and the target channel table are the setting values of the picture-in-picture, and the current channel and the current channel table are the setting values of the main screen.

Due to the associated setting of the same channel, the user can easily search for programs under different channel lists according to his own habits. What the user is accustomed to is the above-mentioned target channel list. Normally, the system saves the selection settings of the target channel list and the current channel list. The target channel list is set by the user, and the current channel list can be selected by the user or detected by the system in a certain way. When the user selects a channel, he can first find the corresponding same channel under the current channel table from the target channel table, that is, the user's own habits, through the same channel association table set above. If there is no corresponding same channel, use The current channel table is used as a reference, and the channel is directly switched to. In this way, users can maintain their viewing habits. Certainly, this method may not be adopted, and the channel selected by the user may be directly switched by utilizing the setting of the current channel list.

The generation of the same channel association table can be generated locally, that is, by a certain method on the broadcast television receiver, which is based on the channel table information and channel information stored on the receiver, and generated by the above-mentioned setting method. But the present invention is not limited thereto. The reason is mainly the rise of mobile reception. We need to process the information of the area where the receiving device will arrive in advance so that mobile reception can be carried out continuously. The same channel association table can be generated on the basis of all channel information that can be received in a certain area, including cable, terrestrial, satellite and so on. Therefore, the association table of the same channel also needs to be obtained from outside. The way of external acquisition can be edited in a certain way, and then released through the Internet, or through broadcast and TV signals, or computer copying, etc., or copying between receivers and receivers. The same channel association table information can not only be stored in the internal memory of the receiver, but also can be stored in an external memory, such as a flash disk, a memory card, and the like.

Fig. 10 is a scene when the receiving device receives fixedly. The receiving device needs to receive all the broadcast TV signals sent by cable, terrestrial and satellite that can be received locally. Cable, terrestrial, and satellite each have a set of channel tables. During the viewing process, users can use the same channel association table of the receiving device to switch back and forth among these three sources to ensure that they can watch what they want to watch according to their own habits. programme.

Fig. 11 is a scene when the receiving device moves and receives. It can be regarded as countless fixed receiving scenarios, and the receiving device needs to receive all the broadcast TV signals sent by cable, terrestrial and satellite that can be received locally. Cable, terrestrial, and satellite each have a set of channel tables. During the viewing process, users can use the same channel association table of the receiving device to switch back and forth among these three sources to ensure that they can watch what they want to watch according to their own habits. programme.

In addition, it can also be seen from FIG. 11 that the signal received by the receiving device changes during the mobile receiving process. At point A, the receiving device has no signal; at point B, the receiving device receives the signal from terrestrial broadcast TV transmitter 1; at point C, the receiving device receives the signal from satellite broadcast TV When at point D, the receiving device can receive the signals transmitted by terrestrial broadcasting and television transmitting station 2 and satellite broadcasting and television simultaneously; In the process from A to E, the signal changes, and the viewing process will definitely be affected. With the same channel association table and location information, the receiving device can change the current channel table and switch to the same set channel according to the same channel association table. The following takes the scenario shown in FIG. 11 as an example to describe the handover process in detail.

At the beginning, three sets of channel lists are loaded in the receiving device in advance, corresponding to the terrestrial radio and television transmitting station 1, satellite broadcasting and television, and terrestrial broadcasting and television transmitting station 2 respectively. For these three sets of channel tables, the same channel association table is established with terrestrial broadcasting station 1 as the target channel table and CCTV-5 as the target channel. The positions of CCTV-5 in the three sets of channel lists are 1, 3, and 5 respectively. At point A, the receiving device has no signal. In the process of moving forward, the receiving device will go through a transition process from no signal to signal. If the signal is continuously detected for more than a certain period of time, the user will be prompted to switch or switch automatically. . If the user is prompted to switch, after the user confirms, the current channel list is set as the channel list of the terrestrial broadcast television transmitter station 1, and the current station number is 1. Moving on, if there is no signal for more than a certain period of time, it is considered to have left the area covered by the terrestrial broadcast television transmitter 1 . During the traveling process, the receiving device will continuously detect all signal sources and judge whether there is a signal or not. If there are signals from several sources at the same time, switch according to the priority selection. Continue to move forward and enter the range of satellite broadcast and TV signals. When a signal is detected, the user will be prompted to switch or switch automatically according to the above method. At point D, since there will be signals transmitted by the terrestrial broadcast television transmitting station 2 and the satellite broadcast television at the same time, it is necessary to select and switch according to the priority level set in advance. In general, the priority level is that wired is higher than wireless, high frequency is higher than low frequency, satellite signal is higher than terrestrial signal, and digital signal is higher than analog signal. Under the same conditions, the source with higher priority will be switched preferentially.

Since the change of the geographical location can be obtained in various ways, such as a GPS positioning system, or a mobile communication system, and so on. Due to the emergence of digital broadcasting and television, it will carry information about the transmitting station in the data stream it sends. This information is uniformly coded. By identifying the code, the current location information can be obtained and compared with the information stored in the channel table. The location information is compared, and if it is found to be the same, the selection can be switched. Of course, the identification code can also be stored in the channel list attribute, so that by directly comparing the code, it can be determined whether the current location is consistent with the current channel list.

The flow chart of judging according to the signal strength is shown in FIG. 12 . First detect the signal strength of all ports, if the signal strength is weak or there is no signal, then find the same channel from the same channel association table according to a certain rule and prompt the user to switch. If the signal is strong, it is necessary to further judge whether the source of the signal has changed, because the frequency of the signal may be the same, but the content of the program may be different. This situation is rare in the case of continuous detection, because the planning takes this interference into account. However, the user may turn off the power for a period of time, and the position changes after turning on the power, so a judgment must be made, which is generally aimed at digital TV, and analog TV lacks an effective judgment method.

The flow chart of determining according to the geographic location is shown in FIG. 13 . First, detect the signal strength of all ports, and communicate with external devices at the same time to obtain current location information. If the geographical location changes, it will find the same channel from the same channel association table according to certain rules and prompt the user to switch.

The above two methods can also be used in combination to make the dynamic switching more effective by optimizing the setting of the determination conditions.

The source of the same channel association table has been mentioned above. Figure 14 decodes the channel table information and the same channel association information from the broadcast TV signal, and the receiving device works according to the acquired information.

Accompanying drawing 15 is to download channel list information and the same channel associated information from the Internet, and the receiving device works according to the obtained information.

Each radio and television signal transmitting station can edit the channel table and the same channel association table based on the signals that can be received in the area or the signals that can be received in the adjacent area, and send it through the electronic program guide after completion. For mobile reception.

The above-mentioned situation is only several situations of the specific implementation mode of the present invention, does not mean that the present invention is limited to the above-mentioned implementation conditions, all have the same or similar situation of the invention purpose of the present invention and technical solution, and do not deviate from the train of thought of the present invention , are all feasible.

Claims (6)

1. the channel fast switch over method of an identical broadcasts television channel information is characterized in that this method may further comprise the steps:

(1) all channel informations of search various information source, and aforesaid channel information stored;

(2) content that is comprised in the contrast channel information is carried out association with the data of same channel information, and is set up contingency table, is stored in E ²Among the PROM;

(3) select target channel;

(4) open contingency table, the same channel of select target channel;

(5) switch current channel according to selected same channel, and information source is switched to the setting of this channel.

2. the channel fast switch over method of identical broadcasts television channel information according to claim 1 is characterized in that contingency table includes channel list at least.

3. the channel fast switch over method of identical broadcasts television channel information according to claim 2 is characterized in that contingency table also includes same channel contingency table and channel table tabulation.

4. the channel fast switch over method of identical broadcasts television channel information according to claim 1 is characterized in that the described select target channel of step (3), is select target channel list and target channel.

5. the channel fast switch over method of identical broadcasts television channel information according to claim 4, it is characterized in that the described select target channel of step (3) after, refresh the tabulation of current same channel in real time.

6. the channel fast switch over method of identical broadcasts television channel information according to claim 1, it is characterized in that described switching current channel of step (5) and information source after, refresh the tabulation of current same channel in real time.

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