FR3037207A1 - METHOD FOR MANAGING A MULTIPLEX - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for managing access to digital content received by a receiver (RCP) including a demodulator (DMOD) capable of receiving at least one multiplex comprising contents including data packets, a support for recording (DSQ), and a demultiplexer (DEMUX), characterized in that it comprises a step of reception by the demodulator of at least one multiplex, followed by a recording step, on the medium (DSQ), all or part of the multiplex.

Description

The invention relates to a method for managing a multiplex in a content receiver capable of processing a content received for rendering. The invention relates to audiovisual digital content, namely television programs, radio programs, etc. The invention applies to content transmission systems in which several digital contents, forming a multiplex, can be broadcast simultaneously, and can be received by a demodulator (also called a tuner by those skilled in the art) installed in the receiver. A known system is, for example, digital terrestrial television TNT in which data packets representative of several television channels are broadcast in the same data stream and received by a demodulator. For example, in France, in the case of terrestrial digital television TNT, the main television broadcasting network, the channels are grouped by multiplex; and when a multiplex channel is selected, the channel is retrieved from the multiplex by the receiver for playback on a screen. The step of extracting the chain will be described in more detail in the following description. Today in France, 31 national channels are grouped on 8 multiplexes (see appendix 1). For example, a multiplex is composed of the following channels: France 2, France 3, France 5, France O, LCP, Public Senate Local Channel or France 3 "bis". The inventors have found that a digital television receiver does not process the received television signals when no channel selection is made; or processes only one television channel of the multiplex following a channel selection made by a user for the purpose of restoring the channel. The invention improves the situation. For this purpose, according to a functional aspect, the subject of the invention is a method of managing access to a digital content received by a device 3037207 2 including a demodulator able to receive at least one multiplex comprising contents including packet data. data, the receiver further comprising a recording medium and a demultiplexer, the method being characterized in that it comprises a step of receiving by the demodulator at least one multiplex, followed by a recording step, on the support, of all or part of the multiplex. In this way, the contents ignored in the prior art are no longer with the invention. Indeed, the contents broadcast and received at the demodulator of the receiver are recorded in the receiver, independently of a selection of contents. In other words, the demodulator records all or some of the signals it receives and records them on the recording medium. Thanks to the invention, the contents recorded according to the method can in particular be replayed, that is to say seen in deferred mode (catch-up mode) without requiring communication with the network, in particular with the content provider. . Because management is local, access to content is also faster. Data packets are usually coded. According to a particular embodiment of the invention, which may be implemented alternatively or cumulatively with the previous one, the packets are recorded, during the recording step, without decoding; in other words, the contents are saved without prior processing. If the contents form a multiplex, this multiplex is recorded as such on the medium; stored content is decoded only if it is selected for playback; this mode avoids decoding content that will not be accessed later.

According to yet another particular embodiment of the invention, which may be implemented alternatively or cumulatively with the previous ones, a request for access to a content recorded on the medium comprises a step of demultiplexing the recorded multiplex which includes the requested content; and a step of decoding the requested content.

According to yet another particular embodiment of the invention, which may be implemented alternatively or cumulatively with the previous ones, the received contents are recorded continuously. According to yet another particular mode of implementation of the invention, which can be implemented alternatively or cumulatively with the previous ones, to optimize the management of the available memory space, the received contents are recorded on given time ranges . According to yet another particular embodiment of the invention, which may be implemented alternately or cumulatively with the previous 10, the contents are recorded in accordance with a rolling management called first input / first output (FIFO, acronym First In First Out); in this configuration, the first stored contents are the first deleted contents. In other words, this management mode consists of deleting the oldest contents. This mode has the advantage of consuming few resources on the receiver. Also, a mechanism permanently ensures an available memory area sufficient to receive a content. For example, a threshold value is defined in advance so as to define a memory size in bytes to remain available. According to yet another particular embodiment of the invention, which can be implemented alternatively or cumulatively with the previous ones, the support comprises at least two zones, in that part of the contents to be deleted is stored in the second zone. according to a variant of this mode, the memory space allocated to the zones varies in time. in this way, if contents to be deleted are to be recorded and the memory space in the second zone is not sufficient, the memory space allocated to the first zone is decreased and the memory space allocated to the second zone is increased accordingly. Content may include primary content and secondary content, typically a television series and at least one advertisement, respectively. In this configuration, according to a variant of this latter mode of implementation, the method comprises a step of deleting in the second zone all or part of the secondary content. Secondary content is generally not desired by the user who selected the content; deleting not only saves memory space but also improves the user experience that will not undeliver unwanted secondary content. A secondary content may correspond to a type of content; alternatively the type of secondary content to be deleted is selected beforehand, for example by a user of the receiver. This variant makes it possible to retain secondary contents that the user wishes to preserve, for example.

The received multiplex may follow a selection of content. In this configuration, the method comprises the following steps: a step of demultiplexing the multiplex followed by a step of extracting the packets relating to the selected string, followed by a step of recording the remaining packets resulting from the extraction step. As a result, the resulting multiplex that is recorded as a result of the extraction occupies less memory space than the multiplex received as a result of the selection.

According to a material aspect, the invention relates to a receiver device including a demodulator able to receive at least one multiplex comprising contents including data packets, a recording medium, and a demultiplexer, characterized in that it comprises a recording module able to record, on the medium, all or part of said at least one multiplex received by the demodulator. According to another material aspect, the invention relates to a computer program adapted to be implemented on a receiver device as defined above, the program comprising code instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs the process steps defined above.

According to a material aspect, the invention relates to a data carrier on which at least one set of program code instructions has been stored for the execution of a method as defined above. The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, given by way of example and with reference to the appended drawings, in which: FIG. 1 represents a computer system on which is illustrated an exemplary embodiment of the invention. Figure 2 is a schematic view of the architecture of a receiver adapted to implement the method of the invention.

Figure 3 is an algorithm illustrating the principle of the invention. Figure 4 is a schematic view of a storage medium on which are recorded the contents according to one embodiment of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT EXPRESSING THE INVENTION FIG. 1 represents a SYS system comprising a content provider FCNT and a receiver RCP able to receive digital signals broadcast via a broadcast network RES. The RCP receiver is in our example coupled to a playback device such as a TV TV and is able to be controlled via a TCD remote control.

Figure 2 shows a view of the architecture of the RCP receiver. The latter includes a CPU processor, a DMOD demodulator, also known as a tuner by the skilled person, and a Demux demultiplexer. The RCP receiver also includes a DEC decoder module. The DMOD demodulator is connected to a receiving medium such as ANT antenna, cable, etc. the RCP receiver is commonly referred to as a digital decoder by those skilled in the art. The term decoder will be used hereinafter to designate this RCP receiver.

The packets received by the antenna ANT are transmitted to the DMOD demodulator of the DEC decoder. The FCNT provider may be either centralized or decentralized, that is to say implementing a plurality of devices such as computer servers. The FCNT provider and the RCP decoder communicate with each other through a communication network; in our example, this network is a DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting) broadcast network also called TNT; the invention applies is not limited to this type of network. Other networks can be used for the implementation of the invention, namely an Internet network, a 3G / 4G / 5G type mobile network or other networks; alone or in combination. The FCNT content provider broadcasts television content. In the example of DTT, it should be remembered that DTT emissions are essentially in the UHF band which goes from 470 to 860 MHz. The television channels can be grouped in multiplex, in particular in France. For example, in France, there are now 8 multiplexes (see Appendix 1), each multiplex grouping a plurality of television channels. In a multiplex, several channels, or programs, are combined (multiplexed) in order to be broadcast at the same time on the same frequency. A selection of content may be made at the RCP receiver. The latter has for this purpose a selection module including for example a graphical selection interface (not shown) for example displayed on a screen of a television, a computer or any other similar device, and 25 manipulable by a user; the manipulation being indifferently in a tactile way, by means of a keyboard, a remote control, etc. In our example, a user selects content, especially a television program, through the interface; The DMOD demodulator receives the concerned multiplex, demodulates it and transmits it to a demultiplexer (DEMUX); the demultiplexer then extracts the received packets corresponding to the selected channel; finally, the packets in question are then decoded by a decoding module (DEC) for display on a screen in the case of TV TV. The RCP decoder also comprises, conventionally, memories (M) associated with the processor (CPU). The memories can be ROM (Read Only Memory) or RAM (Random Access Memory) or Flash, etc. The RCP decoder comprises a plurality of input / output modules, namely a first input / output I / 01 for communicating with a playback device such as a TV television, and a second input / output 1/02 for communicating with a medium. DSQ recording device such as a disk for storing the multiplex according to the method of the invention. Recall that audiovisual program means all the digital components (audio, video or data) which constitute what is commonly called an audiovisual channel, that is to say a temporal sequence of contents, or events, audiovisuals (films, TV shows, games, etc.). The invention takes advantage of the fact that the contents are broadcast and that they can be received by the demodulator permanently independently of a selection of a television channel. According to the invention, all or part of the contents received by the decoder are recorded. In this case, in the case where the demodulator can receive only one multiplex at a time, the multiplex received by the DMOD demodulator is recorded on the recording medium DSQ. Also, if a content is selected, the content may not be saved on the media. if the selected content is not registered, the method comprises the following steps: a step of demultiplexing the received multiplex; followed by a step of extracting the packets relating to the selected channel; Followed by a step of recording the remaining packets resulting from the extraction step. In this case, all received content is saved except for the selected content. this results in a gain in memory space due to the extraction of the selected content (the television channel). More specifically, with reference to FIG. 3, the method of the invention comprises - a reception step ET1 (RCP (MX)), by the DMOD demodulator, of several contents, for example an MX multiplex, 10 - a step d recording ET2 (WR (MX)) on the DSQ disk of all or part of the received contents; The steps are implemented by a MOD manager module. in our example, this module is stored in the memory MEM; however the place of storage is indifferent, it could be stored on the DSQ recording medium. The reception step may be preceded by a step of selecting a content, for example a CHx television channel of the multiplex MX. In this configuration, the triggering of the recording originates from a selection of content via the decoder. Also, upon receipt of the MX multiplex, as indicated above, the selected content may or may not be recorded for review. The invention thus makes it possible, as will be seen in the following, to see a broadcast that has already been broadcast via the multiplex stored in memory. All management of access to content that has already been broadcast and recorded on the support is therefore done at the local receiver. At this point, the recording made offers the possibility to see content that has already been broadcast. In particular, following the recording, a phase for delayed access to a channel recorded on the medium 3037207 9 comprises a step of accessing the DSQ medium to obtain the registered MX multiplex; then, a step of demultiplexing so as to recover the packets relating to the selected channel; and a step of decoding the packets so as to reconstruct the audio and / or video signals.

According to one possible variant, following the recording, a request for live access to a recorded channel includes a step of requesting access to the channel live to a content provider; at the same time, access to the recorded content relating to this same channel; a step of obtaining recorded packets; a step of decoding the packets obtained; and a step of restoring a content at the base of the packets obtained. The restitution can be that of the last recorded image or a representative video of the last recorded images. Then, as soon as the channel is received live by the decoder, the received packets are received by the demodulator, then by the demultiplexer to be demultiplexed instead of the content returned to the base of the recorded packets. This variant is interesting when the time relative to the access request is long. Indeed, content from the recording is returned time to receive the content live. This avoids a period of time with a black screen or a display of waiting information, due to the expectation of receiving the content live. Also to accelerate the return of recorded packets, they can be decoded before access, for example following the recording on the disk. In the above example, the receiver continuously records the received packets relating to several live channels in parallel and retains them as long as the memory area allocated to the recording (C1) allows. The recording in the memory respects for example a rolling management (FIFO) which consists in erasing the oldest contents to free up space when the memory C1 is full. In this configuration, the antenna captures the signals, transmits them to the demodulator, and the PGM stores them on the medium.

Figure 4 illustrates this rolling recording mode. In this figure, the multiplex comprises three LCP television channels, France2, and France 3. This figure illustrates a time axis t, in particular the current time tc, the instant in which the multiplex MX is recorded in a memory zone C1. Contents prior to this current time tc correspond to recorded contents. In FIG. 4, the TCD remote control is also shown, as well as recoil or fast-forward keys for navigating the contents recorded on the DSQ disk. In the figure, a user has selected a TV program PGM1 having been recorded at a time ti (i <c). Continuous recording of the MX multiplex inevitably results in significant memory space consumption on the DSQ disk. In order to better manage the available memory space on the DSQ disk, with reference to FIG. 4, the DSQ disk can be divided into several memory zones. In our example, the memory is divided into two memory areas C1 and C2. Some contents, as we saw above, according to a possible mode, the oldest are removed. Also, in order to retain contents not to be deleted, the manager MOD stores in the second memory zone C2 certain contents to keep PGM2 and PGM3, for example a certain time. On the other hand, the size of the first memory area C1, and consequently that of the second memory area C2 may vary over time. For example, if an additional size is needed in the second memory area C2 to store data packets, the size of the first memory area C1 is decreased accordingly; contents are then deleted in the first memory. Also, content may include secondary information of the advertising type; alternatively, the secondary contents are extracted from the contents stored in the second memory C2, or even in the first memory C1, to gain memory space. The gain of space gained through this extraction makes it possible in particular to store useful information of the program guide type recorded on the DSQ disk. Deletion can also be based on a secondary content type. The type of secondary content to be deleted is in this case 5 previously selected by the user. The latter may decide to delete secondary content such advertisements and retain secondary content for example relating to information related to the television program that could provide the FCNT content provider during the broadcast. Also, the choice of the contents stored in the second memory zone C2 can be based on a history of the actions of the user and / or the history of the actions of other users of an equivalent system. If the user has a profile with a preference for certain categories of films, for example horror films or comedies, the contents recorded in the second memory C2 will be contents related to this profile.

According to a variant of the embodiment, the packets received, instead of being recorded continuously, can be recorded on the given time slots. These ranges correspond for example to time slots during which are broadcast television programs that interest the user. For example, the MX multiplex record on the DSQ 20 disc is played every night from 6pm to 10pm. Finally, it should be noted that the term module can correspond to a software component as well as a hardware component or a set of hardware and software components, a software component corresponding to one or more computer programs or subprograms, or more generally to any element of a program capable of implementing a function or a set of functions as described for the modules concerned. In the same way, a hardware component corresponds to any element of a hardware set (or hardware) able to implement a function or a set of functions for the module concerned (integrated circuit, smart card, memory card, etc.).

3037207 12 Appendix 1 Distribution of channels by multiplex Rn (n = 1 to 8) R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 Canal + HD 6 FI HD TF1 11D1 () ter Channel + 9 rance 2 Arte Honeybee 25 RMC Cinema HD Discovery Channel + Sport T1 .1M6 HD LCI The Team 21 Number 23 Planet Paris Premiere KrTe115- NRJ 1 'Select TV TMC R1 R2 France 2 France 3 I-TV BFM TV D 8 Gulli France 5 France Ô D 17- Public Senate Local Channel or France rance 4 "bis"

Claims (13)

REVENDICATIONS1. A method of managing access to digital receiver-received (RCP) content including a demodulator (DMOD) capable of receiving at least one multiplex (MX) comprising contents including data packets, the receiver further comprising a medium for recording (DSQ) and a demultiplexer (DEMUX), the method being characterized in that it comprises a step of receiving by the demodulator at least one multiplex, followed by a recording step, on the medium ( DSQ), all or part of the multiplex. 2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the data packets are coded and in that they are recorded during the recording step without decoding. 3. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that a request for access to a content recorded on the medium comprises a demultiplexing step of the recorded multiplex which includes the requested content; and a step of decoding the requested content. 4. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the received contents are recorded continuously. 5. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the received contents are recorded on given time ranges. 6. Method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the contents are recorded respecting a rolling management (FIFO) which consists in deleting the oldest contents. 7. Method according to claim 6, characterized in that the support comprises at least two areas (C1, C2), and in that a portion of the contents to be deleted is stored in the second zone (C2). 8. Method according to claim 7, characterized in that a content comprises a main content and a secondary content, in that it comprises a step of deleting in the second zone (C2) all or part of the secondary content . 9. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that a secondary content corresponds to a content type, and in that the type of secondary content to be deleted is selected beforehand. 10. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the received multiplex follows a selection of a content, and in that the method comprises the following steps: a step of demultiplexing the multiplex; 10 - followed by a step of extracting the packets relating to the selected channel; followed by a step of recording the remaining packets resulting from the extraction step. 11. Receiver (RCP) including a demodulator (DMOD) capable of receiving at least one multiplex (MX) comprising contents including data packets, a recording medium (DSQ), and a demultiplexer (DEMUX), characterized in it comprises a recording module capable of recording, on the medium (DSQ), all or part of said at least one multiplex received by the demodulator (DMOD) on the medium (DSQ). A receiver operable computer program (RCP) as defined in claim 11, the program comprising code instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform the defined process steps in claim 1. Data carrier on which at least one set of program code instructions for the execution of a method according to claim 1 has been stored.