JP2007208374A - Video receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

【Task】
Prevent waste of power line communication bandwidth.
[Solution]
The PLC modem circuit 38 receives the video data from the video server 24 and supplies it to the video conversion device 40. The video conversion device 40 converts the video and audio of the video data from the modem circuit 38 into a format that can be displayed on the video display device 50. The output video / audio signal of the video conversion device 40 is applied to the video display device 50 via the video / audio output terminal 34. The power usage detection circuit 44 detects whether the video display device 50 is in a video display state or a video non-display state by monitoring the passing current. When the video display device 50 transitions from the video display state to the video non-display based on the detection result of the power usage detection circuit 44 and the video is being received, the control circuit 46 stops the distribution of the received video. The image server 24 is requested.
[Selection]
FIG.

Description

  The present invention relates to a video receiving apparatus that receives video using power line communication.

  Recently, modem products with a physical speed of about 200 Mbps have appeared in power line communication (PLC) networks. In principle, in power line communication, when a plurality of modems are used on the same power line, the transmission band is shared, so in general, when the number of modems on the same power line increases, per unit The bandwidth of decreases. In particular, in a power line communication system using a band of several tens of Mbps such as video, management of a band allocated to each modem is important.

  In the PLC, even when data of the same content is transmitted to a plurality of PLC modems, neither multicast nor broadcast can be used. This is because the band used for data transmission differs depending on the other modem. That is, the PLC basically has a one-to-one communication.

  When a video signal is received through power line communication, a set top box is connected to the power line communication modem, and a video display device is connected to the set top box. The set top box converts the video data received via the power line communication modem into a form suitable for display on the video display device, and outputs the converted data to the video display device.

  In such a viewing mode, conventionally, the set-top box in the power-on state requests the video server to distribute the video data and receives the video data regardless of whether or not the video display device displays the video. At this time, the band of power line communication is wasted, and as a result, the band that can be used by other power line communication modems is limited.

  Such a problem is the same when a video recording device for recording video is connected to the set-top box.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a video receiving apparatus that reduces such waste of bandwidth.

  A video receiving apparatus according to the present invention is a video receiving apparatus that supplies video equipment received by power line communication (PLC) to video equipment, a PLC modem circuit that receives video data from a video distribution apparatus, and the PLC modem circuit The video / audio data received via the converter is converted into a predetermined format and supplied to the video equipment, the power output terminal for supplying power to the video equipment, and the video equipment supplied from the power output terminal. A power usage detection device that detects the usage state of the video equipment by monitoring the power to be used, and the power usage detection device that indicates the transition of the video equipment from the operating state to the non-operating state when the video data is received. And a control circuit for requesting the video delivery apparatus to stop video delivery.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the waste of the band of power line communication by useless video transmission can be prevented. Band assignment to power line communication modems connected to unused video equipment can be reduced, and bandwidth can be assigned to other necessary power line communication equipment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention. Outlets 12, 14, and 16 are connected to the power line 10 in the building or home. A power plug 22 of the PLC modem device 20 is connected to the outlet 12, and a video server 24 that stores and stores a plurality of videos is connected to the PLC modem device 20.

  A power plug 32 of the video receiver 30 is connected to the power outlet 14. The video display device 50 is connected to the video / audio output terminal 34 and the power output terminal 36 of the video receiving device 30. That is, the video display device 50 operates with the power supply from the power output terminal 34, displays the video from the video / audio output terminal 34, and outputs the sound.

  The video receiving device 30 has a built-in PLC modem circuit 38, which is a combination of a set top box used for a cable TV and a PLC modem device. The PLC modem circuit 38 receives video data transmitted from the video server 24 via the PLC modem device 20 and the power line 10 and supplies the video data to the video conversion device 40. The video conversion device 40 uses the memory 42 to convert the video and video of the video data from the modem circuit 38 into a format that can be output by the video display device 50, for example, an analog NTSC signal and an analog audio signal.

  The video / audio signal output from the video conversion device 40 is applied to the video display device 50 via the video / audio output terminal 34. The video display device 50 displays the video from the video / audio output terminal 34 on the screen and outputs the audio from the speaker in the power-on state.

  The power of the power plug 32 is supplied to the power output terminal 34 via the power usage detection circuit 44. The power usage detection circuit 44 monitors the passing current, so that the device connected to the power output terminal 34, here, the video display device 50 is in a video display state or a video non-display state (power off state or power on state). Is in a standby state where no video is displayed). Since the power consumption of the video display device 50 is clearly different between the video display state and the video non-display state, the power usage detection circuit 44 can determine and learn these differences based on the amount of passing current. The power usage detection circuit 44 notifies the control circuit 46 of the detection result.

  The control circuit 46 controls the video reception device 30 according to the detection result of the power usage detection circuit 44 and the operation of the operation device 48, requests video distribution from the video server 24, and requests stop of video distribution. Details of this will be described later.

  In addition, a power plug 62 of the video receiver 60 is connected to the power outlet 16. The function of the video receiver 60 is exactly the same as that of the video receiver 30. The video recording device 80 is connected to the video / audio output terminal 64 and the power output terminal 66 of the video receiving device 60. That is, the video recording device 80 operates with the power supply from the power output terminal 64 and records the video from the video / audio output terminal 64.

  The video receiving device 60 has a PLC modem circuit 68 built therein. The PLC modem circuit 68 receives video data transmitted from the video server 24 via the PLC modem device 20 and the power line 10 and supplies the video data to the video conversion device 70. The video conversion device 70 uses the memory 72 to convert the video and audio of the video data from the modem circuit 68 into a format that can be recorded by the video display device 80, for example, an analog NTSC signal and an analog audio signal.

  The video / audio signal output from the video conversion device 70 is applied to the video recording device 80 via the video / audio output terminal 64. The video recording device 80 records the video / audio signal from the video / audio output terminal 64 on a recording medium in a power-on state. Of course, in the case of recording reservation, the video recording apparatus is turned on slightly before the recording start time, starts recording at the recording start time, stops recording at the recording end time, and is turned off.

  The power of the power plug 62 is supplied to the power output terminal 64 via the power usage detection circuit 74. The power usage detection circuit 74 monitors the passing current, so that the device connected to the power output terminal 64, in this case, the video recording device 80 is in the operating state (during recording or playback), or the power is on but recording is also performed. It is detected whether the reproduction is not performed, that is, the standby state. Since the power consumption of the video recording device 50 is clearly different between the operation state and the standby state, the power usage detection circuit 74 can discriminate between these by the amount of passing current and can learn. The power usage detection circuit 74 notifies the control circuit 76 of the detection result.

  Similar to the control circuit 46, the control circuit 76 controls the video receiving device 60 according to the detection result of the power usage detection circuit 74 and the operation of the operation device 78, requests the video server 24 for video distribution, and performs video distribution. Request a stop.

  A characteristic operation of the video receiver 30 will be described. When the video display device 50 is in the video display state based on the detection result of the power usage detection circuit 44, the control circuit 46 requests the video server 24 for video data of the channel set by the user using the operation device 48. The video data distributed from the video server 24 is processed as described above and is input to the video display device 50. The video display device 50 displays the video of the video data and outputs audio. Of course, the channel selection by the user and the transition of the video display device 50 from the video non-display state to the video display state may be slightly different.

  When the video display device 50 transitions from the video display state to the video non-display state when the video is received based on the detection result of the power usage detection circuit 44, the control circuit 46 stops distributing the received video. Is requested to the video server 24 via the PLC modem circuit 38. When the video display device 50 enters a video non-display state without requesting video distribution, the control circuit 46 does not transmit a distribution stop request signal to the video server.

  In this way, in this embodiment, when the video display device 50 becomes non-displayed, the video server 24 is requested to stop video distribution and video transmission by power line communication is stopped. Therefore, the power line communication band on the power line 10 is increased. It can prevent wasting.

  The video receiving device 60 operates in the same manner as the video receiving device 30. In the case of the video recording device 80, the video receiving device 60 cannot determine whether the video recording device 80 is in the recording state or the reproduction state based on the detection result of the power usage detection circuit 74. However, when the video is being received and the video recording apparatus is not in the recording state or the playback state, the control circuit 76 supplies the video server 24 with the video distribution stop as in the control circuit 46. As a result, it is possible to prevent waste of the power line communication band due to continuing video data transmission from the video server 24 to the video receiving device 60.

  Although the embodiment in which the PLC modem and the device corresponding to the set top box are integrated has been described, the function of the video receiving device 30 may be appropriately separated into a communication function and a video processing function. For example, the video receiving device 30 may be separated from the video conversion device 40 and the memory 42, or only the PLC modem circuit 38 may be separated.

  Although the case where information consisting of video and audio is received has been described, the present invention can also be applied to the case where only video is received. That is, in the claims and the specification, the video includes both a case of only a video not including audio and a case of including video and audio.

  Although the invention has been described with reference to specific illustrative embodiments, various modifications and alterations may be made to the above-described embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims. This is obvious to an engineer in the field to which the present invention belongs, and such changes and modifications are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

It is a schematic block diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

10: Power lines 12, 14, 16: Outlet 20: PLC modem device 22: Power plug 24: Video server 30: Video receiver 32: Power plug 34: Video / audio output terminal 36: Power output terminal 38: PLC modem circuit 40: Video conversion device 42: Memory 44: Power usage detection circuit 46: Control circuit 48: Operation device 50: Video display device 60: Video reception device 62: Power plug 64: Video / audio output terminal 66: Power output terminal 68: PLC modem circuit 70: Video conversion device 72: Memory 74: Power usage detection circuit 76: Control circuit 78: Operating device 80: Video recording device

Claims (3)

An image receiving device that supplies images received by power line communication (PLC) to image equipment,
A PLC modem circuit (38) for receiving video data from the video distribution device (24);
A converter (40) for converting video / audio data received via the PLC modem circuit (38) into a predetermined format and supplying the video / audio data to the video equipment;
A power output terminal (36) for supplying power to the video equipment;
A power usage detection device (44) for detecting the usage state of the video equipment by monitoring the power supplied to the video equipment from the power output terminal (36);
When the power usage detection device (44) detects a transition from the operating state to the non-operating state of the video device upon reception of the video data, the control circuit (46 that requests the video distribution device to stop video distribution) )
A video receiving apparatus comprising:   2. When the video device is a video display device, the operation state is a video display state, and the non-operation state is either a standby state where no video is displayed or a power-off state. The video receiver described in 1.   2. The device according to claim 1, wherein when the video device is a video recording device, the operation state is a recording operation state, and the non-operation state is one of a recording stop state and a power-off state. Video receiver.

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