JPH11112903A - Television broadcasting receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent channel from being changed, while a commercial is on the air by applying a processing for turning off a descramble operation for a selected channel until a specified time passes or a specified number of programs including the current program are completed. SOLUTION: A tuner 2 to which a signal from an antenna 1 is inputted executes processing such as frequency conversion, digital demodulation and the like. An output of the tuner 2 is transmitted to a descrambler 3, and a scramble is released from a scrambled video. A control part 6 performs a channel change control processing and when a channel change command is inputted by a user operation, whether or not the commercial is on the air is dicriminated. When it is not on the air, the channel is changed according to a channel change request. When it is on the air, an alarm that a program of the channel selected cannot be watched is displayed, and the user inputs whether the channel change is to be cancelled or not.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a television broadcast receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Commercials are inserted in the middle of an original program. Generally, users often change channels when a commercial is being aired.
Broadcasters, on the other hand, want to increase their advertising revenue by increasing the audience rating of commercials.

[0003]

According to the present invention, for example, in a case where the contents of a subscription are always included in the reception contract, the channel is changed when the commercial is being broadcast. It is an object of the present invention to provide a television broadcast receiver capable of preventing such a situation.

[0004]

A first television broadcast receiver according to the present invention has a feature that, when a scrambled program is descrambled and broadcast,
Means for determining whether or not a commercial is being broadcast when a channel change request is input by a user operation; means for changing a channel in accordance with the channel change request if a commercial is not being broadcast Means for displaying a warning that the program of the currently selected channel cannot be watched while the commercial is being broadcast, and allowing the user to input whether or not to cancel the channel change,
If the channel change is canceled based on the warning display, means for canceling the channel change command and continuously broadcasting the program of the currently selected channel, and the channel change is canceled based on the warning display. If not, a process for turning off the descrambling operation for the currently selected channel until a predetermined time elapses or until a predetermined number of programs including the current program is completed is performed. It is characterized by comprising means for changing the channel according to the request.

[0005] In the second television broadcast receiver according to the present invention, when a channel change request is input by a user operation, a means for determining whether or not a commercial is being broadcast, a commercial is being broadcast. If it is not in the middle, means to change the channel according to the channel change request, and if a commercial is being broadcast, a warning that the channel can not be changed because the commercial is being broadcast is displayed and then the channel change command is canceled Means for continuously broadcasting the program of the currently selected channel.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a digital television broadcast receiver will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[1] Description of First Embodiment

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a digital television broadcast receiver for receiving digital satellite broadcasts such as CS broadcasts.

The digital television broadcast receiver includes an antenna 1, a tuner circuit 2, a descrambling circuit 3, a decoder 4, a monitor 5, a control unit 6, and the like.

A signal from the antenna 1 is input to the tuner circuit 2. The tuner circuit 2 performs processing such as frequency conversion and digital demodulation. The output of the tuner circuit 2 is sent to a descrambling circuit 3, where the scrambled video is descrambled. After the output of the descrambling circuit 3 is decoded by the decoder 4, it is sent to the monitor 5 for display.

In this example, it is assumed that the video of a program including a commercial is scrambled and broadcast.

FIG. 2 shows a channel change control processing procedure by the control unit 6.

When a channel change command is input by a user operation (step 1), it is determined whether or not a commercial is being broadcast (step 2).
Whether a commercial is being broadcast or not is determined, for example, as follows. A bit for discriminating the original program content from the commercial is inserted into the broadcast data on the broadcast station side and transmitted. The receiver determines, based on the content of the bit, whether the content currently being broadcast rightward is the original program content or a commercial.

If the commercial is not being broadcast, the channel is changed according to the channel change request (step 3). That is, the channel specified by the channel change command is selected. Then, the current channel change control processing ends.

If a commercial is being broadcast, a warning is displayed to the effect that the program of the currently selected channel cannot be viewed (step 4). Based on this warning display, the user inputs whether or not to cancel the channel change.

If the user cancels the channel change based on the warning display (YES in step 5),
The current channel change control process ends. That is, the channel change command input in step 1 is canceled, and the program of the currently selected channel is continuously broadcast.

If the channel change has not been canceled based on the warning display (NO in step 5), the descrambling operation for the currently selected channel is performed until a predetermined time elapses or a predetermined time including the current program is reached. After a process of turning off the program until a number of programs are completed (step 6), the channel is changed according to the channel change request (step 3). That is, the channel specified by the channel change command is selected. Then, the current channel change control processing ends.

If the channel for which the descrambling operation is turned off is specified after the processing in step 6 is executed, the program is broadcast in a scrambled state. Can not be seen. For this reason, when the warning display of the above step 4 is displayed, the user inputs the cancellation, so that the channel is less likely to be changed when the commercial is being broadcast.

[2] Description of Second Embodiment

The configuration of the digital television broadcast receiver is the same as that of FIG. In the second embodiment, the video of a program including a commercial may be broadcast in a scrambled state or may be broadcast in an unscrambled state.

FIG. 3 shows a channel change control processing procedure by the control unit 6.

When a channel change command is input by a user operation (step 11), it is determined whether or not a commercial is being broadcast (step 1).
2).

If the commercial is not being broadcast, the channel is changed according to the channel change request (step 13). That is, the channel specified by the channel change command is selected.
Then, the current channel change control processing ends.

If a commercial is being broadcast, a warning that the channel cannot be changed while the commercial is being broadcast is displayed (step 14), and the current channel change control process ends. That is, step 1
Is canceled, and the program of the currently selected channel is continuously broadcast.

In the second embodiment, channel change during commercial broadcasting is completely prohibited.

[0026]

According to the present invention, for example, in a case where the content of a subscription is always included in the contents of the receiving contract, the channel is changed when the commercial is being broadcast. Can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a digital television broadcast receiver.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a channel change control processing procedure performed by a control unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating another channel change control processing procedure;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Antenna 2 Tuner circuit 3 Descramble circuit 4 Decoder 5 Monitor 6 Control part

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Makoto Okada 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Isao Imazato 2-5-2 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka No. 5 Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. In a case where a scrambled program is descrambled and broadcast, when a channel change request is input by a user operation, it is determined whether or not a commercial is being broadcast. Means to change the channel in response to a channel change request unless the commercial is being aired; if the commercial is being aired, the program on the currently selected channel will not be seen Means to display a warning and to allow the user to input whether to cancel the channel change. If the channel change is canceled based on the warning display, the channel change command is canceled and the channel is currently selected. A way to continuously broadcast programs on the channel, as well as a warning display If the channel change is not canceled based on the channel, a process for turning off the descrambling operation for the currently selected channel until a predetermined time elapses or until a predetermined number of programs including the current program ends. Means for changing the channel in accordance with the channel change request after performing. 2. A means for judging whether or not a commercial is being broadcast when a channel change request is inputted by a user operation. Means to change channels,
And if the commercial is on the air,
Means for displaying a warning that the channel cannot be changed during commercial broadcasting, canceling the channel change command, and continuously broadcasting the program of the currently selected channel.