JPH11177944A - Electronic program guide - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: A digital broadcasting method and system for transmitting data for providing an electronic program guide corresponding to multiple channels in digital broadcasting, and an electronic program guide is created and presented based on the data. Provided is a data broadcast receiving device. A program guide image is generated;
Information including the video for the program guide, the audio for the program guide and the characters for the program guide, and the information including the compression method and screen size for the video and the compression method for the audio, and the video packet for the program guide, the audio packet for the program guide and the program Generating a descriptor consisting of information including a packet identifier of the guide character packet; arranging the descriptor together with other descriptors to generate an event information table (EIT); And multiplexing them to form program sequence information (SI).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital broadcasting method and system for transmitting information on a program to be broadcast in digital broadcasting, and a digital broadcast receiving apparatus for creating and presenting a program guide based on the information. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In digital broadcasting, as one of data services, there is provided an electronic program guide in which a program guide and information on the contents of individual programs are described.
The electronic program guide displays a channel number, a channel name, a program name, a schedule, and the like transmitted as data from a transmission side on a screen as a program table having a time axis and a channel axis on a reception side. In the program table,
Further, some programs display program introduction information such as a synopsis of the program and performers.

[0003] In digital broadcasting, hundreds of channels can be provided as a program, and the trend of multi-channel is actually accelerating. With multiple channels, viewers have the advantage of having more program options, and at the same time, have the disadvantage that program selection becomes extremely difficult. That is, in a method of selecting a channel by looking at program information supplied from newspapers and television magazines when the number of channels reaches hundreds, the viewer determines a desired program from vast print information, It is necessary to input a number to a remote controller, and a complicated operation is required. Therefore, if a desired program is determined from the information described in the program table, a cursor is pointed to the program on the program table, and a channel selection or reservation operation is performed directly on the program table. The operation is simplified.

[0004]

However, in the conventional program guide, only the information in characters can be obtained as described above, and the program contents and the like cannot be grasped unless the information is read completely. The burden on people is the same as when using newspapers.

[0005] In addition, the number of paying programs will increase with the increase in the number of channels. When selecting such a paying program, it is necessary to accurately determine whether or not the program is truly worth watching. Would purchase useless programs. Even on the program provider side, by viewing program information of an arbitrary program, the viewer presents accurate program information with an advertising effect such as to think about purchasing the program, and from many programs, It is necessary to have the program purchased.

Furthermore, if information about many programs is displayed on the screen with the time axis and the channel axis as in the above-mentioned program table, it is difficult to grasp the information in the case of multiple channels, and the program can be easily read. This is not a selectable program guide. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a program guide in consideration of display corresponding to multiple channels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and in digital broadcasting, a digital broadcasting method and system for transmitting data for providing an electronic program guide corresponding to multiple channels, and the data. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data broadcast receiving device that creates and presents an electronic program guide based on a program.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, a digital broadcasting method according to the present invention (claim 1) is a digital broadcasting method for transmitting information for a program guide relating to a program to be broadcast by digital broadcasting. Generating information for the program guide video, identifying the program guide video, the program guide audio and the program guide characters, and information including a compression scheme and a screen size for the video, and a compression scheme for the audio; Generating a descriptor composed of information including packet identifiers of the program guide video packet, the program guide audio packet, and the program guide character packet; and arranging the descriptor together with a descriptor other than the descriptor to generate an event. Generating an information table (EIT); and an event information table (EI). ) As a relevant event information table (EIT) other than the table as it has the step of configuring the service information (SI) is multiplexed.

A digital broadcasting system according to the present invention (Claim 2) is a digital broadcasting system for transmitting a program guide relating to a program to be broadcast by digital broadcasting. Image generation means for identifying the program guide video, program guide audio, and program guide characters;
And a descriptor including information including a compression scheme and a screen size for video and a compression scheme for audio, and information including packet identifiers of a video packet for a program guide, an audio packet for a program guide, and a character packet for a program guide. Generating means for generating, an EIT generating means for arranging the descriptor together with a descriptor other than the descriptor to generate an event information table (EIT), the event information table (EIT) and the event information table (EIT) Table multiplexing means for multiplexing tables other than the above to form program arrangement information (SI).

A digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention (claim 3) provides a program guide video relating to a program, which is broadcast from a transmitting side by digital broadcasting, and the program guide video, the program guide audio and the program guide audio. Identification of guide characters, video compression method and screen size,
Descriptors consisting of program type information including a compression method for audio and packet information including packet identifiers of a video packet for a program guide, an audio packet for a program guide, and a character packet for a program guide are arranged in an event information table (EIT). In a digital broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving program sequence information, receiving means for receiving a signal of a transport stream, demodulating digital modulation of the signal, and correcting a bit error; Control means for extracting the program type information, analyzing the packet information, and extracting the program guide video packet, the program guide audio packet and the program guide character packet from the packet information, respectively. Receiving the instruction from the control means, Transport decoding means for extracting the event information table (EIT) from the transport stream, program guide video decoding means for decoding the signal of the extracted program guide video packet into video, and extracted program guide text A program guide character decoding means for decoding a packet signal into characters, a video synthesis means for arranging the program guide video and the program guide characters to form a screen, and an extracted program guide audio packet signal And a program guide audio decoding unit for decoding the audio into audio.

The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention (claim 4) is the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the program guide video packet and the program guide character packet extracted by the control means. And a storage means for storing the signal of the program guide audio packet.

Further, in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention (claim 5), in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 3, the control means has a selection to purchase or reserve an arbitrary program. The program guide video packet, the program guide audio packet, and the program guide character packet for the program are extracted, and the video synthesizing unit extracts the program guide video and the program extracted by the control unit. Guide characters are arranged on the display screen.

In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention (claim 6), in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 3, the video synthesizing means is provided for a plurality of programs having a time axis and a channel axis. Create a program table with information, and on the program table displayed on the screen,
A program guide is displayed by selecting an arbitrary program.

In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the present invention (claim 7), in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 6, the video synthesizing means includes the program guide displayed on a part of the program guide display screen. And the program guide characters are arranged.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiment 1 FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a transmitting side in a digital broadcasting method according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 11 denotes program sequence information (S
I) a program arrangement information generating unit, 12 is a program guide video generating unit for generating a video for an electronic program guide created on the receiving side, separately from the video of the program, and 13 is a program for generating audio as well. A guide audio generation unit, 14 is a program guide character generation unit that also generates text, 15 is a program video generation unit that generates video for a broadcast program, 16 is a program audio generation unit that also generates audio, Reference numeral 17 denotes a program sequence information generation unit 11, a program guide video generation unit 12, a program guide audio generation unit 13, a program guide character generation unit 14, a program video generation unit 15, and a program audio generation unit 16, respectively. Multiplexed program arrangement information (SI), program guide video, program guide audio, program guide text, program video, and program audio into a single transport stream. Section, 18 modulator placing the digital information of the transport stream in a carrier wave, 19
Is an antenna for transmitting a carrier wave to a receiving side via a communication satellite or the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the program arrangement information generating section in FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 21 denotes a promotion descriptor generation unit for generating a promotion descriptor having a data structure described later, and reference numeral 22 denotes a promotion descriptor.
Other than the scriptor, another descriptor generator for generating a descriptor to be arranged in the event information table (EIT), 23 is a promotion descriptor and another descri
An EIT generation unit that generates an EIT by arranging ptors, 24 is another table generation unit that generates program tables other than the EIT, and 25 is a multiplex of the EIT and other tables. Is an SI multiplexing unit that constitutes program arrangement information (SI).

Here, the program arrangement information (SI), event information table (EIT), and other tables are defined by the standards of the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses. In brief, the program arrangement information (S
In I), encoding of data necessary for a user to identify a service or an event is defined. This data is composed of six tables, one of which is the EIT, and the remaining five are the other tables. The EI
T includes data related to an event or a program, such as an event name, a start time, and a duration, and allows transmission of different types of event information by using different descriptors. Therefore, in the first embodiment of the present invention, the E
A descriptor as a promotion descriptor is set in the IT, and data for identifying video, audio, characters, and the like for a program guide is arranged using the descriptor.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of data arranged in the event information table (EIT) of the program sequence information (SI) in the promotion descriptor generation unit of FIG.
In the figure, reference numeral 31 denotes a promotion descriptor, which is a descriptor set for describing data for identifying a program guide video, audio, characters, and the like as described above. 32 is stipulated to be described in the standards of the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses,
Indicates the identification number of the promotion descriptor, and specifies the total byte length of the subsequent descriptor. 33 is promotion ty
pe, which identifies video, audio, text, etc. for program guides,
In addition, compression methods (MPEG1, MPEG
2, JPEG, etc.) and a description of a compression method (MPEG1, MPEG2, Dolby AC3, etc.) for the screen size and audio. Reference numeral 34 denotes a promotion PID, which is a packet identifier (PI) of a video packet for a program guide, an audio packet for a program guide, and a character packet for a program guide.
D).

Next, the operation of the transmitting apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in the promotion descriptor generation unit 21, pr having the data structure shown in FIG.
Generate omotion descriptor. The promotion descript
or is the descri generated by the other descriptor generation unit 22
An EIT is generated by the EIT generation unit 23 by arranging the EIT together with the ptor. The EIT and the tables generated by the other table generators 24 are multiplexed by an SI multiplexer 25 to form program arrangement information (SI). The operation in the program arrangement information generation unit 11 has been described above. In addition, video, audio, and text for a program guide are generated by a video generation unit for program guide 12, a voice generation unit for program guide 13, and a text generation unit for program guide, respectively. It is generated by the program video generator 15 and the program audio generator 16. The generated program sequence information (SI), video, audio and text for program guide, and video and audio for program are multiplexed by the multiplexing unit 17 and sent to the modulator 18 as one transport stream. The modulator 18 puts the information of the transport stream on a carrier, and the carrier is transmitted from the antenna 19 to the receiving side via the communication satellite.

The transport stream contains 4
Since about 8 channels of programs are multiplexed, the program video generator 15 and the program audio generator 16 each need the number of programs.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the transport stream. As shown in FIG. 4, the EIT, the program guide video, the program video, and the like are mapped to respective packets, and a PID capable of identifying the packet is described in a header of each packet. The pr of the promotion descriptor placed in the EIT as described above
The omotion PID describes the PID of the video packet for the program guide, the audio packet for the program guide, and the PID of the character packet for the program guide. The location of each packet of audio and program guide characters can be confirmed. The other tables of the program arrangement information (SI) are not shown in the figure because they are not essential in the first embodiment of the present invention, but are mapped to respective packets similarly to the EIT.

Also, the multiplexing units 17 and the modulators 18 are required by the number of transport streams, and the program sequence information generating unit 11 and the program guide video generating unit 12 are prepared by the number corresponding to the multiplexing units 17. Is done. The carrier waves from the plurality of modulators 18 are transmitted from one antenna 19 to provide programs on dozens to hundreds of channels.

Therefore, even when any transport stream is selected on the receiving side, the program guides for all the channels are provided in each transport stream so that the program guides for all the provided channels can be referred to. EI with video, audio and text for use, and promotion descriptors for them
Map T. Incidentally, each transport stream includes 4
Video, audio and text for the program guide for channels 8 to 8 and promotion descriptors for them
Even if the EIT in which is arranged is mapped to a packet, it is possible to refer to the program guides for all provided channels. For example, if your audience
When referring to the program guide of a channel included in one transport stream and then referring to the program guide of a channel included in another transport stream,
What is necessary is just to switch to the transport stream.

As described above, in the digital broadcasting method according to the first embodiment of the present invention, pr
omotion descriptor is set to transmit program sequence information (SI) in which data for identifying video, audio and text for program guide is arranged.
If this information is used on the receiving side, it is possible to provide a program guide including video, so that the viewer can accurately judge the contents of the program and do not purchase a useless program. Can also present accurate program information having an advertising effect.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 51 denotes a parabolic antenna for receiving digital satellite broadcasts, and a reception for receiving a signal of one transport stream. 52, a demodulation unit for demodulating a signal subjected to digital modulation, 53, an FEC unit for correcting an error in a transmission path by using an error correction code for correcting a bit error in digital broadcasting, and 54, from a transport stream. A transport decoding unit for extracting the EIT, a control unit 55 for checking whether or not there is a promotion packet by extracting a promotion descriptor from the EIT, and 56, 57, and 58 extracting from the transport stream by the control unit 55 Video, text, and audio signals for the program guide A program guide video decoding unit for converting to audio, a program guide character decoding unit, and a program guide audio decoding unit. Reference numeral 59 denotes an OSD (On Screen Display) for arranging the program guide video and characters and creating a screen. A synthesizing unit, 60 is a video display unit that displays the screen created by the video synthesizing unit 59, 61 is an audio output unit that is a speaker that outputs program guide audio, and 62 is a program guide video extracted by the control unit 55. , Character and voice signals.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart for explaining the operation processing shown in FIG. When a viewer inputs a signal to a remote controller or the like to purchase (or reserve) a program (step 1), the receiving unit 51 receives a signal of one transport stream, and the demodulation unit 52 demodulates digital modulation of the signal. , The control unit 55 receives the input contents and instructs the transport decoding unit 54 to extract the EIT of the selected program from the transport stream in which the bit error has been corrected by the FEC unit. This is the case where EITs for all channels are mapped to each transport stream. However, EITs for 4 to 8 channels included in the transport stream are mapped to each transport stream. If it is, the control unit 55 must also instruct the receiving unit 51 to switch to the transport stream including the EIT of the program. Transport decoding unit 54
Extracts the EIT of the program from the transport stream (step 2). The control unit 55 controls the extracted EI
Extract promotiondescriptor of T, promotion type,
That is, it identifies the video, audio, text, etc.
Analyze the promotion PID (steps 3 and 4). The control unit 55 extracts packets containing the program guide video, audio, and characters from the promotion PID (step 5), and the transport decode unit 54 extracts these packets from the promotion PID, respectively. Output to the character decoding unit 57 and the program guide audio decoding unit 58. In the program guide video decoding unit 56 and the program guide character decoding unit 57, the signal from the transport decoding unit 54 is decoded into video and text, respectively, and these video and text are arranged in the video synthesis unit 59. A screen is created. The program guide audio decoding unit 58 decodes the signal from the transport decoding unit 54 into audio and outputs the audio to the audio output unit 61. The video created by the video synthesizing unit 59 is displayed on the video display unit 60, and the audio is output from the audio output unit 61 to provide the program guide shown in FIG. 7 (step 6).

The program guide video, audio and characters are transmitted relatively frequently and repeatedly, but not always transmitted. Then, the control unit 55 stores the signal of the extracted packet in the storage unit 62 in step 5 so that the program guide can be presented immediately according to the input of the viewer. When there is a viewer input, the control unit 55 outputs the signal stored in the storage unit 62 to the transport decoding unit 54, and then performs the operation of step 6 described above.

As shown in the above operation, the program guide shown in FIG. 7 displays the program uniformly before the program is broadcasted by the viewer when the viewer selects the program purchase. By deciding to purchase a program or the like, useless purchase or the like can be eliminated. However, depending on the viewer or the program, there is a case where the user wants to view the program immediately without looking at the program guide because the user knows the program contents. In consideration of such a case, a key of “do not watch the program guide” is set on the remote controller or the like, and when the key is pressed, the program is immediately displayed without displaying the program guide. It may be broadcast.

As described above, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention provides the EIT promotion descri
Extract ptor to identify promotion type and promotion
A control unit that analyzes the PID and extracts packets containing video, audio, and text for the program guide from the promotion PID, and a video for the program guide that converts the signals of these packets into video, text, and audio, respectively. The configuration including the decoding unit, the character decoding unit for the program guide, and the audio decoding unit for the program guide makes it possible to provide a program guide including video using the promotion descriptor transmitted from the transmission side. The viewer can accurately judge the program contents and select a desired program, and the program provider can also present accurate program information having an advertising effect.

When a program is selected to be purchased or reserved, a program guide for the program is displayed, so that the viewer can accurately judge the program contents and purchase a useless program. Nothing. In addition, since a storage unit for storing the transmitted video, audio, and text for the program guide is further provided, when the viewer wants to view the program guide, the program guide can be presented immediately.

Embodiment 3 In the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the second embodiment, a program guide is displayed after a selection of a program purchase or the like is input to a remote controller or the like. A case will be described in which a program guide is displayed before the selection of a program, and a program guide of a desired program is referred to or a program is purchased on the program guide.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a program guide displayed on the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, (a) is a program guide displayed on the screen by pressing a “program guide display” key set on a remote controller or the like, and has a time axis and a channel axis. Only the name is listed. (B) is 1 in 100CH in the program table of (a).
A program guide of a program broadcast from 2:00 is displayed in the column of the program. (C) shows a program guide of an arbitrary program in the program table of (a) displayed on the lower right sub-screen. (D) shows a program guide of an arbitrary program in the program table of (a) displayed on the screen at the second fifth from the right end. In (e), a "guide" icon is added to a column of a program for which a program guide is prepared in the program table of (a), and a program guide of an arbitrary program with the icon is added to (d). It is displayed in the same manner as.

Since the configuration of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the third embodiment is exactly the same as that shown in FIG. 5 in the second embodiment, the program guide shown in FIG. 8 is displayed based on FIG. The operation at the time of performing will be described.

First, the viewer presses the "program guide display" key set on the remote controller or the like, thereby displaying the program guide (a) on the screen. This operation is described in MPEG
This is the same as the case where a conventional program guide is displayed using PSI data based on the standard, and a description thereof will be omitted. By moving the cursor to a program name on the program table of (a) displayed on the screen, for example, a column of a program to be broadcast from 12:00 on 100CH, the viewer can display a "program guide display" provided on a remote controller or the like. When the control unit 55 receives the input and instructs the transport decoding unit 54 to extract the EIT of the program indicated by the cursor,
The transport decoding unit 54 extracts the EIT of the program from the transport stream. The control unit 55 extracts the promotion descriptor of the extracted EIT and
Identify the omotion type and analyze the promotion PID. The control unit 55 extracts a packet containing the program guide video from the promotion PID, and the transport decode unit 54 outputs this to the program guide video decode unit 56. The program guide video decoding section 56 decodes the signal from the transport decoding section 54 into a video, and this video is arranged as a program guide video 71 in the video synthesizing section 59 in the program column on the program table. Thus, a screen is created and displayed on the video display unit 60 (FIG. 8B).

In FIG. 8 (c), the viewer can move the cursor to an arbitrary program column on the program guide shown in FIG. Is input, the program guide image 7 is displayed in exactly the same way as when the program guide of FIG.
1 is arranged by the video synthesizing unit 59, a screen is created in the lower right portion of the screen of the program table by superimposing the program table as a child screen, and is displayed on the video display unit 60 (FIG. 8).
(C)).

When the program guide shown in FIG. 8D is displayed, the viewer is provided on the remote controller or the like by moving the cursor to an arbitrary program column on the program guide shown in FIG. 8A. When the key of the "Program Guide Display" is input, the control unit 55 receives the input contents and instructs the transport decoding unit 54 to extract the EIT of the selected program. The EIT of the program is extracted from the stream. The control unit 55 extracts the promotion descriptor of the extracted EIT and extracts the promotion type, that is, the video for the program guide,
Identify voice, text, etc. and analyze promotion PID.
The control unit 55 extracts, from the promotion PID, packets containing video, audio, and characters for the program guide, respectively.
The transport decoder 54 outputs these to the program guide video decoder 56, program guide character decoder 57, and program guide audio decoder 58, respectively. The program guide video decoding unit 56 and the program guide character decoding unit 57 decode the signal from the transport decoding unit 54 into video and text, respectively, and these video and text are decoded into the program guide video 71 and the program guide video. As the character 72, a screen is created in the video synthesizing section 59 so as to be superimposed at two fifths from the right end of the program table in (a). On the other hand, the program guide audio decoding section 58 decodes the signal from the transport decoding section 54 into audio and outputs it to the audio output section 61. The screen created by the video synthesizing unit 59 is displayed on the video display unit 60, and the audio output unit 61 outputs the video 7 for the program guide.
A sound or the like corresponding to 1 is output.

Further, when the program guide shown in FIG. 8E is displayed, it is basically the same as that shown in FIG. 8D except that the viewer presses a "program guide display" key set on a remote controller or the like. The difference is that, in the program guide displayed on the screen, a “guide” icon is attached to a column of a program for which a program guide is prepared. That is, when a "guide" icon attached to an arbitrary program column is indicated by a point and a selection key or the like is input, a program guide image 71 and a program guide character 72 for the program are displayed. On the other hand, even if the point of the column of the program to which the “guide” icon is not attached is not selectable.

When an arbitrary program is selected on the program table, the program guide of the program is shown in the second embodiment instead of presenting it on a part of the screen displaying the program table. Like a program guide (see FIG. 7), the program guide can be deleted and presented on the entire display screen.

As described above, the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention provides the EIT promotion descri
Extract ptor to identify promotion type and promotion
A control unit that analyzes the PID and extracts packets containing video, audio, and text for the program guide from the promotion PID, and a video for the program guide that converts the signals of these packets into video, text, and audio, respectively. The configuration including the decoding unit, the character decoding unit for the program guide, and the audio decoding unit for the program guide makes it possible to provide a program guide including video using the promotion descriptor transmitted from the transmission side. The viewer can accurately determine the program contents and select a desired program, and the program provider can also present accurate program information having an advertising effect.

Also, an arbitrary program is selected on the program table,
Since the program guide including the video of the program is displayed, it is possible to provide a program guide that allows the viewer including the video to easily understand the program contents by a simplified operation.

Since the program guide video and the program guide characters are arranged on a part of the program guide display screen, the viewer refers to the program guide and the program guide simultaneously,
Program selection operation can be facilitated.

[0042]

As described above, according to the digital broadcasting method of the present invention (claim 1), in the digital broadcasting method for transmitting information for a program guide relating to a program broadcasted by digital broadcasting, Generating a video, identifying the program guide video, the program guide audio and the program guide characters, and information including a video compression scheme, a screen size, and a voice compression scheme; and a program guide video packet. Generating a descriptor including information including a packet identifier of a program guide audio packet and a program guide character packet, and arranging the descriptor together with a descriptor other than the descriptor, an event information table (EIT). Generating an event information table (EIT)
And multiplexing a table other than the event information table (EIT) to configure the program arrangement information (SI). If these information are used on the receiving side, a program guide including video can be obtained. Can be provided, so that the viewer can accurately judge the contents of the program and do not purchase a useless program, and the program provider can present accurate program information with an advertising effect. There is.

According to the digital broadcasting system of the present invention (claim 2), in a digital broadcasting system for transmitting a program guide relating to a program broadcasted by digital broadcasting, a program for generating an image for a provided program guide is provided. Means for generating a guide video, identification of the program guide video, program guide audio and program guide characters, and a compression method and screen size for the video;
Generating means for generating a descriptor including information including a compression scheme for audio, and information including a packet identifier of a video packet for a program guide, an audio packet for a program guide, and a packet identifier of a character packet for a program guide; EIT generating means for generating an event information table (EIT) by arranging the event information table (EIT) together with descriptors other than the descriptor, and multiplexing the event information table (EIT) with a table other than the event information table (EIT) to arrange a program Since it has the SI multiplexing means for constructing the information (SI), if the information is used on the receiving side, a program guide including video can be provided, so that the viewer can accurately understand the program contents. The program provider side presents accurate program information with advertising effect without purchasing useless programs There is an effect that can be bet.

Further, according to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention (claim 3), a program guide video relating to a program, which is broadcast from the transmitting side by digital broadcasting,
Identification of the program guide video, program guide audio and program guide characters, a compression method and screen size for video, and program type information including a compression method for audio;
And a digital broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving program arrangement information in which a descriptor comprising packet information including a packet identifier of a program guide video packet, a program guide audio packet and a program guide character packet is arranged in an event information table (EIT). And receiving means for receiving a signal of a transport stream, demodulating digital modulation of the signal and correcting a bit error, extracting the descriptor from the event information table (EIT), and identifying the program type information. A control unit for analyzing the packet information and extracting the program guide video packet, the program guide audio packet and the program guide character packet from the packet information, and receiving an instruction from the control unit. From the transport stream, the event information Transport decoding means for extracting an EIT, a program guide video decoding means for decoding an extracted program guide video packet signal into video, and an extracted program guide character packet signal for character decoding. Character decoding means for a program guide,
A configuration comprising video synthesizing means for creating a screen by arranging the program guide video and the program guide characters and a program guide audio decoding means for decoding the signal of the extracted program guide audio packet into audio. Therefore, the program guide including the video can be provided by using the descriptor transmitted from the transmission side, so that the viewer can accurately determine the program content and select a desired program. Also, there is an effect that the program provider can also present accurate program information having an advertising effect.

According to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention (claim 4), in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 3, the program guide video packet and the program guide video packet extracted by the control means are extracted. Since the apparatus further includes a storage unit for storing the signal of the character packet and the signal of the voice packet for the program guide, there is an effect that the program guide can be immediately presented when the viewer wants to view the program guide.

According to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention (claim 5), in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 3, the control means selects a program to be purchased or reserved. The program guide video packet, the program guide audio packet, and the program guide character packet for the program are extracted, and the video synthesizing unit extracts the program guide video extracted by the control unit. Also, since the characters for the program guide are arranged on the display screen, there is an effect that the viewer can accurately judge the contents of the program and avoid purchasing a useless program.

According to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention (claim 6), in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 3, the video synthesizing means includes a plurality of programs having a time axis and a channel axis. Created a program guide that describes the information on the program guide and displayed the program guide by selecting an arbitrary program on the program guide displayed on the screen. It is possible to provide a program guide that allows the user to easily understand the program contents.

Further, according to the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of the present invention (claim 7), in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus of claim 6, the video synthesizing means includes a part of the program table display screen. Since the video for the program guide and the characters for the program guide are arranged, the viewer can easily refer to the program guide and the program guide and easily perform the program selection operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a transmitting device in a digital broadcasting method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a program arrangement information generation unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of data arranged in an EIT of program sequence information to be transmitted in the digital broadcasting method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a structure of a transport stream transmitted in the digital broadcasting method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a receiving device used in the digital broadcasting method according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a flowchart for explaining an operation process of the digital broadcast receiving apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic program guide displayed on a video display unit in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a program guide displayed on a digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Program arrangement information generation part 12 Program guide video generation part 13 Program guide audio generation part 14 Program guide character generation part 15 Program video generation part 16 Program audio generation part 17 Multiplexing part 18 Modulator 19 Antenna 21 promotion 21 descriptor generation unit 22 other descriptor generation unit 23 EIT generation unit 24 other table generation unit 25 SI multiplexing unit 31 promotion descriptor 32 promotion de
scriptor 33 promotion type 34 promotion PID 51 receiving unit 52 demodulation unit 53 FEC unit 54 transport decoding unit 55 control unit 56 video decoding unit for program guide 57 character decoding unit for program guide 58 audio decoding unit for program guide 59 video synthesis unit 60 Video display unit 61 Audio output unit 62 Storage unit 71 Program guide video 72 Program guide character 73 Icon for program guide

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A digital broadcasting method for transmitting information for a program guide relating to a program to be broadcast by digital broadcasting, comprising the steps of: generating a video for a program guide; Information including the character identification, the compression method and screen size for video, and the compression method for audio;
Generating a descriptor comprising information including packet identifiers of a video packet for a program guide, an audio packet for a program guide, and a character packet for a program guide; Generating an information table (EIT); and multiplexing the event information table (EIT) and a table other than the event information table (EIT) to form program arrangement information (SI). Digital broadcasting method. 2. A digital broadcasting system for transmitting a program guide relating to a program broadcasted by digital broadcasting, comprising: a program guide video generating means for generating a video for a program guide to be provided; Information including identification of audio and program guide characters, and compression method and screen size for video and compression method for audio;
Generating means for generating a descriptor comprising information including a packet identifier of a video packet for a program guide, an audio packet for a program guide, and a character packet for a program guide; and arranging the descriptor together with a descriptor other than the descriptor. EIT generating means for generating an event information table (EIT) by means of the above; and SI multiplexing for multiplexing the event information table (EIT) and tables other than the event information table (EIT) to constitute program arrangement information (SI) Means for digital broadcasting. 3. A program guide video relating to a program, which is broadcast from a transmitting side by digital broadcasting, identification of the program guide video, program guide audio and program guide text, a compression method and a screen size of the video, An event information table (EI) stores program type information including a compression method for audio and descriptors including packet information including packet identifiers of a program guide video packet, a program guide audio packet, and a program guide character packet.
T) receiving a signal of a transport stream, demodulating a digital modulation of the signal, and correcting a bit error in the digital broadcast receiving apparatus; ), The program descriptor information is identified, the program type information is identified, the packet information is analyzed, and the program guide video packet, the program guide audio packet, and the program guide character packet are respectively analyzed from the packet information. Control means for extracting the event information table (EIT) from the transport stream in response to an instruction from the control means, and a signal of the extracted program guide video packet to a video. A video decoding means for a program guide to be decoded, and an extracted program Program guide character decoding means for decoding a signal of a guide character packet into characters; video synthesis means for arranging the program guide video and the program guide characters to form a screen; and extracted program guide audio A digital broadcast receiving apparatus comprising: a program guide audio decoding unit for decoding a packet signal into audio. 4. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising storage means for storing signals of the program guide video packet, the program guide character packet and the program guide audio packet extracted by the control means. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus, characterized in that: 5. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said control means, when selecting to purchase or reserve an arbitrary program, said program guide video packet for said program, The program guide audio packet and the program guide character packet are extracted, and the video synthesizing means arranges the program guide video and the program guide character extracted by the control means on a display screen. Digital broadcast receiving device. 6. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the video synthesizing unit creates a program table in which information on a plurality of programs having a time axis and a channel axis is described, and displays the information on a screen. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus for displaying a program guide by selecting an arbitrary program on a program table. 7. The digital broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said video synthesizing means arranges said program guide video and said program guide text on a part of said program guide display screen. A digital broadcast receiving apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned.