Television – Basic receiver with additional function – Multimode
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-29
2004-03-02
Lee, Michael H. (Department: 2614)
Television
Basic receiver with additional function
Multimode
C348S554000, C348S553000, C348S563000, C725S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06700624
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital broadcast receiver and method for displaying a program format, and more particularly, to a combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver which identifies if a cable broadcast program being carried and received or a cable broadcast program to be received is a HD broadcast and receives a HD broadcast from a terrestrial wave broadcasting station in the form of a HD terrestrial wave broadcast automatically or according to a user's selection, and a program information processing method therefor which processes program information such that it can identify a cable broadcast program as a HD broadcast in an EIT.
2. Description of the Background Art
Presently, in the U.S., televisions installed at most homes receives cable broadcasts and terrestrial wave broadcasts and shows them to viewers in connection to a cable head end via cables. That is, cable system operators transmit analog terrestrial waves to those televisions through some cable channels according to the FCC(Federal Communication Commission) commands(or “must carry” rules), although televisions installed at areas providing cable broadcasts can receive analog terrestrial waves. Thus, the viewers view terrestrial wave broadcasts as well as cable broadcasts transmitted from the cable head end.
However, as terrestrial wave digital broadcasts start in the U.S., there continues a discussion that the ground digital broadcasts must be transmitted from a cable head end to televisions via cables in the same manner as analog terrestrial wave broadcasts, and, for this purpose, the ground digital broadcasts must be carried. According to this, the terrestrial wave digital broadcasts will be carried from the cable head end to be transmitted to televisions of subscribers via cables in the future.
Even though a number of American terrestrial wave broadcasters currently increase the number of HD level broadcasts in order to be competitive with other rival media, cable operators require a lot of cable channel resources in order to carry and transmit HD level broadcasts via cables. Thus, it is very likely that the HD terrestrial wave broadcasts are carried after being down-converted to SD level broadcasts.
Meanwhile, even though a HD level cable set top box or digital TV(DVT) currently being distributed can receive HD level broadcasts, the broadcasts carried and transmitted by the cable head end are nothing but SD level broadcasts because of the problems of the cable operators. Accordingly, it is very likely that the HD level cable set top box or digital TV receives SD level broadcasts. In this case, the HD cable set top box or digital TV cannot receive HD terrestrial wave broadcasts.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram illustrating a cable set top box according to the conventional art. The cable set top box
10
B is connected to a head end
10
A transmitting a terrestrial wave broadcast or its own predetermined broadcast.
The cable set top box
10
B includes: a cable tuner
11
for tuning to a specific channel upon receipt of a broadcast transmitted from the head end
10
A; a QAM demodulator
12
for demodulating a tuned signal from the cable tuner
11
by QAM modulation; an OOB processing unit
13
for performing a two-way communication with the head end
10
A upon receipt of information about channel tuning, program guide, etc. via an OOB(Out of Band); a CPU
14
for outputting a predetermined control signal upon receipt of a processed signal from the OOB processing unit
13
; a transport(TP) demultiplexer
15
for demultiplexing the demodulated signal into a demodulated video signal and a demodulated audio signal according to the control signal outputted from the CPU
14
; and a MPEG decoder
16
and AC-
3
decoder
17
for decoding the demodulated video signal and the demodulated audio signal outputted from the TP demultiplexer
15
to output a video signal and an audio signal, respectively.
Here, the OOB processing unit
13
includes: an OOB receiver
13
-
1
for receiving information about a channel-tuned signal, program guide, etc. from the tuner
11
; an OOB protocol processing unit
13
-
2
for processing the protocol of the signal outputted from the OOB receiver
13
-
1
to thus output the processed signal into the CPU
14
; and an OOB transmitter
13
-
3
for outputting the signal from the OOB protocol processing unit
13
-
2
to the tuner
11
according to the control of the CPU
14
.
The thusly constructed cable set top box
10
B receives terrestrial wave broadcasts and its own cable broadcasts from the head end
10
A, but does not directly receive terrestrial wave broadcasts from a terrestrial wave broadcasting station.
To solve the above problem, therefore, a combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver or DTV developed by set top or DTV manufacturers is being distributed. For example, the combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver or DTV receives and shows a broadcast that a viewer wants by selecting a program that the viewer wants to view, such as a HD level terrestrial wave broadcast program, or setting and selecting a channel by each program.
However, the combined terrestrial wave/cable broadcast receiver or DTV does not inform a viewer of whether or not a carried and received terrestrial wave broadcast is a HD level broadcast, and, as illustrated in
FIG. 2
, a program guide information also does not identify if a program to be broadcast is a HD level broadcast. Therefore, if the viewer wants to view a terrestrial wave broadcast carried and transmitted via cables, he or she must convert the state of receiving a cable broadcast into the state of receiving a terrestrial wave broadcast by controlling the combined broadcast receiver or DTV in order to identify if the broadcast is a HD level broadcast.
Meanwhile, since program guide information(EPG) on cable broadcasts transmitted from the head end does not contain a descriptor for identifying that a cable broadcast being transmitted or to be transmitted is a HD level broadcast, as illustrated in
FIG. 2
, the program guide information displayed on a screen does not contain information relating to HD level broadcast programs.
FIG. 3
is a view illustrating an EIT(Event Information Table) among the information on the standard EPG in the terrestrial wave/cable digital broadcast specification according to the conventional art, which contains a table ID, source ID, section, and other predetermined factors. In particular, the section contains an event ID(or broadcast program), descriptor for the broadcast program, and other predetermined factors.
The EIT can have a three-hour unit, program-related information, and can define maximum 128 programs, so it is possible to provide program-related information for maximum 16 days.
In addition, the EIT provides program-related information, not in unit of physical channels, but in unit of virtual channels that a viewer can actually view according to a source ID(source_id).
Accordingly, since the EIT provides program information, such as the number of actual broadcast programs, starting time of each program, program length, program title, etc. by each virtual channel, an EPG capable of guiding viewers to broadcast programs is formed by constructing a database of EITs for the entire broadcast channels, as illustrated in FIG.
2
. In other words, the above EPG screen displays virtual channels and programs to be broadcast on time.
FIG. 4
is a table for defining descriptors according to the conventional art, which defines additional information to be added by each program.
The descriptor defining table defines descriptor types, descriptor tags, descriptors(PSIP table) transmitted through terrestrial waves, and descriptors (SI(service information) table) transmitted through cables.
Here, the PSIP table contains a PMT(Program Map Table), MGT, VCT, and EIT, and the SI table contains a PMT, VCT, EIT, etc.
Therefore, since the EIT or PMT forming the program guide information provided by the cable operator does not contain a descriptor for de
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Lee Michael H.
LG Electronics Inc.
Tran Trang U.
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