Television – Basic receiver with additional function – For display of additional information
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-22
2002-04-30
Lee, Michael (Department: 2614)
Television
Basic receiver with additional function
For display of additional information
C348S563000, C348S567000, C348S568000, C348S725000, C348S726000, C348S901000, C725S039000, C725S040000, C725S070000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06380984
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving digital television broadcasts such as digital satellite broadcasting service.
As a television broadcasting system using a stationary satellite, a digital broadcasting system has been introduced in addition to an analog broadcasting system. The digital broadcasting system is capable of presenting a plurality of signals each representing a television broadcast program, in which a plurality of signals compressed by using typically an MPEG technique, are multiplexed into one carrier.
A digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus selects a carrier conveying multiplexed television broadcasting programs, which a user desires to watch, in accordance with a command issued by the user. Then, the selected carrier is demodulated to generate a transport stream in which pieces of compressed data of a plurality of television broadcast programs are multiplexed.
Compressed data of a desired television broadcast program is then extracted from the transport stream. Subsequently, the extracted compressed data of the desired television broadcast program is decompressed and, then, an analog output video signal and an analog output audio signal are generated from digital data obtained as a result of the decompression. The analog output video signal and the analog output audio signal are used to reproduce images and sounds of the desired television broadcast program.
By the way, in recent years, the digital television broadcasting system using a stationary satellite also allows various kinds of digital data of the so-called web pages or homepages and the so-called game programs to be broadcasted to the user by inserting them into a broadcast signal. A web page and a game program are described in a special language such as an HTML (Hyper Text Makeup Language) or a language known as the MHEG (Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Experts Group).
However, received digital data of a web page or a game program can not be utilized without further processing the data. In the case of a web page described in a special language such as the HTML, for example, the presented web page is analyzed by using software known as the so-called browser to produce display data for displaying the web page. To put it in detail, a video signal for displaying the web page is generated from the display data before the web page can be displayed.
In order to receive and utilize information such as a web page presented by the digital television broadcasting system by means of a digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus, it is necessary to provide the digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus with a graphic processing unit and a buffer memory. The graphic processing unit generates a video signal for displaying a web page from display data produced by the browser. Besides, used in processing to display a web page, the buffer memory has a storage capacity large enough for storing an image of the volume of at least one screen.
As described above, a graphic processing unit and a buffer memory are newly required in order to utilize information such as a web page presented by the digital television broadcasting system. In this case, the digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus becomes expensive, increasing the magnitude of a load to be borne by the user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus capable of implementing a new function of utilizing new information presented by a digital television broadcasting system without increasing the cost of the apparatus.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus including a tuner for selecting a carrier-wave component including a signal of a broadcast program selected by a command issued by the user, a front-end unit for demodulating the carrier-wave component selected by the tuner and outputting a transport stream, a selected-program extracting unit for extracting compressed data of the broadcast program selected by the command issued by the user from the transport stream output by the front-end unit, a decompression unit for decompressing the compressed data extracted by the selected-program extracting unit and for outputting a signal for presenting the selected broadcast program, a graphic processing unit for generating a signal for presenting an image based on input data by conversion of the input data into display data such as characters, figures and symbols provided in advance, and a working memory with a storage capacity large enough for storing image data of the volume of at least one screen to be shared by the decompression unit and the graphic processing unit as a storage unit common to the decompression unit and the graphics processing unit. The digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus, wherein the selected-program extracting unit is capable of extracting presentation information included in the transport stream in accordance with a command issued by the user, a data converting unit receives the presentation information extracted by the selected-program extracting unit, converts the presentation information into input data with a format acceptable to the graphic processing unit and supplies the input data to the graphic processing unit, and the graphic processing unit generates image data for presenting images for the presentation information from the input data converted by the data converting unit by using the working memory as a work area.
In the digital-television-broadcast receiving apparatus provided by the present invention as described above, the selected carrier-wave component (the carrier) of a digital television broadcast conveys multiplexed presentation information such as compressed data of a plurality of broadcast programs, web pages and game programs other than compressed data of a television broadcast program. The carrier of the digital television broadcast is supplied to the front-end unit for demodulating the carrier to produce a transport stream, which is then supplied to the selected-program extracting unit.
The selected-program extracting unit extracts compressed data of a television broadcast program and presentation information other than the television broadcast program from the transport stream in accordance with a command issued by the user. Assume that a user selects a desired television broadcast program. In this case, the selected-program extracting unit extracts compressed data of the selected television broadcast program, supplying the compressed data to the decompression unit. The decompression unit decompresses the compressed data by using the working memory as a work area in order to play back and output the television broadcast program selected by the user.
When the user selects presentation information other than the television broadcast program, on the other hand, the selected-program extracting unit extracts the selected presentation information, supplying the desired presentation information to the data converting unit. The data converting unit converts the presentation information into input data with a format acceptable to the graphic processing unit, supplying the input data to the graphic processing unit.
The graphic processing unit generates a video signal for displaying images for the presentation information from the input data received from the data converting unit by using the working memory as a work area.
It is thus possible to generate a video signal for displaying images for presentation information other than a television broadcasting program by using the working memory used in the decompression processing and to display the images for the presentation information to the user.
In this way, it is possible to display images for presentation information conveyed by a digital television broadcast without the need to newly install a dedicated working memory. Thus, since it is possible to utilize presentation information conveyed by a d
Furui Sunao
Inoue Hajime
Lee Michael
Lerner David Littenberg Krumholz & Mentlik LLP
Lo Linus H.
Sony Corporation
LandOfFree
Digital television broadcast receiving apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Digital television broadcast receiving apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Digital television broadcast receiving apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2887001