CN111726673B

CN111726673B - Channel switching method and display device

Info

Publication number: CN111726673B
Application number: CN202010577144.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王真; 李艳红; 林甜
Original assignee: Vidaa Netherlands International Holdings BV
Current assignee: Vidaa Netherlands International Holdings BV
Priority date: 2020-06-22
Filing date: 2020-06-22
Publication date: 2022-12-13
Anticipated expiration: 2040-06-22
Also published as: CN111726673A

Abstract

The application discloses a channel switching method and display equipment, which are used for improving the efficiency and accuracy of channel switching of channels displayed in a user interface based on HbbTV application. The method comprises the following steps: the browser module displays at least one channel in a user interface of the started HbbTV application according to the received channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module; the HbbTV processing module sends an original channel list where a current channel is located to the browser module, wherein the original channel list comprises: channel information of at least one channel; when the HbbTV processing module detects that a browser module receives a channel switching instruction for indicating switching to the first channel, searching channel information of the first channel in a current channel list; if the channel information of the first channel is not searched, searching the channel information of the first channel in the original channel list; and the HbbTV processing module controls the display equipment to be switched to the first channel according to the searched channel information of the first channel.

Description

Channel switching method and display device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of display technologies, and in particular, to a channel switching method and a display device.

Background

Currently, more and more display devices support a Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) function, which can run various HbbTV applications. The HbbTV application may display at least one channel in its user interface to channel switch based on the displayed channel.

At least one channel displayed in the above manner is usually obtained from a channel list library of the display device, but if the obtained channel includes all channels in the channel list library, the number of channels is large, which may cause the HbbTV application to spend a long time on obtaining and displaying the channel; moreover, when a target channel of the displayed at least one channel needs to be switched, the display device needs to search the channel information of the target channel in the whole channel list library to perform channel switching, the searching efficiency is low, and the channel information of a non-target channel is easy to search.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a channel switching method and display equipment, which are used for improving the efficiency and accuracy of channel switching of a channel displayed based on an HbbTV application.

In a first aspect, a display device is provided, comprising:

a display;

a controller coupled to the display, comprising at least: the system comprises a browser module and a mixed broadcast broadband television HbbTV processing module; wherein,

the browser module is used for receiving the channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module, displaying at least one channel in a user interface of the started HbbTV application according to the channel information, and receiving a channel switching instruction for indicating to switch to a first channel in the displayed at least one channel;

the HbbTV processing module is configured to send an original channel list where a current channel is located to the browser module, where the original channel list includes: channel information of at least one channel; when detecting that a browser module receives a channel switching instruction for indicating switching to the first channel, searching channel information of the first channel in a current channel list; if the channel information of the first channel is not found, searching the channel information of the first channel in the original channel list; the original channel list is a channel list which is not edited by channels, and the current channel list is a currently used channel list; and controlling display equipment to be switched to the first channel according to the searched channel information of the first channel.

In a second aspect, a channel switching method is provided, including:

the method comprises the steps that a browser module receives channel information sent by an HbbTV processing module, displays at least one channel in a user interface of a started HbbTV application according to the channel information, and receives a channel switching instruction for indicating switching to a first channel in the displayed at least one channel;

the HbbTV processing module sends an original channel list where a current channel is located to the browser module, wherein the original channel list comprises: channel information of at least one channel; when detecting that the browser module receives a channel switching instruction for indicating switching to the first channel, searching channel information of the first channel in a current channel list; if the channel information of the first channel is not searched, searching the channel information of the first channel in the original channel list; the original channel list is a channel list which is not edited by channels, and the current channel list is a currently used channel list;

and the HbbTV processing module controls the display equipment to be switched to the first channel according to the searched channel information of the first channel.

In the above embodiment, the browser module displays at least one channel on the user interface of the HbbTV application based on the channel information in the original channel list where the current channel is located, and the time consumption is short when receiving the channel information and displaying the channel. And when a target channel in at least one displayed channel needs to be switched, the HbbTV module searches the channel information of the target channel in the current channel list, and if the channel information of the target channel cannot be searched, the channel information of the target channel is searched in the original channel list, so that the searching efficiency and the searching accuracy are high.

Drawings

Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating an operation scenario between the display device 200 and the control apparatus 100;

fig. 1B is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of the control apparatus 100 in fig. 1A;

fig. 1C is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of the display device 200 in fig. 1A;

a block diagram of the architectural configuration of the operating system in the memory of the display device 200 is illustrated in fig. 1D.

FIG. 2 illustrates a user interface of an HbbTV application;

FIGS. 3A-3B are flow diagrams illustrating a channel switching method;

FIGS. 4A-4B are diagrams illustrating a flow of a browser module displaying a currently undisplayed channel according to a user input;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary hint;

fig. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of displaying a channel list in an overlaid manner.

Detailed Description

To make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the exemplary embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the exemplary embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the exemplary embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described exemplary embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, but not all the embodiments.

All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the exemplary embodiments shown in the present application without inventive effort, shall fall within the scope of protection of the present application. Moreover, while the disclosure herein has been presented in terms of exemplary one or more examples, it is to be understood that each aspect of the disclosure can be utilized independently and separately from other aspects of the disclosure to provide a complete disclosure.

The terms "comprises" and "comprising," and any variations thereof, as used herein, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a product or device that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements explicitly listed, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such product or device.

The term "module," as used herein, refers to any known or later developed hardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and/or software code that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element.

The term "gesture" as used in this application refers to a user's behavior through a change in hand shape or an action such as hand motion to convey a desired idea, action, purpose, or result.

To facilitate understanding of the method and the display device provided in the present application, the structure of the display device, interaction of the display device and the control apparatus are described below:

fig. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating an operation scenario between the display device 200 and the control apparatus 100. As shown in fig. 1A, the control apparatus 100 and the display device 200 may communicate with each other in a wired or wireless manner.

Among them, the control apparatus 100 is configured to control the display device 200, which may receive an operation instruction input by a user and convert the operation instruction into an instruction recognizable and responsive by the display device 200, serving as an intermediary for interaction between the user and the display device 200. Such as: the user operates the channel up/down keys of the control device 100, and the display device 200 responds to the channel up/down operation.

The control device 100 may be a remote controller 100A, which includes infrared protocol communication or bluetooth protocol communication, and other short-distance communication methods, etc. to control the display apparatus 200 in a wireless or other wired manner. The user may input a user instruction through a key on a remote controller, voice input, control panel input, etc., to control the display apparatus 200. Such as: the user can input a corresponding control command through a volume up/down key, a channel control key, up/down/left/right moving keys, a voice input key, a menu key, a power on/off key, etc. on the remote controller, to implement the function of controlling the display device 200.

The control device 100 may also be an intelligent device, such as a mobile terminal 100B, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, and the like. For example, the display device 200 is controlled using an application program running on the smart device. The application program may provide various controls to a user through an intuitive User Interface (UI) on a screen associated with the smart device through configuration.

For example, the mobile terminal 100B may install a software application with the display device 200 to implement connection communication through a network communication protocol for the purpose of one-to-one control operation and data communication. Such as: the mobile terminal 100B may be caused to establish a control instruction protocol with the display device 200 to implement the functions of the physical keys as arranged in the remote control 100A by operating various function keys or virtual buttons of the user interface provided on the mobile terminal 100B. The audio and video content displayed on the mobile terminal 100B may also be transmitted to the display device 200, so as to implement a synchronous display function.

The display apparatus 200 may be implemented as a television, and may provide an intelligent network television function of a broadcast receiving television function as well as a computer support function. Examples of the display device include a digital television, a web television, a smart television, an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and the like.

The display device 200 may be a liquid crystal display, an organic light emitting display, a projection display device. The specific display device type, size, resolution, etc. are not limited.

The display apparatus 200 also performs data communication with the server 300 through various communication means. Here, the display apparatus 200 may be allowed to be communicatively connected through a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and other networks. The server 300 may provide various contents and interactions to the display apparatus 200. By way of example, the display device 200 may send and receive information such as: receiving Electronic Program Guide (EPG) data, receiving software program updates, or accessing a remotely stored digital media library. The servers 300 may be a group or groups of servers, and may be one or more types of servers. Other web service contents such as a video on demand and an advertisement service are provided through the server 300.

Fig. 1B is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the control device 100. As shown in fig. 1B, the control device 100 includes a controller 110, a memory 120, a communicator 130, a user input interface 140, an output interface 150, and a power supply 160.

The controller 110 includes a Random Access Memory (RAM) 111, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 112, a processor 113, a communication interface, and a communication bus. The controller 110 is used to control the operation of the control device 100, as well as the internal components of the communication cooperation, external and internal data processing functions.

Illustratively, when an interaction of a user pressing a key disposed on the remote controller 100A or an interaction of touching a touch panel disposed on the remote controller 100A is detected, the controller 110 may control to generate a signal corresponding to the detected interaction and transmit the signal to the display device 200.

A memory 120 for storing various operation programs, data and applications for driving and controlling the control apparatus 100 under the control of the controller 110. The memory 120 may store various control signal commands input by a user.

The communicator 130 enables communication of control signals and data signals with the display apparatus 200 under the control of the controller 110. Such as: the control apparatus 100 transmits a control signal (e.g., a touch signal or a button signal) to the display device 200 via the communicator 130, and the control apparatus 100 may receive the signal transmitted by the display device 200 via the communicator 130. The communicator 130 may include an infrared signal interface 131 and a radio frequency signal interface 132. For example: when the infrared signal interface is used, the user input instruction needs to be converted into an infrared control signal according to an infrared control protocol, and the infrared control signal is sent to the display device 200 through the infrared sending module. The following steps are repeated: when the rf signal interface is used, a user input command needs to be converted into a digital signal, and then the digital signal is modulated according to the rf control signal modulation protocol and then transmitted to the display device 200 through the rf transmitting terminal.

The user input interface 140 may include at least one of a microphone 141, a touch pad 142, a sensor 143, a key 144, and the like, so that a user can input a user instruction regarding controlling the display apparatus 200 to the control apparatus 100 through voice, touch, gesture, press, and the like.

The output interface 150 outputs a user instruction received by the user input interface 140 to the display apparatus 200, or outputs an image or voice signal received by the display apparatus 200. Here, the output interface 150 may include an LED interface 151, a vibration interface 152 generating vibration, a sound output interface 153 outputting sound, a display 154 outputting images, and the like. For example, the remote controller 100A may receive an output signal such as audio, video, or data from the output interface 150, and display the output signal in the form of an image on the display 154, in the form of audio on the sound output interface 153, or in the form of vibration on the vibration interface 152.

And a power supply 160 for providing operation power support for each element of the control device 100 under the control of the controller 110. In the form of a battery and associated control circuitry.

A hardware configuration block diagram of the display device 200 is exemplarily illustrated in fig. 1C. As shown in fig. 1C, the display apparatus 200 may further include a tuner demodulator 210, a communicator 220, a detector 230, an external device interface 240, a controller 250, a memory 260, a user interface 265, a video processor 270, a display 275, an audio processor 280, an audio output interface 285, and a power supply 290.

The tuner demodulator 210 receives the broadcast television signal in a wired or wireless manner, may perform modulation and demodulation processing such as amplification, mixing, and resonance, and is configured to demodulate, from a plurality of wireless or wired broadcast television signals, an audio/video signal carried in a frequency of a television channel selected by a user, and additional information (e.g., EPG data).

The tuner demodulator 210 is responsive to the user selected frequency of the television channel and the television signal carried by the frequency, as selected by the user and controlled by the controller 250.

The tuner demodulator 210 can receive a television signal in various ways according to the broadcasting system of the television signal, such as: terrestrial broadcasting, cable broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, internet broadcasting, or the like; and according to different modulation types, a digital modulation mode or an analog modulation mode can be adopted; and can demodulate the analog signal and the digital signal according to the different kinds of the received television signals.

In other exemplary embodiments, the tuning demodulator 210 may also be in an external device, such as an external set-top box. In this way, the set-top box outputs a television signal after modulation and demodulation, and inputs the television signal into the display apparatus 200 through the external device interface 240.

The communicator 220 is a component for communicating with an external device or an external server according to various communication protocol types. For example, the display apparatus 200 may transmit content data to an external apparatus connected via the communicator 220, or browse and download content data from an external apparatus connected via the communicator 220. The communicator 220 may include a network communication protocol module or a near field communication protocol module, such as a WIFI module 221, a bluetooth communication protocol module 222, and a wired ethernet communication protocol module 223, so that the communicator 220 may receive a control signal of the control device 100 according to the control of the controller 250, and implement the control signal as a WIFI signal, a bluetooth signal, a radio frequency signal, and the like.

The detector 230 is a component of the display apparatus 200 for collecting signals of an external environment or interaction with the outside. The detector 230 may include an image collector 231, such as a camera, a video camera, etc., which may be used to collect external environment scenes to adaptively change the display parameters of the display device 200; and the function of acquiring the attribute of the user or interacting gestures with the user so as to realize the interaction between the display equipment and the user. A light receiver 232 may also be included to collect ambient light intensity to adapt to changes in display parameters of the display device 200, etc.

In some other exemplary embodiments, the detector 230 may further include a temperature sensor, such as by sensing an ambient temperature, and the display device 200 may adaptively adjust a display color temperature of the image. For example, when the temperature is higher, the display apparatus 200 may be adjusted to display a color temperature of an image that is cooler; when the temperature is lower, the display device 200 may be adjusted to display a warmer color temperature of the image.

In some other exemplary embodiments, the detector 230, which may further include a sound collector, such as a microphone, may be configured to receive a sound of a user, such as a voice signal of a control instruction of the user to control the display device 200; alternatively, ambient sounds may be collected that identify the type of ambient scene, enabling the display device 200 to adapt to ambient noise.

The external device interface 240 is a component for providing the controller 210 to control data transmission between the display apparatus 200 and an external apparatus. The external device interface 240 may be connected with an external apparatus such as a set-top box, a game device, a notebook computer, etc. in a wired/wireless manner, and may receive data such as a video signal (e.g., moving image), an audio signal (e.g., music), additional information (e.g., EPG), etc. of the external apparatus.

The external device interface 240 may include: a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) terminal 241, a Composite Video Blanking Sync (CVBS) terminal 242, an analog or digital Component terminal 243, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) terminal 244, a Component terminal (not shown), a red, green, blue (RGB) terminal (not shown), and the like.

The controller 250 controls the operation of the display device 200 and responds to the operation of the user by running various software control programs (such as an operating system and various application programs) stored on the memory 260.

As shown in fig. 1C, the controller 250 includes a Random Access Memory (RAM) 251, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 252, a graphics processor 253, a CPU processor 254, a communication interface 255, and a communication bus 256. The RAM251, the ROM252, the graphic processor 253, and the CPU processor 254 are connected to each other through a communication bus 256 through a communication interface 255.

The ROM252 stores various system boot instructions. When the display apparatus 200 starts power-on upon receiving the power-on signal, the CPU processor 254 executes a system boot instruction in the ROM252, copies the operating system stored in the memory 260 to the RAM251, and starts running the boot operating system. After the start of the operating system is completed, the CPU processor 254 copies the various application programs in the memory 260 to the RAM251 and then starts running and starting the various application programs.

A graphic processor 253 for generating screen images of various graphic objects such as icons, images, and operation menus. The graphic processor 253 may include an operator for performing an operation by receiving various interactive instructions input by a user, and further displaying various objects according to display attributes; and a renderer for generating various objects based on the operator and displaying the rendered result on the display 275.

A CPU processor 254 for executing operating system and application program instructions stored in memory 260. And according to the received user input instruction, processing of various application programs, data and contents is executed so as to finally display and play various audio-video contents.

In some example embodiments, the CPU processor 254 may comprise a plurality of processors. The plurality of processors may include one main processor and a plurality of or one sub-processor. A main processor for performing some initialization operations of the display apparatus 200 in the display apparatus preload mode and/or operations of displaying a screen in the normal mode. A plurality of or one sub-processor for performing an operation in a state of a standby mode or the like of the display apparatus.

The communication interface 255 may include a first interface to an nth interface. These interfaces may be network interfaces that are connected to external devices via a network.

The controller 250 may control the overall operation of the display apparatus 200. For example: in response to receiving a user input command for selecting a GUI object displayed on the display 275, the controller 250 may perform an operation related to the object selected by the user input command.

Where the object may be any one of the selectable objects, such as a hyperlink or an icon. The operation related to the selected object is, for example, an operation of displaying a link to a hyperlink page, document, image, or the like, or an operation of executing a program corresponding to an icon. The user input command for selecting the GUI object may be a command input through various input means (e.g., a mouse, a keyboard, a touch pad, etc.) connected to the display apparatus 200 or a voice command corresponding to a user speaking a voice.

A memory 260 for storing various types of data, software programs, or applications for driving and controlling the operation of the display device 200. The memory 260 may include volatile and/or nonvolatile memory. And the term "memory" includes the memory 260, the RAM251 and the ROM252 of the controller 250, or a memory card in the display device 200.

In some embodiments, the memory 260 is specifically used for storing an operating program for driving the controller 250 of the display device 200; storing various application programs built in the display apparatus 200 and downloaded by a user from an external apparatus; data such as visual effect images for configuring various GUIs provided by the display 275, various objects related to the GUIs, and selectors for selecting GUI objects are stored.

In some embodiments, the memory 260 is specifically configured to store drivers and related data for the tuner demodulator 210, the communicator 220, the detector 230, the external device interface 240, the video processor 270, the display 275, the audio processor 280, and the like, external data (e.g., audio-visual data) received from the external device interface, or user data (e.g., key information, voice information, touch information, and the like) received from the user interface.

In some embodiments, memory 260 specifically stores software and/or programs representing an Operating System (OS), which may include, for example: a kernel, middleware, an Application Programming Interface (API), and/or an application program. Illustratively, the kernel may control or manage system resources, as well as functions implemented by other programs (e.g., the middleware, APIs, or applications); at the same time, the kernel may provide an interface to allow middleware, APIs, or applications to access the controller to enable control or management of system resources.

A block diagram of the architectural configuration of the operating system in the memory of the display device 200 is illustrated in fig. 1D. The operating system architecture comprises an application layer, a middleware layer and a kernel layer from top to bottom.

The application layer, the application programs built in the system and the non-system-level application programs belong to the application layer and are responsible for direct interaction with users. The application layer may include a plurality of applications such as NETFLIX applications, setup applications, media center applications, and the like. These applications may be implemented as Web applications that execute based on a WebKit engine, and in particular may be developed and executed based on HTML, cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and JavaScript.

Here, HTML, which is called HyperText Markup Language (HyperText Markup Language), is a standard Markup Language for creating web pages, and describes the web pages by Markup tags, where the HTML tags are used to describe characters, graphics, animation, sound, tables, links, etc., and a browser reads an HTML document, interprets the content of the tags in the document, and displays the content in the form of web pages.

CSS, known as Cascading Style Sheets (Cascading Style Sheets), is a computer language used to represent the Style of HTML documents, and may be used to define Style structures, such as fonts, colors, locations, etc. The CSS style can be directly stored in the HTML webpage or a separate style file, so that the style in the webpage can be controlled.

JavaScript, a language applied to programming Web pages, can be inserted into an HTML page and interpreted and executed by a browser. The interaction logic of the Web application is realized by JavaScript. The JavaScript can package a JavaScript extension interface through a browser, realize the communication with the kernel layer,

the middleware layer may provide some standardized interfaces to support the operation of various environments and systems. For example, the middleware layer may be implemented as multimedia and hypermedia information coding experts group (MHEG) middleware related to data broadcasting, DLNA middleware which is middleware related to communication with an external device, middleware which provides a browser environment in which each application program in the display device operates, and the like.

The kernel layer provides core system services, such as: file management, memory management, process management, network management, system security authority management and the like. The kernel layer may be implemented as a kernel based on various operating systems, for example, a kernel based on the Linux operating system.

The kernel layer also provides communication between system software and hardware, and provides device driver services for various hardware, such as: provide display driver for the display, provide camera driver for the camera, provide button driver for the remote controller, provide wiFi driver for the WIFI module, provide audio driver for audio output interface, provide power management drive for Power Management (PM) module etc..

A user interface 265 receives various user interactions. Specifically, it is used to transmit an input signal of a user to the controller 250 or transmit an output signal from the controller 250 to the user. For example, the remote controller 100A may transmit an input signal, such as a power switch signal, a channel selection signal, a volume adjustment signal, etc., input by the user to the user interface 265, and then the input signal is transferred to the controller 250 through the user interface 265; alternatively, the remote controller 100A may receive an output signal such as audio, video, or data output from the user interface 265 via the controller 250, and display the received output signal or output the received output signal in audio or vibration form.

In some embodiments, a user may enter user commands on a Graphical User Interface (GUI) displayed on the display 275, and the user interface 265 receives the user input commands through the GUI. Specifically, the user interface 265 may receive user input commands for controlling the position of a selector in the GUI to select different objects or items.

Alternatively, the user may input a user command by inputting a specific sound or gesture, and the user interface 265 receives the user input command by recognizing the sound or gesture through the sensor.

The video processor 270 is configured to receive an external video signal, and perform video data processing such as decompression, decoding, scaling, noise reduction, frame rate conversion, resolution conversion, and image synthesis according to a standard codec protocol of the input signal, so as to obtain a video signal that is directly displayed or played on the display 275.

Illustratively, the video processor 270 includes a demultiplexing module, a video decoding module, an image synthesizing module, a frame rate conversion module, a display formatting module, and the like.

The demultiplexing module is configured to demultiplex an input audio/video data stream, for example, an input MPEG-2 stream (based on a compression standard of a digital storage media moving image and voice), and demultiplex the input audio/video data stream into a video signal and an audio signal.

And the video decoding module is used for processing the video signal after demultiplexing, including decoding, scaling and the like.

And the image synthesis module is used for carrying out superposition mixing processing on the GUI signal input by the user or generated by the user and the video image after the zooming processing by the graphic generator so as to generate an image signal for display.

The frame rate conversion module is configured to convert a frame rate of an input video, for example, convert a frame rate of an input 60Hz video into a frame rate of 120Hz or 240Hz, where a common format is implemented by using, for example, an interpolation frame method.

And a display formatting module for converting the signal output by the frame rate conversion module into a signal conforming to a display format of a display, such as converting the format of the signal output by the frame rate conversion module to output an RGB data signal.

And a display 275 for receiving the image signal from the output of the video processor 270 and displaying video, images and menu manipulation interfaces. For example, the display may display video from a broadcast signal received by the tuner demodulator 210, may display video input from the communicator 220 or the external device interface 240, and may display an image stored in the memory 260. The display 275, while displaying a user manipulation interface UI generated in the display apparatus 200 and used to control the display apparatus 200.

And, the display 275 may include a display screen component for presenting a picture and a driving component for driving the display of an image. Alternatively, a projection device and projection screen may be included, provided that display 275 is a projection display.

The audio processor 280 is configured to receive an external audio signal, decompress and decode the received audio signal according to a standard codec protocol of the input signal, and perform audio data processing such as noise reduction, digital-to-analog conversion, and amplification processing to obtain an audio signal that can be played by the speaker 286.

Illustratively, audio processor 280 may support various audio formats. Such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4, advanced Audio Coding (AAC), high efficiency AAC (HE-AAC), and the like.

Audio output interface 285 receives audio signals from the output of audio processor 280. For example, the audio output interface may output audio in a broadcast signal received via the tuner demodulator 210, may output audio input via the communicator 220 or the external device interface 240, and may output audio stored in the memory 260. The audio output interface 285 may include a speaker 286, or an external audio output terminal 287, such as an earphone output terminal, that outputs to a generating device of an external device.

In other exemplary embodiments, video processor 270 may comprise one or more chips. Audio processor 280 may also comprise one or more chips.

And, in other exemplary embodiments, the video processor 270 and the audio processor 280 may be separate chips or may be integrated with the controller 250 in one or more chips.

And a power supply 290 for supplying power supply support to the display apparatus 200 from the power input from the external power source under the control of the controller 250. The power supply 290 may be a built-in power supply circuit installed inside the display apparatus 200 or may be a power supply installed outside the display apparatus 200.

In one example, the HbbTV application is associated with a channel, and at the time of data transmission, the relevant data of the HbbTV application is transmitted in the same code stream as the relevant data of the associated channel.

Taking the first HbbTV application associated with the first channel as an example, in this embodiment, the display device receives the related data of the first HbbTV application associated with the first channel while receiving the related data of the first channel, and further starts the first HbbTV application according to the related data of the first HbbTV application. After the first HbbTV application is started, when the first channel is switched to the second channel, the display equipment receives the related data of the second channel, if the second channel is not associated with the first HbbTV application, the display equipment does not receive the related data of the first HbbTV application while receiving the related data of the second channel, and therefore the first HbbTV application exits; when the channel is switched from the first channel to the second channel, if the second channel is also associated with the first HbbTV application, the display device receives the related data of the second channel and the related data of the first HbbTV application, so that the operation of the first HbbTV application can be maintained.

For one embodiment, the HbbTV application may provide a variety of content after being started, such as a channel list, a video on demand, a program playback, an application list of other HbbTV applications associated with a current channel, a program being played on a current channel, and the like, which may be presented on a user interface of the HbbTV application in the form of pictures, text, video, and the like. As an embodiment, a user interface of the HbbTV application is displayed based on a browser module, and a user interface of the HbbTV application is exemplarily shown in fig. 2.

As shown in fig. 2, the HbbTV application provides a graphical user interface GUI400, the GUI400 including a plurality of presentation areas providing different content, each presentation area containing one or more different items.

The application program display area 41 is used for displaying HbbTV application programs, such as network videos, EPGs, and the like. The application program display area 41 includes items 411 to 413 representing programs 1 to 3, respectively. The display device can respond to a selection instruction of any item 411 to 413 input by a user to show the HbbTV application program represented by the item.

The channel display area 42 is used for displaying channels, so that the user can control the display device to perform channel switching, channel editing and other operations based on the displayed channels. The channel showing area 42 includes items 421 to 425, wherein the items 421 to 424 correspond to channels 1 to 4, respectively. Specifically, the items 421 to 424 may be displayed as channel identifiers such as channel icons, channel names, and the like. An entry 425 in the channel presentation area 42 is used to indicate that there is a currently undisplayed channel which the user operable control means controls the display device to display. In one embodiment, the display device may perform a channel switching or channel editing operation on a channel corresponding to any one of the items 421 to 424 in response to a channel switching instruction or a channel editing instruction input by a user based on the item.

The tv program display area 43 is used to implement a small window playing of a Digital Television (DTV) program played by a current channel, and the displayed content is a playing screen of the DTV program played by the current channel, as shown in item 431. Through the tv program show area 43, the user can still watch the program played on the current channel while the display device is currently displaying the user interface of the HbbTV application.

It should be noted that the programs 1 to 3 and the channels 1 to 4 are all named for convenience of description, and are not intended to limit the present application.

It should be noted that fig. 2 is only an example of the user interface of the HbbTV application, and there are various user interfaces in practical applications, which may be different in the number of display areas included, the display contents, the arrangement, and the kinds, the number, the arrangement, and the like of items in the display areas. The user interface of the HbbTV application is not particularly limited by the present application.

The following describes channels displayed in the user interface of the HbbTV application in conjunction with the channel presentation area 42:

in one example, the user interface of the HbbTV application is displayed based on a browser module, and a channel can be displayed in a channel display area in the user interface of the HbbTV application based on the obtained channel information after the channel information is obtained by the browser module. The channel information may be obtained from a channel list library of the display device, and the channel information may include a channel name of the channel, an Original Network Identifier (ONID), a Transport Stream Identifier (TSID), a Service identifier (Service ID, SID), and other attributes. In an embodiment, the channel list library is used for recording channel information of channels obtained by the display device through channel searching, and the channel list library may include a plurality of channel lists for respectively recording channel information of different channels.

For one embodiment, the browser module acquiring the channel information may include: the browser module requests the HbbTV processing module in the display device to acquire channel information, and the HbbTV processing module transmits the channel information in the channel list library to the browser module in response to the request. The HbbTV processing module, which in one embodiment, is a component of the HbbTV platform, in the embodiments provided in this application, is mainly used to implement the interface between the browser module and other underlying modules of the display device.

The following describes, by embodiments 1 and 2, a procedure in which the HbbTV processing module sends channel information to the browser module, and the browser module displays a channel in the user interface of the HbbTV application based on the channel information:

example 1:

the HbbTV processing module sends the channel information of all channels in the channel list library to the browser module, and the browser module may display all channels in the channel list library in a user interface of the HbbTV application based on the channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module.

In some embodiments, the channel list library includes a large number of channels, where the large number may indicate more than 2000 channels, and in this embodiment 1, the browser module consumes a long time in processing the channel information and displaying the channels based on the processed channel information.

Example 2:

the HbbTV processing module sends the channel information of all channels of the same standard in the channel list library to the browser module, and the browser module can display all channels of the same standard in a user interface of the HbbTV application on the basis of the channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module.

It should be noted that the standard is a standard of television signals, and is used for realizing transmission of television signals. Different systems represent different television signal transmission modes, and the common three systems include: DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) -S, DVB-T and DVB-C, denote satellite transmission, terrestrial transmission and cable transmission, respectively. In one embodiment, when the display device performs channel searching, channel searching may be performed based on each supported system, and channels obtained by searching may be stored in different channel lists according to the system based on searching. In this embodiment 2, the HbbTV processing module may send all the channel lists of the same standard in the channel list to the browser module.

The description of examples 1 to 2 is completed so far.

The following describes a channel switching process for a channel displayed in a user interface based on the HbbTV application:

in one example, the HbbTV processing module can control the display device to switch to a target channel displayed in a user interface of the HbbTV application upon detecting that the browser module receives a channel switch instruction based on the target channel.

When a channel switching instruction of a target channel displayed in a user interface based on the HbbTV application is received, as one embodiment, the browser module may send channel information of the target channel and an instruction indicating switching to the target channel to the HbbTV processing module, and the HbbTV processing module controls the display device to perform channel switching.

In one embodiment, the attributes of the channels defined by the browser module are different from the attributes of the channels in the channel list library, which may have fewer attributes than the channel list library. Therefore, the HbbTV processing module cannot perform channel switching only according to the channel information of the target channel sent by the browser module, and needs to search the channel information of the target channel in the channel list library according to the received channel information of the target channel sent by the browser module, and perform channel switching according to the searched channel information of the target channel. For convenience of description, in the following embodiments, channel information of a target channel in a channel list library is recorded as original channel information of the target channel. When the channel is switched, the HbbTV processing module can control a bottom layer processing module in the display equipment to switch from the current channel to the target channel according to the original channel information of the target channel.

According to the above-described channel switching process, in embodiments 1 to 2, the channels displayed by the browser module may come from different channel lists in the channel list library, and when the HbbTV processing module searches the original channel information of the target channel, it needs to search in multiple channel lists in the channel list library, so that the searching efficiency is low.

Furthermore, when the HbbTV processing module searches for the original channel information of the target channel, it may erroneously switch to another channel by mistake by using the channel information of another channel as the original channel information of the target channel. In case the other channel does not belong to the current channel list and the target channel belongs to the current channel list, this false switching may also result in a change of the current channel list and/or an exit of the HbbTV application.

The reason why the channel information of the other channel is mistakenly used as the original channel information of the target channel may include: the browser module regards other channels as target channels according to part of attributes, and sends channel information of the other channels to the HbbTV processing module; the HbbTV processing module may determine channel information of other channels as original channel information of the target channel when searching in the channel list library according to the channel information issued by the browser module; and so on.

To this end, the description of the channel switching process for the channel displayed in the user interface based on the HbbTV application is completed. As is apparent from the above description, in embodiments 1 to 2, the entire flow of channel switching based on a channel displayed in the user interface of the HbbTV application is inefficient and channel switching is easily performed erroneously.

Therefore, the application provides a channel switching method to improve the efficiency and accuracy of channel switching based on a channel provided by an HbbTV application.

A flow chart of the channel switching method is illustrated in fig. 3A-3B. In connection with the display device shown in fig. 3A and 1C, the method may include the steps of:

in step S51, the browser module requests the HbbTV processing module to acquire channel information.

As an embodiment, the step S51 may be performed when the HbbTV application starts, for example, when the HbbTV application associated with the current channel starts after the display device is switched to the current channel. As another example, this step S51 may be performed when channel switching occurs during the HbbTV application is running.

In one embodiment, a new message, such as a channel acquisition message, may be added during the interaction between the browser module and the HbbTV processing module, and the browser module acquires the channel information by sending the channel acquisition message to the HbbTV processing module.

In step S52, the HbbTV processing module sends an original channel list where the current channel is located to the browser module, where the original channel list includes channel information of at least one channel.

In one embodiment, the original channel list where the current channel is located is a channel list that has not been subjected to channel editing and is directly available when the display device completes channel searching. As one embodiment, after the channel search is completed, the display apparatus may perform operations such as deleting channels in a channel list, moving channels in a certain channel list to another list, and the like in response to a channel edit instruction input by a user. The another list may be a favorite list, which is not a list obtained by channel searching, but a list provided to the user for storing favorite channels, and channels may be added to the favorite list according to a user input. Taking the example of moving the channel a in the channel list 1 to the favorite list, the display device may add the channel information of the channel a in the channel list 1 to the favorite list, further, may delete the channel information of the channel a from the channel list 1, and may also retain the channel information of the channel a in the channel list 1.

In one example, in step S52, the HbbTV processing module may search an original channel list in which the current channel is located in the recorded channel list library, and send the searched original channel list in which the current channel is located to the browser module. Specifically, the HbbTV processing module may obtain an original channel list where a current channel is located in a plurality of ways. As an embodiment, executed channel editing operations are recorded in the display device, and an original channel list where a current channel is located may be determined according to the recorded channel editing operations; as another embodiment, a channel list when channel searching is completed is recorded in the display device, and an original channel list where a target channel is located may be searched in the recorded channel list when channel searching is completed.

In one embodiment, when channel searching is performed based on any system, channels obtained by channel searching may be stored in different channel lists according to different operators to which the channels belong, so that, for any channel list in the channel list library, the channels in the channel list belong to the same operator. In step S52, the channels corresponding to the channel information in the original channel list sent by the HbbTV processing module to the browser module belong to the same operator.

In step S53, the browser module displays at least one channel in the user interface of the started HbbTV application based on the channel information received from the HbbTV processing module.

As an embodiment, the browser module displaying the channel in the user interface of the HbbTV application may include: and after receiving the channel information, the browser module processes the channel information according to a preset rule, and displays a channel in a user interface of the HbbTV application according to the processed channel information.

As an embodiment, the preset rule may include: and carrying out deduplication processing on the channel information according to the specified attribute in the channel information. The deduplication process here may include: selecting one channel from at least two channels with the same value of the designated attribute, and deleting the channel information of the unselected channels. Taking the specified attributes as channel name, ONID, TSID, and SID as an example, the channel information of channel 1 or channel 2 may be deleted for channel 1 and channel 2 having the same channel name, ONID, TSID, and SID. As another embodiment, the preset rule may include: channel information of channels belonging to a different operator from the current HbbTV application is deleted.

In one example, when displaying channels, the browser module may display the channels in the form of channel names and/or channel icons. Taking the example of displaying the channels in the form of channel icons, in one embodiment, the corresponding relationship between the channel information and the channel icons is preset in the display device, and the browser module can search and display the channel icon corresponding to the channel in the corresponding relationship for any channel. In another embodiment, the channel information received by the browser module includes a channel icon, and the browser module may acquire and display the channel icon from the channel information of any channel.

In one embodiment, the user interface of the HbbTV application has a limited number of channels that can be simultaneously displayed, there may be portions of channels that are not currently displayed, and the browser module may display the channels that are not currently displayed based on user input.

For example, as shown in fig. 2, items 421 to 424 (corresponding to channels 1 to 4) are simultaneously displayed in the channel display area 42 for displaying channels, and the user is prompted by an item 425 for the existence of a currently not-displayed channel. Based on the user interface of the HbbTV application shown in fig. 2, fig. 4A-4B are schematic diagrams illustrating a flow of a browser module displaying a currently undisplayed channel according to a user input, which is described below by way of example in conjunction with fig. 4A-4B:

as shown in fig. 4A, the GUI400 further includes a selector 44 for indicating that any item is selected, and the browser module may control the selector 44 to move among the items in the GUI400 in response to a key input command corresponding to a direction key on the control device, so as to change the selection of different items. The form of identification of the above-described selector is generally diversified, and the item 424 selected by the selector 44 is identified by changing the background color of the item as in fig. 4A, and further, the selected item may be identified by changing the outline, size, color, etc. of the selected item.

In fig. 4A, the selector 44 indicates that the item 424 in the channel display area 42 is selected, and when the browser module receives an instruction input by the user to display the next channel, for example, a key input instruction corresponding to the right direction key on the control device is received, as shown in fig. 4B, an item 426 which is not shown in fig. 4A is displayed in the channel display area 42, and the item 426 indicates the channel 5; and hiding the item 421 displayed in fig. 4A, translating the items 422 to 424 in the channel display area 42 to the left, so that the moved item 422 is located at the position of the item 421 in fig. 4A, and displaying the item 427 to prompt the user that an undisplayed channel currently exists.

It should be noted that the flow shown in fig. 4A-4B is only an example, and besides the flow shown in fig. 4A-4B, the browser module may be caused to display a channel that is not currently displayed in other manners, which is not limited in this application in particular.

In step S54, the browser module receives a channel switching instruction instructing to switch to a target channel displayed in the user interface of the HbbTV application.

As an embodiment, when the currently selected item of the selector is a target channel in the user interface of the HbbTV application, if the first key instruction is received, the browser module determines that a channel switching instruction instructing to switch to the target channel displayed in the user interface of the HbbTV application is received.

Taking fig. 4A as an example, the currently selected item of the selector 44 in fig. 4A is the item 424 (corresponding to the channel 4), and if a first key instruction is received at this time, for example, a key instruction corresponding to the blue (B) key of the control device, it is determined that a channel switching instruction for switching to the channel 4 is received. Furthermore, in order to prompt the user to execute the channel switching operation by inputting the first key instruction, corresponding prompt information can be displayed. A schematic diagram of a reminder message is illustrated in fig. 5, which is illustrated with reference to item 428 in fig. 5.

As another embodiment, when the currently selected item of the selector is a target channel in the user interface of the HbbTV application, if a second key instruction is received, a menu corresponding to the target channel is displayed, where the menu includes a plurality of items, and each item corresponds to an operation that can be performed on the target channel, where the operation may include a channel switching operation, a channel editing operation, and the like. When an instruction indicating that an item corresponding to a channel switching operation in a menu corresponding to a selected target channel is selected is received, the browser module determines that a channel switching instruction indicating switching to the target channel displayed in the user interface of the HbbTV application is received.

As another example, an item associated with channel switching may exist in content provided by the HbbTV application, for example, an item indicating switching to a next channel of a current channel may exist in a certain page provided by the HbbTV application, and when the item is selected, the browser module may determine the next channel of the current channel displayed in the user interface as a target channel and determine that a channel switching instruction indicating switching to the target channel is received; if the current channel is not displayed in the user interface, a first channel displayed in the user interface may be determined as the target channel.

It should be noted that, in practical applications, there are various ways to receive a channel switching instruction for switching to a target channel displayed in a user interface of the HbbTV application, which is not illustrated herein.

Step S55, when detecting that the browser module receives a channel switching instruction for indicating to switch to a target channel, the HbbTV processing module searches channel information of the target channel in a current channel list, and if the channel information of the target channel is not found, the channel information of the target channel is searched in an original channel list where the current channel is located; and controlling the display equipment to be switched from the current channel to the target channel according to the found channel information of the target channel.

Detecting that the browser module receives a channel switching instruction indicating switching to a target channel may include, as an embodiment: and receiving channel information of a target channel and a channel switching instruction for indicating switching to the target channel, which are transmitted by the browser module.

The current channel list is a currently used channel list and is also a channel list based on which the display device switches to the current channel before, the current channel list may be different from an original channel list where the current channel is located, and a user may more likely continue to switch channels based on the current channel list.

Taking the current channel list as the favorite list as an example, in this embodiment, after detecting that the browser module receives a channel switching instruction instructing to switch to the target channel, the HbbTV processing module searches channel information of the target channel in the favorite list, and searches channel information of the target channel in the original channel list where the current channel is located if the channel information is not found.

As an embodiment, when the HbbTV processing module finds the channel information of the target channel in the original channel list, the method for determining the original channel list where the current channel is located may further include, in addition to the above-described embodiments: the HbbTV processing module records the corresponding relation between the current channel and the original channel list when sending the original channel list of the current channel to the browser module, and determines the original channel list of the current channel according to the corresponding relation when needing to search the channel information of the target channel in the original channel list.

In order to facilitate the user to select a channel in the current channel list for channel switching, as an embodiment, in step S52, before sending the original channel list to the browser module, the HbbTV processing module may move channel information of channels existing in both the original channel list and the current channel list to a front end of the original channel list, so that the browser module preferentially displays the channel information of the channel existing in the current channel list.

As an embodiment, after switching to the target channel, the HbbTV application updates the user interface according to the relevant data in the code stream corresponding to the target channel.

This completes the description of the flow shown in fig. 3A. The interaction between the browser module and the HbbTV processing module in the flowchart of fig. 3A can be seen in fig. 3B.

As an embodiment, the browser module may cache the channel information acquired from the HbbTV processing module, and if the HbbTV application remains running after the channel switching is completed in step S55, display a channel in the user interface of the HbbTV application according to the cached channel information.

As another example, after the HbbTV application remains running but channel switching is completed through step S55, the HbbTV application may return to perform step S51 to re-display channels in the user interface of the HbbTV application.

As an embodiment, when the browser module receives a channel editing instruction for performing a specified editing operation on a target channel displayed in a user interface of the HbbTV application, the HbbTV processing module may search for channel information of the target channel, and control the display device to perform the specified editing operation on the target channel according to the searched channel information. The specified editing operation herein may include deleting a channel, moving a channel, and the like. The specific process may refer to the above steps S54 to S55, which are not described herein by way of example.

By the embodiment, when the display device starts the HbbTV application associated with the current channel and switches the channel based on the channel displayed in the user interface of the HbbTV application, the browser module acquires the original channel list of the current channel, so that the channels are fewer, and the time consumption is shorter when the channel information is acquired and the channel is displayed; when a target channel needs to be switched, the HbbTV processing module can search the channel information of the target channel in the current channel list or the original channel list, and the searching efficiency is high; moreover, the possibility that channels with similar channel information exist in the same channel list is low, and the searching accuracy is high.

Further, through the embodiment, the channel displayed in the user interface based on the HbbTV application often belongs to the same operator as the current channel, and a relatively continuous and extensible experience can be provided for a user; moreover, when switching between channels provided by the same operator, the HbbTV application can continuously run without exiting, and the waiting time required for the user to watch the HbbTV application can be effectively reduced compared with the case that the channel switching needs to exit the current HbbTV application and start other HbbTV applications.

In some embodiments, while the user interface of the HbbTV application is displayed via the display, the display device may still display a channel list provided by the display device itself superimposed on the user interface of the HbbTV application in response to a user-entered instruction indicating to display the channel list. A schematic diagram of displaying a channel list in an overlapping manner is exemplarily illustrated in fig. 6 based on the user interface of the HbbTV application illustrated in fig. 2. As shown in fig. 6, a channel list 45 is displayed superimposed on the user interface of the HbbTV application currently displayed, and the channel list 45 includes items 451 to 455 corresponding to channels 1 to 5, respectively. With the present embodiment, in addition to channels in the user interface of the HbbTV application, the user can also perform operations such as channel switching, channel editing, and the like according to a channel list provided by the display apparatus itself.

While the preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the application.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

1. A display device, comprising:

a display;

the browser module is used for receiving channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module when an HbbTV application associated with a current channel is started after the display equipment is switched to the current channel, displaying at least one channel in a user interface of the started HbbTV application according to the channel information, and receiving a channel switching instruction for indicating to switch to a first channel in the displayed at least one channel;

the HbbTV processing module is configured to send an original channel list where a current channel is located to the browser module, where the original channel list includes: channel information of at least one channel; when detecting that a browser module receives a channel switching instruction for indicating switching to the first channel, searching channel information of the first channel in a current channel list; if the channel information of the first channel is not found, searching the channel information of the first channel in the original channel list; the original channel list is a channel list which is not subjected to channel editing, and the current channel list is a currently used channel list which is subjected to channel editing based on user preference; and controlling display equipment to be switched to the first channel according to the searched channel information of the first channel.

2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the browser module is further configured to receive a channel editing instruction indicating a specified editing operation on a second channel of the displayed at least one channel;

the HbbTV processing module is further to:

when detecting that the browser module receives a channel editing instruction for indicating the specified editing operation on the second channel, searching channel information of the second channel in a current channel list; if the channel information of the second channel is not found, searching the channel information of the second channel in the original channel list; and controlling display equipment to carry out the specified editing operation on the second channel according to the searched channel information of the second channel.

3. The display device according to any one of claims 1-2, wherein the browser module performs deduplication processing on the channel information according to a specified attribute in the channel information after receiving the channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module; the deduplication processing comprises: selecting one channel from at least two channels with the same assigned attribute value, and deleting the channel information of the unselected channels.

4. The display device according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the browser module deletes channel information of a channel belonging to a different operator from the HbbTV application in the channel information after receiving the channel information transmitted by the HbbTV processing module.

5. A method for switching channels, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that after a display device is switched to a current channel, when an HbbTV application associated with the current channel is started, a browser module receives channel information sent by an HbbTV processing module, displays at least one channel in a user interface of the started HbbTV application according to the channel information, and receives a channel switching instruction for indicating to switch to a first channel in the displayed at least one channel;

the HbbTV processing module sends an original channel list where a current channel is located to the browser module, wherein the original channel list comprises: channel information of at least one channel; when detecting that the browser module receives a channel switching instruction for indicating switching to the first channel, searching channel information of the first channel in a current channel list; if the channel information of the first channel is not searched, searching the channel information of the first channel in the original channel list; the original channel list is a channel list which is not edited by channels, and the current channel list is a currently used channel list which is edited by channels based on user preferences;

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

the browser module receives a channel editing instruction for indicating that appointed editing operation is carried out on a second channel in the displayed at least one channel;

when the HbbTV processing module detects that the browser module receives a channel editing instruction for indicating the specified editing operation on the second channel, searching channel information of the second channel in a current channel list; if the channel information of the second channel is not found, searching the channel information of the second channel in the original channel list; and controlling display equipment to carry out the specified editing operation on the second channel according to the searched channel information of the second channel.

7. The method according to any one of claims 5-6, characterized in that the method further comprises:

after receiving the channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module, the browser module performs deduplication processing on the channel information according to the specified attribute in the channel information; the deduplication processing comprises: selecting one channel from at least two channels with the same assigned attribute value, and deleting the channel information of the unselected channels.

8. The method according to any one of claims 5-6, characterized in that the method further comprises:

and after receiving the channel information sent by the HbbTV processing module, the browser module deletes the channel information of the channel which belongs to different operators with the HbbTV application in the channel information.