KR100716160B1 - How to Update Your TV's Electronic Program Guide Information - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a method for updating electronic program guide information of a television. The method may include determining whether the electronic program guide mode is selected, storing the electronic program guide information received from the selected channel if the electronic program guide mode is selected, and storing the electronic program guide information received from the selected channel. Compare the information with the electronic program guide information previously stored in the second storage unit, and if the comparison result is matched, display the electronic program guide information stored in the second storage unit. And updating the electronic program guide information while changing the channel if the electronic program guide mode is selected. Therefore, if the EPG mode is selected only once, the EPG information for all channels can be updated while the EPG information is displayed. In addition, the inconvenience of having to manipulate a separate key to update the EPG information in a broadcast or service provider that provides the EPG information professionally can be eliminated.

Description

Method of updating electronic program guide (EPG) information of a television}

1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of an embodiment of a general digital television.

2 is an operation flowchart for explaining a conventional method for updating electronic program guide information of a television.

3 is an operation flowchart for explaining a method for updating electronic program guide information of a television of the present invention.

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to television, and more particularly, to a method of updating electronic program guide information of a television capable of updating electronic program guide (EPG) information.

Electronic program guide (EPG) information is information transmitted with a broadcast signal by a broadcaster.

In the conventional television, when the electronic program guide (EPG) mode is selected, the EPG information is extracted from the broadcast signal of the currently transmitted channel and stored in a random access memory (RAM). If the EPG information stored in the RAM is compared with the previous EPG information stored in the ROM, the EPG information stored in the ROM is displayed. If the EPG information stored in the ROM does not match, the EPG information of the currently transmitted channel is updated in the ROM, and the EPG information stored in the ROM. Is displayed on the screen.

Therefore, the conventional method for updating electronic program guide information of a television could update and display EPG information for a currently input channel.

However, EPG information for other channels can be updated only when the EPG mode is selected after selecting each channel.

In particular, a broadcaster or service company that specializes in providing EPG information for all television channels must continuously display EPG information on the TV screen, and must frequently input keys to select EPG mode while changing channels. You can update the EPG information for all channels.

Therefore, in the case of a company providing such a broadcast or service, there was an inconvenience in updating EPG information for each channel.

This problem becomes more serious as the number of TV channels increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a method for updating electronic program guide information of a television which can update EPG information at any time while changing the channel if the EPG mode is selected only once.                         

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of updating electronic program guide information of a television according to an embodiment of the present invention. A storage step of storing in the first storage means, the information stored in the first storage means and the electronic program guide information previously stored in the second storage means, and if the comparison result is identical, the electronic program guide information stored in the second storage means An update step of displaying and storing information stored in the first storage means to the second storage means if there is a mismatch, and a channel change and electronic program guide information updating step of repeatedly performing the steps while changing a channel. It is characterized by .

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, a description will be given of a conventional method for updating electronic program guide information of a television before describing a method for updating electronic program guide information for a television according to the present invention.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of an embodiment of a general digital television, including a tuner 10, a channel decoder 12, a transport stream demultiplexer 14, a video decoder 16, an audio decoder 18, and a video signal output circuit. 20, an audio signal output circuit 22, a central processing unit (CPU) 24, a ROM 26, a RAM 28, and a key input unit 30.

The function of each of the blocks shown in FIG. 1 will be described below.                     

The central processing unit 24 controls all of the internal blocks to operate according to the key input by the key input unit 30. The tuner 10 inputs the signal of the channel selected by the central processing unit 24. The channel decoder 12 converts a signal input through the tuner 10 into a transport stream. The transport stream demultiplexer 14 separates the input transport stream into a video packet stream and an audio packet stream. The video decoder 16 decodes the video packet stream and outputs a video signal. The audio decoder 18 decodes the audio packet stream and outputs an audio signal. The video signal output circuit 20 processes the video signal and displays the same through a monitor (not shown). The audio signal output circuit 22 processes the audio signal and outputs it through a speaker (not shown).

2 is an operation flowchart for explaining a conventional method for updating electronic program guide information of a television.

A conventional method for updating electronic program guide information of a television will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 as follows.

First, the central processing unit 24 determines whether the electronic program guide (EPG) mode is selected by the key input unit 30 while watching the selected channel (step 100).

If the EPG mode is not selected, the video signal of the selected channel is displayed (step 110).

If the EPG mode is selected, the central processing unit 24 stores the EPG information in the RAM 28 (step 120).

It is determined whether the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 and the EPG information stored in the RAM 28 match (step 130).

If the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 and the EPG information stored in the RAM 28 do not match, the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 is updated (step 140).

If the steps 130 and 140 are satisfied, the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 is displayed on the monitor through the video signal output circuit 20 (step 150).

In the conventional method of updating electronic program guide information, if the user wants to display the EPG information for the corresponding channel while watching the selected channel, the user selects the EPG mode and displays the EPG information for the corresponding channel.

That is, in the conventional electronic program guide information updating method, if the EPG information of the selected channel needs to be updated, only the EPG information of the selected channel may be updated and displayed.

Therefore, in order to update the EPG information on another channel, there is a problem in that the EPG mode must be selected after selecting the corresponding channel.

3 is an operation flowchart for explaining a method for updating electronic program guide information of a television of the present invention.

A method of updating electronic program guide information of a television of the present invention will be described with reference to Figs.

First, the central processing unit 24 determines whether the electronic program guide (EPG) mode is selected by the key input unit 30 while watching the selected channel (step 200).

If the EPG mode is not selected, the video signal of the selected channel is displayed (step 210).

If the EPG mode is selected, the central processing unit 24 stores the EPG information in the RAM 28 (step 220).

In operation 230, it is determined whether the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 is identical to the EPG information stored in the RAM 28.

If the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 and the EPG information stored in the RAM 28 do not match, the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 is updated (step 240).

If the steps 230 and 240 are satisfied, the EPG information stored in the ROM 26 is displayed on the monitor through the video signal output circuit 20 (step 250).

Then, the central processing unit 24 changes the channel by the tuner 10 (step 260).

After changing the channel, the process proceeds to step 200 and repeatedly performs operations 200 to 250.

That is, the EPG information of the selected channel is updated and displayed while the channel is changed as well as the EPG information of the selected channel.

In the above-described embodiment, the EPG information is continuously updated while changing the channel. However, by adding the step of checking whether the time set between steps 250 and 260 has elapsed, the EPG information of one channel is added. It may also be programmed to perform an update of the EPG information for another channel after a set time after the update is completed.

The EPG information updating method of the television of the present invention not only updates the EPG information for the selected channel when the EPG mode is selected and displayed, but also updates the EPG information for the other channel not selected.

Accordingly, in the method of updating the EPG information of a television of the present invention, a broadcast or service company that specializes in providing EPG information selects the EPG mode while the television is turned on and continuously displays the EPG information.

In this case, if the EPG mode is selected only once, the EPG information for all channels is automatically updated so that no separate key operation is required by the user.

In the above-described embodiment, the television broadcasting is taken as an example, but the present invention can be applied not only to television broadcasting but also to radio broadcasting.

Although the above has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, those skilled in the art will be variously modified and changed within the scope of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention described in the claims below. I can understand that you can.

In the method of updating the electronic program guide information of the television of the present invention, when the EPG mode is selected only once, the EPG information for all channels can be updated while the EPG information is displayed.

Accordingly, the method of updating the electronic program guide information of the present invention can eliminate the inconvenience of manipulating a separate key to update the EPG information in a broadcast or service company that provides the electronic program guide information.

Claims (2)

A determination step of determining whether an electronic program guide mode is selected; Storing the electronic program guide information received from the selected channel in the first storage means if the electronic program guide mode is selected; The electronic program guide information stored in the first storage means is compared with the electronic program guide information previously stored in the second storage means. If the comparison result is matched, the electronic program guide information stored in the second storage means is displayed. An update step of storing the information stored in the storage means into the second storage means; And And a channel change and electronic program guide information update step of repeatedly performing the above steps while changing the channel. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the channel and updating the electronic program guide information comprises: An electronic program guide information updating method of a television, characterized in that performed on a set time unit.

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