Video recorder and method for reserve-recording a broadcast program

The present application claims priority from Japanese application JP2004-357509 filed on Dec. 10, 2004, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.

The present invention relates to a method for reserve-recording a program to be reserved such as a TV program, and more particularly to a technique which is effective when reserve-recording is carried out with use of a recorded title (program).

A digital video recorder such as a DVD (digital versatile disc)/HDD (hard disk drive) recorder shows signs of its spread in these years. Such a digital video recorder having a function of reserve-recording a broadcast program based on an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) can automatically record a TV program by previously selecting a program reservation mode.

Program data obtained from the EPG covers about one week (seven days) from the current time, and a desired TV program is reserve-recorded by browsing the EPG and selecting data about the desired program.

One of conventional digital broadcast receivers, can automatically reserve and output a next-time program on the basis of a user's past view history, for example, as disclosed in JP-A-10-229526.

However, in a method for reserve-recording a broadcast program from the EPG in the prior art digital video recorder, it is common practice that the user browses program data later than the current time from the acquired EPG data, searches for on the basis of data about the genres or performers of the programs, narrows the research down, and then selects a desired broadcast program to be reserve-recorded. Thus the prior art digital video recorder has no function of supporting facilitated setting of a reserve-recording mode with use of user-oriented information by a reserve-recording mode setter based on information about reserve-recorded or manually-recorded programs.

Further, the above JP-A-10-229526 is directed to a digital broadcast receiver which can automatically view a next-time program on the basis of the past view history and which has no function of supporting facilitated setting of a reserve-recording mode with use of user-oriented information as a setter of the reserve-recording mode, based on information about recorded programs.

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a method for reserve-recording a broadcast program, by which reserve-recording candidate data is generated from EPG data with use of information about a recorded program and selection of a reserve-recording mode can be facilitated.

The reserve-recording method of the present invention is employed in a video recorder which acquires EPG data relating to broadcast programs and when it is desired to record the contents of a broadcast program, which holds program data about a recorded program is held therein. In the method, the user selects a recorded program and, when the user wants to look at reserve-recording candidates for setting of a reserve-recording mode, the user searches latest EPG data for a broadcast program identical to or similar to the selected recorded program on the basis of the held program data relating to the selected recorded program, and extracts it as reserve-recording candidate data upon setting of the reserve-recording mode.

In accordance with the present invention, since the user can extract the reserve-recording candidate on the basis of the recorded program information from the EPG data, the user can easily set the reserve-recording mode for the same program.

In accordance with the present invention, further, when the user wants to extract a reserve-recording candidate on the basis of the recorded program information, an appearance pattern for each program is detected from the past EPG data and the EPG data, and data on an available EPG data indication day and on days after the indication day is also generated as estimated EPG data. Thus, the number of viewable EPG days can be increased, a reserve-recording pattern such as every week, every day or week day can be accurately included in the reserve-recording candidate, and setting of the reserve-recording mode can be facilitated.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a reserve-recording system which embodies a reserve-recording method;

FIG. 2 shows an arrangement of a digital video recorder to which a function based on the reserve-recording method is applied;

FIG. 3 shows an example of EPG data 30 used in the video recorder;

FIG. 4 shows an example of recorded title data 40 used in the video recorder;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of operation of generating reserve-recording candidate data for the video recorder;

FIG. 6 shows an example of reserve-recording candidate data 50 used in the video recorder;

FIG. 7 shows an arrangement of a reserve-recording system which embodies the reserve-recording method;

FIG. 8 shows another arrangement of the reserve-recording system which embodies the reserve-recording method;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the reserve-recording system;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for showing the operation of the reserve-recording system;

FIG. 11 shows an example of past EPG data used in the reserve-recording system;

FIG. 12 shows an example of estimated EPG data stored in the reserve-recording system;

FIG. 13 shows an example of the reserve-recording candidate data; and

FIG. 14 shows an example of the reserve-recording candidate data generated in the reserve-recording system.

Embodiments of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. For explaining the embodiments, members having the same functions are denoted, in principle, by the same reference numerals to avoid double explanation thereof in all the drawings.

By referring to FIG. 1 , explanation will be made as to a reserve-recording system which embodies a reserve-recording method in accordance with Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a configuration of the reserve-recording system which embodies the reserve-recording method in accordance with Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

In FIG. 1 , a reserve-recording system includes a similar data extractor 10 and a reserve-recording candidate generater 20 .

The similar data extractor 10 extracts program data having information similar to program information of a recorded program selected by the user, from recorded title data (recorded program information) 40 stored in a recording device such as an HDD, e.g., by a video recorder, and from EPG data 30 stored in a recording device such as an HDD.

The reserve-recording candidate generater 20 formats the group of program data extracted by the similar data extractor 10 so that the program data group can be set to be reserve-recorded as reserve-recording candidates. For example, the program data group is stored in a recording device such as an HDD as reserve-recording candidate data 50 .

Explanation will then be made as to the operation of how to put the reserve-recording system of Embodiment 1 of the invention in a reserve-recording mode.

In Embodiment 1, first, the EPG data 30 as program data acquired, e.g., from broadcast data or the like is stored in the recording device such as an HDD. Information relating to already-recorded programs is stored as recorded title data 40 in the recording device such as an HDD.

And the user can browse the data held as the recorded title data 40 via a display device or the like on the display screen in the form of a list of recorded titles. Each piece of recorded title information 40 in the recorded title data 40 includes information (such as broadcasting station ID, broadcast start time, end time, etc.) about broadcast programs available from the EPG data 30 in a record mode. These pieces of information are data browsable in the form of a list of recorded title information.

When the user requires reserve-recording candidates for selecting the program of a recorded title, for example, from the list of the recorded title data 40 on the screen and putting the system in a reserve-recording mode, the similar data extractor 10 sequentially extracts program data to be broadcast after the current time similar to the program data of the recorded title data 40 corresponding to the selected program from the EPG data 30 on the basis of the program data of the selected program, and holds it therein.

The reserve-recording candidate generater 20 then generates data (to add a record image quality, etc. thereto) usable as reserve-recording candidate data on the basis of the extracted and held program data, and stores it as the reserve-recording candidate data 50 in the recording device such as an HDD.

Since the reserve-recording candidate data 50 corresponds to program information similar to the program data having the recorded title selected by the user, the program of the recorded title selected by the user corresponds with a high possibility to a latest version of the same program to be broadcast in a few days or to its rebroadcast program and becomes program data effective as a reserve-recording candidate desired by the user to be put the system in the reserve-recording mode. Therefore, the user can easily put the system in the reserve-recording mode.

This embodiment corresponds to a digital video recorder to which the function of the reserve-recording method of Embodiment 1 is applied and which can select a reserve-recording mode with use of EPG data of a DVD/HDD recorder or the like.

FIG. 2 shows an arrangement of a digital video recorder to which the function of the reserve-recording method in Embodiment 2 of the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 2 , the digital video recorder includes a TV tuner circuit 100 , an MPEG encoder 110 , an MPEG decoder 120 , a display controller 130 , a CPU 140 , an input unit 150 such as a keyboard (KB) or mouse (MS), a storage 160 such as an HDD, a DVD-RAM drive 170 , and a network controller 180 . The display controller 130 is connected with a monitor 190 , and the network controller 180 is connected to a network 200 . A remote controller 210 for operating the digital video recorder is provided to the video recorder.

The digital video recorder of Embodiment 2, which has the TV tuner circuit 100 for receiving terrestrial or satellite broadcast wave, receives a broadcast program.

The received broadcast video program is compressed by the MPEG encoder 110 , passed through the display controller 130 , and then output to the monitor 190 to be watched by the user.

The encode video encoded by the MPEG encoder 110 is also stored in the storage 160 such as an HDD built therein as video information in the form of, e.g., a recorded video file or the like.

The encode video stored in the storage 160 or in a media such as a DVD-RAM is expanded by the MPEG decoder 120 to video information and then output to the monitor 190 via the display controller 130 .

The broadcast program may be, in place of the above wave program, a program distributed via a cable TV or via the Internet.

The operation of the program to be viewed or the specification of a video to be reproduced may be carried out with use of the input unit 150 such as a keyboard or a mouse or with use of the remote controller 210 ; while the specification of a video to be reproduced is carried out on an exclusive menu display view or a file explorer.

CPU 140 can execute the respective means of Embodiment 1 to process the reserve-recording method. The CPU 140 controls the input control of broadcast data, the encode/decode control thereof, or the display controller 130 to display an input screen view about video information including recording start and recording end and to prompt the user to enter reservation information or the like specified using the input unit 150 or the remote controller 210 .

When a program is recorded by reserve-recording execution or under control of an instruction from the remote controller 210 , information on the program to be recorded is extracted from the EPG data 30 acquired from the broadcast data or the like, and the extracted information is stored in the storage 160 as the recorded title data 40 .

The EPG data 30 is acquired based on the vertical blanking interval (VBI) or by the network controller 180 via the network 200 such as the Internet.

The DVD-RAM drive 170 can backup a video file or the like recorded in the storage 160 to an external storage or memory media or can output such a video file. The DVD-RAM drive is not limited to the DVD-RAM drive 170 but may employ a drive of another external storage media type.

Explanation will next be made as to an example of operation of how to put the digital video recorder of Embodiment 2 of the invention in the reserve-recording mode, by referring to FIGS. 3 to 6 showing a data processing example. FIG. 3 shows an example of the EPG data 30 used in the digital video recorder of Embodiment 2 of the invention. FIG. 4 shows an example of the recorded title data 40 used in the digital video recorder of Embodiment 2. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of operation of generating reserve-recording candidate data for the digital video recorder of Embodiment 2. FIG. 6 shows an example of the reserve-recording candidate data 50 used in the digital video recorder according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. In this connection, the data examples shown in FIGS. 3 , 4 and 6 are extractions from the respective data.

In FIG. 3 , a broadcast station ID 310 corresponds to a channel number. A date 311 indicates year, month and day when the program is scheduled to be broadcast. A start time 312 indicates a time when the broadcast of the program is started, and an end time 313 indicates a time when the contents of the broadcast program is terminated. A weekday 314 indicates a day of the week on which the broadcast of the program is scheduled, and determined by the date 311 . A title name 315 is a name applied to the program. And the title name is not always the same for the program even when the program is continually broadcast and has the same structure, and the tile name is determined by the creation originator of the acquired EPG data 30 . Thus, even when the program has the same contents and “rebroadcast programs” having different broadcast times, the initial program and the rebroadcast program may have always the identical title name.

In FIG. 4 , a broadcast station ID 410 , a date 411 , a start time 412 , an end time 413 , a weekday 414 , and a title name 415 store therein the broadcast station ID 310 , date 311 , start time 312 , end time 313 , weekday 314 , and title name 315 for the EPG data 30 as shown in FIG. 3 , respectively. A picture quality 416 is a parameter which determines the fineness or clearness of a recorded video.

It is assumed that the first stage when reserve-recording candidate data is generated is such a state that CPU 140 first reads out such recorded title data 40 as shown in FIG. 4 from the storage 160 and converts it to a browsable data display arrangement, and the display data arrangement is displayed on the monitor 190 .

And the user selects, for example, a program having a title name “Unexplored Great Nature 19” (“ 19” in Kanji characters) from a list of displayed recorded titles by operating the input unit 150 or the remote controller 210 . This is regarded as the user required a display of a list of reserve-recording candidates.

As shown in FIG. 5 , in Step S 100 , CPU extracts, from the recorded title data 40 , ones of characters (Kanji characters) of the title name of the program selected by the user and corresponding to 50% of the full title name indicated by a specified pointer (initially the first character (Kanji character)), and uses the extracted characters “Unexplored Great” (“ ” in Kanji characters) as a keyword. In the processing of Step S 100 , ones of characters of the program data of the selected recorded title corresponding to 50% indicated by the pointer (initially the first character) are extracted. This is because the title names of programs, even when having the same contents, include, for example, “rerun” indicative of a rebroadcast or a number such as “19” indicative of a broadcast frequency, and thus there occurs, when the full title name of the program is used, such a situation that there may be no data coinciding with data in the EPG data 30 . The percentage of characters to be extracted is not limited to the above 50%, but may be varied depending on the title name, or characters optimum for similarity judgment may be set to be extracted.

In Step S 110 , on the basis of the extracted keyword, CPU compares it with title names in the EPG data 30 shown in FIG. 3 .

In Step S 120 , CPU determines whether or not the comparison result means a coincidence therebetween. When finding a coincidence, CPU determines in Step S 130 whether or not the coincided title is data already stored. When the title is not data already stored, CPU stores it as data coincided with the keyword in Step S 140 .

When CPU finds no coincidence as the comparison result in Step S 120 or when CPU determines in Step S 130 that the title is data already stored, CPU performs no data storing operation in Step S 140 .

In Step S 150 , CPU changes the keyword extracting position of the title name of the program selected by the user in the recorded title data 40 . For example, when the keyword was “Unexplored Great” (“ ” in Kanji characters), CPU advance the extracting start position by one (Kanji) character and extracts “Great Nature” (“ ” in Kanji characters) as a keyword in Step S 100 . The operations of the subsequent Steps S 110 , S 120 , S 130 and S 140 are executed as necessary. The operation of Step S 150 is continued until a character string of the latter half characters of the title name of the program data of the recorded title is used as a keyword. When CPU determines in Step S 150 that comparison of all the character strings was completed, CPU stores the already-stored data in the storage 160 as the reserve-recording candidate data 50 in Step S 160 .

The operations of Steps S 100 to S 150 are executed by the similar data extractor 10 shown in FIG. 1 .

The reserve-recording candidate data 50 stored in the storage 160 in Step S 160 corresponds, for example, to such data as shown in FIG. 6 when program data in the EPG data 30 having “title name” similar to the recorded title selected by the user is stored as the reserve-recording candidate data 50 .

The operation of Step S 160 is carried out by the reserve-recording candidate generater 20 shown in FIG. 1 .

CPU 40 displays the reserve-recording candidate data 50 stored in the storage 160 on the monitor 190 via the display controller 130 . The user can set the reserve-recording mode by selecting a program in the reserve-recording candidate data using the input unit 150 or the remote controller 210 .

In Embodiment 3, the EPG data 30 which lost its use effectiveness in Embodiment 1 as time elapses is stored as past EPG data 730 and is compared with the EPG data 30 , and an appearance pattern of each program data is detected. In Embodiment 3, estimated EPG data 740 is uniquely generated and the past EPG data 730 is added to the EPG data 30 . Thus, when reserve-recording candidate data 920 is generated similarly to in Embodiment 2, the number of pieces of reserve-recording candidate data can be increased, and a pattern record (based on everyday, every week, weekday, etc.) candidate can be included in the reserve-recording candidate data from the appearance pattern of each program data.

FIG. 7 shows an arrangement of a section of the system which generates the estimated EPG data 740 , and FIG. 8 shows an arrangement of a section of the system which generates reserve-recording candidate data 920 according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

In FIG. 7 , the section of the system for generating the estimated EPG data includes a similar data extractor 700 , an appearance pattern detector 710 , and an estimated EPG generater 720 .

The similar data extractor 700 reads out the EPG data 30 and the past EPG data 730 confirms whether or not each program data in the read-out EPG data 30 is present in the past EPG data 730 with the same broadcast station ID, the same start time, the same end time, and a similar title name. In the presence of such program data, the similar data extractor 700 holds it as similar program data.

The past EPG data 730 corresponds to the EPG data 30 acquired in the past and corresponds to the EPG data 30 which was stored as already used as time goes by.

The appearance pattern detector 710 detects an appearance pattern in which certain program data held as the similar program data by the similar data extractor 700 appears in both of the EPG data 30 and the past EPG data 730 , to generate and store program data after the date possessed by the EPG data with use of the same appearance pattern depending on, for example, whether the program data appears on the same day of every week or appears only on weekdays.

The estimated EPG generater 720 formats the program data stored by the appearance pattern detecter 710 into a data format enabling setting of the reserve-recording mode, and stores the formatted data as estimated EPG data 740 in a recording device such as an HDD.

In FIG. 8 , the arrangement of the section of the system for generating the reserve-recording candidate data 920 corresponds to the arrangement of the reserve-recording system of Embodiment 1 of FIG. 1 , but to which, in addition to the EPG data 30 , the estimated EPG data 740 generated in FIG. 7 is added as additional data.

Thus, a similar data extractor 900 , when compared with the similar data extractor 10 in Embodiment 1, reads out, in addition to the EPG data 30 , the estimated EPG data 740 as additional data.

In a reserve-recording candidate generater 910 , the quantity of data (duration) used by the reserve-recording candidates is increased due to the estimated EPG data 740 . Thus, an appearance pattern of each program can be estimated and when compared with the reserve-recording candidate generater 20 in Embodiment 1, a reserve-recording candidate including a reserve-recording pattern (every day, every week, weekday, etc.) can be generated. The generated reserve-recording candidate is stored in the storage 160 as the reserve-recording candidate data 920 .

The operation of how to put the reserve-recording system according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention in a reserve-recording mode will be explained by referring to FIGS. 9 and 10 . FIGS. 9 and 10 are flowcharts for explaining the operation of the reserve-recording system of Embodiment 3. More specifically, FIG. 9 shows the operation of a section for generating the estimated EPG data 740 , and FIG. 10 shows the operation of a section for generating the reserve-recording candidate data 920 .

In the operation of the section for generating the estimated EPG data 740 , first, CPU extracts a first set of data from the EPG data 30 in Step S 800 , and determines whether or not there is program data having the same broadcast station ID, the same start time, the same end time and a similar title name as the data of one program extracted in Step S 810 in Step S 810 , as shown in FIG. 9 .

If the presence of similar program data is determined in Step S 810 , CPU confirms in Step S 820 the program data having the similar title appears in what pattern on the past EPG data 730 . In Step S 830 , CPU generates an estimated program title name as EPG data of a date later than the date of the program data of the EPG data 30 according to the appearance pattern (every day, every week, weekday, etc.), and stores it as program data.

In Step S 840 , CPU confirms whether or not to have performed the similar operations on all the program data in the EPG data 30 . When CPU fails to perform the similar operations on all the program data, CPU again performs the similar operations of Step S 800 and the subsequent steps on all the program data in the EPG data 30 and sequentially stores the processed program data.

The operations of Steps S 800 to S 840 are carried out by the similar data extractor 700 and the appearance pattern detector 710 shown in FIG. 7 .

In Step S 850 , CPU finishes its operation on all the program data in the EPG data 30 , formats the stored program data into a data format enabling setting of a reserve-recording mode, and then stores it in the storage 160 as the estimated EPG data 740 .

The operation of Step S 850 is carried out by the estimated EPG generater 720 shown in FIG. 7 .

In the operation of the section for generating the reserve-recording candidate data 920 , the estimated EPG data 740 and the recording pattern included in the reserve-recording candidate data are added to the operation of the flowchart of FIG. 5 .

The EPG data 30 treated in Step S 110 of the flowchart of FIG. 5 corresponds to the EPG data 30 and the estimated EPG data 740 in Step S 1010 of the flowchart of FIG. 10 . And the estimated EPG data 740 is included in the title name of each program to be compared.

In Step S 1060 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 10 , a recording pattern (every day, every week, weekday, etc.) can be generated, additionally stored and included in the reserve-recording candidate data 920 according to the appearance pattern of program data having a similar title name.

The operations of Steps S 100 to S 150 in the flowchart of FIG. 10 are carried out by the similar data extractor 900 shown in FIG. 8 .

The operations of Steps S 100 to S 150 of the flowchart of FIG. 10 are carried out by the reserve-recording candidate generater 910 shown in FIG. 8 .

By referring to FIGS. 11 to 14 , explanation will next be made as to an example of data generated as reserve-recording candidates when data is processed by the reserve-recording system according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. More specifically, FIG. 11 shows an example of past EPG data used in the reserve-recording system of Embodiment 3, FIG. 12 shows an example of estimated EPG data stored in the reserve-recording system of Embodiment 3, and FIGS. 13 and 14 show an example of reserve-recording candidate data generated by the reserve-recording system of Embodiment 3. In this connection, the data examples shown in FIGS. 11 to 14 are extractions of part of each data.

As shown in FIG. 11 , the past EPG data 730 treated in Step S 810 of the flowchart of FIG. 9 corresponds to the EPG data 30 which lost its use effectiveness as time goes by and was stored, and thus the past EPG data 730 is similar to the EPG data 30 .

The estimated EPG data 740 stored in Step S 840 of the flowchart of FIG. 9 , as shown in FIG. 12 , is data generated as the estimated EPG data 740 after comparison and check are made to know how the similar information about each program data in the EPG data 30 in FIG. 3 appears in the past EPG data 730 shown in FIG. 11 . And the estimated EPG data 740 has a character “estimated/” (“ /” in Kanji characters) inserted in front of its title name.

A result, after the user selects “Big Cat With Her Kitties”(“ ” in Kanji characters) as the title name 415 in the recorded title information shown in FIG. 4 and it is subjected to the generating operation of reserve-recording candidate data shown in FIG. 10 , is shown in FIG. 13 . In FIG. 13 , unlike the treatment of only the EPG data 30 , the reserve-recording candidate data 920 contains the current EPG data 30 and the estimated EPG data 740 and also contains the reserve-recording candidates having the recording pattern (every Monday).

A result, after the user selects “Unexplored Great Nature 19” (“ 19” in Kanji characters) as the title name 415 in the recorded tile information shown in FIG. 4 and it is subjected to the generating operation of reserve-recording candidate data shown in FIG. 10 , is shown in FIG. 14 . The reserve-recording candidate data 920 , unlike the treatment of only the EPG data 30 , contains the current reserve-recording candidate generater 20 and the estimated EPG data 740 and also contains reserve-recording candidates having two recording patterns (weekdays, Monday to Friday) estimatedly generated.

On the basis of the reserve-recording candidate data 920 shown in FIGS. 13 and 14 , the user can select not only a program to be next broadcast but an estimated program not present in the current EPG data 30 as a reserve-recording candidate, and also can select a reserve candidate such as every week or every day.

When the setting of the reserve-recording mode is carried out with use of the estimated EPG data 740 generated in Embodiment 3, since the estimated EPG data 740 is merely estimated data for reserve-recording, CPU 40 compares the estimated record data with the EPG data 30 before the reserve recording is actually carried out and when the formal EPG data 30 for the estimated data is acquired, confirms similarity matching between the title names or coincidence in the broadcast start time and end time therebetween, corrects the recording start time or end time or determines to stop the reserve recording as necessary, and displays the determined result on the monitor 190 in the form of information under control of the display controller 130 .

Although the invention has been detailed in connection with the embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the above specific embodiments but may be modified in various ways without departing from the subject matter or gist of the invention, as a matter of course.

In Embodiments 1 to 3, the user selects a program having a recorded title from a list of the recorded title data 40 , and CPU generates reserve-recording candidate data for setting of the reserve-recording mode on the basis of information on the selected program. However, it is also possible that, for example, CPU displays a list of the past EPG data 730 on the monitor 190 under control of the display controller 130 , and the user requires reserve-recording candidate data by selecting a program with use of the input unit 150 or the remote controller 210 . In this case, CPU generates the reserve-recording candidate data 50 or the reserve-recording candidate data 920 on the basis of the past EPG data 730 in place of the recorded title data 40 , and the user easily set the reserve-recording mode on the basis of the past program broadcast information.