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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a television signal receiving apparatus
(television receiver) including an information reproducing apparatus (such
as, for example, an optical disk reproducing unit) for reproducing
pictures and sound by reading multi-media information from an information
recording medium (such as, for example, an optical disk medium) in which
multi-media information including characters, pictures (motion pictures
and still pictures) and sound has been recorded, and relates more
particularly to a television signal receiving apparatus for reading from a
recording medium in which program information relating to television
broadcasting programs (hereinafter referred to as television programs) has
been recorded in advance as multi-media information, certain program
information in such a manner that such reading is interlocked with a
television program which is being received, based on user's instruction
and reproducing and displaying the program information read.
At present, as a broadcasting source from which a television signal
receiving apparatus can receive information, there are a ground
broadcasting, a satellite broadcasting, a cable television (hereinafter
referred to as CATV) broadcasting, etc. The number of channels of these
broadcastings and the number of these television programs have been
increasing rapidly in recent years and there has been a wide range of
broadcasting programs which users can select out of their preference. The
conventional television receiver can also display television pictures by
receiving reproducing video signals from a video signal recording and/or
reproducing apparatus such as a video cassette recorder (hereinafter
referred to as a VCR) or a laser disc player (hereinafter referred to as
an LD player).
Under the above-described circumstance, program information columns are
available in the papers and television program information magazines
(hereinafter referred to as program information magazines) such as
television guide magazines are also being published from various
publishers, as media for providing program information to users. Users can
select channels of programs they want to watch from papers and program
information magazines and can reserve recording of these programs in the
video cassette recorder (hereinafter referred to as a VCR).
A compact disk (hereinafter referred to as a CD) which has been developed
as a digital audio recording medium has a large memory capacity and,
therefore, it has been utilized as an external memory medium for a
personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) or the like. A compact
disk used for this purpose is called a CD-ROM. Because of a large capacity
of the CD-ROM, in addition to the utilization of the CD-ROM for a
conventional data base using characters, great attention has been paid to
the utilization of the CD-ROM as a recording medium for a so-called
multi-media software in recent years, which collectively records picture
data such as a motion picture and a still picture, audio data such as a
music and an effect sound and reproduction control data describing
procedures for reproducing these picture data and audio data and which
reproduces these picture data and audio data in accordance with this
reproduction control data and user's instructions. Further, along with the
progress of a data compression technology for motion pictures, attention
has also come to be paid to a video CD which can make a maximum 74-minute
recording of picture data such as a motion picture and a still picture,
audio data and reproduction control data, as a recording medium for
replacing a laser disk (hereinafter referred to as an LD) as one of media
for a home AV apparatus.
Reproducing from an optical disk such as a CD-ROM and a video CD can be
easily controlled by using a PC, and therefore, a user can instruct
through the PC to reproduce data interactively and can also control such
reproduction from an application program which is operated on the PC. This
is a large difference from the conventional VCR and LD. Further, since
pictures and sound are recorded as a digital signal, it is easy to write
the digital signal into a PC and edit this signal, which is also a
significant feature.
As a known example relating to the above-described system, JP-A-4-227381
describes a picture-in-picture system which connects a conventional
television signal receiving apparatus with a computer having an external
memory medium. This system transfers picture data stored in the video RAM
within the television signal receiving apparatus to the computer having
the external memory medium through a computer interface and enables a
common utilization of the picture data by both the television signal
receiving apparatus and the computer.
Recently, there is also an apparatus which can reproduce pictures and sound
by simply connecting a reproducing apparatus of a CD-ROM to the
conventional television signal receiving apparatus by an exclusive use of
this reproducing apparatus in a simple form. For example, JP-A-3-53774
discloses a television receiver which reads television program data or the
like from a CD-ROM in which this data has been recorded and displays the
data in the television receiver.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An increase in the number of broadcasting channels increases a range of
selection by users and, on the other hand, causes a problem of an
excessive volume of information. When the number of broadcasting channels
increases, the volume of articles of a program information magazine also
becomes very large. Accordingly, it takes a longer time with more work
than ever for a user to find out from this magazine information on when
and in which channel a television program the user wants to watch is to be
broadcasted. In some cases, the information which the user wanted can not
be reached.
Further, papers and magazines have a limitation on the volume of
information that can be transmitted on them and, therefore, these papers
are disadvantageous in providing and retrieving information on television
programs that are structured by pictures and sound.
On the other hand, JP-A-3-53774 which discloses the above-mentioned
television signal receiving apparatus refers to a retrieval of information
such as television program data but this disclosure does not show any
detailed or systematic identification of the file structure and the
retrieval method at all. Further, the disclosure gives no consideration to
the function of promptly displaying the accessary information in an
interlocked manner with the television program currently being broadcasted
or currently being received. Accordingly, in the above disclosure,
sufficient consideration has not been given to the method of promptly
retrieving and displaying necessary information at a necessary time from a
CD-ROM or the like in which program information has been stored.
Further, the conventional television signal receiving apparatus has only a
limited passive application to a picture display based on video signals to
be supplied, such as a receiving of a television program by a ground
broadcasting, a satellite broadcasting or a CATV broadcasting and a
display of a reproduction video signal from a video signal recording
and/or reproducing apparatus such as a VCR or an LD player. The
above-described picture-in-picture system enables only a transfer of
picture data between the television signal receiving apparatus and the
computer for common utilization of the picture data.
Thus, according to the conventional system, no consideration has been given
to the method, for example, of using a television signal receiving
apparatus as one of information terminals at home by utilizing the
above-described optical disk and optical disk reproducer as a recording
medium and a reproducing apparatus for the data base of the television
signal receiving apparatus or for the multi-media software.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a
television signal receiving apparatus which incorporates an information
reproducing apparatus that can promptly read and display program
information relating to a television program currently being received, by
utilizing the information reproducing apparatus as a reproducing apparatus
for a data base or for a multi-media software.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a television
signal receiving apparatus which incorporates an information retrieving
and reproducing apparatus that can read relevant program information from
an information reproducing apparatus based on user's instruction and time
information and reproducing and displaying this program information, by
utilizing the information reproducing apparatus as a reproducing apparatus
for a data base or for a multi-media software.
In order to achieve the above objects, the television signal receiving
apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention is a television
signal receiving apparatus including a television (TV) receiver/display
with the same structure as that of the usual television receiver, and
incorporates an information reproducing apparatus for reading desired
information recorded in advance in an information recording medium, an
interface unit for converting the desired information read from the
information reproducing apparatus into an information signal that can be
displayed on the TV receiver/display and supplying the converted
information to the TV receiver/display, and a clock apparatus for
outputting current time information that shows year, month, day of the
month and time. The television signal receiving apparatus retrieves and
reads the desired information from the program information recorded in the
information recording medium based on a request for a reproduction and
display of the signal and displays a picture on the TV receiver/display.
This program information is the information relevant to each television
program which is currently being received by the TV receiver/display and
is made up of broadcasting information including a program name, a name or
a number of the television channel, a date of the broadcasting, time of
the broadcasting (a starting time of the broadcasting and a closing time
of the broadcasting), and appendant information relating to the television
program other than the broadcasting information.
The clock apparatus outputs time information for displaying the current
year, month, day and time. When a request for reproducing and display and
receiving information of a television program which is currently being
received are sent to the information reproducing apparatus while the TV
receiver/display is receiving this television program, the information
reproducing apparatus reads from the information recording medium desired
information relating to the television program currently being received,
based on the received information. The desired information outputted from
the information recording medium based on the received information is the
above-described appendant information relating to the received television
program or the broadcasting information.
The desired information read out from the information recording medium is
converted to a video signal and/or an audio signal by the interface unit,
supplied to the TV receiver/display and a picture/sound are displayed. In
other words, when the desired information is appendant information,
pictures for showing the information relating to the contents of the
television program currently being received on the screen of the TV
receiver/display are displayed, and when the desired information is
broadcasting information, a list of programs having a format similar to
those provided on the newspapers is displayed.
With the above-described arrangement, the present invention can utilize a
television signal receiving apparatus as one the information terminals at
home.
In order to achieve the above objects, the television signal receiving
apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention further
incorporates, in addition to the television (TV) receiver/display for
receiving a television program and displaying a picture, a television
apparatus control unit for controlling the operation of the TV
receiver/display and outputting received information relating to the state
of receiving a television program currently being received by the TV
receiver/display, an information reproducing apparatus for reading program
information relating to a desired television program recorded in advance
in the information recording medium in the form of multi-media data and
multi-media software, a television interface unit for converting the
desired information read by the information reproducing apparatus from the
information recording medium into an information signal that can be
displayed by the TV receiver/display and supplying this information signal
to the TV receiver/display, a clock apparatus for outputting the current
time information for displaying the year, month, day of the month and
time, an instruction/key word input apparatus for receiving an instruction
and a key word from the user and outputting a control command, and an
information retrieving unit for controlling the information reproducing
apparatus by the control command from the instruction/key word input
apparatus and retrieving the program information recorded in the
information recording medium. The program information recorded in the
information recording medium includes at least program names of television
programs, channel numbers and dates and time of broadcasting, and at least
one of said program information, sorted out based on information item such
as broadcasting channel number or date of broadcasting, is recorded in the
information recording medium. The instructions and key words inputted in
the instruction/key word input apparatus, information received from the
television apparatus control unit and time information from the clock
apparatus are used as retrieval information, so that desired program
information is read from the information recording medium and reproduced
and displayed by the TV receiver/display.
Further, in the information recording medium broadcasting information
including at least program names of television programs, channel numbers
and date and time of broadcasting and video information (appendant
information) including pictures of previews and high-light scenes of
television programs and sound of a theme music are recorded, as program
information relevant to the television programs, in the form of
multi-media data and multi-media software.
The instruction/key word input unit receives key words (such as program
names and channel numbers of television programs) relating to a television
program desired by the user and supplies the key words to the information
retrieving unit. The information retrieving unit retrieves from the
information recording medium the corresponding program information of the
television program based on the key words and time information from the
clock apparatus. In the information recording medium, program information
is recorded which includes broadcasting information having at least
program names of television programs, channel numbers and date and time of
broadcasting, and appendant information other than this broadcasting
information. When a user has inputted only a channel as a key word, for
example, the information retrieving unit retrieves program information
based on the time when the retrieval instruction was issued, obtains
recorded positions of program information of television programs that are
being broadcasted at that time and recording positions of the program
information relating to programs that are broadcast after that time and
sends the recording position information to the information reproducing
apparatus so as to read out these program information.
Based on these recording position information that has been sent from the
information retrieving unit, the information reproducing apparatus
operates to read out the desired program information from the information
recording medium.
A microcomputer controls both the information retrieval processing and the
reading of program information from the information recording medium.
The program information read from the information reproducing apparatus is
multi-media data and multi-media software including picture data and audio
data, and the program information is converted by the interface unit into
video signals (such as, for example, video signals of the NTSC system) and
audio signals (such as, for example, analog audio signals) that can be
displayed by the receiver/display and are then displayed on the display
screen of the TV receiver/display.
By the above-described operation, the information reproducing apparatus can
be utilized as the reproducing apparatus for the data base or multi-media
software of the television signal receiving apparatus. Thus, the
information reproducing apparatus can be controlled based on the key word
relating to a desired television program given by the user and the time
information, and program information of the television program desired by
the user can be easily read from the information recording medium and
displayed, by utilizing the television signal receiving apparatus as an
information terminal in a household.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for showing one embodiment of the television
signal receiving apparatus incorporating the information reproducing
apparatus, according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of program information
which is recorded in the optical disk shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the appendant
information in the program information recorded in the optical disk shown
in FIG. 1.
FIGS. 4A to 4C are explanatory diagrams for showing detailed examples of
the display layout of the program information read out from the optical
medium shown in FIG. 1.
FIGS. 5A to 5C are diagrams for showing the file structures of the optical
disk shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart for explaining the control procedure of reproducing
and displaying the appendant information in the embodiment shown in FIG.
1.
FIGS. 7A and 7B are diagrams for showing another embodiment of the file
structures of the optical disk shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 8 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the program list
which is reproduced and displayed by being read either from the optical
disk shown in FIG. 1 or from the optical disk shown in FIG. 10 in
accordance with the retrieval control procedure shown in FIGS. 17 and 18.
FIG. 9 is a flow chart for explaining the procedure of reproducing and
displaying the program list of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram for showing another embodiment of the television
signal receiving apparatus incorporating the information retrieving and
reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 11 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the program
information recorded in the optical disk shown in FIG. 10.
FIGS. 12A to 12C are diagrams for showing one detailed example of the file
structure of the program information shown in FIG. 11 in the optical disk
shown in FIG. 10.
FIG. 13 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the program
information retrieval screen for retrieving the program information shown
in FIG. 11 which is obtained in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10.
FIG. 14 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the program genre
selection screen when a genre has been assigned on the program information
retrieval screen shown in FIG. 13.
FIG. 15 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the retrieval
result display screen for showing the result of retrieving program
information when a genre has been assigned on the program information
retrieval screen shown in FIG. 14,
FIG. 16 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the program
information display screen obtained by assigning desired program
information on the retrieval result display screen shown in FIG. 15.
FIG. 17 is a flow chart for showing a part of one detailed example of the
control procedure of retrieving the program information in the embodiment
shown in FIG. 10.
FIG. 18 is a flow chart for showing the remaining part of the retrieval
control procedure after the procedure shown in FIG. 16.
FIGS. 19A to 19C are diagrams for showing other detailed examples of the
file structure of the program information shown in FIG. 11 in the optical
disk shown in FIG. 10.
FIGS. 20A to 20C are diagrams for showing still other detailed examples of
the file structure of the program information shown in FIG. 11 in the
optical disk shown in FIG. 10
FIG. 21 is a diagram for showing one detailed example of the program
information display screen for displaying the result of retrieving the
program information for the detailed examples shown in FIGS. 20A to 20C.
FIG. 22 is a block diagram for showing still other embodiment of the
television signal receiving apparatus incorporating the information
retrieving and receiving apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 23 is a block diagram for showing still other embodiment of the
television signal receiving apparatus incorporating the information
retrieving and receiving apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 24 is a block diagram for showing still other embodiment of the
television signal receiving apparatus incorporating the information
retrieving and receiving apparatus according to the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Embodiments of the present invention will be explained below with reference
to the drawings. The like reference numbers will be attached to the like
portions in all the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram for showing one embodiment of a television signal
receiving apparatus which incorporates an information reproducing
apparatus, according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 101 designates a
television signal receiving apparatus in the present embodiment, 102 a
television (TV) receiver/display, 103 a television control unit, 104 a
clock apparatus, 105 an optical disk reproduction unit as an information
reproducing apparatus, 106 an optical disk medium, 107 an optical disk
drive, 108 a control unit for the optical disk reproduction unit, 109 an
optical disk/television interface unit, 110 a selection and decision input
unit or a selection input unit, and 118 a picture-in-picture control unit.
Referring to FIG. 1, the television signal receiving apparatus 101 includes
the TV receiver/display 102 having the same structure as that of
conventional television signal receiving apparatuses, and displays a
received video signal of a television broadcasting or a reproduced video
signal supplied from a video signal recording and/or reproducing apparatus
such as a VCR. The television signal receiving apparatus 101 further
includes the clock apparatus for showing the year, month, day of the month
and time and outputting this information as time information, and the
optical disk reproduction unit 105. The optical disk reproduction unit 105
is connected to the TV receiver/display 102 through the optical
disk/television interface unit 109. The TV receiver/display 102 is
provided with the television control unit 103 which controls the whole of
the television signal receiving apparatus 101 according to the control
command sent from the selection and decision input unit 110 such as a
remote controller which is operated by the user for a selective input
operation. The television control unit 103 may be made up of CPU, ROM,
RAM, etc., for example.
The optical disk reproduction unit 105 includes the optical disk
reproduction unit control unit 108 and the optical disk drive 107, and the
control unit 108 controls the optical disk drive 107 based on the control
command from the television control unit 103 and makes the optical disk
medium 106 carry out a reproducing operation. The optical disk medium 106
is recorded with program information or the like relating to the
television program. The program information read from the optical disk
medium 106 is converted by the optical disk/television interface unit 109
into a video signal and an audio signal that can be displayed and produced
by the TV receiver/display 102 and these signals are supplied to the TV
receiver/display 102.
FIG. 2 is a diagram for showing one example of the program information
recorded in the optical disk medium 106.
Referring to FIG. 2, program information including at least names of
television programs, channel names of these programs, dates of
broadcasting and time of broadcasting (time of starting each broadcasting
and time of closing each broadcasting) and appendant information other
than these broadcasting information are recorded in the optical disk
medium 106. The appendant information is the information relating to the
contents of the television program and is the multi-media data covering
picture data such as a motion picture and a still picture, audio data such
as a music and an effect sound, text data, etc.
FIG. 3 shows and example of appendant information. As shown in FIG. 3, when
the television program currently being received is a sports game, a
profile 301 of teams and players in the game is shown, for example, and
when the program currently being received is a movie or a drama, a profile
of actors, actresses and a director is shown. The appendant information
may also cover information for showing genre of television programs such
as, for example, dramas, sports, news, movies, music, etc.
The operation of the present embodiment will be explained below. At first,
explanation will be made of the case for controlling the optical disk unit
105 from the TV receiver/display 102 in a manner interlocked with a
television program currently being received, reading appendant information
of the television program from the optical disk 106 and reproducing
displaying the information.
In FIG. 1, when the user has operated the selection and decision input unit
110, a predetermined control command is supplied to the television control
unit 103 within the TV receiver/display 102. Based on this control
command, the television control unit 103 controls the whole apparatus
including channel selection and receiving of the television program, input
change-over of pictures/sound, picture quality, sound control, etc. and,
at the same time, manages the control status. Further, time information
for showing the year, month, day of the month and time is always being
inputted to the television control unit 103 from the clock apparatus 104,
so that the television control unit 103 can recognize the current year,
month, day of the month and time. Accordingly, when a desired television
program is being received by the TV receiver/display 102 based on a user's
instruction, the television control unit 103 always recognizes the channel
name of the television program currently being received and the current
year, month, day of the month and time, as received data which shows the
status of reception.
In order to read from the optical disk medium 106 the appendant information
relevant to a desired television program and to reproduce and display this
information during the receiving of this program, a user operates the
selection and decision input unit 110 to input a request for a
reproduction and display and transfers this request to the television
control unit 103. Upon receiving this reproduction and display request,
the television control unit 103 recognizes the channel name of the
television program currently being received and the current year, month,
day of the month and time as the receiving data and transfers this
reproduction and display request and this receiving data to the optical
disk reproduction unit control unit 108 within the optical disk unit 105
as the control command.
Based on this control command, the optical disk reproduction unit control
unit 108 recognizes the reproduction and display request of the appendant
information and the channel name of the television program currently being
received and the current year, month, day of the month and time and
controls the optical disk drive 107 so that the predetermined appendant
information relevant to the television program currently being received is
read from the optical disk medium 106. More specifically, the broadcasting
information including at least the television program name, channel name
of this program, date of broadcasting, time of broadcasting (time of
starting the broadcasting and time of closing the broadcasting) are
recorded as the program information and the appendant information other
than this broadcasting information are recorded respectively in the
optical disk medium 106, as shown in FIG. 2 and, therefore, the optical
disk reproduction unit control unit 108 controls the optical disk drive
107 so that the appendant information relevant to the television program
currently being received is read from the optical disk medium 106 by using
the channel name of the television program currently being received and
the current year, month, day of the month and time, which are the
receiving data of the control command, as the retrieval data and the
above-described broadcasting data recorded in the optical disk 106 as the
retrieval key.
The appendant information read from the optical disk medium 106 by the
optical disk drive 107 is inputted to the optical disk/television
interface unit 109. The appendant information is the multi-media data
including picture data such as motion pictures and still pictures and
music data such as a music and an effect sound, as described above. The
appendant information is converted by the optical disk/television
interface 109 into a video signal (such as, for example, a video signal of
the NTSC system) and an audio signal (such as, for example, an analog
audio signal) that can be displayed by the TV receiver/display 102 and the
video signal and the audio signal are supplied to a video signal input
terminal and an audio signal input terminal of the TV receiver/display 102
respectively. With above-described operation, the appendant information
recorded in the optical disk medium 106 can be reproduced and displayed by
the television signal receiving apparatus 101 in a manner interlocked with
the television program currently being received.
FIGS. 4A to 4C are diagrams for showing a method for displaying the
appendant information on the screen of the television signal receiving
apparatus 101. A television program currently being received may be
displayed on a main screen 401 with the appendant information displayed
simultaneously on a subsidiary screen 402, as shown in FIG. 4A.
Alternatively, the appendix information may be displayed on the main
screen 401 with the television program currently being received displayed
simultaneously on the subsidiary screen 402, as shown in FIG. 4B.
Alternatively, only the appendant information may be displayed, as shown
in FIG. 4C. Such a display control and the selection of the display are
carried out by the television control unit 103 according to the user's
instruction operation of the selection and decision input unit 110. When
the TV receiver/display 102 has the picture-in-picture control unit 118
like the embodiment as shown FIG. 1, any one of the display methods shown
in FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C can be selected freely. However, when the TV
receiver/display 102 does not have the picture-in-picture function, the
display method shown in FIG. 4C is employed.
FIGS. 5A to 5C show one detailed example of the file structure of the
above-described program information (broadcasting information and
appendant information) on the optical disk 106 according to the ISO9660
standard by using a CD-ROM as the optical disk medium 106.
The program information is hierarchically arranged in relevant video files
in broadcasting information data base PROGRAM.DB, appendant information
data base APPEND.DB and <VIDEO> directory, as shown in FIG. 5A.
The broadcasting data base PROGRAM.DB is structured by a record including
four fields which are sorted in the sequence of days of broadcasting,
broadcasting times, broadcasting channel names and program appendix
information, as shown in FIG. 5B, and, among the respective broadcasting
information, the day of broadcasting, broadcasting time and broadcasting
channel name are recorded in each field. Record numbers of the appendant
information data base APPEND.DB are recorded in the appendant information
field.
The appendant information data base APPEND.DB is structured by a record
including three fields of program names, program genre names and relevant
video files corresponding to each record number recorded in the appendant
information field shown in FIG. 5B, as shown in FIG. 5C. Of the
broadcasting information, program names are recorded in the program name
field; genre names such as, for example, sports, dramas, news, movies and
music are recorded in the program genre name field, as described above;
and file names of relevant video files in which the profile 301 of teams
and players, the profile of actors, actresses and directors, for example,
are recorded, as described above, are recorded in the relevant video file
name field.
The relevant video file in the <VIDEO> directory in FIG. 5A is the file in
which the profile 301 of teams and players and the profile of actors,
actresses and directors, etc. are actually recorded in the forms of
picture data such as motion pictures and still pictures, audio data and
text data, as the appendant information of the television program, as
shown in FIG. 3.
Referring to FIG. 1, description will be made of the detailed control
procedures for controlling the optical disk unit 105 from the TV
receiver/display 102 in an interlocked manner with the television program
currently being received and reading the relevant appendant information
from the CD-ROM having the above-described file structure.
When there is a request for reproducing and displaying appendant
information from the selection and decision input unit 110 (step 601), the
television control unit 103 recognizes the reproduction and display
request of the appendant information, the channel name of the television
program currently being received, current year, month, day of the month
and time. The current year, month, day of the month and time can be
recognized based on the time information from the clock apparatus 104. The
television control unit 103 then transfers as a control command the
reproduction and display request, the channel name of the television
program currently being received and the current year, month, day of the
month and time, to the optical disk reproduction unit control unit 108 of
the optical disk unit 105 (step 602).
The optical disk reproduction unit control unit 108 recognizes the
reproduction and display request, the channel name of the television
program currently being received and the current year, month, day of the
month and time that have been transferred to the control unit 108 (step
603), refers to each field of the broadcasting day, broadcasting time and
broadcasting channel name in the broadcasting information data base
PROGRAM.DB (FIG. 5B), by using the channel name of the television program,
the current year, month, day of the month and time as the retrieval
information, and retrieves the record (such as, for example, the record 0
in FIG. 5B) which corresponds to the television program currently being
received (step 604). The control unit 108 then refers to the appendant
information field (FIG. 5B) of the record that has been retrieved, obtains
the record number (for example, the record number 200 in FIG. 5B) of the
appendant information data base APPND.DB (step 605), and obtains the
appendant information record (for example, the record 200 in FIG. 5C)
corresponding to the record number of the appendant information data base
APPND.DB from the appendant information data base APPEND.DB (FIG. 5C)
(step 606).
The control unit 108 obtains the relevant video file name (for example,
VD100) by referring to the field of the relevant video file name of the
appendant information record (the record 200 in FIG. 5C) that has been
obtained. With the above operation, it is possible to know the name of the
file in which the profile 301 of teams and players and the profile of
actors, actresses and directors, etc. are actually recorded in the forms
of picture data such as motion pictures and still pictures, audio data and
text data, as the appendant information of the television program (step
607).
The control unit 108 then reads the relevant video file corresponding to
the relevant video file name (such as, for example, VD100) that has been
obtained from the <VIDEO> directory, supplies the relevant video file to
the television receiver/display 102 through the optical disk/television
interface unit 109, and makes the television receiver/display reproduce
and display the contents of this file. With the above operation, the
control unit 108 can provide the user with the appendant information
relevant to the television program, such as the profile 301 of teams and
players, the profile of actors, actresses, directors, etc. in a manner
interlocked with the television program currently being received (step
608).
In order to reproduce and display the appendant information again, the
operation returns to the step 607 and the processing is finished in all
other cases (step 609).
One example of the file structure and control procedures of the optical
disk medium 106 has been explained above. Although the data base has been
divided into the broadcasting information data base PROGRAM.DB and the
appendant information data base APPEND.DB as the file structure as shown
in FIGS. 5A to 5C, it is not necessary to divide the data base into two.
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