Abstract:
A title record method to be used with a digital broadcast recorder including recording a received digital broadcast signal, and, substantially simultaneously, reading broadcast information contained in the digital broadcast signal, determining the presence or absence of a program title in the broadcast information, continuously reading the broadcast information of the next digital broadcast signal following the digital broadcast signal if no title is present in the broadcast information, and, substantially simultaneously, determining the presence or absence of the title in the next digital broadcast signal, and recording the title as a title of the recorded broadcast signal if the title is present in the broadcast information.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2005-37193, filed May 3, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     An aspect of the present invention relates to a digital broadcast recorder and a method of recording a title using the same, and, more particularly, to a digital broadcast recorder and a method of recording a title using the same, which automatically detect a title of a broadcast program contained in a digital broadcast signal during the recording time of the digital broadcast signal, and record the detected title as a title of the recorded broadcast program. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Recently, digital broadcast technology has been rapidly developed in many countries throughout the world. The digital broadcast is indicative of a broadcast scheme for compressing a television (TV) signal into a digital signal, and transmitting the compressed digital signal to a plurality of TV viewers. A conventional analog TV broadcast loads only one video or image signal in a single broadcast signal, and transmits a voice or audio signal via another broadcast signal. However, the digital broadcast loads a plurality of video signals or a plurality of audio signals in such a single broadcast signal, does not suffer a deterioration of signal quality even though the video and audio signals are compressed, and establishes a plurality of channels in a frequency band of a single channel. 
     The digital broadcast provides a digital broadcast receiver to receive a digital broadcast signal (e.g., a digital TV, a set-top box, and a Personal Video Recorder (PVR), etc.) with an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) service to display program schedules of individual channels. Therefore, the above-mentioned digital broadcast receiver extracts schedule information from the received digital broadcast signal, and displays the extracted schedule information for a user. If the user selects a desired channel, the digital broadcast receiver is tuned to the selected channel. 
     The above-mentioned EPG service is executed using meta data which is contained in the digital broadcast signal and which is then transmitted. The meta data for use in the digital broadcast allows both a simple service such as a channel tuning service and a variety of high-quality services to be available. For example, the meta data controls detailed program information (e.g., a synopsis, an actor or actress, and a program review, etc.) to be displayed for a user, and may automatically establish a reserved recording of overall series of a specific season. 
     The meta data is also used for a digital broadcast record operation. A conventional digital broadcast recorder detects a program title from the aforementioned meta data when recording the digital broadcast signal, and stores the detected program title as a title of the recorded broadcast program. As may be seen from Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-32662, a hard-disc recorder acting as one type of digital broadcast recorder detects a title of a corresponding program from meta data contained in a digital broadcast signal, and records the detected title as a title of the recorded program. 
     However, if the above-mentioned conventional digital broadcast recorder initially records either an advertising broadcast signal having no title or a distorted digital broadcast signal caused by a poor broadcast environment, the digital broadcast recorder erroneously determines that there is no title in the advertising broadcast signal or the distorted broadcast signal, such that the digital broadcast recorder erroneously records a title of a recorded broadcast program as “No Title.” In this case, a user must directly enter a desired title after the recording operation is finished, resulting in inconvenience to the user. 
     Most users prefer to set a recording start time to a specific time prior to a broadcast start time of a desired broadcast program to be recorded, such that the number of occurrences of the above-mentioned problem is increased during the recording of the digital broadcast signal or program. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Therefore, an aspect of the invention provides a digital broadcast recorder and a method of recording a title using the same, which detect a title from the next digital broadcast signal following a received digital broadcast signal even though the title is not initially detected from the received digital broadcast signal, and which record the detected title as a title of a recorded broadcast program. 
     Additional and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. 
     In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the above and/or other aspects may be achieved by the provision of a title record method to be used with a digital broadcast recorder comprising: recording a received digital broadcast signal, and, substantially simultaneously, reading broadcast information contained in the digital broadcast signal; determining the presence or absence of a program title in the broadcast information; continuously reading the broadcast information of the next digital broadcast signal following the digital broadcast signal if no title is present in the broadcast information, and, substantially simultaneously, determining the presence or absence of the title in the next digital broadcast signal; and recording the title as a title of the recorded broadcast signal if the title is present in the broadcast information. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the broadcast information is indicative of meta data. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises: temporarily storing the title in the digital broadcast recorder if the title is present in the broadcast information; and storing the title in a storage medium contained in the digital broadcast recorder if the recording of the digital broadcast signal is terminated. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises: continuously reading broadcast information of the next digital broadcast signal during a predetermined time if no title is present in the broadcast information. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the method further comprises: recording the title of the recorded broadcast signal as “No Title” information if the digital broadcast signal in which the broadcast information including the title is contained is not received before the predetermined time elapses. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the predetermined time ranges from an initial reception time of the digital broadcast signal to a record end time of the digital broadcast signal. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the digital broadcast recorder includes a Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder. 
     In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a digital broadcast recorder comprising: a digital tuner to receive a digital broadcast signal; a recorder to record the digital broadcast signal in a storage medium; a broadcast information reader to read broadcast information contained in the digital broadcast signal; and a controller to determine the presence or absence of a program title in the broadcast information, to continuously search for the title from broadcast information contained in the next digital broadcast signal following the digital broadcast signal when the absence of the program title is determined, and to record the searched title as a title of a recorded broadcast signal. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the broadcast information is indicative of meta data. 
     In an embodiment of the invention, the digital broadcast recorder includes a Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating a Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder acting as a digital broadcast recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a structural diagram illustrating meta data loaded in a digital broadcast signal according to an embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 3  is a flow chart illustrating a method of controlling the BD recorder to detect a title from a digital broadcast signal, and of recording the detected title in a storage medium contained in the BD recorder according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , a Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder acting as a digital broadcast recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a digital tuner  11 , a BD formatter  14 , a Hard Disc Drive (HDD)  12 , a BD drive  13 , an audio/visual (AV) decoder  15 , a controller  16 , an AV signal reproduction unit  18 , and a user interface  17 . 
     The digital tuner  11  receives a digital broadcast signal, such as an Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC), of a user-desired channel, and converts the received digital broadcast signal into a Moving Picture Experts Group 2 (MPEG2) transport stream. The BD formatter  14  converts the MPEG2 transport stream into a predetermined standard signal capable of being easily stored in a BD, or loads an additional signal (e.g., an encryption prevention signal, etc.) in the MPEG2 transport stream. The BD drive  13  receives a BD, and stores the MPEG2 transport stream received from the BD formatter  14  in the BD. 
     The AV decoder  15  decompresses the MPEG2 transport stream received from the BD formatter  14 , converts the decompressed MPEG2 transport stream into a video signal (e.g., a composite signal, and a component signal, etc.) and an audio signal, and reads meta data contained in the MPEG2 transport stream. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the meta data includes content description meta data  20  that is indicative of broadcast content information, instance description meta data  30  that is indicative of broadcast schedule information, consumer meta data  40  that is indicative of content data associated with a consumer or user; and segmentation meta data  50  that is indicative of interval information of the broadcast content data. 
     The content description meta data  20  includes program information, group information  22 , credit information  23 , and program review information  24 . The program information  21  represents detailed information associated with a program, for example, a title, a synopsis, a genre, a language, and a cast of the program. The group information  22  represents information for grouping a plurality of programs according to group types (e.g., a series, a show, and a program concept, etc.). The credit information  23  represents various credit information associated with a program, for example, director, actor or actress, producer, writer, and cast information of the program. The program review information  24  represents a critical opinion associated with the program. 
     The instance description meta data  30  includes program location information  31  and service information  32 . The program location information  31  represents time and medium information of the broadcast program. The service information  32  represents broadcast station information, for example, name, URL, logo, main service genre, and ID information of the broadcast station. In this case, the instance is classified into a schedule event for use in a real-time broadcast service and an on-demand event for use in an on-demand broadcast service. The schedule event divides time information into a broadcast start time, a broadcast end time, and a broadcast duration time, and uses a broadcast station channel as a medium. The on-demand event does not determine the broadcast start time and the broadcast end time independently of each other, and may use not only the broadcast station channel but also an Internet address as such a medium. 
     The consumer meta data  40  includes a usage history  41  and a user preference  42 . The usage history  41  is indicative of an action history indicative of a consumption type of broadcast contents of the user. The user preference  42  is indicative of preference information associated with broadcast contents of the user. 
     The segmentation meta data  50  includes segment information  51  and segment group information  52 . The segment information  51  includes a program ID associated with a segment, a segment title, and a segment synopsis, etc. The segment group information  52  is indicative of a segment group to group segments according to a single concept. 
     The controller  16  receives meta data from the AV (Audio/Video) decoder  15 , detects a program title from the program information  21  contained in the content description meta data  20 , and stores the detected program title in a temporary register (not shown) of a BD recorder. After the recording of the broadcast program is completed, the controller  16  determines the temporarily-stored title to be a title of the recorded broadcast program, and records the determined title in the HDD  12  or the BD. 
     The AV signal reproduction unit  18  receives video and audio signals from the AV decoder  15 , and converts the video and audio signals into specific signals capable of being displayed on a display such as a TV  19 . For example, if the display displays a National Television System Committee (NTSC) TV signal, the AV signal reproduction unit  18  converts the video signal received from the AV decoder  16  into a specific signal suitable for the NTSC standard, and transmits the converted result to the TV  19 . However, if the display is a digital TV, the video and audio signals received from the AV decoder  15  are directly transmitted to the digital TV without having to pass through the AV signal reproduction unit  18 . 
     A method of recording a title using a BD recorder acting as a digital broadcast recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention will hereinafter be described with reference to  FIG. 3 . Referring to  FIG. 3 , if a user selects a desired channel using the user interface  17 , and enters a record command associated with the selected channel, the digital tuner  11  receives a digital broadcast signal of the user-selected channel, and converts the received digital broadcast signal into an MPEG2 transport stream at operation  60 . The MPEG2 transport stream is converted into a specific signal format capable of being stored in the BD or the HDD  12 , such that converted result is stored in the BD or the HDD  12 . 
     The MPEG2 transport stream is also transmitted to the AV decoder  15 . The AV decoder  15  reads meta data contained in the MPEG2 transport stream at operation  62 . The controller  16  determines whether a title of a program currently stored in the BD or the HDD  12  is present in the meta data received from the AV decoder  15  at operation  64 . 
     If no program title is present in the meta data loaded in the digital broadcast signal currently received/recorded at operation  64 , the controller  16  determines whether the recording of the digital broadcast signal is terminated at operation  72 . For example, if it is determined that no program title is present in the meta data, this indicates that a received broadcast program has no title (e.g., an advertising broadcast signal) or unexpected distortion occurs in a digital broadcast signal having a unique title due to a poor broadcasting state. 
     If the recording of the digital broadcast signal is not terminated at operation  72 , the operation process returns to operation  60 . Otherwise, if the recording of the digital broadcast signal is terminated at operation  72 , the controller  16  determines a title of a recorded image to be “No Title” at operation  74 , and stores the “No Title” information in the BD or the HDD  12 . According to an aspect of the present invention, if the title of the program is not detected from a received digital broadcast signal, the program title is detected from the next digital broadcast signal following the received digital broadcast signal until reaching a recording end time of the program. However, it should be noted that aspects of the present invention may search for the program title from the digital broadcast signal during only a predetermined time. For example, the content “Recording ended?” of the above operation  72  may be replaced with other content, such as “Predetermined time elapsed?” as is necessary. As a result, if the program title is not detected from the digital broadcast signal during the predetermined time, the operation process continues to operation  74 . 
     Thus, although the program title is not detected from a current digital broadcast signal, the present invention continuously detects the program title from the next digital broadcast signal following the current digital broadcast signal until reaching the recording end time of the program. Therefore, although an advertising broadcast signal or an unstable broadcast signal may be received when the recording of the broadcast signal begins, the user may still detect a title of a desired program to be recorded. 
     However, if the program title is detected at operation  64 , the controller  16  temporarily stores the detected title in a temporary register at operation  66 , and determines whether the recording of the broadcast program is terminated at operation  68 . If the recording of the broadcast program is not terminated at operation  68 , the controller  16  continuously enters a standby mode. If the recording of the broadcast program is terminated at operation  68 , the controller  16  determines the temporarily-stored title to be a title of the recorded broadcast program, and stores the determined title in the BD or the HDD  12  at operation  70 . 
     Although an aspect of the present invention uses the BD recorder as the digital broadcast recorder, it should be noted that the present invention may also be applied to not only the BD recorder but also other digital broadcast recorders (e.g., a set-top box including the HDD). 
     As is apparent from the above description, a digital broadcast recorder and a method of recording a program title using the same according to an aspect of the present invention may continuously detect a title from the next digital broadcast signal following an initial digital broadcast signal even though the program title is not initially detected due to either the reception of an advertising broadcast signal or the distortion of the digital broadcast signal when starting the recording of the digital broadcast signal, such that the detected title is recorded as a title of the recorded broadcast signal. 
     As a result, an aspect of the present invention does not determine the title of the recorded broadcast signal to be “No Title” generated when no title is detected, such that the user need not directly enter a title of the recorded broadcast signal. 
     Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.