Abstract:
There is provided a channel selection method for a digital television, through which a current channel can be easily changed into a channel belonging to the same category as the current channel belongs to. The channel selection method includes (a) generating a channel selection command in response to a user&#39;s operation; (b) displaying information about channels, on which programs belonging to the same category as a current channel are broadcasted, on a television screen in response to the channel selection command; (c) selecting a desired channel referring to the information about the channels; and (d) displaying a program which is broadcasted on the selected channel.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
         [0001]    This application is based upon and claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 01-88230 filed Dec. 29, 2001, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to a method for selecting a channel in a digital television, and more particularly, to a channel selection method for a digital television, through which a current channel can be easily changed to a channel belonging to the same category as the current channel.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0005]    Generally, an analog mode and a digital mode are used in television (TV). Conventional TVs usually use an analog mode in which a radio wave signal is sequentially processed over time. As a result, picture and sound quality is not satisfactory, and the number of channels is limited.  
           [0006]    Conversely, digital TVs are the most advanced TVs that convert an analog signal into a digital signal and control the signal using a computer circuit. Digital TVs remove noise such as interruption of different radio waves, provide users with various kinds of information and programs, and reproduce a variety of up-to-date images.  
           [0007]    On the basis of the number of pixels displayed on a screen, digital TVs provide an image in eighteen different formats from a standard definition TV (SDTV) having a resolution of 640 by 480, which is the same level as the National Television System Committee (NTSC) format, to a high definition TV (HDTV) having a resolution of 1920 by 1080 which is seven times greater than SDTV.  
           [0008]    The most distinguishing feature of digital broadcasting through digital TVs is multichannel support. Digital TVs support at least 200 through 350 channels. Several hundreds of channels confuse TV viewers in selecting a channel. To overcome this problem, an electronic program guide (EPG) is used. An EPG performs a function of informing viewers of what program is broadcasted in what channel.  
           [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a usual method for selecting a channel in a digital TV using an EPG. Referring to FIG. 1, it is determined whether a viewer wants to select a channel in step  101 . If it is determined that the viewer wants to select a channel in step  101 , the EPG is performed in step  102 . If a plurality of categories are displayed on a TV screen as the result of performing the EPG, the viewer selects a category to which a desired program belongs in step  103 . For example, when the viewer wants to watch sports, a sports category is selected among the plurality of categories. If the viewer selects a category, a plurality of sub-categories corresponding to the selected category are displayed. For example, if the sports category is selected, subcategories such as football, baseball, volleyball, and basketball are displayed. If such sub-categories are displayed on the screen, the viewer selects a subcategory to which the desired program belongs in step  104 . For example, if the viewer wants to watch a football game, he/she selects a sub-category including a channel relaying a football game. Each sub-category includes a plurality of channels. If the viewer selects one among the plurality of channels in step  105 , he/she can watch a program provided on the selected channel in step  106 .  
           [0010]    According to the above-described method, when the viewer wants to select another channel which belongs to the same category as the current program that he/she is watching, he/she needs to go through several steps again even if the channel belongs to the same category.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0011]    To solve the above-described problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for changing a current channel, on which a viewer watches a program on a digital television (TV), into another channel which belongs to the same category as the current program or is related to the current channel.  
           [0012]    To achieve the above object of the present invention, in one embodiment, there is provided a method for selecting a channel in a digital television, which includes the steps of: (a) generating a channel selection command in response to a user&#39;s operation; (b) displaying information about channels, on which programs belonging to the same category as a current channel are broadcasted, on a television screen in response to the channel selection command; (c) selecting a desired channel referring to the information about the channels; and (d) displaying a program which is broadcasted on the selected channel.  
           [0013]    In another embodiment, there is provided a method for selecting a channel in a digital television, which includes the steps of: (a) generating a channel selection command in response to a user&#39;s operation; (b) detecting a category ID of a current program in response to the channel selection command; (c) forming a list of channels, which belong to the same category as the current program, based on the category ID; (d) displaying the list on a television screen; (e) selecting a desired channel by referring to the list of channels; and (f) displaying a program which is broadcasted on the selected channel. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    The above object and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a usual method for selecting a channel in a digital television (TV) using an electronic program guide (EPG);  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a digital TV system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a channel in a digital TV according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 4 is a detailed flowchart of step  204  shown in FIG. 3; and  
         [0019]    [0019]FIGS. 5 through 7 are diagrams showing screens on which a channel is selected according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0020]    Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference-to the -attached-drawings.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a digital television (TV) system  1  according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, the digital TV system  1  includes a digital TV  100  and a remote controller  10  for remotely controlling the operation of the digital TV  100 . The digital TV  100  includes a data receiver  20 , a controller  30 , a channel database (DB)  40 , an image processor  50 , an audio processor  60 , a display  70 , and a speaker  80 .  
         [0022]    The data receiver  20  receives a control signal transmitted from the remote controller  10  and transmits it to the controller  30 . The controller  30  entirely controls the operation of the digital TV  100 . The channel DB  40  stores information on various channels, which is displayed on the digital TV  100 . The information stored in the channel DB  40  is based on EPG information and includes a category ID of each program broadcasted on each channel.  
         [0023]    The controller  30  receives the control signal transmitted from the remote controller  10  through the data receiver  20  and controls the image processor  50  and the audio processor  60  to process relevant image data and audio data, respectively, based on the information stored in the channel DB  40 . The data processed through the image processor  50  is output through the display  70 , and the data processed through the audio processor  60  is output through the speaker  80 . The following description concerns a method for selecting a channel in the digital TV  100  having the above structure.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for selecting a channel in a digital TV according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, it is determined whether a viewer wants to select a channel in step  201 . If it is determined that the viewer wants to select in step  201 , it is determined whether the viewer wants to select a channel belonging to the same category as a current program that he/she is watching in step  202 .  
         [0025]    If the viewer wants to watch another program belonging to the same category as the current program, the viewer presses a shortcut key which is provided on a remote controller for channel selection in step  203 . If a predetermined shortcut key is pressed by the viewer, a plurality of channels, on which programs belonging to the same category as the current program are broadcasted, are displayed in step  204 . The viewer selects a desired channel from the displayed channels in step  205  and watches a program broadcasted on the selected channel in step  206 .  
         [0026]    If the viewer wants to watch another program belonging to a different category from the current program in step  202 , the procedure goes to the step A shown in FIG. 1 to perform channel selection using an EPG.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 4 is a detailed flowchart of step  204  shown in FIG. 3. Referring to FIG. 4, in order to display the channels on which programs belonging to the same category as the current program are broadcasted, a category ID of the current program is detected in step  2041 . The category ID of the program is contained in the EPG information stored in the channel DB  40 .  
         [0028]    Next, a list of channels that belong to the same category as the current program is formed based on the detected category ID in step  2042 . The channel list is displayed on the TV screen in step  2043 .  
         [0029]    [0029]FIGS. 5 through 7 are diagrams showing screens on which a channel is selected according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 shows an example in which channels that are related to a current program or belong to the same category as the current program are displayed in picture-in-picture (PIP) form or twin picture form.  
         [0030]    Referring to FIG. 5, a first TV program is displayed on a first screen  501 . Second and third TV programs are displayed on second and third screens  502  and  503 , respectively. Here, the first TV program may be a program that a user is currently watching, and the second and third TV programs may be programs belonging to the same category as the current program. Alternatively, all of the first through third TV programs may be programs belonging to the same category as a current program. Whenever a command for selecting a channel is transmitted from a remote controller to a digital TV by a user, each channel in a channel list is tuned. As a result, one among the programs displayed on the first through third screens  501  through  503  is selected and displayed on the first screen  501 . With such method, a desired channel is selected.  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 6 shows an example in which channels that are related to a current program or belong to the same category as the current program are displayed in multi-PIP form. Referring to FIG. 6, in a case where a user wants to select another program belonging to the same category as a current program, a multi-PIP screen  600  is displayed on a digital TV screen. Whenever a command for selecting a channel is transmitted from a remote control to the digital TV by the user, each channel in a channel list is tuned, and one screen in the multi-PIP screen is selected. For example, if a screen  601  is selected, the screen  601  is marked with a highlight  602 .  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 7 shows an example in which channels that are related to a current program or belong to the same category as the current program are displayed in On Screen Display (OSD) form. OSD is a function of directly displaying information about a monitor, information which a user requires or needs to know.  
         [0033]    Referring to FIG. 7, in a case where a user wants to select another program belonging to the same category as a current program, an OSD screen  700  is displayed on a digital TV screen. On the OSD screen  700  is displayed a list of channels  702  through  705 , which is formed according to the method shown in FIG. 4, in text form. Whenever a command for selecting a channel is transmitted from a remote control to the digital TV by the user, each channel in the channel list is tuned and selected. A selected channel may be marked with an arrow, as shown in FIG. 7. A program of the selected channel is displayed on a small screen  701  included in the OSD screen  700 . As a result, the user can select a desired channel while watching a program that is displayed on the screen  701  in response to channel selection from the channels  702  through  705  in the list.  
         [0034]    In addition to the display methods shown in FIGS. 5 through 7, the present invention may use a method in which when a user operates a particular key for channel selection, channels belonging to the same category as a currently set channel are sequentially displayed for a predetermined period of time (for example, two seconds) so that the user can select a desired channel.  
         [0035]    As described above, according a channel selection method of the present invention, it is easy to change a current channel into another channel which belongs to the same category as a program broadcasted on the current channel.  
         [0036]    Further, the present invention can be realized as a code which is recorded on a computer readable recording medium and can be read by a computer. The computer readable recording medium may be any type on which data which can be read by a computer can be recorded, for example, a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disc, or an optical data storage device. The present invention can also be realized as carrier waves (for example, transmitted through the Internet). Alternatively, computer readable recording media are distributed among computer systems connected through a network so that the present invention can be realized as a code which is stored in the recording media and can be read and executed in the computers.