Patent Document

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE  
       [0001]     The present application claims priority from Japanese application JP2004-309422 filed on Oct. 25, 2004, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to display devices for displaying images on liquid crystal displays, and particularly to a display device having means for making on-screen display, and a display method for the display device.  
         [0003]     Since a display device of the active matrix type such as liquid crystal has features of small depth, light weight and low consumption power, it is also used as a display device for digital still cameras and digital video cameras. Above all, in order for the whole system to achieve the low cost and high picture quality, the display device is demanded to have the interface to the general-purpose digital format.  
         [0004]     The Recommendation ITU-R BT. 656-4 known as a specification of the standard digital-format video signal defines a digitalized NTSC/PAL video signal of the interlaced scanning type in which the group of even lines and group of odd lines of each frame are alternately displayed.  
         [0005]     In addition, the color format described in the Recommendation ITU-R BT. 656-4 is the format of YUV 4:2:2 formed of luminance information Y and two different pieces, U and V of color-difference information. The luminance information Y is given to each pixel, but the color difference information U, V is compressed to half as much for one of each two pixels.  
         [0006]     On the other hand, most of the monitors for the digital still cameras and digital video cameras and display devices for television receivers have the on-screen display (hereinafter, referred to as “OSD”) function incorporated and used to display the current status and the post-adjustment status of image in order for the user to make the adjustment of the image position, image quality and so on. This OSD function is now actually built in the signal processor LSI in order to make conversion of resolution and processing of image.  
         [0007]     The display device having the interface to the digital video of YUV format has the OSD function provided in the signal processor LSI from which the processed signal is transferred to the display. In other words, the YUV video signal such as the camera signal or broadcast video signal from the imaging device or recording media is transferred to the display device together with the OSD signal of YUV format to which an OSD signal was converted. Therefore, the display device receives the YUV video signal and YUV OSD signal, and converts those signals to the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) video signals for driving the liquid crystal so that they can be displayed on the liquid crystal display panel.  
         [0008]     In addition, an example of the display device capable of making OSD is proposed as, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,970 (JP-A-2001-42852). In this example, a control unit is used to judge the resolution of the input video signal from the horizontal and vertical synch signals fed together with the input video signal. A resolution converter is provided to convert the resolution of the input video signal on the basis of the resolution found by the control unit to conform to that of the display device. The resolution converter also generates the horizontal and vertical synch signals and pixel clock signal synchronized with this resolution-converted video signal. In addition, an OSD generator is provided to produce an OSD signal in synchronism with those generated horizontal and vertical synch signals and pixel clock signal. Moreover, an OSD mixer mixes this OSD signal and the resolution-converted video signal, and they are displayed in combination on the display panel.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0009]     In the conventional method, since the OSD signal is also converted to a YUV-format digital video signal and again restored to the RGB format for driving the liquid crystal, there is a fear that the OSD signal is displayed differently from the original OSD due to error at each conversion.  
         [0010]     If, for example, the digital video signal of YUV format conforms with the Recommendation ITU-R BT. 656-4, it is affected by data-thinning or computation error when it is subjected to the process for interlaced scanning or for YUV 4:2:2 formatting. The result is the occurrence of flickering and color shift. The flickering and color shift remarkably appear particularly in the OSD, and therefore the occurrence of those phenomena create concern.  
         [0011]     Moreover, in the conventional OSD, an OSD signal is generated in accordance with the resolution of the video signal and the resolution of the display panel so that the layout of OSD such as the position and size relative to the image can be achieved as designed.  
         [0012]     Therefore, when the layout of OSD is designed in accordance with the resolution of the video signal, the composing of OSD is performed before the stage for converting the video signal to the resolution and color format of the display panel. Thus, in this case, the flickering and color shift similarly occur. In addition, the prior art cannot cope with video signals of various resolutions.  
         [0013]     In addition, when the layout of the OSD is designed in accordance with the resolution of the display panel, the composing of OSD is made after the stage for converting the video signal to the resolution and color format of the display panel. This requires a memory for the synchronizing signal that is used to synchronize the converted video signal and the OSD signal, thus leading to high cost. Moreover, it is necessary to change the program to produce the OSD signal for each display panel. Thus, it is difficult to produce various OSD signals.  
         [0014]     Accordingly, it is an objective of the invention to provide a display device having an interface to the YUV-format digital video signal, wherein OSD can be made with clear outline and high definition and without color shift and flickering.  
         [0015]     In addition, it is another objective of the invention to provide a display device in which an OSD signal is generated without depending on the resolution of the display panel and on the resolution of the video signal so that the cost can be reduced and that the layout of the OSD signal on the screen of the display panel such as relative position and size can be made as designed.  
         [0016]     A display device according to the invention receives as a first video signal a YUV video signal of YUV format such as camera video signal or broadcast video signal from a camera device or recording medium. In addition, an OSD signal as a second video signal is transferred asynchronously with the YUV video signal to the display device through another system different from the YUV video signal, for example, a serial interface, and then the OSD signal is stored in a memory. After the YUV video signal is converted to an RGB video signal in synchronism with a display synch signal, the OSD signal is read from the memory in synchronism with the display synch signal. This read-out OSD signal and RGB video signal are composed, and displayed on the display panel.  
         [0017]     In addition, an OSD signal panel-matched conversion circuit is provided to convert the OSD signal of an arbitrary resolution to the same as that of the display panel so that the relative position and size of the converted OSD signal on the display panel can be prevented from being changed.  
         [0018]     Moreover, the memory area in which the OSD signal is temporarily stored in order to be synchronized with the video signal is reduced for low cost by compressing the amount of data of OSD signal. In addition, the OSD signal stored in the memory is read out in synchronism with the display synch signal, and the read OSD signal and the RGB video signal are composed so that the OSD signal can be displayed on the display panel in synchronism with the RGB video signal.  
         [0019]     According to this invention, since the display device having an interface to the YUV format digital video signal can make high quality OSD without color shift and flickering, it can be used as a display device necessary for on-screen display such as a monitor for digital camera or television.  
         [0020]     In other words, since the OSD signal is converted in accordance with the resolution of the display panel, and displayed on the display panel in synchronism with the display synch signal, any OSD signal having a different resolution can be supplied to the display device asynchronously with the video signal without considering the synchronous timing of the video signal.  
         [0021]     In addition, since the resolution of the OSD signal is converted in accordance with the resolution of the display panel, even any OSD signal having a certain resolution can be made to conform to display panels of various resolutions. Therefore, the OSD signal having any resolution can be applied to the display device.  
         [0022]     Thus, the OSD signal can be displayed in a suitable position and size relative to the display panel as designed.  
         [0023]     Further, since the OSD signal is compressed, the display device having an OSD function incorporated can reduce the cost of the memory.  
         [0024]     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. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0025]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a liquid crystal display device according to this invention.  
         [0026]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of the signal processor  104  shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0027]      FIG. 3  is a timing chart for the signal processor  104 .  
         [0028]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram of the OSD processing circuit  206  shown in  FIG. 3 .  
         [0029]      FIG. 5  is a diagram to which reference is made in explaining the compression system  1  for the OSD signal.  
         [0030]      FIG. 6  is a diagram useful for explaining the compression system  2  for the OSD signal.  
         [0031]      FIG. 7  is a block diagram showing another construction of the OSD processing circuit  206  shown in  FIG. 3 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS  
     Embodiment 1  
       [0032]     An embodiment 1 of the invention will be described with reference to  FIGS. 1 through 6 . Although a liquid crystal display device using liquid crystal display elements will be given here and explained as an example of the display device, this invention can be applied to display devices such as organic EL display and FED (Field Emission Display) using electron emitting elements.  
         [0033]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a liquid crystal display device  100  in the embodiment 1 of the invention. The liquid crystal display device  100  receives input signals of a YUV video signal  101  of YUV-format, an RGB OSD signal  102  and control information  103 . The YUV video signal  101 , RGB OSD signal  102  and control information  103  are preferably supplied from separate systems, or through different ports.  
         [0034]     The YUV video signal  101  is composed of, for example, luminance information-Y and two kinds U, V of color difference information as specified in Recommendation ITU-R BT. 656-4. This YUV video signal is thus a digital video signal that is sequentially transferred as pixel information.  
         [0035]     The OSD signal  102  is display-information for OSD, and is the signal sequentially transferred pixel by pixel as is the video signal, or compressed image data or positional information and image for giving a change.  
         [0036]     The control information  103  is the information to control from the system side the display-related settings such as the output settings for display synch signal and scanning direction. The control information  103  also includes the resolution information of the inputted video signal  101  and OSD signal  102  and the resolution information of a liquid crystal display panel  109 .  
         [0037]     The input signals of YUV video signal  101 , OSD signal  102  and control information  103  are given on an objective basis. For example, the OSD signal and control information may be fed through the same bus, or the video signal may have synch signals embedded. That is, the forms in which the input signals are transmitted are not limited.  
         [0038]     The YUV video signal  101 , OSD signal  102  and control information  103  are first supplied to a signal processor  104 , which then produces a digital RGB composite video signal  105  and display synch signal  106  to drive the liquid crystal display panel  109  that has an array of a plurality of liquid crystal display elements. The RGB composite video signal  105  and display synch signal  106  are supplied to a liquid crystal drive circuit  107 , which then produces an analog signal that is to be applied to the liquid crystal display elements of the liquid display panel  109 . The display synch signal  106  is also supplied to a liquid crystal scanning circuit  108 , which then produces a scanning signal for selecting any ones of the liquid crystal display elements of liquid crystal display panel  109 . The liquid crystal display elements selected by the scanning signal produced from the liquid crystal scanning circuit  108  are driven by the analog signal produced from the liquid crystal drive circuit  107 , so that a picture is displayed on the liquid crystal display panel  109 .  
         [0039]     The signal processor  104  will be described in detail with reference to  FIGS. 2 and 3 . For the sake of simple explanation, it is assumed that the YUV video signal  101  is the video signal according to the Recommendation ITU-R BT. 656-4 (resolution: 640×1(Y)×240, 320×2(UV)×240), the OSD signal  102  is the VGA interlaced signal (resolution: 640×3(RGB)×240) transmitted at each update, and the liquid crystal display panel  109  has a resolution of 960×240.  
         [0040]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram showing a specific construction of the signal processor  104  shown in  FIG. 1 .  FIG. 3  is a timing chart useful for explaining the operation of this signal processor  104 . The signal processor  104  has a YUV-RGB conversion circuit  201 , a synch generation circuit  205 , a panel-matched conversion circuit  203 , an OSD processing circuit  206  and an OSD composing circuit  208 .  
         [0041]     First, the YUV-RGB conversion circuit  201  processes the YUV 4:2:2-format YUV video signal  101  by computation in synchronism with a synch clock as shown in  FIG. 3  on the lower-area side, thus converting it to an RGB video signal  202  of RGB 4:4:4 format for each pixel.  
         [0042]     When receiving the control information  103 , the synch generation circuit  205  responds to the synch signal and retrace line period information of liquid crystal panel  109  included in the control information  103  to produce the display synch signal  106  for an effective signal and line start signal of video data to be displayed on the liquid crystal panel  109 .  
         [0043]     Then, the panel-matched conversion circuit  203  receives the RGB video signal  202 , display synch signal  106 , and control information  103 . This control information has the ratio between the resolutions of the inputted YUV video signal and liquid crystal display panel  109  (hereinafter, referred to as “resolution conversion rate”), or it has a resolution conversion rate of ½ in this case. Thus, the conversion circuit  203  converts the resolution of the input video signal  202  in synchronism with the display synch signal  106  from the resolution of 640×3 (RGB) to the equivalent of 960-pixel data of RGB delta arrangement, or ½ the resolution 640×3(RGB)=1920, or 960 pixels as a panel-matched RGB video signal  204 . This resolution conversion may be made by using any system such as the system in which the thinning is made by removing one from every two pieces of image data or the system in which an average value is determined from every two pieces of image data by liner computation and employed.  
         [0044]     In addition, when the image data is converted to data of delta arrangement and displayed on the liquid crystal display panel  109  of delta arrangement, the outline of the image looks different from the original color because the RGB colors are unbalanced by the thinning of image data. In order to avoid this, a low-pass filtering process may be used. The coefficient of this low-pass filter is set by using control information  103 .  
         [0045]     The OSD processing circuit  206  receives the OSD signal  102 , the display synch signal  106  and the control information  103  of a resolution conversion rate or the like. Then, it compresses the OSD signal  102  transferred at every update and makes the compressed OSD signal be stored in a memory as indicated by the arrow of S 1  to S 1 ′ in  FIG. 3 . When this signal is read out from the memory, the OSD processing circuit  206  produces a panel-matched RGB OSD signal  207  that corresponds to the data of 960 pixels in synchronism with the display synch signal  106 .  
         [0046]     Here, the OSD processing circuit  206  will be described in detail with reference to  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  is a block diagram showing a specific construction of the OSD processing circuit  206 .  
         [0047]     This OSD processing circuit  206  has an OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401 , an OSD compression circuit  403 , an OSD memory  404 , a memory control circuit  405  and an OSD restoration circuit  406 .  
         [0048]     First, the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  receives the OSD signal  102 , the display synch signal  106  and the control information  103  of a resolution conversion rate. Then, it converts the resolution of OSD signal  102  to produce an OSD signal  402  adapted to the liquid crystal display panel  109  to be used. In other words, the resolution, 640×3(RGB)×240=1920×240, of the OSD signal  102  is converted to ½ as much in order to conform with the resolution, 960×240 of delta arrangement, of liquid crystal display panel  109 .  
         [0049]     Thus, since the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  is provided to receive OSD signal  102 , even the OSD signal unsuitable for the resolution of liquid crystal display panel  109  can be processed to be suitable as is the panel-matched conversion circuit  203  to the RGB video signal  202 . In addition, even the same OSD signal  102  can be suitably used without using another type of OSD signal by processing it to conform with a different resolution of any liquid crystal display panel.  
         [0050]     Here, if the display device employs the liquid crystal display panel of another resolution, or 640×240 of delta arrangement, the same resolution, 640×3(RGB)×240, of the OSD signal  102  is converted to ⅓ as much by the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  in order to match the equivalent of 640 pixels of delta arrangement. In this case, the OSD signal  102  is not replaced by another type of OSD signal, but only the resolution conversion rate of control information  103  can be changed to cope with that situation. Thus, as mentioned above, the same OSD signal  102  can be supplied to the display device to display on the liquid crystal display panel having a resolution different from that of the OSD signal.  
         [0051]     In addition, even if address data for specifying the displaying position of OSD signal  102  and compressed data of OSD signal  102  are directly transferred to the conversion circuit  401  as the OSD signal  102 , the conversion circuit  401  makes the resolution conversion process by computing the post-conversion address data and compressed data from the inputted address data and compressed data.  
         [0052]     If the OSD signal  102  to the conversion circuit has information formed of address data for specifying a displaying position on an assumed frame of 1920×240 in order for a rectangular window of 300 horizontal pixels×40 vertical pixels to be displayed located from a point of horizontal position  240  and vertical position  100 , the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  converts it to address data that assumes the resolution, 960×240 of delta arrangement, of liquid crystal display panel  109 . In other words, it computes the conversion of the input address data to ½ as much in the horizontal direction and 1 as much in the vertical direction, thus converting to a rectangular area of 150 horizontal pixels×40 vertical pixels to be displayed located from a point of horizontal position  120  and vertical position  100 .  
         [0053]     Thus, since the OSD signal  102  can be converted to the resolution of liquid crystal display panel  109  even when the display device transfers the address data for specifying the displaying position of OSD signal  102  and the compressed data of OSD signal  102  to the display panel, the video signal and OSD signal are not shifted in their positions and sizes when they are composed, that is, the OSD can be suitably performed with no such problems.  
         [0054]     When the liquid crystal display panel  109  is to display only a small amount of information as compared with the OSD signal  102 , or when resolution-reducing conversion is necessary, the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  first converts the resolution of the OSD signal to a low resolution. In this case, if the OSD signal is compressed after the conversion, excess information need not be stored in the OSD memory  404 , and thus the memory capacity can be reduced advantageously.  
         [0055]     The OSD compression circuit  403  compresses the amount of data of the resolution-reduced signal, or OSD signal  402  according to the control information  103  that specifies how to compress. Thus, the memory area can be reduced since the amount of data is decreased, leading to low memory cost.  
         [0056]     An example of the compression of the amount of data (hereinafter, referred as “compression system 1”) will be described with reference to  FIG. 5 . In this compression system  1 , when pixel information as the OSD signal is sequentially transferred as is the video signal, the color information is indexed and allotted to the addresses (hereinafter, referred to as “color addresses”) within the storage area for color information (hereinafter, referred to as “color information storage area”) in the storage area of the memory (hereinafter, referred to as “memory storage area”).  
         [0057]     When OSD is performed, color information is often used to make the characters and windows easy to see, and thus does not need many kinds of color in most cases.  
         [0058]     Therefore, if the color information that can be displayed is 6 bits for each color of RGB, about 260000 colors can be utilized. Of these colors, eight colors are selected, and color information to be used is previously assigned to the color addresses of the color information storage area. For example, white ( 63 ,  63 ,  63 ) is allotted to color address  0 , blue ( 0 ,  0 ,  63 ) to color address  1 , green ( 0 ,  63 ,  0 ) to color address  2 , . . . , black ( 0 ,  0 ,  0 ) to color address  7 . The OSD using any one of the eight colors is performed by referring to the assigned color addresses.  
         [0059]     In addition, the color information to be used can be arbitrarily assigned in advance by increasing or decreasing the number of color addresses, or by using, for example, five colors or sixteen colors other than eight colors. Moreover, information of the degree of transparency such as 50-% transparency can be assigned as an index to a color address.  
         [0060]     Therefore, the storage capacity necessary for the color information storage area is the bit number of color information multiplied by the number of color palettes. If we take color information of 18 bits (about 260000 colors) and eight color palettes, color information can be indexed by preparing the color information storage area of 18×8=144 bits.  
         [0061]     The number of pixels as to the indexed color is counted until the change of color while the sequential transfer of pixel information is being observed, and the indexed color is sequentially converted to values of a color address and the number of pixels over which the corresponding color continues. Those values are sequentially stored in the region for storing the layout of OSD signal (hereinafter, referred to as “OSD signal layout storage area”), so that the OSD signal can be stored with the amount of data cut down.  
         [0062]     The above operation will be described with reference to the seventh line of the OSD layout storage area shown in  FIG. 5 . In the OSD layout storage area are sequentially stored values of  0  (color address),  43  (count),  1  (color address),  4  (count),  2  (color address),  4  (count),  1  (color address),  2  (count),  2  (color address),  2  (count),  1  (color address),  6  (count),  0  (color address),  2  (count), . . . .  
         [0063]     Here, the bit number of color address and bit number of count are previously set, and the breakpoints of sequence of numbers and the content of the value are already determined. Although the amount of data changes depending on the displayed pattern, the maximum number of points of change (hereinafter, referred to as “maximum change number”) is limited so that the memory capacity of OSD memory  404  can be reduced.  
         [0064]     The system side (OSD designer) is informed of the limit of this maximum change point and requested to design the OSD within the limit. The memory capacity of the OSD layout storage area is computed from the expression of (bit number of color address)×(bit number of pixel counter)×(maximum change number). If we take eight color palettes (3 bits), 128-counter (7-bit counter) and 2500 points (an average of about 10 per line) as maximum change point, the OSD signal can be stored in the OSD layout storage area of 3×7×250=52500 bits.  
         [0065]     Therefore, the memory storage area necessary for storing one frame of 960×240 of delta arrangement and eight color data (3 bits) is computed as (960÷3)×240×3=230400 bits. On the other hand, according to the compression system  1  of this embodiment 1, the color information storage area and OSD layout storage area are respectively 144 bits and 52500 bits, and thus the memory storage area is computed as 144+52500=52644 bits. Thus, one frame can be stored in the area of about ¼ that amount.  
         [0066]     In addition, with reference to  FIG. 6 , description will be made of an example of compressing the amount of data (hereinafter, referred to as “compression system  2 ”) that is different from the compressing system  1 . As we previously described about the compression system  1 , the OSD signal is often used to make the characters and windows easy to see, and thus does not need many kinds of color in most cases. Moreover, it is often used to display fixed patterns such as characters and symbols.  
         [0067]     In the compression system  2 , when the OSD signal is transferred as, for example, pixel address, color information and shape in a form of commands, the color information can be indexed and assigned to color addresses within the 144-bit color information storage area of the memory storage area as is the compression system  1 .  
         [0068]     In addition, only the characters and patterns to be used to display are allotted as character data of a previously fixed resolution to the addresses (hereinafter, referred to as “character addresses”) within the storage area for the character data (hereinafter, referred to as “character data storage area”) of the memory storage area, and stored in that area.  
         [0069]     The assigning of character data to be used to the character data storage area is performed, for example, as a checkered pattern is assigned to character address  00 , a numerical character “2” to character address  12 , an alphabetical character “S” to character address  33 , and so on.  
         [0070]     The storage capacity necessary for this character data storage area is the resolution of one character multiplied by the number of characters to be stored. If the resolution and character number are respectively 8(dots)×10(lines)=80 bits, and 64-pattern characters, then the character data storage area is computed as 80×64=5120 bits. Thus, the character data can be indexed and assigned thereto.  
         [0071]     The memory storage area has a region provided for storing the location of characters (hereinafter, referred to as “character location storage area”) so that the color address (character color and background color) associated with character address is stored in the addresses (hereinafter, referred to as “location address”) of the character location storage area. Thus, complicated characters can be stored in a small-capacity memory area.  
         [0072]     Description will be made of, for example, the 12th to 16th columns of the second row of the character location storage area shown in  FIG. 6 . An address is fixed at each location of the character location storage area, and values are stored as follows. For example,  7  (character color: black),  0  (background color: white) and  10  (character:  0 ) are stored in the address of the location specified by the 12th column and second row,  7  (character color: black),  0  (background color: white) and  12  (character:  2 ) in the address of the location specified by the 13th column and second row address,  7  (character color: black),  0  (background: white) and  44  (character: /) in the address of the location specified by the 14th column and second row address,  3  (character color: green),  0  (background color: white) and  14  (character:  4 ) in the address of the location specified by the 15th column and second row address,  3  (character color: green),  0  (background color: white) and  18  (character:  8 ) in the address of the location specified by the 16th column and second row address, and so on.  
         [0073]     The storage capacity necessary for this character location storage area is (the maximum number of characters to be displayed) multiplied by ((the bit number of character address)+(the bit number of color address)×2(character color and background color)). If characters of 40 columns×24 rows (960 bits) can be located, and if 64 characters (6 bits) and eight color palettes (3 bits) are selected, the OSD signal can be stored in the character location storage area of 960×(6+3×2)=11520 bits.  
         [0074]     Therefore, when the OSD signal has 8 colors and QVGA, the memory area necessary for storing one frame according to the above description was 230400 bits, but the memory area according to the compression system  2  of this embodiment is as follows. Since the color information storage area, character data storage area and character location storage area are 144 bits, 5120 bits and 11520 bits, respectively, the necessary region for storing one frame can be computed as 144+5120+11520=16784 bits, or less than 1/10 the above-mentioned capacity.  
         [0075]     In addition, if the color address and character address are changed with the character location address fixed as the OSD signal, data with a small partial change of OSD signal can be transferred, and thus fast OSD is performed.  
         [0076]     The OSD memory  404  temporarily stores the compressed OSD signal, and reads it out in synchronism with a read timing signal generated from the display synch signal  106 . Thus, the OSD signal can be synchronized with the displaying timing.  
         [0077]     The memory control circuit  405  is responsive to the display synch signal  106  and to the control information  103  for specifying a compression/restoration method to generate a timing signal by which the compressed OSD signal is controlled to write in and read from the OSD memory  404 .  
         [0078]     Then, the OSD restoration circuit  406  responds to the control information  103  that indicates the information of the compression system of the OSD compression circuit  403  to produce a panel-matched RGB OSD signal  207  in accordance with the restoration system associated with the compression system. This panel-matched RGB OSD signal  207  is sequentially produced and transferred pixel by pixel as a RGB signal in synchronism with the display synch signal  106 .  
         [0079]     When the restoration system is associated with the compression system  1 , the color address and the number of pixels over which the corresponding color continues are read out from the memory, and processed to produce the RGB signal as the panel-matched RGB OSD signal  207  that is sequentially transferred pixel by pixel.  
         [0080]     When the restoration system is associated with the compression system  2 , the panel-match RGB.OSD signal  207  is sequentially produced and transferred pixel by pixel as an RGB signal by reading the two color addresses and character address of character color and background color that were sequentially stored in the character location storage area of the memory and by referring to the two pieces of color information and character data associated with the character color and background color according to the read addresses.  
         [0081]     Then, the OSD composing circuit  208  shown in  FIG. 2  composes the panel-matched RGB video signal  204  and panel-matched RGB OSD signal  207  that correspond to 960-pixel data and that are synchronized with the displaying timing, and generates the RGB composite video signal  105  having the resolution of delta arrangement, 960×240, that is suited to display on the liquid crystal display panel  109  as indicated in  FIG. 3  at D 2 ″+S 1 ″.  
         [0082]     The method for composing video signals includes the over-lay system for displaying the OSD signal preferentially, and the α-composing system in which the transparency is fixed by giving a coefficient α, thus allowing the OSD signal to be displayed in such a form that the OSD image can be seen through the video image by the computation of the video signal and OSD signal.  
         [0083]     The liquid crystal driving circuit  107  and liquid crystal scanning circuit  108  drive the liquid crystal display panel  109  to display images according to the generated RGB composite video signal  105  that contains the OSD corresponding to 960-pixel data, and to the display synch signal  106 .  
         [0084]     Sine this embodiment provides the OSD composing circuit  208  after the YUV-RGB converter circuit  201  to which the YUV video signal is applied and after the panel-matched conversion circuit  203  to which the RGB video signal is applied, the OSD signal is never interlaced and converted in color according to the YUV video signal. Therefore, the OSD can be performed without causing the flickering due to the interlacing and the color shift due to the color conversion.  
         [0085]     In addition, since the panel-matched conversion circuit  401  is provided to process the OSD signal, the OSD signal can be applied to various display panels without depending on the liquid crystal display panel  109 . Moreover, since the OSD compression circuit  403  and OSD restoration circuit  406  are provided, the display device for asynchronous OSD signal can be achieved with the memory capacity reduced.  
       Embodiment 2  
       [0086]     The embodiment 2 of this invention utilizes another construction of the OSD processing circuit  206  mentioned with reference to  FIG. 4  for embodiment 1. This construction will be described below with reference to  FIG. 7 .  
         [0087]     The OSD processing circuit  206  of this embodiment has the same elements as those of embodiment 1 (the panel-matched conversion circuit  401  for OSD, the OSD compression circuit  403 , the OSD memory  404 , the memory control circuit  405  and the OSD restoration circuit  406 ), but it is different in the order of processing. In the embodiment 1, the inputted OSD signal  102  was processed to convert by the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  and then to undergo the compression/restoration using the memory (the OSD compression circuit  403 , the OSD memory  404 , the memory control circuit  405  and the OSD restoration circuit  406 ). In this embodiment, the OSD signal  102  undergoes the compression/restoration process using the memory, and then the conversion process using the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401 .  
         [0088]     The following description is about the case in which the OSD signal  102  and the liquid crystal display panel  109  are respectively a signal of QVGA (320×RGB×240) transmitted for each update and a resolution (640×RGB×240) corresponding to the interlace of VGA, and in which the control information includes information for discriminating the resolutions of the OSD signal  102  and liquid crystal display panel  109  and for ordering the signal to be magnified by conversion.  
         [0089]     In this case, since the amount of data of one frame of OSD signal  102  is smaller than that necessary to display on the liquid crystal display panel  109 , the control information  103  containing the information for magnifying by conversion is necessary to order the OSD signal to be magnified by conversion. Therefore, the OSD signal  102  should be compressed before the magnifying conversion, and stored in the OSD memory  404  because this is advantageous in that the memory capacity can be reduced.  
         [0090]     In this embodiment 1, too, since the amount of data of one frame of OSD signal  102  is larger than that necessary to display on the liquid crystal display panel  109 , the control information  103  containing the information for reducing by conversion is used to order the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  to convert for reduction, thus bringing the advantage for reducing the memory capacity.  
         [0091]     In addition, similarly as to the compression process, since the process in which the inputted OSD signal of resolution 320×RGB×240 is compressed before the resolution conversion handles a smaller amount of data than the process in which it is compressed after the magnifying conversion to a resolution corresponding to the resolution of 640×RGB×240 of liquid crystal display panel  109 , it is preferable to compress the OSD signal  102  and then store it in the OSD memory  404  before the conversion in that excess information can be avoided from being stored in the OSD memory  404 .  
         [0092]     In this embodiment, too, since the OSD panel-matched conversion circuit  401  is provided, the OSD signal  102  can be applied even when it does not match with the specification of liquid crystal display panel  109 . That is, even a liquid crystal display panel with a different specification can be used to accept the same OSD signal  102 , or various display panels can be applied to the display device of this embodiment. Moreover, even if the amount of information to be displayed on the display panel is larger than that of the OSD signal, the same effect as in embodiment can be achieved.  
         [0093]     The resolutions of the inputted video signal  101  and OSD signal  102  and that of the liquid crystal display panel  109  mentioned in the sections of embodiments 1 and 2 are specified for the convenience of explanation, and thus those signals and the display panel are not limited to those resolutions. In addition, the pixel arrangement of liquid crystal display panel  109  is not limited to the RGB stripe type arrangement and delta type arrangement.  
         [0094]     It should be further understood by those skilled in the art that although the foregoing description has been made on embodiments of the invention, the invention is not limited thereto and various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

Technology Category: 3