JPH0946681A - Pay broadcast receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To display a channel number under a flat contract. SOLUTION: When a security module 9 receives a command of an output of a channel number in flat contract at present from a decoder 8, it is read by an EEPROM 24 and fed to the decoder 8. The decoder 8 outputs a display signal corresponding to a channel number from the EEPROM 24. A tuner 20 selects a prescribed channel from a received signal and a 1st decoder 23 decodes individual information by an individual key and provides an output of the contract key. A 2nd decoder 22 decodes program information based on the contract key and provides an output of the scramble key. A descrambler 21 descrambles a video and audio signal based on the scramble key.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pay broadcast receiving apparatus, for example, a pay broadcast receiving apparatus suitable for use in a pay broadcasting system or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In pay broadcasting, a broadcasting system called scramble broadcasting is often used. In this scrambled broadcast, the broadcast station intentionally disturbs the original signal by a predetermined method, so that even if a person who does not have a contract with the broadcast station receives the broadcast, normal image, sound, data, etc. It makes it impossible to use. That is, the decoder of the person who has contracted with the broadcasting station is provided with a key signal for descrambling this, and the decoder descrambles the scrambled data to the original form by this key signal to obtain a normal image. , Voice, and data so that you can get. The case of contracting on a channel basis is called flat, and the case of being charged according to the program viewed is called pay-per-view. Of the pay-per-view, even if a viewer suddenly wants to watch a predetermined program, he / she can watch the program simply by performing a predetermined operation, which does not require prior notification, is called an impulse pay-per-view.

[0003]

However, when a viewer makes a flat contract for a plurality of channels, there is a problem that it may not be known which channel the flat contract is made for.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and it is possible to immediately know the contract contents such as which channel the flat contract is currently made,
It will be used as a reference when concluding a new contract.

[0005]

A pay broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1 is a pay broadcast receiving apparatus which receives and descrambles pay broadcast of a channel for which a receiving contract has been sent from a transmitting side. The storage means stores the contract content, the instruction means for instructing to read the contract content from the storage means, and the reading means for reading the contract content from the storage means in accordance with the instruction from the instruction means.

[0006] The contract content can be related to a channel for which a flat contract has been made.

Display means for displaying the contract content read by the read means may be further provided.

The storage means may be mounted on a removable IC card.

In the pay broadcast receiving apparatus according to the first aspect, the storage unit stores the contract content of the contract received, and the reading unit reads the contract content from the storage unit according to the instruction from the instruction unit. Therefore, the contract content can be read out if necessary.

[0010]

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a pay broadcasting system to which the present invention is applied.
The encoder 1 of the transmission side system is adapted to digitize and compress, for example, video signals and audio signals for 5 channels. The multiplexer 2 time-division-multiplexes a plurality of encoder outputs and a plurality of related information. Here, the related information is “program information” including information about programs and a scramble key for descrambling, contract information for each subscriber (viewer) (for example, contract form such as flat or pay-per-view), and common information ( It shall consist of "individual information" including the contract key for decrypting the encryption of the program information).

The scrambler 3 is adapted to selectively scramble a predetermined one of the output signals from the multiplexer 2 with a scramble key supplied from a related information transmitting device 4 which will be described later.

The scramble control system 6 supplies the contract key to the related information transmitting device 4, encrypts the contract key with the individual key unique to the receiving terminal, and supplies it to the multiplexer 2 as a part of the individual information. Has been done.

The related information transmitting device 4 supplies the scramble key to the scrambler 3 and also encrypts the scramble key with the contract key supplied from the scramble control system 6 to the multiplexer 2 as a part of the common information. It is designed to be supplied.

The program control system 5 generates a predetermined control signal and controls the encoder 1 according to the program. That is, the method of digitization and compression is controlled. Also, now
A program ID of a program encoded by the encoder 1 and a channel ID of a corresponding channel are generated and supplied to the related information transmitting device 4. The viewing information collection processing system 7 uses the viewing information (eg, the channel I corresponding to the viewed program) that is uplinked from a large number of receiving terminals.
D, and viewing time, etc.) and the contract request from the viewer are processed, and the scramble control system 6 is used as contract information.
To be supplied.

On the other hand, the decoder 8 (reading means) of the receiving terminal is designed to descramble the scrambled signal to the original signal by the scramble key supplied from the security module 9 described later by the built-in descrambler. ing. Further, the individual information and the program information added to the program are extracted and output.

Security module (IC card) 9
Is composed of, for example, an IC card, and can be attached to and detached from the receiving terminal. The security module 9 stores the unique individual key, takes in the non-scrambled individual information supplied through the decoder 8, decrypts the individual information with the individual key, extracts the contract key and the contract information, and stores them. . Further, the common information associated with the program supplied via the decoder 8 is fetched, the common information is decrypted by the contract key, the scramble key is fetched, and supplied to the decoder 8.

The contract confirmation button 12 (instructing means)
Is operated when instructing to display the channel ID of the channel for which a flat contract is currently made, as will be described later. CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) 1
3 (display means) displays a predetermined menu screen or the like corresponding to the signal supplied from the decoder 8 of the receiving terminal.

Next, the operation will be described. First, the operation when the individual information is transmitted from the transmitting system to the receiving terminal will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, this individual information includes the contract key number corresponding to the contract key, the contract key, the channel ID corresponding to the contracted channel, and the contract type. The individual information also includes information corresponding to the ID number of the security module 9 of the transmission destination.

The contract key is transmitted together with, for example, an 8-bit contract key number so that a plurality of contract keys can be used properly. The contracted channel ID is represented by, for example, 16-bit Service_id. The contract type can identify flat, pay-per-view, and special contract, and is, for example, 4 bits.

The individual information is encrypted in the scramble control system 6 by using an individual key unique to the security module 9 to which the individual information is to be transmitted. The scramble control system 6 assigns the individual key unique to the security module 9 to the ID of the security module 9 for all the security modules 9.
The individual key is stored in association with the number, and the individual key can be retrieved from the ID number of the security module 9 of the transmission destination. Therefore, the individual key corresponding to the ID number of the destination security module 9 is searched, and the individual information is encrypted based on the search. The encrypted individual information is supplied to the multiplexer 2.

In the multiplexer 2, the digitized and compressed video signal and audio signal corresponding to the predetermined program supplied from the encoder 1 and the individual information supplied from the scramble control system 6 are time division multiplexed. After being
It is supplied to the scrambler 3. In the digital signal supplied to the scrambler 3, only the program part is scrambled using the scramble key supplied from the related information sending device 4, and the individual information part is sent to the transmission line 10 without being scrambled.

The transmission of the individual information to the receiving terminal is carried out at any time when the individual information needs to be updated, if necessary. This individual information includes the contract information described above.

Next, the operation when a normal program and program information (components of common information) added thereto are transmitted from the transmitting system to the receiving terminal will be described.

The program information is, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the contract type, the contract key number indicating the contract key number, the encrypted scramble key, and the Serv corresponding to the channel ID.
It contains an ice_id, a program ID for identifying the program, and the like. Further, the contract type includes a flag for identifying whether or not it is a special program.

The predetermined program information having the above-described structure generated in the related information transmitting device 4 has the scramble key therein encrypted by the contract key supplied from the scramble control system 6, and then the multiplexer. 2 is supplied. In the multiplexer 2, the digitized and compressed video signal and audio signal corresponding to the predetermined program supplied from the encoder 1 and the program information supplied from the related information transmitting device 4 are time-division multiplexed, It is supplied to the scrambler 3.

In the scrambler 3, a digital signal obtained by time-division-multiplexing the compressed video signal and audio signal constituting the program supplied thereto and program information is supplied from the related information sending device 4 with a scramble key. By the above, only the program portion is scrambled, and the program information portion is sent to the transmission line 10 without being scrambled.

In this way, the predetermined program and the program information accompanying it are transmitted from the transmitting system to the receiving terminal.

Next, the operation on the receiving terminal side will be described.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the basic operation of the receiving terminal when the viewing permission is controlled.
The decoder 8 includes, for example, a tuner 20 that selects and inputs a program of a predetermined channel, and a descrambler 21 that descrambles the program selected by the tuner 20. The security module 9 is composed of an IC card that can be attached to and detached from the decoder 8, and includes a second decoder 22, a first decoder 23, and an EEPROM.
(Electrically Erasable a
nd Programmable Read Only
Memory) 24 (storage means) and the like.

The individual information is transmitted to the receiving terminal of the viewer who has formally contracted. From the transmission side system, the transmission line 10
A predetermined scrambled program sent via
When the digital signal in which the unscrambled individual information is time division multiplexed is received by the decoder 8 of the receiving terminal, the digital signal corresponding to the scrambled program is supplied to the descrambler 21.

On the other hand, in the unscrambled individual information, the decoder 8 first compares the ID number added to the non-encryption part with the ID number stored in advance in the security module 9. That is, the decoder 8 instructs the security module 9 to
An output request for the ID number is made. The security module 9 receiving this request supplies the ID number to the decoder 8. In the decoder 8, the ID number from the security module 9 and the ID added to the individual information from the transmission side system received via the transmission line 10
When the numbers are compared with each other and the two numbers match, it is determined that this individual information has been transmitted to the security module 9 inserted therein, and is supplied to the first decoder 23 of the security module 9. It

The individual information supplied to the first decoder 23 is
The contract key and the contract information, which are decrypted by the individual key unique to the security module 9 stored in the security module 9, are extracted and stored. This contract key is used to decrypt the program information described later. Also,
The contract information is used when determining whether the received program is a contracted program.

When the viewer is watching the program at the receiving terminal, the receiving terminal receives the predetermined scrambled program transmitted via the transmission line 10 and the program information accompanying it. . The descrambler 21 outputs the digital signal corresponding to the scrambled predetermined program.
Is supplied to the second decoder 22 of the security module 9.

If the security module 9 extracts the contract key corresponding to the channel of the predetermined program from the individual information already decoded by the first decoder 23 as described above and stores it, the second Decoder 2
2 operates, and the program information is decrypted by the contract key. After the program information is decrypted, the scramble key included in the program information is taken out.

Next, the program information is extracted from the individual information and collated with the already stored contract information. As a result, when the program to which the program information is added is recognized as the contracted program, the scramble key obtained by the second decoder 22 is supplied to the descrambler 21 of the decoder 8. In the descrambler 21, the scrambled digital signal of the predetermined program is descrambled by the scramble key supplied from the second decoder 22, is returned to the original signal that can be normally viewed, and then is output. .

When a predetermined channel is contracted flat, individual information including contract key corresponding to the contracted channel, Service_id corresponding to the channel, contract information such as contract type, etc. is transmitted from the transmitting side system to the receiving terminal. , Is stored in the removable security module 9 constituting the receiving terminal. If the number of contracted channels is large, the above-mentioned procedure will be repeatedly executed.

In the case of flat viewing, the Service_id in the program information attached to the received program is stored in the security module 9, and the contract key indicated by the contract key number in the program information is stored in the security module 9. Yes, and if the contract type corresponding to Service_id is flat, the program information is decrypted by the second decoder 22, the obtained scramble key is supplied to the descrambler 21, and the descrambler 21 operates. As a result, a video and audio in which a predetermined program is normally descrambled can be obtained, and the program can be viewed.

Next, the operation on the receiving terminal side when confirming a channel for which a flat contract is currently made will be described. When the viewer operates the contract confirmation button 12 installed on the receiving terminal, the decoder 8 outputs to the security module 9 the channel ID of the channel currently under flat contract recorded in the EEPROM 24. Order to The security module 9 follows the instruction from the decoder 8
The channel ID of the channel currently under flat contract recorded in 24 is supplied to the decoder 8.

The decoder 8 includes a security module 9
The display signal corresponding to the channel ID of the currently contracted flat contract channel is supplied to the CRT 13. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, a list of channels currently under flat contract is displayed on the screen of the CRT 13 connected to the decoder 8 of the receiving terminal.
In this case, channel 1, channel 2, and channel 5 are flat contracted.

Further, by operating the remote commander 30 (instructing means) as shown in FIG. 6, it is possible to display a list of channels having a flat contract on the screen of the CRT 13.

In the remote commander 30 shown in FIG. 6, the transmitter 31 transmits an infrared signal corresponding to the button operation of the remote commander 30. Contract confirmation button 32
Is the channel I for which you have a flat contract
It is operated when D is displayed on the CRT 13. The power button 33 is operated when turning on or off the power switch of the receiving terminal. The number buttons 34 are operated when inputting a predetermined number. The enter button 35 is operated when confirming the input of a predetermined number.

The channel up / down button 36 is operated when switching channels. The volume button 37 is operated when adjusting the volume. The menu button 38 is operated when displaying a predetermined menu screen on the CRT 13. The select button 39 is the CRT 13
This is operated when the cursor displayed on the screen is moved to select a predetermined item on the menu screen.

For example, when the contract confirmation button 32 of the remote commander 30 is pressed, the corresponding infrared signal is transmitted from the transmitter 31 and received by the receiver (not shown) of the decoder 8. The decoder 8 is a remote commander 30.
When the infrared signal transmitted from the receiver is received, the EEPR is sent to the security module 9 based on the received infrared signal.
The OM 24 is instructed to output the channel ID of the channel currently under flat contract, which is stored in the OM 24.
According to the instruction from the decoder 8, the security module 9 supplies to the decoder 8 the channel ID of the channel currently under flat contract recorded in the EEPROM 24.

The decoder 8 includes a security module 9
The display signal corresponding to the channel ID of the currently contracted flat contract channel is supplied to the CRT 13. As a result, as in the case of pressing the contract confirmation button 12 of the receiving terminal, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, on the screen of the CRT 13 connected to the receiving terminal, a list of channels currently having a flat contract is displayed. Is displayed.

When the menu button 38 of the remote commander 30 is pressed, the corresponding infrared signal is transmitted by the transmitter 3.
1 is received and is received by a receiver (not shown) of the decoder 8. When receiving the infrared signal from the remote commander 30, the decoder 8 supplies a display signal corresponding to a predetermined menu screen to the CRT 13. When the CRT 13 receives this display signal from the decoder 8, for example, as shown in FIG.
The menu screen corresponding to this display signal is displayed as shown in FIG. On the menu screen, for example, items such as “contract confirmation”, “contract change”, and “program purchase confirmation” are displayed.

Next, by operating the select button 39 of the remote commander 30, a predetermined item is selected from the above items displayed on the menu screen. First, when the select button 39 is operated vertically with respect to the paper surface, an infrared signal corresponding to this operation is transmitted from the transmission unit 31 and received by the reception unit of the decoder 8. The decoder 8 displays a cursor on a predetermined item on the menu screen according to the infrared signal. In this way, the cursor displayed on the screen can be moved and positioned on a predetermined item. Here, the item "Contract confirmation"
Position the cursor on.

Next, when the enter button 35 is pressed, an infrared signal corresponding to this operation is transmitted from the transmission section 31 and received by the reception section of the decoder 8. Decoder 8
Recognizes that the selection of the item “contract confirmation” where the cursor is currently positioned is confirmed based on the infrared signal, and the security module 9 is notified to the EEPROM.
It is instructed to output the channel ID of the channel currently under flat contract, which is stored in 24.

The security module 9 includes a decoder 8
In accordance with a command from, the channel ID of the channel currently under flat contract, which is stored in the EEPROM 24, is supplied to the decoder 8. The decoder 8 outputs to the CRT 13 the display signal corresponding to the channel ID of the channel currently under flat contract, which is supplied from the security module 9. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, a list of channels currently under flat contract is displayed on the screen of the CRT 13.

As a result, the viewer can immediately check the contract status, such as which channel he / she has a flat contract with, and when a new flat contract is made, whether or not the flat contract should be made. Can be used as a reference for the judgment.

In the above embodiment, the individual information is supplied to the receiving terminal by broadcasting radio waves, but it is supplied to the receiving terminal by transmitting it through a telephone line or by an IC card or other recording medium. It is also possible to do so.

In the above embodiment, the transmission line 10
However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to use an optical fiber cable or another transmission medium.

In the above embodiment, as an example,
Contract type 4 bits, contract key number 8 bits, contract key and scramble key 64 bits, Service_
Although 16 bits are assigned to the id and the program ID, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is possible to assign any other number of bits.

Further, in the above embodiment, the CRT 13
Although the menu screen is displayed on the screen, it may be displayed on a liquid crystal display device or other display device.

In addition, the menu screen displayed on the CRT 13 in the above embodiment is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to display a menu screen including icons and other menu screens. .

Further, the remote commander used in the above embodiment is an example, and its shape, function, etc. are not limited to this. Further, although the predetermined signal is transmitted by infrared rays, it is also possible to transmit the signal by radio waves or ultrasonic waves.

[0056]

According to the pay-broadcast receiving apparatus of the first aspect, the storage means stores the contract content of the contract received, and the reading means reads the contract content from the storage means according to the instruction from the instructing means. Since this is done, it is possible to read out the current contract content, if necessary. Therefore, if necessary, it is possible to quickly confirm the current contract content. Also, referring to this,
You can make a new contract.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a pay broadcasting system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a part of individual information.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a part of program information.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation principle of the receiving terminal.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen on which a channel list with a flat contract is displayed.

FIG. 6 is an external view of a remote commander that remotely operates the decoder 8.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a menu screen for selecting an item.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 encoder 2 multiplexer 3 scrambler 4 related information sending device 5 program control system 6 scramble control system 7 viewing information collection processing system 8 decoder (reading means) 9 security module (IC card) 10 transmission line 11 telephone line 12 contract confirmation Button (instruction means) 13 CRT (display means) 20 Tuner 21 Descrambler 22 Second Decoder 23 First Decoder 24 EEPROM (Storage Means) 30 Remote Commander (Instruction Means) 31 Transmitter 32 Contract Confirmation Button 33 Power Button 34 Numeric buttons 35 Enter button 36 Channel up / down button 37 Volume button 38 Menu button 39 Select button

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A pay-broadcast receiving apparatus for receiving and descrambles pay-broadcast on a channel for which a reception contract has been sent from a transmitting side, and a storage unit for storing the contract content of the reception contract, and the contract from the storage unit. A pay broadcast receiving apparatus, comprising: an instruction unit for instructing to read out the content, and a reading unit for reading out the contract content from the storage unit in accordance with an instruction from the instruction unit. 2. The contract content relates to a channel for which a flat contract has been made.
2. A pay broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The pay broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying the contract content read by the read means. 4. The pay broadcast receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit is mounted on a removable IC card.