Hitachi, Ltd.

Yumi Bando

Toshinori Murata

Takumi Okamura

Sunao Suzuki

Shinobu Torikoshi

Nobufumi Nakagaki

Takayuki Mori

Kenji Katsumata

Satoru Takashimizu

Takanori Eda

Masaru Nanki

Satoshi Imuro

A boundary position detection apparatus in which the position of an imageless part (containing no meaningful image information) lying at the upper part or/and the lower part of a picture is precisely detected from a video signal. A line decision circuit decides whether each of lines constituting the picture belongs to an image part (containing meaningful image information) or to the imageless part. A boundary decision circuit decides the boundary between the image part and the imageless part. A time integration circuit integrates the detected boundary positions temporally, and determines a final boundary position. A detection control circuit finds an image-part region from the final position, detects the average luminance of the region and controls the integrating time interval of the time integration circuit with the average luminance.

Apparatus for detecting position of featuring region of picture, such as subtitle or imageless part

A television signal receiving apparatus and method is provided having channel decode means for receiving a signal with a video signal, a sound signal, a data signal, and additional data multiplexed to perform tuning, demodulation, and error correction on the received signal and a demultiplexor for separating the multiplexed signal to output coded data of each of the video signal, the sound signal, and the data signal and for extracting service information as one of additional data. A storage device is provided for storing the service information extracted from the demultiplexor, together with a write controller for controlling writing into the storage device, and a read controller for controlling reading of the storage device according to a user command entered by a user. A source decoder is also provided for decoding the coded data outputted from the demultiplexor using the information outputted from said storage device to output the video signal, the sound signal, and the data signal. The storage device records the service information supplied from the demultiplexor, and the read controller performs control such that necessary data are read from the storage device as required by the user, thereby enhancing the speed of processing associated with the service information to provide a quick response to the user requirement. Also, the write controller can control storage such that only necessary information for the next processing operation is stored, thereby reducing the size of the storage device which is necessary.

Television signal receiving apparatus and method specification

Apparatus for detecting position of featuring region of picture, such as

An arrangement to automatically change between a scrambled digital data output and descrambled digital data output of a receiver by inserting a control signal conforming to a program provider's policy into a transmission signal. In a receiving side, a descrambler descrambles a channel-decoded signal, a demultiplexer demultiplexes the multiplexed signal from the descrambler into encoded video and audio data for output to a source decoder, and extracts the control information inserted in the transmitting side for output to a switch or CPU. The CPU decrypts a control signal from the control information extracted by the demultiplexer to determine whether the scrambled digital signal or descrambled digital signal is appropriate for output, and outputs a changeover control signal depending on the result of decryption. A switch selects the output of a scrambled digital signal from a stage prior to the descrambler, or a descrambled digital signal from a stage subsequent to the descrambler, depending on the changeover control signal from the CPU. Thereby, a scrambled digital signal output or descrambled digital signal output can automatically be changed over depending on a program provider's policy.

Digital broadcast transmitting and receiving system and transmitting and

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Tokyo, Japan

Yumi Bando