Channel 1	News simulcast
		Channel 2	TV play A
Channel 3	TV play B
		Channel 4	News simulcast
Channel 5	TV play A
		Channel 6	Synthesis of A
Channel 7	Comprehensive art B
		Channel 8	News simulcast
Channel 9	Comprehensive art B
		Channel 10	Synthesis of A

TABLE 2

TABLE 3

As can be seen from tables 2 and 3, the classification by program name is a classification according to the literal name of the program, and the classification by program type is a classification according to the type of the program. The two classification methods can be selected according to the preference of the user. The program classification information displayed according to the program name classification is more detailed, and the user can clearly see the specific program. The program classification information displayed according to the program type classification is more convenient for users who particularly like a certain type of programs, and it can be clearly seen that all channels play the type of programs, such as financial type programs, and the users can select one channel to watch. In addition, the program classification rule according to the present invention is not limited to this, and may be other types of classification, such as classification by priority of program types watched by the user.

In addition, the program information extracted from the EPG information not only comprises the program information currently played by each channel, but also comprises the program information to be played by each channel in the next time period. Therefore, the program information played by all channels in a long time period can be integrally displayed, and the classification information of the viewed programs is not required to be frequently displayed.

As a further embodiment of the present invention, step 1, extracting program information from EPG information, and classifying the program information according to a program classification rule specifically implement the following:

1.1, creating a program information list and a program information classification list;

1.2, extracting program information from EPG information, and storing the extracted program information into the program information list;

1.3, classifying the program information in the program information list according to a program classification rule, and storing the classified program information into the program information classification list;

wherein, extracting the program information from the EPG information should include: the channel number, the name of the program played corresponding to each channel number, or the program content outline, or other extended information provided by the EPG. As shown in table 4, the program information list includes: the channel number, the program name and the update mark, or further including the program type to which each program name belongs, the update mark includes: the updated mark and the non-updated mark are used for identifying whether the program name played by the channel in the updated time period is the same as the program name played in the last updated time period, if the program name is different from the program name played in the updated time period, the updated mark is displayed, and if the program name is the same, the non-updated mark is displayed; the program types include: news, television shows, art and the like. As can be seen from the table, in the existing 10 channels, the channel 1 is playing news simulcast, the channel 2 is playing drama a, compared with the last time of updating the channel content, the name of the program played on the channel 1 is changed, and the name of the program played on the channel 2 is not changed, so the update flag of the channel 1 is Y, the update flag of the channel 2 is N, and the update flags of the following channels are analogized in sequence.

The program information classification table comprises: the category name and all channel numbers that are playing the category program, or further include all channel numbers that are going to play the category program, and the category name is the program name or the program type name, which are shown in table 5 and table 6, respectively.

TABLE 4

Channel numbering	Program title	Update flag	Program type
				1	News simulcast	Y	News class
2	TV play A	N	Television drama class
				3	TV play B	N	Television drama class
4	News simulcast	Y	News class
				5	TV play A	N	Television drama class
6	Synthesis of A	Y	Comprehensive arts
				7	Comprehensive art B	N	Comprehensive arts
8	News simulcast	Y	News class
				9	Comprehensive art B	N	Comprehensive arts
10	Synthesis of A	Y	Comprehensive arts

TABLE 5

TABLE 6

In this embodiment, the program information list and the program information category list are created, and the purpose is to: the channel program information list may sort and order the program information obtained from the EPG information to facilitate subsequent program information classification. The program information classification list classifies, outputs and displays the sorted and sequenced program information in the channel program information list according to the program classification rule, so that a user can select programs conveniently.

As a further embodiment of the present invention, since the program information is dynamically changed, and the program information stored in the program information list should be updated continuously with the dynamically changed program information, the above embodiment further includes after step 1.2: monitoring whether the program name corresponding to each channel number in the program information list is updated in real time, if so, extracting the program name which is played by the updated channel number from the EPG information, and storing the program name into the table entry where the corresponding channel number in the program information list is located; then, proceeding to the next step 1.3, the program information in the updated program information list is reclassified.

As a further embodiment of the present invention, like the above embodiments, the purpose of this embodiment is also to continuously update the program information to ensure that the classification information stored in the program information classification table is correct, and this embodiment adopts a timing manner, specifically: starting timing after the program information is extracted from the EPG information, and extracting the program information from the EPG information again to update the program information in the program information list when the timing time is equal to the preset time; then, the next step 1.3 is performed to re-classify the program information in the updated program information list.

The preset time is preferably the time period of updating the EPG information, that is, the program information of each channel in the channel information storage classification list is selected to be updated synchronously after the EPG updating is finished each time, so that no more system resources are wasted, and the correctness of the classification information stored in the program information classification list can be ensured.

As a further embodiment of the present invention, in order to make the program classification display more convenient and display the program according to the preference of the user, the program classification information of the present invention can be displayed in the following ways:

receiving an input full program information display instruction, and outputting and displaying program classification information of all programs; the user can trigger and display all contents of the program classification list through a shortcut key of the remote controller; and/or

And secondly, receiving an input partial program information display instruction, outputting and displaying all program information of the same kind as the current program information, namely reading and displaying the item which is in accordance with the current program name or program type in the program classification list.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that all or part of the steps in the method according to the above embodiments may be implemented by a program to instruct related hardware, where the program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, where the storage medium may be: ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc. In practical application, a user can output program classification display signals through specific function keys on a television remote controller, and relevant hardware can call an execution program for implementing the method in the embodiment after receiving the signals, so that program information can be classified and displayed.

As shown in fig. 2, the program information classification display apparatus according to the present invention includes: the method comprises the following steps: the system comprises a program classification information processing unit, a storage unit and an output display unit; wherein,

As a further embodiment of the present invention, the program digest information processing unit includes: the program classification module comprises a classification list creating module, a program information extracting module, a program classification module and a timing module;

the classification list creating module is used for creating a program information list and a program information classification list;

the program information extraction module extracts program information from the EPG information, stores the extracted program information into a program information list, monitors whether the program information in the program information list has updating information in real time, and if so, extracts the program information from the EPG information again to update the corresponding program information in the program information list;

the program classification module reads all program information in the program information list, classifies the program information according to program classification rules and stores the program information into a program information classification list;

and the timing module starts timing when the program information extraction module finishes information extraction, and outputs a timing ending instruction to control the program information extraction module to extract the program information from the EPG information again when the timing time is equal to the preset time.

Wherein the program information list includes: the method comprises the following steps of (1) channel numbering, program names and updating marks, or further comprising program types to which the program names belong;

the program information classification table comprises: the category name and all channel numbers of the category program being played, or further including all channel numbers of the category program to be played, wherein the category name is a program name or a program type name.

The program information classification display device in the above embodiment can display the program classification information to the user, and the user can visually see which programs are played on which channels, and directly select channels to switch according to favorite programs. After receiving a control instruction output by a user through a shortcut key of a remote controller or a starting control instruction of a television terminal, the program information classification display device displays the contents of a program information classification list in a shortcut menu mode, simultaneously starts a shortcut menu display timer, enables the user to randomly select a channel number displayed in the shortcut menu, changes channels and closes the menu after the selection is completed, and automatically closes the shortcut menu after the timing is finished if the channel changing operation is not performed within the timing time. The operations of establishing the program information list and the program information category list and updating the content of the program information category display device are performed in the background, and are invisible to the user. The following is a description of the actual working process of the program information classification display device, specifically:

firstly, after the program information classification display device receives an execution instruction, the execution instruction may be a television terminal startup control instruction, or may be a control instruction sent by a user through a specific key of a remote controller), the classification table creation module creates a program information list and a program sorting table, and stores the program information list and the program sorting table in the storage unit.

Then, the program information extraction module extracts the program information currently played by each channel from the EPG information, updates the content of the program information list, monitors whether the program information in the program information list is updated in real time, and if so, extracts the program information from the EPG information again to update the corresponding program information in the program information list. And starting timing when the program information extraction module finishes information extraction, and outputting a timing ending instruction to control the program information extraction module to extract the program information from the EPG information again when the timing time is equal to preset time (EPG information updating time period). And circulating until the television terminal is turned off or the user finishes the program classification display function.

And finally, after the output display unit receives a classification information display instruction input by a user, outputting and displaying the program classification information stored in the storage unit according to the instruction. The output display unit can display in two modes according to the instruction; the method comprises the steps of firstly, outputting and displaying program classification information of all programs, namely displaying all contents of a program classification list; and secondly, reading and displaying the item which is in line with the current program name or program type in the program classification list.

What is also particularly to be mentioned here is: when the television terminal is turned off or the user finishes the program classification display function, the program information classification display device can automatically destroy the program information list and the program information classification list. At this time, after the next startup or the user sends out a control instruction through a specific key, the channel program information list and the program sorting list are directly created without judging whether the channel program information list and the program sorting list are created. If the television terminal is turned off or the user finishes the program classification display function, the program information classification display device can automatically destroy the program information list and the program information classification table, and at this moment, after the television terminal is turned on next time or the user sends a control instruction through a specific key, the program information classification display device needs to judge whether the program information list and the program information classification table are created or not. In addition, the EPG of the digital television is updated regularly, for example: the program information classification list is automatically updated every ten minutes, the time for updating the timer needs to be consistent with the time for updating the EPG, and the program information classification list is selected to be updated synchronously after the EPG is updated every time, so that more system resources are not wasted by the design.

The television set comprises a television set body and a program information classification display device for controlling the mode of displaying television programs by the television set body, wherein the program information classification display device is the program information classification display device in each embodiment.

It can be seen from the above embodiments that the present invention can classify the channels according to the program names without the user inputting information, thereby avoiding a lot of inconvenience in the user input process, greatly improving the usability of the television, and providing a simpler program selection method for the user.

The above description is only for the preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present invention are also included in the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope defined by the claims.

Claims

1. A program information classification display method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

and outputting and displaying the program classification information.

2. The method for classifying and displaying program information according to claim 1, wherein the program information is extracted from EPG information, and the program information is classified according to a preset program classification rule, and the method is implemented as follows:

creating a program information list and a program information classification list;

extracting program information from EPG information, and storing the extracted program information into the program information list;

classifying the program information in the program information list according to a preset program classification rule, and storing the classified program information into the program information classification list;

the program information classification table comprises: the category name and all channel numbers that are playing the category program, or further includes all channel numbers that are going to play the category program, the category name is the program name or the program type name.

3. The method for displaying program information by category according to claim 2, further comprising:

and monitoring whether the program name corresponding to each channel number in the program information list is updated in real time, if so, extracting the program name which is played by the updated channel number from the EPG information, and storing the program name into the table entry where the corresponding channel number in the program information list is located.

4. The method for displaying program information by category according to claim 2, further comprising: and starting timing after the program information is extracted from the EPG information, and when the timing time is equal to the preset time, extracting the program information from the EPG information again to update the program information in the program information list.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the preset time is the same as the time period for updating the EPG information.

6. The program information classification display method according to claim 1, wherein the program classification information is outputted and displayed by:

receiving an input full program information display instruction, and outputting and displaying program classification information of all programs;

and/or

And secondly, receiving an input partial program information display instruction, and outputting and displaying all program information of the same kind as the current program information.

7. A program information classification display apparatus, comprising: the system comprises a program classification information processing unit, a storage unit and an output display unit; wherein,

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said program classification information processing unit comprises: the program information extraction module comprises a classification list creation module, a program information extraction module and a program classification module;

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said program information classification display unit further comprises: and the timing module starts timing when the program information extraction module finishes information extraction, and outputs a timing ending instruction to control the program information extraction module to extract the program information from the EPG information again when the timing time is equal to the preset time.

10. A TV set, includes the TV set body, its characterized in that still includes: a program information classification display device for controlling the mode of displaying the television program by the television body, wherein the program information classification display device is the program information classification display device as claimed in claim 7 or 9.