The present disclosure relates to a network TV system, and more particularly, to a method for updating dedicated firmwares according to a plurality of content providers in a network TV system and to a user interface allowing easy and intuitive control of update operations so that the firmwares according to the content providers can be updated in accordance with a user's desired order and type on the network.
With the development and commercialization of digital TV technology from the conventional analog broadcast, the internet as well as other conventional transmission media connected to each home can be used to provide various content services such as real-time broadcasts, contents on demand (COD), games and news to users.
An internet protocol TV (IPTV) is an example of the content service based on the internet. The IPTV transmits various information services, video contents and broadcasts through the ultrahigh-speed internet to provide the same to users' TVs.
Recently, a broadband TV and a web TV have been introduced as a kind of network TV evolved from the IPTV. Unlike the IPTV, the broadband TV or the web TV is provided with a plurality of content providers so that users can separately connect to the content providers to receive various video on demand (VOD), games and video phone services provided by the content providers.
On such a network TV system, the content providers provide not only the contents but also firmwares for embodying their own contents. The firmwares need to be continuously updated.
With increase in kinds of contents in the network TV system, an amount of software to be updated increases.
When a user updates the software in a batch, it may take a long time, for example, even tens of minutes. Furthermore, if some unwanted software is selected by mistake or if the user wants to stop midway due to lack of time, the user may feel uncomfortable since he/she cannot be aware of which firmware is being updated and how much the update has been progressed.
Although a desired firmware is selected and updated, a progress bar provided for the user only shows the progress percentage of the update and allows control of only starting and finishing of the update. Therefore, it is hard to control the progress of the update or stop the update midway. Moreover, when the update is stopped midway, update of contents already normally updated is cancelled. Therefore, the update should be performed from the first later, which causes loss of time.
Thus, the user may not want to update not frequently used contents when updating the software, causing waste of time. To this end, a technology is required which allows the user to update only desired contents first and, at any time, select the number of contents to update and stop the update. Also, it is required to achieve those operations through a simple remote controller operation and show the operations on a screen for the user's understanding.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds