1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and more particularly, to a method for displaying a menu on an On Screen Display device.
2. Background of the Related Art
On Screen Device (OSD) displays information to aid in the operation of the display on a screen. Accordingly, an OSD device may be implemented in a TV receiver and other devices with a screen such as a video cassette recorder and a computer.
In a method for displaying an OSD on a TV receiver, menus are successively displayed on a TV screen according to user selections input through a selecting device such as an operation panel or a remote control. Generally, a main menu is displayed including option items or control functions available on a TV receiver. If a user selects an item from the main menu, sub-menu items are displayed according to the selected item.
Typically, as a sub-menu is displayed, the main menu which had previously been displayed disappears and only the sub-menu items of the selected main menu item are displayed on the screen. Thereafter, when the user selects a menu item from the sub-menu, a sub-menu or a function control window corresponding to the selected sub-menu item can be displayed on the screen. Thus, a user can select and control a function of the TV receiver using the selecting device.
However, in the method of displaying an OSD as described above, the relation between the main menu items and sub-menu items cannot easily be understood at a glance because the main menu disappears when a sub-menu is displayed. Therefore, if a particular function is not displayed by a sub-menu item, a user must search for the function by returning and selecting different menu items, which would be inconvenient to a user as well as a waste of time.
Accordingly, another method in the related art suggests displaying a plurality of main menu items in a first region of the TV screen and displaying sub-menu items of a selected main menu item in a second region of the TV screen. Here, the second region is outside of and different from the first region. As a result, the main menu items and the sub-menu items can simultaneously be displayed in the first and second regions of the screen. Thus, a user can see relations between the main menu items and the sub-menu items, eliminating some of the disadvantages of the unnecessary coming back and forth between the main menu and sub-menus.
However, the above method is a stepwise display method, and would require a third and possibly a fourth separate display regions on the screen if the menu items have more than two levels of sub-menus. Moreover, since a display screen has a limited area as well as limits on legible sizes of characters or graphics for an OSD, displaying more than two separate regions on the screen may be difficult.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds