Method of viewing audiovisual documents on a receiver, and receiver for viewing such documents

1. Method of viewing an audiovisual document received by a display device, comprising:

displaying at normal size the sequences of images of said document on said display device;

receiving in the display device an attribute indicating that a sequence of images is a long shot; and

responsive to receiving in the display device said attribute indicating that a sequence of images is a long shot, determining an area of the images of the long shot sequence according to the presence of predetermined objects contained in the image of the long shot sequence and enlarging said image area during a time band such that said area is displayed at a larger size than said normal size.

2. The method of viewing according to claim 1 , wherein geometric characteristics of the area are determined during said determination operation.

3. The method of viewing according to claim 1 , wherein an enlargement ratio of the area, according to the characteristics of the display device, is determined during said determination operation.

4. The method of viewing according to claim 1 , wherein a user entered enlargement ratio is used for enlarging said image area.

5. The method of viewing according to claim 1 , wherein

said determining an area to be enlarged is repeated during time bands when said document is played back; and

during such time bands when said document is being played back, the enlargement operation is defined according to the duly determined area.

6. The method of viewing according to claim 1 , wherein the enlargement operation concerns only a part of said image appearing on the screen, where the enlargement is performed with a magnifying-glass enlarging effect.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said long shot and said time band are determined in view of attribute information that is part of said received audiovisual document which identifies the time band for said long shot.

8. A device for viewing received audiovisual documents comprising:

a display means for viewing at a normal size the sequences of images of said document on a screen;

a means of receiving an attribute indicating that a sequence of images is a long shot; and

a means for, responsive to receiving at the device for viewing said attribute indicating that a sequence of images is a long shot, determining an area of the images of long shot sequence according to the presence of predetermined objects contained in the images of the long shot sequence and enlarging said area in a larger size than normally displayed during a time band.

9. A viewing device according to claim 8 , wherein the means for determining defines geometric characteristics of the at least one area to be enlarged.

10. A viewing device according to claim 8 , wherein the means for determining defines an enlargement ratio of said at least one area according to characteristics of said display means.

11. A viewing device according to claim 8 , additionally comprising a means for entering an enlargement value, and wherein said means for determining takes into account the enlargement value entered in for determining said at least one image area to be enlarged.

12. A viewing device according to claim 8 , wherein the means for determining is activated at regular intervals.

13. A viewing device according to claim 8 , wherein said received audiovisual document is made up of sequences; and

said means for determining is activated on changes of sequences.

14. A viewing device according to claim 8 , wherein the display means enlarges said at least one area determined in a portion of the screen in order to show said area with a magnifying-glass enlargement effect.

15. An apparatus to view an audiovisual document received by a display device, comprising:

a display;

a processor;

a memory containing a set of instructions, the set of instructions when executed by the processor performs the operations comprising:

displaying at normal size the sequences of images of said document on said display device;

receiving in the display device an attribute indicating that a sequence of images is a long shot; and

responsive to receiving in the display device said attribute indicating that a sequence of images is a long shot, determining an area of the images of the long shot sequence according to the presence of predetermined objects contained in the image of the long shot sequence, and enlarging said image area during a time band such that said area is displayed at a larger size than said normal size.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein geometric characteristics of the area are determined during said determination operation.

17. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein an enlargement ratio of the area, according to the characteristics of the display device, is determined during said determination operation.

18. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein a user entered enlargement ratio is used for enlarging said image area.

19. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein

said determining an area to be enlarged is repeated during time bands when said document is played back; and

during such time bands when said document is being played back, the enlargement operation is defined according to the duly determined area.

20. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein the enlargement operation concerns only a part of said image appearing on the screen, where the enlargement is performed with a magnifying-glass enlarging effect.

21. The apparatus according to claim 15 , wherein said long shot and said time band are determined in view of attribute information that is part of said received audiovisual document which identifies the time band for said long shot.