JP2001344898A - Information recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information recording and reproducing device which can instantaneously complete recording and saving when videotaping and reproducing of programs with high image quality and high sound quality are possible and the recording and saving of the videotaped programs to a portable type recording medium are necessary. SOLUTION: In recording input information, a control means 12 compresses the input information to allow an average information transfer rate to attain a first value, records this information to a first information recording and reproducing means 3 having a hard disk drive and simultaneously compresses the input information to allow the average information transfer rate to attain a second value smaller than the first value and records the information to a second information recording and reproducing means 6 having a writable DVD drive. In reproducing the input information, the control means reproduces the input information by giving priority to the first information recording and reproducing means 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus for compressing and recording information including a video signal and an audio signal on a medium such as an optical disk, a magnetic hard disk or the like, and reproducing the information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a large-capacity optical disk device such as a hard disk drive using a magnetic disk as a recording medium or a rewritable digital versatile disk (hereinafter referred to as a rewritable DVD) has been
2. Description of the Related Art An information recording / reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing a video signal, an audio signal, and the like compressed by an information compression method such as an EG (Moving Picture Experts Group) 2 has been put to practical use. Also,
Devices combining different types of information recording / reproducing means such as a hard disk drive and an optical disk device have also been developed.

FIG. 5 shows, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-243352.
1 shows a schematic configuration of a conventional information storage / reproducing apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H10-115,004. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an information input terminal for inputting information including an analog or digital video signal and audio signal, etc., 2 denotes an A / D converter for performing analog / digital conversion, and 15 denotes input information in accordance with MPEG2 or the like. A compression circuit for compressing, 16 a recording buffer memory for temporarily storing compressed information, 17 a hard disk drive, 23 a rewritable DVD drive, 19 a reproduction buffer memory for temporarily storing reproduced information, 20
Is a decompression circuit for decompressing compressed information, 10 is a D / A converter for performing digital / analog conversion, 11 is an information output terminal for outputting information including analog or digital video signals and audio signals, and 12 is a micro output terminal. A control unit 13 including a computer and a memory is an operation unit such as a remote controller and buttons on a front panel.

In the above-mentioned conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus, the information input to the information input terminal 1 is transmitted to the A / D converter 2
, And if it is an analog signal, it is converted to a digital signal and supplied to the compression circuit 15. The compression circuit 15 compresses this information using an information compression method such as MPEG2 and transfers it to the recording buffer memory 16. The information once stored in the recording buffer memory 16 is intermittently recorded in the hard disk drive 17 at fixed time intervals. The recorded information is reproduced intermittently at fixed time intervals and transferred to the rewritable DVD drive 23. Rewritable DVD drive 23
The information transferred to is recorded at regular time intervals. That is, the hard disk drive 17 is a rewritable DVD.
It serves as a cache memory of the drive 23.

In addition to using the hard disk drive 17 simply as a cache memory, broadcast programs can be stored in the hard disk drive 17 by, for example, scheduled recording.
A system has been proposed in which the program can be recorded and stored on an optical disc by a rewritable DVD drive 23 if the content is liked when the program is played back and watched later. I have.

As the hard disk drive 17 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus, a hard disk drive having a capacity of about 20 GB can be used at present. The capacity of the optical disk as a recording medium of the rewritable DVD drive 23 is 4.7 GB in the DVD-RW system. For example, when recording a three-hour broadcast program on one optical disk, the capacity of the optical disk is output from the compression circuit 15. The average information transfer rate is set to approximately 3 Mbps in accordance with the capacity of the optical disk.

When information is compressed and recorded using an information compression method such as MPEG2, if the transfer rate of the compressed information is set to a high value, good results are expected when the information is expanded during reproduction. it can. That is, if the information is image information, the image can be reproduced with high image quality, and if the information is audio information, the image can be reproduced with high sound quality. Therefore, it is preferable that the transfer rate of the information output from the compression circuit be as high as possible.

When recording a program with a short broadcast time, the transfer rate of information output from the compression circuit 15 is set to 3 Mbp.
s. However, the information transfer rate of the hard disk drive 17 is several tens Mbps or more, whereas the information transfer rate of the rewritable DVD drive 23 is 11.08 Mbp in the case of a single speed drive.
In the information recording / reproducing apparatus having the configuration shown in FIG. 5, the transfer rate of the information output from the compression circuit 15 is at most 11 in accordance with the information transfer rate of the rewritable DVD drive 23. .08 Mbps or less.

[0009]

As described above,
In a conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus which combines a plurality of information recording / reproducing means having different data transfer speeds, such as a hard disk drive and an optical disk device, the transfer rate of information output from the compression circuit 15 is changed by changing the capacity of a rewritable DVD medium It is necessary to set the value to a low value in accordance with the information transfer rate of the type DVD drive 23, and although the apparatus has a large capacity and high information transfer rate recording and reproducing means like the hard disk drive 17,
A program cannot be recorded / reproduced at a high information transfer rate at which sufficient high image quality and high sound quality can be expected.

In order to deal with such a problem, a program is recorded on a hard disk drive at a high information transfer rate of, for example, about 14 Mbps. Is recompressed so as to be 11.08 Mbps or less, transferred to a rewritable DVD drive, and recorded on a portable medium for storing programs such as an optical disk. In this way, the user can schedule the program that has been scheduled and recorded.
It can be reproduced and viewed with high image quality and high sound quality from a hard disk drive, and can be stored in a portable medium such as an optical disk.

As described above, once information is recorded on the hard disk drive at a high information transfer rate, the information transfer rate of information output from the compression circuit is limited to the information transfer rate of the rewritable DVD drive 23. Can be set to a higher value without having to However, after playback,
When the user tries to save the information on a portable medium such as a rewritable DVD, the information is recompressed while conforming to the information transfer rate of the rewritable DVD drive 23 while reproducing the information, and transferred to the rewritable DVD drive 23. Therefore, the user cannot remove or replace the disc from the apparatus until the processing is completed.

An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording / reproducing apparatus having a plurality of information recording / reproducing means having different information transfer rates, wherein information is recorded by the recording / reproducing means having a high information transfer rate with high image quality and high sound quality. An information recording / reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing and recording / saving the recorded information in another information recording / reproducing means, which can complete the recording / preservation instantly by a simple operation. It is to provide.

[0013]

The object of the present invention is to provide a first information recording / reproducing means, and a second information recording / reproducing means whose information transfer rate and information storage capacity are smaller than the information transfer rate and information storage capacity of the first information recording / reproducing means. In the information recording / reproducing apparatus comprising the information recording / reproducing means, when the input information is recorded, the input information is compressed so that the average information transfer rate becomes a first value, and is recorded in the first information recording / reproducing means. At the same time, the input information is compressed so that the average information transfer rate becomes a second value smaller than the first value, and is recorded in the second information recording / reproducing means. The information recording / reproducing apparatus is characterized in that the information recording / reproducing apparatus has a control means for reproducing the input information by giving priority to one information recording / reproducing means.

The first and second information recording / reproducing means include:
Means for generating and storing management information used for reproducing the input information when recording the input information can be provided.

After the reproduction or erasure of the input information by the first information recording / reproducing means is completed, when a command to save the input information is inputted from the outside, a part or all of the management information is transferred to the second information. In the information recording / reproducing means.

When the recording of the input information in the first and second information recording / reproducing means is completed, the management information is recorded in the second information recording / reproducing means, and the first information recording / reproducing is performed. When a command to erase the input information is input from outside after the reproduction or erasure of the input information by the means is completed, a part or all of the management information can be erased from the second recording / reproducing means. .

After the recording of the input information in the first and second information recording / reproducing means is completed, when a reproduction command of the input information is input for the first time from the outside, the first information recording / reproducing means outputs The input information can be reproduced, and thereafter, the management information can be deleted from the first information recording / reproducing means.

At the time of reproducing the input information, the first and second
Means for comparing the management information respectively recorded in the information recording / reproducing means of the present invention. If the information matches, the input information is reproduced from the first information recording / reproducing means. The input information can be reproduced from the information recording / reproducing means.

The first information recording / reproducing means is a magnetic disk device using a magnetic disk as a fixed recording medium, and the second information recording / reproducing means is an optical disk device using an optical disk as a portable recording medium. Is also good.

[0020]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is an information input terminal, 2 is an A / D converter, 3 is first information recording / reproducing means, 4 is information input terminal of the first information recording / reproducing means, 5 is first information recording / reproducing. Information output terminal of means, 6 is second information recording / reproducing means, 7 is information input terminal of second information recording / reproducing means, 8 is information output terminal of second information recording / reproducing means, 10 is D / A conversion A reproducing information switching circuit 9 for selecting one of the reproduction information output from the first information recording / reproducing means 3 and the second information recording / reproducing means 6 and supplying the selected information to the D / A converter 10; Output terminal, 12
Denotes a control unit, 13 denotes an operation unit, and 14 denotes a display unit for displaying an operation state and the like of the apparatus.

First, the recording operation of a program (program) of the information recording / reproducing apparatus having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG. Here, it is assumed that a program A, which is a video signal accompanied by a three-hour audio, is input to the information input terminal 1. When the user inputs a recording start instruction of the program A to the information input terminal 1 from the operation unit 13, the input program A is first supplied to the A / D converter 2, which is an analog signal. In this case, the signal is converted into a digital signal and supplied to the first information recording / reproducing means 3 and the second information recording / reproducing means 6 at the same time. When the program A input from the information input terminal 1 is composed of a digital signal, the program A is converted by the A / D converter 2 into an A / D signal.
The data is supplied to the first information recording / reproducing means 3 and the second information recording / reproducing means 6 at the same time without being subjected to the conversion processing.

The recording operation of the first information recording / reproducing means 3 when the first information recording / reproducing means 3 includes a fixed medium such as a magnetic hard disk as a recording medium will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the first information recording / reproducing means includes a compression circuit 15, a recording buffer memory 16, a hard disk drive 17, and a management information buffer memory 1.
8, a reproduction buffer memory 19 and a decompression circuit 20. As the hard disk drive 17, for example, a drive having an information storage capacity of 20 GB and an information transfer rate of 60 Mbps can be used.

Information input terminal 4 of first information recording / reproducing means
Is supplied to the compression circuit 15 and is compressed according to the MPEG2 system. Since the information storage capacity of the hard disk drive 17 is sufficiently large, even if the transfer rate of video and audio information compressed and transferred by the compression circuit 15 is set to, for example, 14 Mbps at which high-quality and high-quality reproduction can be expected. , About 3 hours of program can be recorded.

As described above, the hard disk drive 1
7, the information transfer rate is 60 Mbps, and the compression circuit 1
5, the transfer rate of information compressed and transferred (14 Mb
ps) or more, the program A compressed by the compression circuit 15 is not directly written to the hard disk drive 17 but is temporarily stored in the recording buffer memory 16. 16
From the hard disk drive 17
Is written to.

When the compression circuit 15 compresses the program A, management information including information on a stream being recorded and information for searching for information written on a hard disk is generated. This management information is used later when the program A is reproduced by the first information recording / reproducing means 3. In the first embodiment, the management information is not immediately supplied to and recorded on the hard disk drive 17 immediately after the management information is generated, but is temporarily stored in the management information buffer memory 18. Is recorded in a predetermined management information area.

Next, the recording operation of the second information recording / reproducing means 6 when the second information recording / reproducing means 6 uses a portable medium such as a DVD-RW will be described with reference to FIG. . As shown in FIG. 3, the second information recording / reproducing means includes a compression circuit 21, a recording buffer memory 22, a rewritable D
It comprises a VD drive 23, a management information buffer memory 24, a reproduction buffer memory 25, and a decompression circuit 26. As the rewritable DVD drive 23, one having an information storage capacity of 4.7 GB and a transfer rate of 11.08 Mbps can be used.

The information input terminal 7 of the second information recording / reproducing means
Is supplied to the compression circuit 21 and is compressed according to the MPEG2 system. Rewriteable DV
Since the D drive 23 has a smaller information storage capacity and information transfer rate than the hard disk drive 17, the compression circuit 21
The average transfer rate of the video and audio information compressed and transferred in is set to 3 Mbps. It is difficult to say that this is an information transfer rate at which a sufficiently high image quality that can be satisfied by the user is expected. However, the compression processing in the compression circuit 21 is performed so that the information transfer rate of the compressed information is always constant. Some improvement can be achieved by using a so-called variable bit rate compression in which the information transfer rate is dynamically changed according to the characteristics of the image signal instead of the fixed bit rate compression.

The information transfer rate of the rewritable DVD drive 23 is 11.08 Mbps, which is at least 3.5 times the information transfer rate of information compressed by the compression circuit 21 (average 3 Mbps). Therefore, similar to the case of the hard disk drive 17 of the first information recording / reproducing means 3 described above,
The program A compressed by the compression circuit 21 is not stored continuously in the direct rewritable DVD drive 23 but is temporarily stored in the recording buffer memory 22.
The data is intermittently read from the recording buffer memory 22, transferred to the rewritable DVD drive 23, and written.

The compression circuit 15 of the first information recording / reproducing means 3
When the program A is compressed by the compression circuit 21 as in the case of
Management information including information for searching for information recorded on the medium is generated. This management information is used later when the program A is reproduced by the second information recording / reproducing means 6. In the first embodiment, the management information is not transferred to the rewritable DVD drive 23 and recorded immediately after the management information is generated, but is temporarily stored in the management information buffer memory 24. When it is decided to record and save on the DVD medium, it is recorded in a predetermined management information area of the DVD medium in accordance with an instruction from the user.

As described above, the program A input from the information input terminal 1 is recorded by the first information recording / reproducing means 3 at a high bit rate of 14 Mbps on the hard disk which is a fixed medium, Is recorded on an optical disk as a portable medium at an average bit rate of 3 Mbps. As described above, when the recording of the program A is completed, the management information on the program A recorded on the hard disk is read out from the management information buffer memory 18 and transferred to the hard disk drive 17, and the predetermined management information of the hard disk is Recorded in the area.

Next, the reproducing operation of the program A will be described. When an instruction to start reproduction of the program A is input from the user via the operation unit 13, the control unit 12 checks whether or not the instruction is the first instruction after the recording of the program A. In the case of (1), the control means 12 issues an instruction to start reproduction of the program A to the first recording / reproduction means 3 and selects the terminal a of the reproduction information switching circuit 9 to perform the first information recording / reproduction. Information output terminal 5 of means 3
Is supplied to the D / A converter 10. The first information recording / reproducing means 3 receiving the instruction from the control means 12 reads out the management information on the program A from the hard disk drive 17 and transfers it to the management information buffer memory 18. The first information recording / reproducing means 3 reproduces the program A with reference to the management information in the management information buffer memory 18 and transfers it to the reproduction buffer memory 19.

As described above, the information transfer rate of the hard disk drive 17 is 60 Mbps, which is four times or more the information transfer rate (14 Mbps) required for the decompression circuit 20 to continuously decompress the program A.
Therefore, the program A is intermittently reproduced from the hard disk drive 17 and temporarily stored in the reproduction buffer memory 19, and is continuously read from the reproduction buffer memory 19 at an information transfer rate of 14 Mbps, and
Is forwarded to Decompression circuit 20 converts program A to MPEG
The data is decompressed according to the two methods and transferred to the information output terminal 5 of the first information recording / reproducing means.

The program A output from the information output terminal 5 of the first information recording / reproducing means 3 is
Is forwarded to As described above, since the a-side terminal is selected in the reproduction information switching circuit 9, the program A is D / A
The signal is transferred to the converter 10 and converted from a digital signal to an analog signal. The program A converted into an analog signal is output from the information output terminal 11 to the outside. When a signal output to the outside is a digital signal, the program A is transferred to the information output terminal 11 without being subjected to D / A conversion processing by the D / A converter 10.

The program A supplied and recorded simultaneously to the hard disk drive 17 and the rewritable DVD drive 22 in this manner is the first information after the recording is completed, when the user issues a reproduction instruction for the first time. The program A is reproduced by the recording / reproducing means 3 at a high information transfer rate, and the user can watch the program A reproduced with high image quality and high sound quality. As described above, the management information relating to the program A is read from the hard disk and stored in the management information buffer memory 18 in advance. By using this management information, the user can search for a scene to be reproduced. Operation can also be performed.

Program A Recorded on Hard Disk
After the first reproduction or erasure is completed, the control means 1
2 displays such a message on the display means 14 in order to ask the user whether or not to store the program A. here,
The user determines whether or not the viewed program A is stored on a DVD medium.

When the user inputs an instruction to save the program A to the operation unit 13, the instruction is transferred to the control unit 12. The control means 12 reads the management information on the program A recorded in the rewritable DVD drive 23 from the management information buffer memory 24, transfers it to the rewritable DVD drive 23, and records it in a predetermined management information area of the DVD medium. Thereafter, the DVD medium is ejected from the rewritable DVD drive 23, and the user can obtain the DVD medium storing the program A.

When the user inputs an instruction not to save the program A to the operation unit 13 after the first reproduction or erasure of the program A recorded on the hard disk, the rewritable DVD drive 23 Is deleted from the management information buffer memory 24, and the DVD medium inserted in the rewritable DVD drive 23 is used for the next information recording.

Further, after the first reproduction of the program A from the hard disk drive 17 of the first information recording / reproducing means 3 is completed, the management information recorded in the management information area of the hard disk is automatically deleted. The hard disk in the hard disk drive 17 is used for the next information recording.

The DVD medium on which the program A is recorded is used when the user instructs to reproduce the program A again.
Thus, the program A is reproduced. The operation will be described below. When the DVD medium on which the program A is recorded is inserted into the rewritable DVD drive 23, the rewritable DVD drive 23 reads the management information on the program A and transfers it to the management information buffer memory 24.

When an instruction to start reproduction of the program A is input from the operation unit 13 by the user, the control unit 12
To the information recording / reproducing means 6 to start reproduction of the program A, select the b-side terminal of the reproduction information switching circuit 9, and output the program output from the information output terminal 8 of the second information recording / reproducing means. A is transferred to the D / A converter 10. The second receiving the instruction from the control means 12
The information recording / reproducing means 6 of the management information buffer memory 2
4 refers to the management information in the rewritable DVD drive 2
3 reproduces the program A recorded in the DVD medium and transfers it to the reproduction buffer memory 25.

As described above, the rewritable DVD
The information transfer rate of the drive 23 is 11.08 Mbps, which is 3.5 times or more the transfer rate (3 Mbps on average) required for the decompression circuit 26 to continuously decompress the program A. Therefore, program A is a rewritable DVD
The data is read out intermittently from the drive 23, temporarily stored in the reproduction buffer memory 25, and is continuously read from the reproduction buffer memory 25 at a transfer rate of 3 Mbps and transferred to the decompression circuit 26. The expansion circuit 26 is a program A
Is expanded in accordance with the MPEG2 system and transferred to the information output terminal 8 of the second information recording / reproducing means.

The program A output from the information output terminal 8 of the second information recording / reproducing means 6
Is forwarded to As described above, since the b-side terminal is selected in the reproduction information switching circuit 9, the program A is D / A
The signal is supplied to the converter 10 and converted from a digital signal to an analog signal. The program A converted to an analog signal is output from the information output terminal 11 to the outside. If the signal output to the outside is a digital signal, the program A is transferred to the information output terminal 11 without being subjected to D / A conversion processing by the D / A converter 10.

As described above, the program A, which is simultaneously supplied to the hard disk drive 17 and the rewritable DVD drive 23 and recorded, is supplied to the second information recording / reproducing means when the user issues a second or subsequent reproduction instruction. 6
, And the user can watch the program A again. As described above, since the management information relating to the program A is read from the DVD medium and stored in advance in the second management information buffer memory 24, the user can use this management information to play back the reproduced scene. Operations such as searching can be performed.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, when the recorded program is reproduced for the first time, the user can view the program with high image quality and high sound quality.
If the program is stored in a portable medium, the program can be viewed repeatedly. Further, when the user decides to save the program on the portable medium, the process of transferring the program to the portable medium while compressing the program again and recording the program as in the conventional device is unnecessary, and After the first playback of a program, recording on a portable medium is completed instantly by simply inputting a simple instruction to the apparatus, and the portable medium storing the program can be taken out of the apparatus directly.

In the first embodiment, when the recording of the program A on the hard disk is completed, the management information in the management information buffer memory 18 is recorded in a predetermined management information area of the hard disk. However, the management information may be used in a state of being recorded in the management information buffer memory 18 without being recorded on the hard disk. In this case, the reproduction of the program A recorded on the hard disk may be performed after the power of the apparatus is turned off and the power of the apparatus is turned on again after the recording operation of the program A is completed. It is preferable to use a type 18 which does not lose its stored contents even when the power is turned off.

In the first embodiment, the management information in the management information buffer memory 24 of the second information recording / reproducing means is stored in the management information area of the DVD medium according to the user's instruction after the recording of the program A is completed. Although recording is performed, when recording of program A is completed, DV
The management information may be recorded in the management information area of the D medium, and the management information may be erased from the DVD medium later when the user decides not to save the program A.

Further, in the first embodiment, all of the management information in the management information buffer memory 24 is stored in the program A
After the recording is completed, the information is recorded in the management information area of the DVD medium according to the user's instruction. It may be recorded in the management information area.

In the first embodiment, the rewritable DV
The management information relating to the program A read from the disk by the D drive 23 is stored in the management information buffer memory 24.
However, the read management information may be transferred to the hard disk drive 17 and recorded.

In the first embodiment, the first information recording / reproducing means 3 uses a magnetic hard disk drive, and the second information recording / reproducing means 6 uses a rewritable DVD drive. Alternatively, other types of disk recording / reproducing devices, such as recording / reproducing means including a semiconductor memory or a magneto-optical disk device, may be used.

Embodiment 2 In the first embodiment,
Hard disk drive 1 of first information recording / reproducing means 3
7, the management information recorded in the management information area of the hard disk is automatically erased after the first reproduction of the program A recorded in the hard disk. However, in the second embodiment described below, When the user instructs to reproduce the program A again by leaving the management information without automatically erasing it, and when the program A remains without being erased in the first information recording / reproducing means 3 Uses the management information to preferentially reproduce the program A from the first information recording / reproducing means 3.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the second embodiment, the input is the first information recording / reproducing means 3 and the second information recording / reproducing means 6
And the first embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a management information comparing unit 27 whose output is connected to the control unit 12 is provided. The management information comparing means 27 is composed of a microcomputer or the like, and compares the contents of the management information buffer memory 18 of the first information recording and reproducing means 3 and the contents of the management information buffer memory 24 of the second information recording and reproducing means 6 with each other. It has a function to compare. Other components are the same as those in FIG. 1 and will not be described again.

Since the information recording operation of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description is omitted. The features of the apparatus according to the second embodiment are an operation when a user gives an instruction to reproduce a recorded program for the first time and an operation when the user gives the instruction again.

When an instruction to start reproduction of the program A is input from the user via the operation unit 13, the control means 12 checks whether or not the instruction is the first instruction after the end of the recording of the program A. If this is the first time after the recording of the program A, the control means 12 instructs the first recording / reproducing means 3 to start reproducing the program A, and connects the a-side terminal of the reproduction information switching circuit 9 to the a terminal. Select the first
The program A output from the information output terminal 5 of the information recording / reproducing means is transferred to the D / A converter 10. Hereinafter, the operation up to the end of the first reproduction of the program A recorded on the hard disk is the same as that of the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted.

Program A Recorded on Hard Disk
After the first reproduction, the management information recorded in the management information area of the hard disk is left without being automatically deleted unlike the case of the first embodiment.
The control unit 12 displays a message on the display unit 14 to ask the user whether to store the program A. Here, the user sets the viewed program A to DVD
Decide whether to save it on the medium.

When the user inputs an instruction to save the program A to the operation unit 13, the instruction is transferred to the control unit 12. As in the case of the first embodiment, the control means 12 reads out the management information on the program A recorded in the rewritable DVD drive 23 from the management information buffer memory 24, transfers the management information to the rewritable DVD drive 23, and It is recorded in the management information area of the medium. Thereafter, the DVD medium is ejected from the rewritable DVD drive 23, and the user can obtain the DVD medium storing the program A.

When the user inputs an instruction not to save the program A to the operation unit 13, the rewritable DVD
The management information on the program A recorded in the drive 23 is erased from the management information buffer memory 24, and the DVD medium inserted in the rewritable DVD drive 23 is used for the next information recording. At the same time, the management information on the program A recorded in the management information area of the hard disk is also erased.
The hard disk in 7 is used for the next information recording.

Next, the operation when the user instructs to start the reproduction of the program A again will be described. When the DVD medium storing the program A is inserted into the DVD drive 23, the management information on the program A recorded on the hard disk is read out by the hard disk drive 17 and transferred to the management information buffer memory 18, and Then, the management information on the program A is read from the DVD medium by the rewritable DVD drive 23 and transferred to the management information buffer memory 24. Thereafter, when an instruction to start reproduction of the program A is input from the user via the operation unit 13, the control unit 12 instructs the management information comparison unit 27 to read the contents of the management information buffer memory 18 and the management information buffer memory. The user is instructed to compare with the contents of 24.

As a result of the comparison by the management information comparing means 27,
When the management information stored in the second management information buffer memory 24 matches the management information recorded in the management information buffer memory 18, the program A remains in the first information recording / reproducing means 3. So that
The control means 12 instructs the first information recording / reproducing means 3 to reproduce the program A, selects the a-side terminal of the reproduction information switching circuit 9, and outputs the information output from the first information recording / reproducing means. Program A output from terminal 5 is D
/ A converter 10. The first information recording / reproducing means 3 receiving the instruction from the control means 12,
The program A is reproduced from the hard disk by the hard disk drive 17 and transferred to the reproduction buffer memory 19. The following operation is the same as in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

On the other hand, as a result of the comparison, the management information in the management information buffer memory 24 and the management information buffer memory 18
If it does not match the management information in
Indicates that no information is left in the first information recording / reproducing means 3, the control means 12 instructs the second information recording / reproducing means 6 to reproduce the program A, Select the b-side terminal of the circuit 9 and
The program A output from the information output terminal 8 of the information recording / reproducing means is transferred to the D / A converter 10. The second information recording / reproducing means 6 having received the instruction from the control means 12 uses the rewritable DVD drive 23
The program A is reproduced from the D medium and transferred to the reproduction buffer memory 25. The following operation is the same as in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, when the recorded program is reproduced for the first time, the user can view the program with high image quality and high sound quality, and at the same time, the first information recording means. As long as the program remains, it can be repeatedly viewed with high image quality and high sound quality. If the user decides to save the program on a portable medium, similar to the first embodiment,
There is no need to compress the program again, transfer it to a rewritable DVD drive, and record it on a portable medium as in a conventional device, and the user inputs simple instructions to the device after the first playback of the program. By simply doing so, recording on the portable medium is completed instantly, and the portable medium on which the program has been recorded and stored can be directly taken out of the apparatus.

In the second embodiment, the management information comparing means 27 is configured as a means independent of the control section 13. However, if the microcomputer constituting the control section 12 has a sufficiently high capability, the control information 12 is controlled by the management information comparing section 27. Comparison means 27
Can also be used.

In the second embodiment, the operation of comparing the contents of the management information buffer memories 18 and 24 is performed after the user inputs a reproduction instruction of the program A to the operation unit 13. DV saved
D medium is inserted into the DVD drive 23, and a rewritable D
The management information on the program A is read from the VD drive 23 and transferred to the management information buffer memory 24, and the management information on the program recorded on the hard disk is read from the hard disk drive 17 and stored in the management information buffer memory 18. After being transferred,
This comparison operation may be performed immediately.

[0063]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, at the time of recording input information, the same input information is simultaneously supplied to the first and second information recording / reproducing means having different information transfer rates to record the same, respectively. At the time of reproducing the input information, if reproduction from the first information recording / reproducing means having a high information transfer rate is possible, this first information recording / reproducing means is preferentially selected, so that the recorded contents can be displayed in high quality. It is possible to reproduce with high sound quality, and at the same time, the input information can be stored in another second information recording / reproducing means.

According to the invention described in claim 2, claim 1
In addition to the effects of the invention described in (1), each of the first and second information recording / reproducing means can generate and store management information required for reproducing information.

According to the invention described in claim 3, according to claim 1
In addition to the effects of the invention described in (1), after the recorded contents are reproduced and confirmed by the first information recording / reproducing means, the user can transmit the recorded contents to the second information recording / reproducing means using a portable recording medium such as an optical disk. When storage is desired, the recording and storage on the portable recording medium can be completed instantly by a simple operation, and the optical disk storing the input information can be immediately taken out of the apparatus.

According to the invention described in claim 4, according to claim 2,
In addition to the effects of the invention described in (1), while recording the input information in the first information recording / reproducing means, it is also possible to simultaneously record the input information in the second information recording / reproducing means for storage,
If the user later decides not to save the input information, the management information is deleted from the second information recording / reproducing means, so that the second information recording / reproducing means is used immediately for the next recording / storage. be able to.

According to the invention described in claim 5, according to claim 3,
Or, in addition to the effect of the invention described in 4 above, when the recorded program is reproduced for the first time, the user can view it with high image quality and high sound quality, and uses the first information recording / reproducing means for recording the next program. be able to.

According to the invention described in claim 6, according to claim 3,
Or, in addition to the effect of the invention described in 4, the first information recording / reproducing means checks whether or not the input information remains in the first information recording / reproducing means.
It can be reproduced with high sound quality.

According to the invention of claim 7, according to claim 1,
In addition to the effects of the inventions described in any one of the above, the first information recording / reproducing means having a large capacity and a high transfer rate and the second information recording / reproducing means capable of exchanging a medium can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first information recording / reproducing means of the information recording / reproducing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second information recording / reproducing means of the information recording / reproducing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional information recording / reproducing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 1 information input terminal, 2 A / D converter, 3 first information recording / reproducing means, 4 information input terminal of 1st information recording / reproducing means, 5 information output terminal of 1st information recording / reproducing means, 6
Second information recording / reproducing means, 7 information input terminal of second information recording / reproducing means, 8 information output terminal of second information recording / reproducing means, 9 reproduction information switching circuit, 10D / A converter,
11 information output terminal, 12 control means, 13 operation unit,
14 display unit, 15 compression circuit, 16 recording buffer memory, 17 hard disk drive, 18 management information buffer memory, 19 reproduction buffer memory, 2
0 expansion circuit, 21 compression circuit, 22 buffer memory for recording, 23 rewritable DVD drive, 24 buffer memory for management information, 25 buffer memory for reproduction, 2
6 decompression circuit, 27 management information comparison means.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 7/24 (72) Inventor Yasuhiro Kiyose 2-3-2 Marunouchi 2-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (72) Inventor Yasuyuki Sato 2-3-2 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo F-term (reference) 5B065 BA03 CC08 CS04 5C052 AA04 AB04 CC03 CC11 DD04 5C059 KK33 MA00 SS12 SS13 TA75 TC37 TD03 TD11 UA02 UA05 UA32 5D044 AB05 AB07 BC01 BC04 CC04 DE14 DE27 DE49 GK07 GK11

Claims (7)

[Claims] A first information recording / reproducing means; and a second information recording / reproducing means having an information transfer rate and an information storage capacity smaller than the information transfer rate and the information storage capacity of the first information recording / reproducing means. In the information recording / reproducing apparatus, when recording the input information, the input information is compressed so that the average information transfer rate becomes the first value, and the compressed information is recorded in the first information recording / reproducing means. The information transfer rate is compressed so that it becomes a second value smaller than the first value, and is recorded in the second information recording / reproducing means. When the input information is reproduced, the first information recording / reproducing means has priority. An information recording / reproducing apparatus comprising a control unit for reproducing the input information. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said first and second information recording / reproducing means have means for generating and storing management information used for reproducing the input information when recording the input information. 2. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to 1. 3. After the reproduction or erasure of the input information by the first information recording / reproducing means is completed, when a command to store the input information is input from outside, a part or all of the management information is transferred to the first information recording / reproducing means. 3. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information is recorded on the second information recording / reproducing means. 4. When the recording of the input information in the first and second information recording / reproducing means is completed, the management information is recorded in the second information recording / reproducing means, and the first information recording is performed. After completion of reproduction or erasure of the input information by the reproduction means, when a command for erasing the input information is input from outside, erasing part or all of the management information from the second information recording / reproduction means. 3. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein: 5. After the recording of the input information to the first and second information recording / reproducing means is completed, when the reproduction command of the input information is input for the first time from outside, the first information recording / reproducing is performed. 5. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the input information is reproduced from a means, and thereafter, the management information is deleted from the first information recording / reproducing means. 6. When reproducing the input information, there is provided means for comparing management information recorded in the first and second information recording / reproducing means, respectively.
5. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said input information is reproduced from said information recording / reproducing means, and when the information does not match, said input information is reproduced from said second information recording / reproducing means. . 7. The first information recording / reproducing means is a magnetic disk device using a magnetic disk as a fixed recording medium, and the second information recording / reproducing means is an optical disk device using an optical disk as a portable recording medium. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein: