JP2002027411A - Method and device for recording video signal, method and device for reproducing video signal, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To record video signal to allow play back from a position where a user can understand a content. SOLUTION: A frame containing a telop or face is detected in, for example, a news program. With the frame as a representative screen, a scene change point previous to the screen is specified as a reproduction start position for its thumbnail. Related to a method for detecting a scene change point, a brightness histogram for each field is acquired for the video signal of a pre-video signal processing circuit, and a scene change is decided to have occurred if a histogram differential value between frames, adjoining each other in time sequence, exceeds a certain threshold. Using this criterion, with past scene change points A, B, and C recorded, after a representative screen is detected a scene change point previous to that scene is recognized. Since the detected representative screen is G, the latest scene change point in the pest is C, and hence C is identified be a reproduction start position F.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video signal recording apparatus and method, a video signal reproducing apparatus and method, and a recording medium, for example, a video signal recording method suitable for reproducing recorded video signals from the middle. The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method, a video signal reproducing apparatus and a method, and a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When grasping the contents of a program or a program group recorded on a recording medium or performing a search, a plurality of reduced still images or moving images are displayed on a display screen and are referred to. Accordingly, there is a method of grasping the program contents and selecting a desired program or a scene in the program.

[0003] One of the representative image groups presented in this way is
When the user selects one, the reproduction has been started from the position on the screen.

[0004]

When the reproduction is started by the above-described method, it is difficult to know the contents of the image displayed on the screen. For example, when the selected screen is a news program and the announcer is If a scene is being read while a news is being read, there is a problem that the content of the news cannot be grasped if the reproduction is started from the scene.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to enable a user to reproduce a recorded video signal from a position where the user can grasp the content when reproducing the video signal from the middle. I do.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a video signal recording apparatus for detecting a representative screen symbolizing the contents of a series of recorded video signals, and determining a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen. Means, and recording means for recording the information of the representative screen and the information of the reproduction start position on the information recording medium.

[0007] The determining means may determine a scene change point immediately before the representative screen as a reproduction start position.

[0008] The determining means may determine the timing before the representative screen by a predetermined time as the reproduction start position.

[0009] The determining means may determine a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen based on a signal accompanying the video signal.

According to the video signal recording method of the present invention, a detecting step of detecting a representative screen symbolizing the contents of a series of recorded video signals, a determining step of determining a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen, Recording the information and the information of the reproduction start position on the information recording medium.

[0011] The program of the first recording medium of the present invention comprises:
A detecting step of detecting a representative screen symbolizing the contents of a series of recorded video signals; a determining step of determining a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen; and information of the representative screen and information of the reproduction start position on an information recording medium. Recording step of recording.

[0012] The video signal reproducing apparatus of the present invention comprises: a presenting means for presenting a representative screen to a user to prompt a selection; and a reading means for reading information on a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user from an information recording medium. Reproducing means for reproducing a video signal corresponding to the information of the reproduction start position read by the reading means.

The video signal reproducing method according to the present invention includes a presenting step of presenting a representative screen to the user to prompt the user to make a selection, and a reading step of reading out information on a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user from the information recording medium. And a reproducing step of reproducing a video signal corresponding to the information of the reproduction start position read in the processing of the reading step.

[0014] The program of the second recording medium of the present invention comprises:
A presentation step of presenting the representative screen to the user to prompt selection, a reading step of reading information on a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user from the information recording medium, and a reproduction start read in the processing of the reading step A reproducing step of reproducing a video signal corresponding to the position information.

In the video signal recording apparatus and method of the present invention, and the program of the first recording medium, a representative screen symbolizing the contents of a series of recorded video signals is detected.
The reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen is determined. Further, information of the representative screen and information of the reproduction start position are recorded on the information recording medium.

In the video signal reproducing apparatus and method of the present invention, and the program of the second recording medium, a representative screen is presented to the user to prompt selection, and a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user is designated. The information is read from the information recording medium, and the video signal is reproduced according to the read information of the reproduction start position.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A hard disk recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a hard disk recorder. The antenna 1 receives a television broadcast and supplies a received signal to the tuner 2.
The tuner 2 receives a program signal of a predetermined channel from the broadcast wave received signal from the antenna 1 based on a command from the system controller 31, and supplies the signal to the input switch 5.

An external device (not shown) inputs an S video signal (separated signal of a Y signal (luminance signal) and a C signal (color signal)) to a terminal a of the switch 9 via an external video input terminal 3-1. . In addition, the external device transmits a composite video signal via the external video input terminal 3-2 and an audio signal via the external audio input terminal 4 to the input switch 5 respectively.
To enter.

The input switch 5 is connected to the system controller 3
1, a desired signal is selected from the input video signal or audio signal, and the composite video signal is sent to the YC separation circuit 8 and the audio signal is sent to A / D (Analog to Digita).
l) Output to the converter 6 respectively.

The A / D converter 6 performs A / D conversion on the audio signal input from the input switch 5, and outputs an MPEG (Moving Picture Experter).
ts Group). The A / D converter 6 also supplies the A / D converted audio data to the terminal b of the switch 25. The MPEG audio encoder 7 performs a compression process on the audio data supplied from the A / D converter 6 in accordance with the MPEG system based on a command from the system controller 31, and outputs an audio elementary stream (ES: Elemen).
Tary Stream) is generated and supplied to the multiplexer / demultiplexer 14.

The YC separation circuit 8 separates the composite video signal input from the input switch 5 into a luminance signal (Y signal) and a chrominance signal (C signal) based on a command from the system controller 31, and a switch 9 NTSC via terminal b of
(National Television System Committee) Decoder 10
To supply. The switch 9 is connected to the system controller 31
When the S video signal from the external device is supplied to the NTSC decoder 10 in accordance with the instruction of
When supplying to the decoder 10, switching is performed to select the terminal b.

The NTSC decoder 10 performs an A / D conversion process, a chroma encoding process, and the like on the video signal input through the switch 9 based on a command from the system controller 31 to convert the video signal into a digital component video signal. The signal is converted into a signal (hereinafter, referred to as image data) and supplied to the pre-video signal processing circuit 12. NTSC decoder 10
Also, a clock is generated based on the horizontal synchronization signal of the input video signal, and a horizontal synchronization signal, a vertical synchronization signal, and a field discrimination signal obtained by synchronization separation are supplied to the synchronization signal control circuit 11.

The synchronizing signal control circuit 11 generates a clock and a synchronizing signal based on the horizontal synchronizing signal, the vertical synchronizing signal, and the field discriminating signal supplied from the NTSC decoder 10 based on a command from the system controller 31. Supply to each part.

The pre-video signal processing circuit 12 detects a representative screen by performing video signal processing such as a pre-filter on the image data supplied from the NTSC decoder 10 based on a command from the system controller 31. MPEG
Video encoder 13 and post video signal processing circuit 2
Supply 0. The MPEG video encoder 13 performs an encoding process such as a discrete cosine transform (DCT) on the image data supplied from the pre-video signal processing circuit 12 based on a command from the system controller 31, and Is generated and supplied to the multiplexer / demultiplexer 14.

Multiplexer / Demultiplexer 14
Performs multiplex processing of a video elementary stream, an audio elementary stream, and various control signals, which have been compressed in the MPEG format, based on a command from the system controller 31 at the time of recording.
Transport stream (TS: Transport St)
ream) and supplies it to the buffer controller 17. The multiplexer / demultiplexer 14 also demultiplexes the MPEG transport stream supplied from the buffer controller 17 during playback, and converts the transport stream into a packetized elementary stream (PES).
am) and supplies it to the MPEG AV decoder 19.

The buffer controller 17 converts the transport stream continuously supplied from the multiplexer / demultiplexer 14 into a hard disk drive (HDD: H
ard Disc Drive) 18 so that it can be supplied intermittently. For example, when the hard disk drive 18 is performing a seek operation, the transport stream cannot be written. Therefore, the transport stream is temporarily stored in the buffer, and when the writing becomes possible, the writing is performed at a rate higher than the input rate. Will be Thereby, the continuously input transport stream is recorded on the hard disk drive 18 without interruption.

The buffer controller 17 also outputs a signal intermittently input from the hard disk drive 18 to
The buffer control is performed so as to be continuous, and the continuous transport stream is supplied to the multiplexer / demultiplexer 14.

The hard disk drive 18 records a transport stream intermittently supplied from the buffer controller 17 at a predetermined address based on a command from the system controller 31. The hard disk drive 18 also seeks to a predetermined address, reads the transport stream recorded there,
It is supplied to the buffer controller 17.

The buffer controller 17 and the hard disk drive 18 use IDE (In) as a protocol.
Integrated Drive Electronics) is used, but the present invention is not limited to this as long as it can record a transport stream. MPEG AV decoder 19
Is the PES supplied from the multiplexer / demultiplexer 14 based on a command from the system controller 31.
Into a video elementary stream and an audio elementary stream, perform predetermined decoding processing, and convert the baseband image data into the post video signal processing circuit 20.
Then, the baseband audio data is supplied to the post audio signal processing circuit 24, respectively.

The post video signal processing circuit 20 switches between the video signal supplied from the pre video signal processing circuit 12 and the baseband video data supplied from the MPEG AV decoder 19, based on a command from the system controller 31. The signal is supplied to the on-screen display (On Screen Display) circuit 21 after being subjected to synthesis, synthesis, or filtering. The post video signal processing circuit 20 also generates an image display window (GUI: Graphic User Interface) and the like, generates a representative screen of the image data, pastes it on the window, and supplies it to the on-screen display circuit 21. I do. The on-screen display circuit 21 converts text information into corresponding image data based on a command from the system controller 31,
The data is superimposed on the image data supplied from the post video signal processing circuit 20 and supplied to the NTSC encoder 22. The NTSC encoder 22 converts the image data (component digital signal) supplied from the on-screen display circuit 21 into a Y signal and a C signal based on a command from the system controller 31, and then converts the converted D / A S video signal into a Y signal and a C signal. , Generate analog composite video signals,
Output to an external device via the external video output terminals 23-1 and 23-2.

The post audio signal processing circuit 24 performs filtering, fading, speech speed conversion and the like on the baseband audio data supplied from the MPEG AV decoder 19 based on a command from the system controller 31. And supplies it to the terminal a of the switch 25.

The switch 25 is connected to the system controller 3
When the audio data from the post audio signal processing circuit 24 is supplied to the D / A converter 26 based on the instruction of
And when the audio data from the A / D converter 6 is supplied to the D / A converter 26, the terminal b is switched. The D / A converter 26 performs D / A conversion on the audio data input via the switch 25 and outputs the data to an external device via an external audio output terminal 27.

The system controller 31 reads and executes a program stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 33 via a host bus 32, and controls each unit.
A RAM (Random Access Memory) 34 appropriately stores programs and data necessary for the system controller 31 to control each unit. System controller 3
1, the ROM 33 and the RAM 34 are connected to each other via the host bus 32, and are also connected to the input / output interface 35. A drive 36 is connected to the input / output interface 35, and a magnetic disk 41, an optical disk 42, a magneto-optical disk 43, a semiconductor memory 44, or the like is mounted. The input / output interface 35 also includes a keyboard,
An input unit 37 including a mouse, buttons, switches, a remote commander, and the like is connected.

The hard disk recorder can input and output not only analog signals but also digital data. For example, an IRD (Integrat
ed Receiver Decoder) converts the transport stream to IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electron
cs Engineers) Input the digital interface 15 from the digital input / output terminal 16 via the 1394 serial bus. The digital interface 15 performs interface processing based on a command from the system controller 31 and supplies the input transport stream to the multiplexer / demultiplexer 14. The multiplexer / demultiplexer 14 controls the digital interface 15 based on a command from the system controller 31.
The supplied transport stream is output to the buffer controller 17.

The multiplexer / demultiplexer 14 outputs the transport stream supplied from the buffer controller 17 to the digital interface 15. The digital interface 15 converts the transport stream input from the multiplexer / demultiplexer 14 from a digital input / output terminal 16 to an IEEE
The data is supplied to an external IRD via a 1394 serial bus, and is output and displayed on a monitor connected thereto.

In the example described above, the hard disk recorder and the IRD are connected. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to connect a personal computer or the like.

Although the description has been given of the case where the video signal is compressed by the MPEG method, the present invention is not limited to this, and another compression method or non-compression may be used.

In place of the hard disk drive 18, a recording medium such as an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a solid memory may be used.

Next, a recording process for allowing a user to select and reproduce a desired program or scene during reproduction will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Hereinafter, the position in the sense of the frame time to be displayed on the representative screen presented to the user is referred to as the “display position”, and the position in the sense of the frame time at which the reproduction is actually started when the user selects it is indicated as It will be referred to as "reproduction position".

In step S1, the pre-video signal processing circuit 12 determines whether or not a frame can be a representative screen. As a result, whether or not the frame is a representative screen is determined by, for example, comparing the value of the representative screen likeness obtained in step S1 with a threshold (step S2). Then, a reproduction position is specified for the display position (step S3). This specific method will be described later.

Then, the result, that is, the display position and the reproduction position of the representative screen are recorded in the hard disk drive 18 (step S4).

In step S5, it is determined whether or not the recording has been completed. If the recording has not been completed, the same processing is performed for the next frame.

Next, the processing when the user instructs the reproduction of the title using the representative screen will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the representative screens A to I of the title group recorded on the hard disk drive 18 are displayed in a list as shown in FIG. Step S1
In 1, the user moves the cursor to the title to be reproduced and selects it.

The selected title (for example, representative screen B
As shown in FIG. 5, a list (displaying the display positions) of a plurality of representative screens b1 to b5 included in the title is displayed for the title corresponding to. In step S12, the user moves the cursor and makes a selection according to the screen on which reproduction is to be started. The selected representative image (for example, the representative image b2) is highlighted and displayed.
The enlarged screen is also displayed.

In step S13, the reproduction position of the representative screen from which reproduction is to be started is read from the hard disk drive 18, and the reproduction position is obtained. Step S
In 14, the location where the stream necessary for starting the reproduction from the frame is detected from the position information of the frame, the data is read from the hard disk drive 18 and the reproduction is started.

By such processing, reproduction from the reproduction position corresponding to the display position of the representative screen can be started.

Here, two examples of the method of specifying the reproduction position in the processing in step S3 of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG.

A) Scene change point immediately before For example, in a news program, when a frame including a telop or face is detected and used as a representative screen, the scene change point immediately before the scene is set as the reproduction start position of the thumbnail. And specify. As a method of detecting a scene change point, the pre-video signal processing circuit 12 takes a luminance histogram of each field of a video signal, and detects a scene change when a histogram difference value between temporally arranged frames exceeds a certain threshold value. Try to determine that it has occurred.

When this judgment criterion is used, if the past scene change points A, B, and C are recorded, the scene change point immediately before the scene can be known after the representative screen is detected. In this case, since the detected representative screen is G, the past scene change point closest in time to that is C, which is the reproduction start position F.

B) A fixed time before There is also a method in which a position before a fixed time on the recorded representative screen is set as a reproduction start position. Pre-video signal processing circuit 12 during recording
Then, the reproduction start position of the obtained representative screen is set as a frame obtained by subtracting a fixed field time from the obtained position of the representative screen.

This can of course be set other than during recording. For example, at the end of recording, the representative screen information is read from the hard disk drive 18, and after the system controller 31 obtains the display frame position, a value obtained by subtracting the display frame position from the display frame position by a certain time or by a time calculated based on various parameters is used. Similar results can be obtained by writing back to the hard disk drive 18 as information accompanying the representative screen information as the reproduction start position.

Further, at the time of reproduction, the user is prompted to specify a reproduction start position.
Reproduction may be started as a reproduction start position using a value obtained by subtracting a predetermined time from the display position or a time calculated based on various parameters (such as a program genre).

Although the representative screen is detected at the time of recording in the present embodiment, it may be detected after the recording is completed. Specifically, after the recording is completed, the reproducing operation of the program is performed, and the representative picture is detected by the post video signal processing circuit 20 for the reproducing operation. This detection result is recorded on the hard disk drive 18. Even in this case,
It is possible for the user to select a representative screen and to play back from that location.

In the present embodiment, a method is described in which the display position is detected first, and the reproduction position is adjusted based on the display position so that the contents of the scene including the image can be easily grasped. The same effect can be obtained by first detecting the playback position that makes it easy to grasp the contents of the scene, and then recording a screen suitable for representing that content as a representative screen. Is clear.

Further, the user can arbitrarily set the representative screen. For example, during recording or reproduction of a program, a desired frame or frame group of the program is transmitted to the system controller 31 by operating a key of a remote controller, and the same is transmitted to the recording medium through the buffer controller 17 in the same manner as the feature point information. It can be realized by recording on the hard disk drive 18 which is

The playback position is automatically determined when the playback position of the representative image set in this way is, for example, a position before a predetermined time or a scene change point immediately before the set image.

Also in this case, as in the other embodiments, reproduction from a position where the contents of the selected image can be understood can be performed.

Further, in the present embodiment, the representative screen is detected based on the baseband level video signal. However, it is of course possible to acquire and interpret additional information of the compressed signal. . When the attribute of a frame or a frame group is transmitted superimposed on a video signal,
The representative screen is determined using the information. If there is information on the display position there, it is possible to use it. Even if there is information only on the reproduction position, it is possible to set the display position as described above, for example, after a certain time. .

Incidentally, the series of processes described above can be executed by hardware, but can also be executed by software. When a series of processing is executed by software, a program constituting the software can execute various functions by installing a computer built into dedicated hardware or installing various programs. It is installed from a recording medium into a possible general-purpose personal computer or the like.

As shown in FIG. 1, the recording medium is a magnetic disk 41 (including a floppy disk) on which a program is recorded and an optical disk 42 which are distributed separately from a computer to provide the program to a user.
(CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory), DVD (Digit
al Versatile Disc), magneto-optical disc 43 (M
D (including Mini Disc)), or a packaged medium including a semiconductor memory 44, as well as a ROM or a hard disk in which a program is recorded and provided to a user in a state of being incorporated in a computer in advance. It consists of.

In this specification, the steps for describing the program recorded on the recording medium are not limited to the processing performed in chronological order according to the described order, but are not necessarily performed in chronological order. Alternatively, it also includes individually executed processing.

In this specification, the system is
It represents the entire device composed of a plurality of devices.

[0066]

As described above, according to the video signal recording apparatus and method of the present invention and the program of the first recording medium, the reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen is determined, and the information and reproduction of the representative screen are determined. Since the information of the start position is recorded on the information recording medium, it is possible to record the video signal so that the user can reproduce the information from a position where the content can be grasped.

According to the video signal reproducing apparatus and method of the present invention and the program of the second recording medium, the information of the reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user is read from the information recording medium. Since the video signal is reproduced according to the information of the reproduction start position, it is possible to reproduce the video signal from a position where the user can grasp the content.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a hard disk recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the hard disk recorder during recording.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the hard disk recorder during reproduction.

FIG. 4 is an example of a display of a graphical user interface when a title is selected.

FIG. 5 is an example of a display of a graphical user interface when a reproduction start thumbnail is selected.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a method of determining a reproduction start time.

[Explanation of symbols]

12 pre-video signal processing circuit, 13 MPEG video encoder, 14 multiplexer / demultiplexer,
17 buffer controller, 18 hard disk drive, 19 MPEG AV decoder, 20 post video signal processing circuit, 21 on-screen display circuit, 24 post audio signal processing circuit, 31
System controller, 32 host bus, 33
ROM, 34 RAM, 36 drives, 41 magnetic disk, 42 optical disk, 43 magneto-optical disk,
44 semiconductor memory, 52 feature point detector, 53
Scene change detector, 54, 61 signal processing circuit,
62 memory, 71 signal processing circuit, 72 memory

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 5/781 H04N 5/781 510D 5/85 5/92 H 5/92 F term (reference) 5C052 AA03 AA20 AB02 AC08 CC11 DD04 EE03 5C053 FA23 GB06 GB09 GB11 GB37 HA30 JA22 5D044 AB07 BC01 CC04 DE23 EF05 FG19 GK08 GK12 5D110 AA13 AA29 CA05 CA44 CA45 CB06 CB07 DB02 DE06 EA08 FA09

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A video signal recording apparatus for recording a video signal on an information recording medium, comprising: detection means for detecting a representative screen symbolizing the contents of the recorded series of video signals; and a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen. A video signal recording apparatus comprising: a determination unit for determining the information of the representative screen and the information of the reproduction start position on the information recording medium. 2. The video signal recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining means determines a scene change point immediately before the representative screen as the reproduction start position. 3. The video signal recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines a timing earlier than the representative screen by a predetermined time as the reproduction start position. 4. The video signal recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen based on a signal accompanying the video signal. 5. A video signal recording method for a video signal recording apparatus for recording a video signal on an information recording medium, comprising: a detecting step of detecting a representative screen symbolizing the content of the series of recorded video signals; A video signal recording method, comprising: a determining step of determining a corresponding reproduction start position; and a recording step of recording information of the representative screen and information of the reproduction start position on the information recording medium. 6. A video signal recording program for recording a video signal on an information recording medium, comprising: a detection step of detecting a representative screen symbolizing the contents of a series of recorded video signals; And a recording step of recording the information of the representative screen and the information of the reproduction start position on the information recording medium. Recording media. 7. A video signal reproducing apparatus for reproducing a video signal recorded on an information recording medium together with information on a representative screen and information on a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen, wherein the representative screen is presented to a user. Presenting means for prompting the user to make a selection, reading means for reading information on the reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user from the information recording medium, and reading means for reading the information on the reproduction start position read by the reading means. And a reproducing unit for reproducing the video signal. 8. A video signal reproducing method of a video signal reproducing apparatus for reproducing a video signal recorded on an information recording medium together with information on a representative screen and information on a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen. Is presented to the user to prompt the user to make a selection; reading the information of the reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user from the information recording medium; and reading the information. A reproducing step of reproducing the video signal in accordance with the information on the reproduction start position. 9. A video signal reproducing program for reproducing a video signal recorded on an information recording medium together with information on a representative screen and information on a reproduction start position corresponding to the representative screen. A presenting step of presenting to the user and prompting a selection; a reading step of reading the information of the reproduction start position corresponding to the representative image selected by the user from the information recording medium; A reproducing step of reproducing the video signal corresponding to the information of the reproduction start position.