JP2006186663A - Video recording and reproduction device and video recording and reproduction method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it easy for a user to select a program out of a plurality of recorded programs by displaying the total number of video-recorded programs in series in an easy-to-see state. <P>SOLUTION: This video recording and reproducing device 1 has a program display means of displaying a plurality of video-recorded programs to let a user to select a program out of the plurality of video-recorded programs and a total series-program video recording number acquiring means of acquiring the total number of programs video-recorded as a series among the plurality of programs. The program display means displays a program including the total video recording number when a series program is displayed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing apparatus and a recording / reproducing method, and more particularly to a recording / reproducing apparatus and a recording / reproducing method for recording and reproducing a plurality of programs.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, recording / playback apparatuses capable of recording and playing back TV broadcast programs on a recording medium such as a hard disk device have been widely used. In such an apparatus, since the recorded data can be randomly accessed, when a plurality of programs are recorded, a list of recorded programs is displayed on the TV screen, and the user selects and plays back the program that the user wants to watch. be able to.

  Since the recording medium of such a recording / playback apparatus has a large storage capacity, when the number of recorded programs increases, the screen space for displaying the program list is limited in the operation of selecting the program to be viewed from the program list. Therefore, there are many operations for scrolling the so-called screen, which is complicated for the user. For example, even for a program that is recorded regularly, for example, a program that is recorded every day, the program list is displayed in order of date in the program list. Becomes complicated.

Therefore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-163916 proposes a technique for displaying the same kind of programs that are recorded every day in groups. According to the technology related to the proposal, by grouping, it is possible to continuously reproduce the same kind of programs simply by selecting the grouped titles.
JP 2004-133984 A

  However, according to the above proposal, the same kind of programs are simply grouped. The number of continuous programs, for example, programs recorded every week, is recorded by selecting the title of the group. I had to display a list of programs that I had.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording / reproducing apparatus and a recording / reproducing method for easily selecting a program by displaying the total number of recorded continuous programs in an easy-to-understand manner from a plurality of recorded programs.

  The recording / playback apparatus of the present invention is a recording / playback apparatus for recording and playing back a plurality of programs, and in order to allow a user to select a program from among the plurality of recorded programs, Program display means for displaying a program, and continuous program recording total number acquisition means for acquiring the total number of recorded programs recorded as continuous programs among the plurality of programs, wherein the program display means displays the program to be displayed Is the continuous program, the program display includes the total number of recordings.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily select a program by displaying the total number of recorded continuous programs in an easy-to-understand manner from a plurality of recorded programs.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
First, based on FIG. 1, the structure of the recording / reproducing apparatus concerning this Embodiment is demonstrated. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a recording / playback apparatus according to the present embodiment.
A recording / playback apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is, for example, a household device, and receives a television broadcast based on a user input unit 3 that receives a user operation signal from a remote controller 2 and a radio signal from an antenna 4. A tuner 5 that converts the video signal and audio signal from the tuner 5 into an MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) 2 format that can be recorded on the hard disk device 6, and MPEG2 format data recorded on the hard disk device 6. On the screen of the television 8, the decoder 9 for converting to video / audio and the current state of the recording / playback device 1 are displayed to the user so that display output and audio output can be performed on the television device (hereinafter simply referred to as television) 8. From an OSD (On Screen Display) display unit 10 for displaying on the screen, an image from the decoder 9 and an OSD display unit 10 from the OSD display unit 10 An overlay unit 11 for combining displays, a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 12 for controlling the recording / playback apparatus 1, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 13 in which a control program for the CPU 11 is recorded, It has a RAM (Random Access Memory) 14 used as a working memory, and a network interface (hereinafter referred to as N / W unit) 15 for connecting to a network such as the Internet. The user input unit 3, hard disk device 6, encoder 7, decoder 9, OSD display unit 10, CPU 12, ROM 13, RAM 14 and N / W unit 15 are connected to the bus 16.

  A television program (hereinafter also simply referred to as a program) received by the antenna 4 is recorded on the hard disk device 6 as a recording medium, that is, recorded. When the program received by the tuner 5 is an MPEG2 format signal, it is output directly from the tuner 5 to the bus 16 without going through the encoder 7.

  In the present embodiment, the N / W unit 15 is used for the recording / playback apparatus 1 to acquire EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data, which will be described later, from a network such as the Internet. You may acquire from the data contained in a television broadcast.

  The recording / playback apparatus 1 can record and play back data of a designated program on the hard disk device 6 in accordance with a recording reservation or direct recording instruction. In the present embodiment, recording reservation data, program display data, thumbnail image data, and program data main body are recorded in the hard disk device 6. Accordingly, the hard disk device 6 has a recording reservation data portion 6a, a program display data portion 6b, a thumbnail image data portion 6c, and a program data main body portion 6d as recording areas for recording these data. Note that the recording reservation data may be recorded in the flash memory. The recording reservation data and the program display data include the recording date and time (date, day of the week, recording start time, etc.), the channel to be recorded (or recorded), the program title, and the like. The thumbnail image is a still image when there is a recorded program. The program data main body is video data (including audio data; the same applies hereinafter) of a recorded broadcast program, and is data in MPEG2 format here. Details of these data will be described later.

  FIG. 2 shows a program selection screen for the recording / playback apparatus 1 to display a list of a plurality of programs recorded on the hard disk device 6 on the screen of the television apparatus 8 and to allow the user to select a program from the plurality of programs. It is a figure which shows the example of.

  The program selection screen 20 includes display of each program displayed corresponding to the recorded program. Each program display is displayed in line units in the present embodiment. Each row includes a thumbnail display unit 22, a recording date display unit 23, a recording time display unit 24, a channel display unit 25, a title display unit 26, and a total recording display unit 27 in the case of a continuous program.

  Note that a continuous program is a program that is broadcast regularly (for example, a continuous drama broadcasted at the same time every day from Monday to Saturday, a continuous drama broadcasted at the same time every day of the week), or the same or substantially the same time zone. Series programs that are broadcast on the TV program, programs that are common in time points (for example, specific performers, specific themes).

  The program selection screen shown in FIG. 2 allows a user to play back a recorded program, record a recorded program on a recording medium such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) (so-called burn), and view a recorded program that has been viewed. This is a screen that is displayed when various operations such as erasing are performed and allows the user to select the operation target, in other words, the processing target. For example, the user can operate the remote controller 2 to display the program selection screen of FIG. 2 on the screen, and select a program to be played, that is, a program to be watched, from the displayed recorded programs. When the user operates the remote controller 2, for example, to display a list of recorded programs on the recording / playback apparatus 1, the program selection screen 20 of FIG. 2 is displayed on the screen 21 of the television 8 as a so-called library display screen. Is displayed. As will be described later, when the CPU 12 executes a predetermined program stored in the ROM 13, program selection screen data is generated and displayed on the screen of the television 8 via the OSD display unit 10. The Therefore, the CPU 12 and its program constitute program display means for displaying the program selection screen 20, and each step of the program constitutes a program display step.

  The thumbnail display unit 22 is a part that displays an image obtained by reducing a still image when there is a recorded program. The total recording number display unit 27 is a part that displays predetermined display contents when the program to be displayed is a continuous program. In the total recording display unit 27, the right of the symbol “/” indicates the total number of recordings of the continuous program corresponding to the row, and the left of the symbol “/” is the oldest in the recording order of the continuous programs. It is a number indicating the ranking of recorded program data that has not been viewed. In other words, the left of the symbol “/” indicates the recording order of the oldest recorded program of the unreproduced continuous programs among the plurality of recorded continuous programs.

For example, in the program display 21A, “27/30” indicates that 30 consecutive programs are recorded in total, that is, the total number of recordings is “30” and the 27th recorded is unviewed. It is shown that. At the same time, it indicates that the 27th recorded continuous program is the oldest unviewed continuous program. Similarly, in the program display 21D, “02/04” indicates that a total of four consecutive programs are recorded, and the second recorded one is the oldest unviewed one. Is shown.
Note that the thumbnail image for a continuous program is the thumbnail image of the oldest program that has not been viewed. In FIG. 2, “27/30” is displayed on the number-of-records display 27 of the program A, so the thumbnail image of the 27th program is read from the thumbnail image data 6 c and displayed.
Therefore, the program display includes the content information of the program as described above, recording information, and the like, and further, when the program to be displayed is a continuous program, includes a predetermined display content in the recording total number display unit 27.

How the data of each display unit of the program selection screen 20 shown in FIG. 2 is generated will be described later.
Next, recording reservation data created at the time of recording reservation will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of recording reservation data. The recording reservation data is data generated as a result of the recording reservation operation performed by the user operating the remote controller 2, for example.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the recording reservation data 30 stored in the recording reservation data section 6a includes a reservation management identifier (hereinafter referred to as ID) 31, a recording date 32, a recording start time 33, and a recording end. The data includes time 34, program channel 35 to be recorded, program title 36, performer 37, ID (continuous program management ID) 38 when the program is a continuous program, and serial number 39 of the continuous program.

  The reservation management ID 31 is unique information that the recording / playback apparatus 1 automatically issues and gives when a recording reservation is made. The recording date 32, the recording start time 33, the recording end time 34, and the recording program channel 35 are input by operating the remote controller 2 or the like when making a recording reservation by the user, or an electronic program guide such as an EPG. The data of the program selected from among the above. Information on the program title 36 and the performer 37 is data written and selected from EPG data acquired from the Internet via the N / W unit 15 at the time of reservation. The continuous program management ID 38 and the serial number 39 are information automatically given by the recording / playback apparatus 1. The continuous program management ID 38 is unique information.

  The continuous program management ID 38 and serial number 39 will be described in detail. The recording / playback apparatus 1 assigns and writes the continuous program management ID 38 and the serial number 39 at the time of the user's recording reservation operation. The determination of whether to assign or write the continuous program management ID 38 and serial number 39 is, for example, the following four methods ( There are a) to (d).

  (A) When a user makes a recording reservation, for example, if a recording operation (hereinafter referred to as a periodic reservation) “record 3 channels from 7:00 to 7:30 every Sunday” is performed, the recording / playback apparatus 1 The continuous program management ID 38 is issued and assigned, and “1” is written as the serial number 39 that is the recording serial number of the continuous program.

  After that, when the recording / reproducing apparatus 1 performs recording based on the recording reservation data, the serial number data is incremented by one each time recording is performed.

  (B) Also, when the user makes a recording reservation, for example, when the user performs a reservation operation of “recording a channel at a specific time on a certain day”, the recording / playback apparatus 1 may Check if the channel was recorded, and if the same channel was recorded during the previous week, for example, on the screen of the TV 8 for confirmation to the user such as “What was recorded last week and what was the series?” Display a pop-up message.

  When the user performs a confirmation operation of “Yes” in response to this message, the recording / playback apparatus 1 does not provide the continuous program management ID 38 for the data recorded at the same time last week in the program display data described later. The continuous program management ID 38 is assigned, and “2” is written as the serial number 39 which is the recording serial number of the continuous program. At the same time, the same continuous program management ID 38 is given to the data recorded last week, and “1” is written as the serial number 39 which is the recording serial number of the continuous program.

  If the continuous program management ID 38 is assigned to the data recorded for the last week, the same ID as the continuous program management ID 38 of the program display data recorded at the same time last week is assigned, and one serial number data is provided. Write the incremented data.

  (C) When the user makes a recording reservation, for example, when the program title of the EPG data is the same as the program title in the program display data described later, The message for confirmation to the user is displayed, and the confirmation operation of (b) described above is performed by the user, so that the continuous program management ID 38 and the serial number 39 are assigned and written.

  (D) Further, when the user makes a recording reservation, for example, when the program title of the EPG data is not the same as the program title in the program display data described later but is similar, A confirmation message to the user “What is the thing and the series?” Is displayed, and the confirmation operation of (b) described above is made to be performed by the user, thereby giving and writing the continuous program management ID 38 and the serial number 39.

  The similarity between the titles can be determined, for example, by comparing the texts of the program titles, calculating the ratio of matching text characters to the total text, and determining whether or not it is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. If the ratio is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value, they are similar.

  By performing the processes (a) to (d) above, each data of the continuous program management ID 38 and serial number 39 in the recording reservation data 30 can be generated.

  The processes (b), (c), and (d) may be executed when the program recording is finished. Further, the processes (b), (c) and (d) are performed when the program selection screen 20 is displayed for the first time after a new program is recorded, or at an arbitrary time when the program selection screen is displayed. May be executed. If the processes (b), (c), and (d) can be executed when the program selection screen 20 is displayed for the first time after the end of program recording or after recording a new program, Even if they are different, there is an advantage that they can be grouped as a continuous program at the user's discretion.

  Furthermore, the processing for assigning and writing the above-described continuous program management ID 38 and serial number 39 is also performed by the program written in the ROM 13.

  Then, the recording / playback apparatus 1 performs program recording based on the recording reservation data shown in FIG. 3, and generates program display data when the recording ends. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the program display data. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a program display data generation process executed when the program recording process is completed.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the program display data 40 includes display management ID 41, recording date 42, recording start time 43, recording end time 44, recorded program channel 45, as metadata of each recorded program. The program title 46, the performer 47, the continuous program management ID 48, the serial number 49 of the continuous program, and the viewing status 50 indicating that the program was viewed by the user, that is, the video data of the recorded program was reproduced. Including.

  When the recording of the program data main body is completed, the recording / playback apparatus 1 executes the process of FIG. First, the recording / reproducing apparatus 1 executes program display data recording processing for recording each data of the program display data 40 of FIG. 4 in the program display data section 6b in the hard disk device 6 (step S1).

In this program display data recording process, each data is written as follows.
The display management ID 41 is information that the recording / playback apparatus 1 automatically issues and assigns. The display management ID 41 may be the same as the reservation management ID 31. The recording date 42, the recording start time 43, the recording end time 44, and the channel 45 of the recorded program are data copied from the recording reservation data 30 shown in FIG. Information on the program title 46 and the performer 47 is data selected and written from the latest EPG data acquired from the Internet via the N / W unit 15 at the end of recording (or at the start of recording). The continuous program management ID 48 and serial number 49 are data copied and written from the continuous program management ID 38 and serial number 39 of the recording reservation data 30 shown in FIG. As the data of the viewing status 50, for example, “not yet” data indicating unviewed is written.
In the viewing status data 50, when the video data of the program is reproduced, for example, “completed” data indicating that the program is viewed is written.

  Further, the recording / playback apparatus 1 associates the recorded program data body data, that is, video data recorded in the MPEG2 format with the program display data 40 of FIG. 4 (for example, with the display management ID 41). Video data recording processing for recording as recorded video data is executed in the program data main body 6d for recording video data in the hard disk device 6 (step S2).

Then, thumbnail image data of the recorded video data is generated and associated with the program display data 40 of FIG. 4 (for example, associated with the display management ID 41), and the thumbnail image data is stored in the thumbnail data portion 6c in the hard disk device 6. As a thumbnail image data recording process (step S3). Note that the thumbnail image may not be a screen at the start of recording a program, but may be a screen when a predetermined time has elapsed after the start of recording in consideration of a commercial broadcast time.
It should be noted that the order of processing in steps S1 to S3 can be variously changed.

  As described above, program display data is created and recorded for each program reserved for recording, and video data of the program reserved for recording is stored in a predetermined storage area of the hard disk device 6 of the recording / playback apparatus 1. It is recorded in association with the display data 40. The user performs various operations such as viewing (reproducing) the recorded program, burning the recorded program on a DVD, and erasing the viewed program. When performing such various operations, the program selection screen 20 of the screen 2 is displayed.

Next, a process in which the user operates the remote controller 2 to give an instruction to display the program selection screen 20 in FIG. 2 and the recording / playback apparatus 1 displays the program selection screen 20 on the screen of the television 8 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of display processing of a program selection screen. In the process of FIG. 6, each piece of data is sequentially read out from the program display data 40 and the following process is performed.
Note that the processing of FIG. 4 and the processing of FIG. 6 are performed by a program written in the ROM 13.

  For example, it is assumed that the program display data 40 is sorted in chronological order by recording start date and time, and is read in order, but first, the program display data of the first program, that is, the program with the older recording disclosure date and time is read (step S11). .

  The read program display data is checked for the presence or absence of data of the continuous program management ID 48 to determine whether or not the program is a continuous program (step S12). If the program is a continuous program, “YES” is determined in the step S12, and the program display data having the same data of the continuous program management ID 48 is searched (step S13).

  Next, the total number of recordings of the program display data of the searched continuous program, that is, the total number of recordings is calculated and acquired (step S14). The total number of recordings may be the number of program display data extracted by searching, or the largest number of serial numbers in the extracted program display data may be used as the total number of recordings. The total number of recordings of the continuous program may be acquired by any method.

Subsequently, the recording order of the program that has not been viewed and recorded the oldest in the searched program display data is calculated and acquired (step S15). Specifically, for example, the program display data with the display management ID “d00101” in FIG. 4 has the continuous program management ID “002”, and there are four other program display data with the same continuous program management ID ( That is, the total number of recordings is 4). When the second rank program is the oldest among the four unviewed programs, the rank of the oldest unviewed program is calculated as “2”.
Step S14 constitutes a recording total number acquisition means and a recording total number acquisition step, and step S15 constitutes a recording order acquisition means and a recording order acquisition step for acquiring the recording order of the oldest program among unreproduced continuous programs. To do.

  Then, the display data of the recording number display unit 27 in FIG. 2 is generated from the total number of recordings calculated in steps S14 and S15 and the number indicating the recording order of the oldest unviewed program (small number) (steps). S16). Specifically, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, the display data of the recording number display unit 27 uses the symbol “/” to indicate “(the oldest recorded program that has not been viewed. Data of recording order) / (total number of recordings) ”. In the example of FIG. 2, “02/04” has four continuous programs recorded with a continuous program management ID “002” in total, and the second video data is the oldest among the unviewed ones. It shows that.

  As described above, each row of the program selection screen 20 in FIG. 2 includes a thumbnail display unit 22, a recording date display unit 23, a recording time display unit 24, a channel display unit 25, a title display unit 26, and a continuous program. A recording number display unit 27 is included. Therefore, the recording / playback apparatus 1 generates program selection screen data constituting the program selection screen 20 (step S17). The program selection screen data is read from the thumbnail data section 6c for the display data of the thumbnail display section 22, and the display data of the recording date display section 23, the recording time display section 24, the channel display section 25 and the title display section 26 is displayed. The display data read from the program display data 40 in FIG. 4 and displayed in the recording number display unit 27 is the data generated in step S16.

  Note that the thumbnail image for a continuous program is the thumbnail image of the oldest program that has not been viewed. In FIG. 2, “27/30” is displayed on the recording number display unit 27 for the program A, so that the thumbnail image of the 27th program is read from the thumbnail image data unit 6 c.

  It is determined whether or not processing has been completed for all program display data (step S18). If processing has not been performed for all program display data, the result of step S18 is NO, and processing returns to step S11. When the process returns to step S11, the program display data next to the program display data 40 is read, and the processes from S12 to S18 are repeated.

  If NO in step S12, that is, if there is no continuous program management ID of the read program display data, the process proceeds to step S17. In this case, display data of the recording number display unit 27 in the program selection screen data of FIG. 2 is not created, and the recording number display unit 27 is not displayed on the program selection screen 20 of FIG. Items other than 27 are displayed.

  Note that nothing may be displayed on the number-of-records display unit 27, but a symbol “-” or the like may be displayed. Furthermore, in that case, “1/1” may be fixed data as display data of the recording number display unit 27, and “1/1” may be displayed on the program selection screen 20 of FIG.

  If NO in step S18, the process returns to step S11, and the next program display data of the program display data 40 is read. However, the program display data retrieved and extracted as the same continuous program in step S13 has already been Since it has been read by the search, it is skipped instead of being read in step S11, and the next program display data that has not yet been read is read.

  If YES in step S18, that is, if the processing from S11 to S18 is completed for all program display data, YES is determined in step S18, and the program selection screen data generated in step S17 is synthesized. Then, the program selection screen 20 of FIG. 2 is created and displayed on the screen of the television 8 (step S19).

  When displaying on the screen in step S19, for example, the program selection screen data is displayed side by side in order of the recording date and time.

  In FIG. 2, the program selection screen data are displayed side by side in order from the oldest recording date. The non-continuous program is displayed with the symbol “-” on the recording number display unit 27, and the non-continuous program is displayed with the symbol “/” on the recording number display unit 27. When the user views the number-of-records display section 27 on the program selection screen 20, the user can immediately understand which is a continuous program.

  In addition, since the symbol “/” is used in the recording number display section 27 and “recording order of the oldest recorded program that has not been viewed” / (total number of recordings) ”is displayed, the user can record. The total number can be understood immediately. Furthermore, it is possible to immediately understand the ranking of the oldest recorded program that has not been viewed.

  Specifically, in FIG. 2, the program A is a continuous program because “27/30” is displayed in the recording number display unit 27, and the user can record the total number of recorded continuous programs. Is “30”, and it can be easily understood that the rank of the oldest program that has not been viewed is “27”. Similarly, since “02/04” is displayed in the number-of-records display section 27, the program D is a continuous program, and the user has a total number of recordings of the continuous program of “4”. It can be readily understood that the rank of the oldest program that has not been viewed is “2”.

  As described above, when the user operates the remote controller 2 to instruct the recording / playback apparatus 1 to display the program selection screen shown in FIG. 2 in order to play back the recorded program, the recording / playback apparatus 1 The program selection screen 20 shown in FIG. 2 is generated using the display management data 40 and the thumbnail image data.

  In the process of FIG. 6, the total number of recordings and the rank of the oldest program that has not been viewed are acquired from the program display data of FIG. The data may be held as data and acquired by simply reading from the data.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of data in a case where continuous program related data is held separately. As shown in FIG. 7, the continuous program-related data 60 is metadata about a recorded continuous program, and includes a continuous program management ID 61, a total number of recordings 62, a program title 63, and the oldest program that has not been viewed. An unviewed rank 64 indicating the rank is included. Each data of the continuous program related data 60 is generated, changed, etc. according to the recording reservation process, the recording process, and the reproduction process.

A first modification of the program selection screen 20 will be described.
As for the continuous program, since the unviewed continuous program is searched in step S15, the number of unviewed continuous programs obtained as a result of the search, that is, the number of unreproduced continuous programs is displayed on the program selection screen. You may do it. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a program selection screen having an unviewed number display unit 27a for displaying the number of unviewed continuous programs. As shown in FIG. 8, in the program selection screen 20a, an unviewed number display section 27a is provided in the vicinity of the recorded number display section 27, and the unviewed number is displayed.

Next, a second modification of the program selection screen 20 will be described.
When the recording of the program data main body is completed, the recording / reproducing apparatus 1 records each data of the program display data 40 of FIG. 4 in the program display data section 6b in the hard disk device 6. At this time, the recorded program is recorded. The recording time and data capacity are combined and recorded as program display data. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of program display data including the recording time and data capacity data.

  As shown in FIG. 9, the program display data 40a also includes data of a recording time 51 and a data capacity 52 of the recorded program. In the program selection screen display process of FIG. 6, when the program selection screen data in step 17 is generated, the recording time or data capacity data is also created. The data is used when displaying a graph on the program selection screen.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a program selection screen including a graph proportional to the recording time or data capacity of each program. As shown in FIG. 10, on the program selection screen 20b, each program display includes a graph proportional to the recording time or data capacity of each program.

  In the case of FIG. 10, the program selection screen 20 b has a bar graph display unit 28. The bar graph display unit 28 displays a bar graph having a length proportional to the recording time or the data capacity for each program display. In the case of FIG. 10, the program display 21A indicates that 30 continuous programs are recorded in total, and further includes a bar graph display. You can intuitively know the program recording time or data capacity. In FIG. 10, the entire length L1 of the bar graph for the program display 21A and the length L2 of each program are displayed.

  Similarly, the program display 21B also includes a bar graph display, and the user can intuitively know the recording time or data capacity of the program by the total length of the bar. In FIG. 10, since the bar graph for the program display 21B is not a continuous program, only the entire length L3 is displayed.

  Note that the length of the bar graph is displayed in proportion to the data capacity rather than the recording time, that is, the file size, due to the difference in recording bit rate, even if the recording time is the same, the file size will be recorded. Since the occupation ratios of the program data in the recording medium are different, there is an advantage that the user can easily manage the capacity of the recording medium of the recording / playback apparatus 1.

  Therefore, the user can intuitively understand how much recording time or data capacity each program occupies in the recording / playback apparatus 1, so that the capacity of the hard disk device 6 is reduced, This graph display presents extremely useful information to the user when performing processing such as burning or erasing the DVD.

  As shown in FIG. 10, each bar graph of the bar graph display unit 28 is a display that expresses the depth such that each bar graph goes to one vanishing point. However, depending on the recording time or data capacity for each program display The graph is not limited to such a bar graph, and any graph may be used as long as the recording time or the data capacity can be grasped.

  In addition, in FIG. 10, you may utilize the side part of the depth direction of each bar graph as an information display part. For example, when the cursor is moved and moved to the position of the side portion, the side portion can be used as an information display portion so that detailed information of the program indicated by the cursor is displayed in a balloon. .

  In particular, in the case of a continuous program, if a serial number is displayed on the side surface, and the cursor is moved to a location on the side surface, detailed information on the program of the serial number indicated by the cursor is displayed. Alternatively, a balloon may be displayed. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example in which detailed information is displayed in a balloon on the side surface. In FIG. 11, information such as a program title and performers is displayed in a balloon 28a. Further, when the cursor is moved to the side portion to select the state and the playback button is pressed, for example, the program of that time is played back, so that the operability is further improved.

  Next, a method for using the program selection screen shown in FIG. When the program selection screen shown in FIG. 2 or the like is displayed, the user can perform screen scrolling, for example, by operating the operation buttons of the remote controller 2. Then, on the program selection screen, when the cursor is moved and a program display to be viewed is designated by the cursor and a button such as reproduction or deletion is pressed, the designated program is reproduced or deleted. In addition, a predetermined operation can be performed on the program designated by the cursor.

  For a continuous program, if the playback button or the like is pressed in the state where the program display of the continuous program you want to watch is specified by the cursor, the default display “Unviewed” The program with the "recording order of the oldest recorded program" is played back, deleted or the like.

At this time, the user can select a program for a continuous program in accordance with the following operation.
The continuous program includes a plurality of programs, and among them, an unviewed program is also included. Therefore, for the user, the continuous program is incremented or decremented in the order of the serial number, only the unviewed program is incremented or decremented in sequence, or only the serial number and only the unviewed program are incremented or decremented in order. It is convenient if you can do it. Each button of the remote controller 2, for example, keys such as “>”, “>>”, “<”, “<<”, and the like can be used.

  In FIG. 2, the cursor is moved to the display field of “recording order of the oldest recorded program that has not been viewed” in the recording number display section 27 of the program display 21D that is a continuous program. When the “>” key is pressed once, the display of the recording number display unit 27 is changed from “02/04” to “03/04”. Further, when the “>” key is continuously pressed, the display of the recording number display unit 27 is changed from “03/04” to “04/04”, from “04/04” to “01/04”, “01/04” is changed to “02/04”. In the case of the “<” key, the “recording order of the oldest recorded program that has not been viewed” is decremented in the order of the serial number.

  In addition, when only the second and fourth times are unviewed in the continuous program of the program display 21D, the display of “recording order of the oldest recorded program among the unviewed” is similarly displayed on the recording number display unit 27. When the cursor is moved to the field and applied, and the “>>” key is pressed once in this state, the display on the recording number display section 27 is changed from “02/04” to “04/04”. Further, when the “>>” key is continuously pressed, the display of the recording number display unit 27 is changed from “04/04” to “02/04”, and further from “02/04” to “04/04”. It will be changed. In the case of the “<<” key, the “recording order of the oldest recorded program among the unviewed” is decremented in the order of the serial number of the unviewed one.

  It should be noted that when a “>>” or “<<” key is pressed, an unviewed program may be skipped instead of skipping a viewed program. For example, if you press the “<<” or “>>” key while a program that has already been viewed is displayed, the program will skip the program that has not been viewed. The program may be skipped.

  As shown in FIG. 12, an unviewed display unit 27 b indicating that the selected program has not been viewed may be provided in the vicinity of the recorded number display unit 27. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a program selection screen having an unviewed display part 27b. As shown in FIG. 12, in the program selection screen 20c, an unviewed display unit 27b is provided in the vicinity of the recording number display unit 27, and it is displayed that the selected program is not viewed. Therefore, when the display of the recording number display unit 27 is changed using the “>” and “<” keys, the user can easily grasp which is not viewed.

  In FIG. 12, the character “unviewed” indicates that the selected program, here the program whose rank is displayed, is not viewed, but it is not a character but the entire recording number display unit 27. Or you may make it display that it is unviewing by changing the color of a one part display.

  Furthermore, when a predetermined key on the remote controller 2 is pressed, the program may jump to the latest program among the recorded programs. In this case, for example, when “27/30” is displayed on the recording number display unit 27 and the predetermined key is pressed, “30/30” is displayed on the recording number display unit 27. The latest program can be selected.

  As described above, the cursor is moved to the display field of “recording order of the oldest recorded program that has not been viewed” in the recording number display section 27 of the program display 21D, and a predetermined operation is performed in that state. As for a continuous program, since it can be incremented or decremented in the order of serial numbers, or only unviewed ones can be incremented or decremented in order, the operability is good for the user.

  Further, when the remote control 2 is assigned with a function of “select all” to a predetermined key and the program display of the continuous program is designated by the cursor, when the predetermined key is pressed, all the continuous programs are set as operation targets. It may be possible to select and perform processing such as reproduction, dubbing, and deletion.

  As described above, according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the total number of recorded continuous programs is displayed on the program selection screen from among a plurality of programs recorded on the hard disk device as a recording medium, the user can , You can easily see how many continuous programs are recorded.

  In addition, since the ranking of the oldest unviewed program is displayed on the program selection screen, the user can easily understand and select the oldest unviewed program. .

  In the above embodiment, a hard disk device is used as a recording medium for recording a program. However, a recording or storage device such as a DVD or a semiconductor memory may be used.

  The program for executing the operations described above is recorded or stored in whole or in part on a portable medium such as a floppy disk, CD-ROM, or a storage device such as a hard disk. Yes. The program is read by a computer, and all or part of the operation is executed. Alternatively, all or part of the program can be distributed or provided via a communication network. The user can easily realize the recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention by downloading the program via a communication network and installing the program on the computer, or installing the program from the recording medium to the computer.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

  The present invention can be applied not only to a home-use recording / playback apparatus but also to a non-home-use apparatus.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the video recording / reproducing apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the program selection screen concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the video recording reservation data concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of program display data. It is a flowchart which shows the example of a program display data generation process. It is a flowchart which shows the example of the flow of a display process of a program selection screen. It is a figure which shows the example of the data in the case of hold | maintaining continuous program relevant data separately. It is a figure which shows the example of the program selection screen which has an unviewed number display part which displays the unviewed number of continuous programs. It is a figure which shows the example of the program display data also including data of recording time and data capacity. It is a figure which shows the example of the program selection screen containing the graph proportional to the recording time or data capacity of each program. It is a figure which shows the example at the time of displaying detailed information by balloon in the side part of a bar graph. It is a figure which shows the example of the program selection screen which has a non-viewing display part.

Explanation of symbols

1 Recorder / Playback Device, 4 Antenna, 16 Bus, 20, 20a, 20b, 20c Program Selection Screen Agent Patent Attorney Susumu Ito

Claims (5)

A recording / playback device for recording and playing back a plurality of programs,
Program display means for displaying a program of the plurality of recorded programs in order to allow a user to select a program from the plurality of recorded programs;
A continuous program recording total number acquisition means for acquiring a total recording number of programs recorded as a continuous program among the plurality of programs;
The recording / playback apparatus, wherein when the program to be displayed is the continuous program, the program display means displays the program display including the total number of recordings.   When the program to be displayed is the continuous program, the program display means includes the recording order of the oldest recorded program of the unreproduced continuous program in the recorded continuous program in the program display. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording / reproducing apparatus displays.   The program display means, when the program to be displayed is the continuous program, displays the number of the unreproduced continuous programs in the recorded continuous programs, including the number of the continuous programs included in the program display. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.   4. The program display unit according to claim 1, wherein the program display means displays a graph proportional to a recording time or a data capacity of each of the plurality of recorded programs in the program display. Recording and playback device. A recording and playback method for recording and playing back a plurality of programs,
A program display step for displaying a program of the plurality of recorded programs in order to allow a user to select a program from the plurality of recorded programs;
A continuous program recording total number acquisition step of acquiring a total recording number of programs recorded as a continuous program among the plurality of programs,
The recording / reproducing method, wherein the program display means displays when the program to be displayed is the continuous program, including the total number of recordings in the program display.

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