JP2008060771A - Video recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To appreciate a reproduction video with high quality, as much as possible, after video-recording by making every effort to perform high quality video-recording regardless of the designation of video-recording quality. <P>SOLUTION: A video-recording processing means performs low-quality video-recording and high-quality video-recording relative to the same video-recording object in a recording medium 12, on the conditions that the recordable remaining amount of the freely rewritable recording medium 12 is not less than the set amount. Consequently, even if the low-quality video-recording is designated when the video-recordable remaining amount is sufficiently large in the recording medium, the high-quality video-recording is also automatically performed. After the video-recording, a reproduction processing means preferentially reproduces and outputs the high-quality video-recording in the recording medium. Thus, the high-quality video-recording is reproduced and appreciated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention mainly relates to a video recording / reproducing apparatus provided with a rewritable large-capacity recording medium such as a hard disk device (HDD), and more particularly to a novel recording / reproducing process.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a video recording / reproducing apparatus provided with a rewritable large-capacity recording medium such as the HDD, there are so-called HDD recorders and composite recorders using HDDs and DVDs as recording media.

  In these video recording / reproducing apparatuses, the user can specify the recording image quality. Specifically, in the case of a digital video recording / reproducing apparatus in recent years, it is possible to specify the image quality of a plurality of modes (XP, SP, LP, EP, etc.) having different bit rates. Note that the bit rate decreases in the order of XP, SP, LP, and EP, and the image quality decreases.

  On the other hand, when recording is performed by specifying a high image quality, the bit rate increases correspondingly and the amount of recording information increases.

  Therefore, when recording the same program (content), high-quality recording such as the XP mode requires the disk capacity Ra schematically illustrated by the bar graph of FIG. 6A, whereas SP, LP, or EP. For low-quality recording such as mode. The disk capacity Rb (<Ra) schematically illustrated by the bar graph in FIG.

  In this case, as shown in FIG. 7A, for example, an HDD as a recording medium has already recorded only the hatched R1 with respect to the total recording capacity Rmax, and the remaining recordable remaining amount (disc remaining amount) R2 When the amount Ra is sufficiently larger than the required amount Ra of the high-quality recording, the user can designate the high-quality recording and record the program without any problem. However, as shown in FIG. If the diagonal line R3 is already recorded with respect to the capacity Rmax and the remaining recordable remaining capacity (remaining disk capacity) R4 is less than the required high-quality recording amount Ra, the capacity is insufficient even if the user designates high-quality recording. As a result, the program cannot be recorded in high quality.

  And since there is a fear that the desired program cannot be recorded due to such a lack of capacity, many users do not want to record and play the recorded program with high image quality. You may give up high-quality recording and specify low-quality recording.

In addition, when the user designates high-quality recording and performs scheduled recording, etc., the conventional apparatus calculates whether the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium is sufficient. In some cases, the image quality is lowered to record at low quality (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP-A-10-92106 (abstract, paragraphs [0078]-[0088], FIG. 1 etc.)

  As in the prior art, in recording, if high-quality recording is given up and low-quality recording is designated from the beginning, the recordable remaining amount R2 is sufficiently larger than the necessary amount Ra of high-quality recording as shown in FIG. In spite of the large number, an unwilling situation of recording a desired program with low image quality occurs, and there is a problem that the recorded program cannot be reproduced and viewed with high image quality.

  Also in the conventional apparatus of Patent Document 1, when recording is performed by specifying low image quality recording, an unwilling situation of recording a desired program with low image quality occurs as described above, and the same problem occurs.

  On the other hand, some high-quality recorded programs may be sufficient if they are stored with low image quality, but conventionally, high-quality recorded programs must be stored as they are, which reduces the remaining capacity of recording media such as HDDs. It is one of the causes.

  The present invention enables high-quality recording as much as possible regardless of the user-specified recording image quality so that a high-quality playback image can be viewed as much as possible after recording. It is also aimed to increase the remaining recordable amount of as much as possible.

  In order to achieve the above object, a video recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention includes a rewritable recording medium, a remaining amount calculating means for calculating a recordable remaining amount of the recording medium, and the recordable remaining amount being a set amount. Recording processing means for performing low-quality recording and high-quality recording of the same recording target on the recording medium on the condition that it is as described above, and playback processing means for preferentially reproducing and outputting the high-quality recording of the recording medium during playback (Claim 1).

  Also, the recording processing means of the video recording / playback apparatus of the present invention starts the high-quality recording preferentially at the start of recording, and performs the low-quality recording based on the high-quality recording after the high-quality recording ends. (Claim 2).

  Furthermore, the recording processing means of the video recording / playback apparatus of the present invention starts the low-quality recording and the high-quality recording simultaneously when recording starts, and the remaining amount calculated by the remaining amount calculating means decreases by a predetermined amount as recording progresses. After the amount is reduced to a limited amount, only the designated low-quality video recording is performed (claim 3).

  Also, the video recording / playback apparatus of the present invention erases the high-quality recording of the same recording target written together with the low-quality recording on the recording medium when the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium is insufficient. The recordable remaining amount is increased (claim 4).

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the recording processing means performs low-quality recording and high-quality recording of the same recording target (program) on condition that the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium is equal to or larger than the set amount. When the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium is sufficiently large, a desired program is automatically recorded on the recording medium with low image quality and high image quality even if the user designates low image quality recording. Then, after the recording, the playback processing unit preferentially plays back and outputs the high-quality video recording on the recording medium, so that the recorded program can be played back and viewed in high quality.

  Therefore, a new recording / playback process that has never existed before enables high-quality recording to be performed as much as possible regardless of the user's recording image quality specification so that a high-quality playback image can be viewed after recording. The performance of recording and reproduction can be remarkably improved.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the high-quality recording is performed first by starting the recording, and then the low-quality recording is performed by the bit rate conversion of the high-quality recording. It is possible to realize a low-quality recording and a high-quality recording of a program), and in particular, has the same effect as the invention of claim 1 with a configuration effective when the recording time is known in advance, such as a reserved recording. Can do.

  Furthermore, according to the invention of claim 3, when the low-quality recording and the high-quality recording of the same recording target are started simultaneously by the start of recording, and the calculated remaining amount of the remaining amount calculating means decreases as the recording progresses, the specified low By performing only image quality recording, low-quality recording and high-quality recording of the same recording target can be realized as much as possible, and the configuration is effective in real-time recording or the like in which the recording time is not known before recording. The same effects as those of the invention can be obtained.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first to third aspects of the invention, when the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium is insufficient, the recording medium user designates the low-quality recording as the recording target high-quality recording. (Recording) can be erased, and the low-quality recording can be prioritized as much as possible to increase the remaining recording capacity as much as possible, so that the shortage of the remaining recording can be solved, and the performance of recording and playback can be further improved. it can.

  Next, in order to describe the present invention in more detail, one embodiment thereof will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example of a video recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention comprising, for example, an HDD recorder, FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining recording thereof, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a recording list screen for selecting reproduction recording. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a recording state of the recording medium 12, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating another example of a recording state of the recording medium 12.

(Constitution)
The video recording / reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a main body device 1 and an operation unit 2 at hand of the user. The operation unit 2 includes a well-known infrared remote controller. The information of the key operated by the user is transmitted using infrared as a medium.

  Further, in the main unit 1, the operation determination unit 3 recognizes the type of key operated and the long press and single press of the key from the received key information, and displays various operation contents such as recording and playback of the user. The determination result is sent to the operation instruction unit 4.

  The operation instructing unit 4 generates various instruction signals for the operation according to the operation content based on the operation discrimination result from the operation unit 2 and the similar operation unit (main body operation unit) of the main body device 1 (not shown). Send to part 5.

  The overall control unit 5 includes the operation instruction unit 4, a recordable remaining amount calculation unit 6, a recording image quality setting unit 7, a recording type setting unit 8, a recording position display control unit 9, a recording control unit 10, a reproduction control unit 11, and the like. In addition, by executing a recording / playback processing program that is formed by a microcomputer and is set by the microcomputer based on power-on of the apparatus, various instruction signals of the operation instruction section 4, detection signals of sensors in each section in the apparatus, etc. Based on the above, the entire apparatus is controlled.

  Incidentally, the main unit 1 includes a large-capacity rewritable recording medium 12 made of an HDD or the like.

  At the time of recording, based on the recording control of the recording control unit 10, the content (program) to be recorded is compressed into an MPEG signal or the like by the recording processing unit 13 and recorded on the recording medium 12. Note that the content (program) to be recorded is analog or digital received content or externally input content of a television tuner (not shown) built into the apparatus that is input to the recording processing unit 13.

  At the time of reproduction, the content recorded on the recording medium 12 is reproduced by the reproduction processing unit 14 based on the reproduction control described later of the reproduction control unit 11.

  The content (program) to be recorded and reproduced is actually composed of video and audio, and the recording medium 12 writes the audio together with the video by recording to be recorded, but in the present embodiment, Only the video will be described.

  Next, in the present embodiment, for example, the above-described XP mode recording is set to high quality recording, and the LP mode recording is set to low quality recording.

  In addition, each recording on the recording medium 12 is classified with information of type (type = 0, 1, 2), and type 0 (type = 0) represents a recording with an image quality specified by the user, and type 1 (type). = 1) indicates high-quality recording when the user designates (desirs) low image quality. Type 2 (type = 2) is recorded (written) together with type 1 high-quality recording. Represents a recording.

  The recordable remaining amount calculating unit 6 forming the remaining amount calculating means 6 records the remaining recordable amount (unrecorded amount) of the recording medium (disk) from time to time by a known method from the title information of each recording of the recording medium 12 and the like. ).

  The recording image quality setting unit 7 sets the image quality of the video to be recorded based on the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 and the user's designation of the recording image quality.

  Further, the recording type setting unit 8 similarly sets the type of the video to be recorded based on the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 and the designation of the recording image quality of the user, and attaches the type set to the recording.

  On the other hand, based on a request from the user, the recording position display control unit 9 uses an on-screen display (OSD) for displaying the current recording state of the recording medium 12 as a bar, for example, from the calculation result of the recordable remaining amount calculation unit 6. ) Display information.

  Next, the recording control unit 10 that forms a recording processing unit together with the recording processing unit 13 determines that the recordable remaining amount of the recordable remaining amount calculating unit 6 is low-quality recording and high-quality recording of general content (program), for example. The recording medium 12 performs low-quality video recording and high-quality video recording on the recording medium 12 on the condition that it is a set amount that is several times as large as possible. The set amount may be a fixed value determined at the time of design or the like, but it is preferable that the user can freely variably set by operating the operation unit 2.

  In the case of this embodiment applied to reserved recording, it is confirmed before recording that the recordable remaining amount of the recordable remaining amount calculation unit 6 is equal to or more than the set amount, and priority is given to high-quality recording at the recording time. Then, after the end of the high-quality recording, the compressed video is generated by reducing the bit rate of the high-quality recording, and the low-quality recording is performed.

  By the way, when it is determined that at least high-quality recording is performed from the recordable remaining amount of the recordable remaining amount calculation unit 6 before recording, it is determined that the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 is insufficient. In addition, the high-quality recording of the same content written together is deleted, and the remaining recordable amount is increased.

  When the recordable remaining amount of the recordable remaining amount calculation unit 6 becomes equal to or larger than the set amount due to this increase, high-quality recording is preferentially started when the recording time comes.

  The reproduction control unit 11 that forms a reproduction processing unit together with the reproduction processing unit 14 preferentially reproduces and outputs the high-quality video recording of the selected content on the recording medium 12 based on the user's selection of the reproduction content. .

  Note that the monitor output of the recording processing unit 13 during recording and the playback output of the playback processing unit 14 during playback are supplied to a display device (not shown) connected to the main unit 1 via the screen display output unit 15. Displayed on the screen.

(Operation)
Based on the above configuration, the video recording / playback apparatus of FIG.

  That is, when the user operates the operation unit 2 to instruct reservation recording of desired content in step S1, the overall control unit 5 determines the recording medium 12 from the calculated remaining amount of the recordable remaining amount calculation unit 6 in steps S2 and S3. It is determined whether the recordable remaining amount is equal to or more than the set amount.

  If the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 is equal to or larger than the set amount, it is determined in step S4 whether or not the user has designated high-quality video recording. From S4 to step S5, when the reservation time comes, the recording processing unit 13 performs high-quality recording with the type 0 in the recording type setting unit 8 on the recording medium 12.

  Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S7 through the end operation of step S6, and the overall control unit 5 performs a predetermined recording end process to end the recording.

  On the other hand, if the user designates low-quality recording in step S4, the process proceeds from step S4 to step S8. When the reservation time comes, the recording processing unit 13 causes the recording type setting unit 8 to attach the type 1 image quality. Recording is performed on the recording medium 12, and then the process proceeds to step S9. Based on the high-quality recording, the recording type setting unit 8 performs low-quality recording of the same content with the type 2 on the recording medium 12.

  Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S7 through the end operation of step S6, and the overall control unit 5 performs a predetermined recording end process to end the recording.

  Therefore, when the remaining recordable amount of the recording medium 12 is sufficiently large, high-quality recording and low-quality recording of desired content are performed on the recording medium 12 even if the user designates low-quality recording.

  Next, when the user operates the operation unit 2 to instruct reservation recording of desired content in step S1, the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 is less than the set amount, and at least high-quality recording is performed. When it is determined that the remaining recordable amount of the medium 12 is insufficient, the process proceeds from step S3 to step S10 to determine whether or not the user designates high-quality recording.

  When low-quality video recording is designated, the process proceeds from step S10 to step S11, and only the low-quality video recording with type 0 is performed on the recording medium 12 by the recording type setting unit 8.

  Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S7 through the end operation of step S6, and the overall control unit 5 performs a predetermined recording end process to end the recording.

  On the other hand, when high-quality video recording is designated, the process proceeds from step S10 to step S12, and the recording processing unit 13 performs type 1 high-quality video recording of the same content written together with the low-quality video recording on the recording medium 12 ( It is determined whether the remaining recordable amount of the recording medium 12 is equal to or more than the set amount by searching for “recorded” and deleting the recorded recording (or each recorded recording searched so far). This determination is repeated until all of the type 1 recorded videos are searched.

  When the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 is equal to or larger than the set amount, the process proceeds from step S12 to step S13, and all the searched recording images are deleted to increase the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S14, and only the high-quality video recording with the type 0 is performed on the recording medium 12 by the recording type setting unit 8.

  Therefore, when the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 is insufficient and high-quality recording is difficult, the user of the recording medium 12 deletes the high-quality recording (already recorded) for which the low-quality recording is designated, It is possible to automatically increase the recordable remaining amount by giving priority to the preservation of image quality recording as much as possible, and to solve the shortage of the remaining recording amount and to record a new image with high image quality.

  Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S7 through the end operation of step S6, and the overall control unit 5 performs a predetermined recording end process to end the recording.

  Even if the recordable remaining amount of the recording medium 12 does not reach the set amount by the above search, the process proceeds from step S12 to step S15, and the recording type setting unit 8 performs low-quality recording with type 0. To 12.

  Next, when the recording medium 12 recorded as described above is played back, the playback processing unit 14 changes to a type 0 as shown in FIG. 4, for example, based on a playback recording list display command prior to the user playback command. Only the type 1 recording is searched from the recording medium 12, and the display output of the recording list screen P composed of the small window screens W1 to W6 is sent to the display device via the display output unit 15, and the recording list screen P is displayed on the screen. indicate.

  At this time, since the high-quality recording is displayed on the screen for which the low-quality recording and the high-quality recording are performed, the user selects the recording to be reproduced from the recording list screen P, and based on the selection. The playback processing unit 14 plays back the high-quality video recording with priority.

  Therefore, the user who has performed the recording by designating the low image quality recording can reproduce and view the recording with a higher image quality than the expected image quality.

  As described above, in the case of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4A, for example, as shown in FIG. If (disc remaining amount) R6 is equal to or larger than the set amount, even if the user designates low-quality recording, low-quality recording (slashed RL) and high-quality recording of the same content as shown in FIG. (Shaded RH) is performed, and then the high-quality recording is preferentially reproduced by reproduction, and the user can reproduce and view the recording with high image quality regardless of the setting of the recording image quality.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), when the recording medium 12 cannot perform high-quality recording next due to low-quality recording (shaded RL) and high-quality recording (shaded RH). The high-quality recording recorded by specifying 12 low-quality recordings is automatically deleted, the low-quality recording is preferentially saved for storage, and the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium 12 is increased. ), The following high-quality video recording can be made possible.

  Therefore, this is particularly effective when the recording time is known in advance, such as scheduled recording. Regardless of the user's recording image quality designation, high-quality recording is performed as much as possible, and viewing of high-quality playback images is possible after recording. Can be performed, and the performance of recording and reproduction can be remarkably improved.

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

  In the embodiment, the high-quality recording is performed first by starting the recording, and then the low-quality recording is performed by the bit rate conversion of the high-quality recording. However, the recording processing unit formed by the recording control unit 10 and the recording processing unit 13 simultaneously starts low-quality recording and high-quality recording by starting recording, and records remaining amount calculation unit by the progress of recording. After the calculated remaining amount of the remaining amount calculating means formed by 6 is reduced to a predetermined lower limit amount, only the designated low image quality recording is performed, and even when the low image quality recording is designated, the recording medium 12 has high image quality. Recording may be performed at the same time. In this case, the same effect can be obtained with a configuration effective for real-time recording or the like in which the recording time is not known before recording. .

  Next, the recording medium 12 may be a rewritable recording medium having various configurations, and the configurations of the remaining amount calculation unit, the recording processing unit, and the reproduction processing unit are not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment.

  The present invention can be applied to various video recording / reproducing apparatuses.

It is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the recording operation. It is explanatory drawing of an example of the recording list screen for reproduction recording selection same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of an example of the video recording state of a recording medium same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of the other example of the video recording state of a recording medium same as the above. It is explanatory drawing of the example of a capacity | capacitance of low image quality recording and high image quality recording. It is explanatory drawing of an example of the video recording state of the recording medium of a conventional apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

5 Total Control Unit 6 Recordable Remaining Amount Calculation Unit 7 Recording Image Quality Setting Unit 8 Recording Type Setting Unit 10 Recording Control Unit 11 Playback Control Unit 12 Recording Medium 13 Recording Processing Unit 14 Playback Processing Unit

Claims (4)

A rewritable recording medium, a remaining amount calculating means for calculating a recordable remaining amount of the recording medium, and a low-quality recording of the same recording target on the recording medium on condition that the remaining recordable amount is a set amount or more A video recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: recording processing means for performing high-quality video recording; and reproduction processing means for preferentially reproducing and outputting high-quality video recording on the recording medium during reproduction.   2. The recording processing unit according to claim 1, wherein the high-quality recording is preferentially started by starting recording, and the low-quality recording is performed based on the high-quality recording after the high-quality recording ends. Video recording / playback device.   The recording processing means starts the low-quality recording and the high-quality recording simultaneously at the start of recording, and is designated after the remaining amount calculated by the remaining amount calculating means is reduced to a predetermined lower limit amount by the progress of recording. 2. The video recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein only low-quality video recording is performed.   4. The video recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium is insufficient, the same recording target written together with the low-quality recording on the recording medium is recorded. A video recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein the high-quality video recording is erased to increase the recordable remaining amount.

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