JP4378682B2 - Recording / reproducing apparatus and recording reservation method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention performs recording reservation of a video signal recording / reproducing apparatus having an Internet connection function by electronic mail (hereinafter referred to as E-mail) from a user's control terminal such as a mobile phone or a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as personal computer). The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing apparatus and a recording reservation method applied to a recording reservation system by e-mail.

  FIG. 8 is an overall configuration diagram for explaining the outline of the recording reservation system by e-mail, and shows a necessary Internet connection environment as a block diagram. In the recording reservation system by e-mail shown in FIG. 8, the configuration within the broken line on the left side indicates a constantly connected environment at home, and a video recorder 10 with Ethernet (R) function as a recording / reproducing apparatus (hereinafter simply referred to as a video recorder). , Broadband access router 11, ADSL modem (or CATV modem) 12, connected to provider 20 via ADSL, cable TV (CATV), optical fiber, etc., and always connected to Internet 30 via provider 20 Has been. In this specification, since the video recorder used as the recording / reproducing apparatus does not limit the recording medium, a hard disk recorder, a video disk recorder, etc. are generically named. In FIG. 8, the recording / reproducing apparatus is referred to as Ethernet (R ) It is described as a function-equipped video recorder.

  This video recorder 10 has an e-mail transmission / reception function and has a unique e-mail address. The video recorder 10 periodically inquires the mail server 40 that manages the mail address placed on the Internet 30, receives the mail if it has arrived, and creates an email if necessary. You can also send it.

  In FIG. 8, the configuration on the right side includes a personal computer 51 having an Internet connection function and a control terminal (personal computer 51, mobile phone 52, etc.) possessed by a user such as a mobile phone 52 indicating a device in the broken line. These control terminals 50 simply access the recording reservation site 70 connected to the Internet 30 and select a program to be recorded from the program guide. A mail (hereinafter referred to as a recording reservation mail) is automatically transmitted from 70 to a mail address designated in advance (here, the mail address of the video recorder 10). Note that the mobile phone 52 is connected to the Internet 30 via a wireless base station 61, an exchange 62 such as an i-mode (R) center, and a router 63.

  In the recording reservation mail transmitted from the recording reservation site 70, the broadcast date, start time, end time, broadcast station, program title, etc. of the program as recording information necessary for setting the recording reservation of the recorder are described. . The recording reservation mail transmitted from the recording reservation site 70 is temporarily stored in the mail server 40. On the other hand, the video recorder 10 periodically inquires the mail server 40 and receives an email. In the case of a recording reservation email, the video recorder 10 takes out the recording information from the email text and sets the recording reservation for the program. Then, an e-mail notifying whether the reservation is successful or unsuccessful is created and sent back to the personal computer 51 or the control terminal 50 of the mobile phone 52.

  In addition to the recording reservation, the recording reservation site 70 can be requested to delete a reservation or acquire a reservation list. When a reservation list request is instructed, a reservation list request mail is sent to the video recorder 10. Receiving this, the video recorder 10 creates a list of the current reservation status and transmits it to the control terminal 50 of the personal computer 51 or the mobile phone 52. The above is the outline of the e-mail recording reservation system.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the video recorder 10 with Ethernet (R) function. As shown in FIG. 9, an Ethernet (R) function-equipped video recorder 10 mainly includes a video signal recording / reproducing circuit 101 for recording / reproducing with respect to a recording medium, a system control circuit 102 for performing recording / reproducing control, and E It comprises an Ethernet (R) circuit 103 for receiving mail. The data flow is briefly described below. The video signal input to the video signal recording / reproducing circuit 101 is converted into digital data by an A / D converter (including a sync separator, a synchronizing circuit, etc.) 101a, and then compressed by the compression / decompression circuit 101b such as MPEG1 or MPEG2. It is encoded by the compression method and sent to the video data recording / reproducing circuit 101c.

  On the other hand, the system control circuit 102 receives information from a user interface (such as a recording button or a playback button on an exterior panel or a remote control), and sends a mode signal such as recording or playback to the video data recording / playback circuit 101c as a control signal. Upon receiving such a mode signal, the video data recording / reproducing circuit 101c records it on a recording medium 104 (in this proposal, a recording medium such as a hard disk, an optical disk, a magnetic tape, or a memory is not limited). The reverse process is performed during reproduction.

  The system control circuit 102 is connected to the CPU bus and manages timer recording reservation by software operating on the CPU 105. The Ethernet (R) circuit 103 is also connected to the CPU bus, and the text data of the e-mail received by the Ethernet (R) is sent from the Ethernet (R) circuit 103 to the CPU 105 via the CPU bus. On the CPU 105, software (described later) is operating, and using the memory (SRAM, DRAM, etc.) 106 in the figure, e-mail transmission / reception and recording reservation management are performed.

  Next, the configuration and operation of software will be described. Here, software that runs on the CPU 105 will be described. FIG. 10 is a diagram hierarchically showing the configuration of software that is arranged on the lower side and operates on the hardware. In the Ethernet (R) circuit 103 in the hardware layer, an Ethernet (R) driver 103a is operating, and an Ethernet (R) controller LSI (not shown) in the Ethernet (R) circuit 103 is connected via a CPU bus. Data is read and written to transmit and receive Ethernet (R) packets.

  On the Ethernet (R) driver 103a, an IP (Internet Protocol) 110 and a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) 111, which are standard protocols used on the Internet, are placed, and an e-mail is received thereon. Protocols such as POP3 (Post Office Protocol Version 3) 112 and STMP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) 113 for transmitting e-mail are implemented. Further, an application for managing mail transmission / reception (hereinafter referred to as mail manager) is operating in the upper layer, and mail transmission / reception is realized by calling functions of POP3 and STMP.

  The mail manager 114 exchanges recording reservation information with an application 115 (hereinafter referred to as a reservation manager) that manages timer recording reservations in the same hierarchy. Below the reservation manager 115 is a system control manager 116, which controls the system control circuit 102 to send a mode signal to the video data recording / reproducing circuit 101 to perform instructions such as recording / reproduction.

  The operation of recording reservation by e-mail will be described below. The mail manager 114 periodically accesses the mail server 40 and receives mail addressed to itself. The mail manager 114 calls POP3 112, specifies a mail server name and a port number (110), and establishes a connection by TCP111 / IP110. The POP3 112 transmits a POP3 command to the mail server 40 to acquire the number and size of mails, and then receives the mail header and text. The mail manager 114 analyzes the content of the mail text, and if it is a recording reservation mail, extracts the recording reservation information and inquires of the reservation manager 115 whether there is any overlap in the reservation time zone.

  The reservation manager 115 checks the reservation list, and if the reservation is not duplicated, instructs the system control manager 116 to make a recording reservation, and notifies the mail manager 114 that the reservation is permitted. To do. When the recording reservation is permitted, the mail manager 114 calls the STMP 113 in order to send an email notifying the user that the reservation has been completed (hereinafter referred to as a reservation completion mail). In STMP 113, a mail server name and a port number (No. 25) are specified to establish a connection by TCP111 / IP110, an STMP command is transmitted to mail server 40, and a mail header, text, etc. are transmitted in order.

  Further, if the reservation is not permitted due to overlapping time zones, the mail manager 114 creates a mail notifying that the reservation has failed (hereinafter referred to as a reservation failure mail), and similarly calls the STMP 113 and transmits it. The above is the operation of the software in the recording reservation by e-mail.

  Further, as a prior art, there is a recording reservation system that provides consistency between a reservation status in a recording apparatus and a reservation setting request by a terminal when a recording reservation is performed remotely from a remote place (see, for example, Patent Document 1 below). .

JP 2002-158951 A (FIGS. 1 to 3)

However, in the above-described prior art, the following problems occur when a plurality of users make a recording reservation by e-mail for one video recorder 10.
(1) If a program that should have been reserved is deleted by another user without knowing it, recording cannot be performed.
(2) If other users have reserved different programs in the same time zone, their own reservation cannot be set.
These mainly occur when reservation resources compete between users.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the conventional problems, and by limiting the users who are allowed to make a mail reservation by address, a recording / reproducing apparatus capable of preventing a reservation from being deleted or modified by another user, and An object is to provide a recording reservation method .

The recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is a table in which a user ID and a reservation permission e-mail address of the control terminal are associated with each other in a recording / reproducing apparatus that makes a recording reservation based on an e-mail transmitted from a control terminal that can be connected to the Internet. When the recording reservation mail is received from the control terminal, the transmission source mail address is extracted, and the extracted transmission source mail address is registered as the reservation permission mail address in the table, Recording reservation information is acquired from the recording reservation mail, and when the recording reservation time zone does not overlap with other recording reservations already permitted for recording reservation based on the acquired recording reservation information, it is based on the recording reservation information. with to allow recording reservation, adding Ruyu over the ID to correspond to the source e-mail address in the recording reservation information Save Te, while transmitting the reservation completion mail to the sender mail address, the reservation and time zones overlap, and the user ID corresponding to the transmission source mail address, corresponding to said another recording reservation When the user ID added to the recording reservation information to be transmitted is different from the recording reservation information corresponding to the other recording reservations, an email notifying the reservation duplication is transmitted to the transmission source mail address. And a control means for transmitting a mail notifying that a reservation has been received from a control terminal of another user ID to the reservation permission mail address associated with the user ID.

In addition, the control means can only record the recording reservation by a recording reservation mail from the control terminal of a reservation permission mail address associated with the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the recording reservation. Allows modification and deletion .

Further, the recording reservation method according to the present application is a recording reservation method executed by a recording / reproducing apparatus that performs recording reservation based on an e-mail transmitted from a control terminal capable of connecting to the Internet. A first step of storing a table in which a mail address is associated with the storage unit; and a transmission source mail address is extracted when receiving a recording reservation mail from the control terminal, and the extracted transmission source mail address is the table Is registered as the reservation permission e-mail address, the recording reservation information is acquired from the recording reservation mail, and other recording reservations and reservation time zones in which the recording reservation based on the acquired recording reservation information is already permitted are obtained. If there is no duplication, the recording reservation based on the recording reservation information is permitted, and the sender email address Save the corresponding be Ruyu over The ID in addition to the recording reservation information, while transmitting a reservation completion mail to the sender mail address, the reservation time zone has been duplicated, and, the source e-mail When the user ID corresponding to the address is different from the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the other recording reservation, an email notifying the reservation duplication is sent to the sender email address, An e-mail notifying that a reservation has been made from the control terminal of another user ID to the reservation permission e-mail address associated with the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the other recording reservation. And a second step of transmitting.

In the second step, the recording is performed only by the recording reservation mail from the control terminal of the reservation permission mail address associated with the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the recording reservation. Revisions and deletions of reservations are permitted .

The recording / reproducing apparatus and the recording reservation method of the present invention can prevent a reservation from being deleted or modified by another user by limiting the users who are permitted to make a mail reservation by address. In addition, by setting an administrator for each reservation, it is possible to prevent other users' reservations from being deleted or corrected by mistake .

  Hereinafter, a recording reservation system by e-mail according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. Each embodiment of the present invention has the same configuration as the conventional example shown in FIGS.

<First Embodiment>
First, an e-mail recording reservation system according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the first embodiment, a solution for a problem that occurs when reservation resources compete by limiting the user's control terminal that can make a recording reservation by e-mail with an e-mail address will be described.

  In the first embodiment, first, the video recorder 10 uses a mail address (hereinafter referred to as a reservation permission mail address) of a mobile phone 52 as a control terminal 50 used by a user for recording reservation in a storage medium such as a hard disk. Save the file system. When the user accesses the recording reservation site 70 with the mobile phone 52, designates the program to be reserved and instructs the recording reservation, the automatically registered mail address (in this case, the mail address of the video recorder 10, hereinafter, the device A recording reservation email is sent to the email address. In From: of the recording reservation mail, the mail address of the mobile phone 52 used by the user is set.

  On the other hand, when receiving the recording reservation mail, the video recorder 10 checks whether the address written in “From:” is a reservation permission mail address stored in the hard disk, and accepts it as a correct recording reservation mail only if it matches. .

  By having such a mechanism, even if another user who knows the device email address makes a reservation, it is possible to make a recording reservation because the From: of the recording reservation email is different from the reservation permission address registered in the recorder. Can not. Therefore, it is possible to avoid problems that occur when reservation resources compete.

  FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining the contents of control by the CPU 105 serving as control means in the video recorder 10 as the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment, in particular, the operation of the mail manager 114 for managing mail transmission / reception. . Hereinafter, the operation of the video recorder 10 will be described in the order of steps along the flowchart.

  S101: It is checked whether a mail has arrived at the mail server 40 at a predetermined interval, for example, every 5 minutes. When the mail has arrived, the mail is received, and it is determined whether or not it is a recording reservation mail from the mail title and body format.

  S102: In the case of a recording reservation mail, if “From:” is extracted and it matches the reservation permission mail address, the process proceeds to the next step. If they do not match, the process returns to the beginning because the user is not an authorized user.

  S103: When a reservation is set, reservation information is extracted from the mail text and a reservation setting request is made to the reservation manager 115.

  S104: If the reservation is successful, a mail notifying the completion of the reservation is created and transmitted to From :. On the other hand, if it fails, an email notifying the reservation failure is created and transmitted.

  S105: When deleting a reservation, a reservation deletion number is extracted from the mail text. Then, the reservation list is acquired from the reservation manager 115, the reservation information indicated by the deletion number is extracted, and the reservation manager 115 is requested to delete the reservation.

  S106: If the deletion is successful, an email notifying that the reservation deletion has been completed is created, and the email is sent to From :. On the other hand, if it fails, a deletion failure mail is sent.

  S107: When a reservation list is requested, a reservation list is acquired from the reservation manager 115, an e-mail is created, and sent to From :.

  Therefore, according to the first embodiment, it is possible to prevent a reservation from being deleted or modified by another user by limiting the users who are permitted to make a mail reservation by address.

<Second Embodiment>
In the second embodiment, an administrator is set when a program is reserved, and a mechanism is provided such that the reservation cannot be deleted / corrected by anyone other than the administrator, so that reservation resources are not shared among users.

  First, as shown in the following table, a table indicating the correspondence between the user ID and the reservation permission email address is stored in the memory 106 serving as a storage unit. That is, for user IDs 1, 2, and 3, for each ID, a mail address (hereinafter, reservation permission mail address) of the control terminal 50 used by the user for recording reservation, for example, the mobile phone 52, is set and stored.

  Next, the reservation manager 115 that manages the reservation information can store the user ID in addition to the conventional program reservation information (broadcast date, program start time, end time, broadcast station, program title). In other words, the user who made the reservation becomes the manager of the reservation, and the reservation cannot be deleted or modified by anyone other than the manager.

  For example, when a user who has registered user ID “1” (hereinafter referred to as user 1) accesses the recording reservation site 70 and designates the reservation deletion of a certain program, a reservation deletion mail is transmitted to the video recorder 10. When the video recorder 10 receives this mail, the reservation information to be deleted and the user ID are extracted from the reservation list. Since the reservation permission e-mail address is known from this user ID, it can be deleted if this matches the From: e-mail address of the reservation deletion e-mail. However, if this does not match, for example, if the user ID of the reservation to be deleted is “2”, the user 1 cannot delete this reservation.

  At this time, the video recorder 10 transmits an email notifying that the reservation deletion has failed to the reservation permission email address (jun_6@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp) of the user 1. In addition, an email notifying that the user 1 wishes to delete the reservation is transmitted to the user 2 (july_7@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp) who is the manager of the reservation to be deleted. Since the user who receives the mail knows that the reservation conflict has occurred, it is possible to transfer the reservation resources between the users.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the contents of control by the CPU 105 serving as the control means in the video recorder 10 as the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the second embodiment, in particular, the operation of the mail manager 114 for managing mail transmission / reception. . Hereinafter, the operation of the video recorder 10 will be described in the order of steps along the flowchart.

  S201: It is checked whether a mail has arrived at the mail server 40 at a predetermined interval, for example, every 5 minutes. When the mail has arrived, the mail is received, and it is determined whether or not it is a recording reservation mail from the mail title and body format.

  S202: In the case of a recording reservation mail, “From:” is extracted, and if a reservation permission mail address is found in the reservation permission mail address table, the process proceeds to the next. If it is not in the correspondence table, since it is not an authorized user, the process returns to S201.

  S203: When a reservation is set, reservation information is extracted from the mail text and a reservation setting request is made to the reservation manager 115.

  S204: If the reservation is successful, an e-mail notifying the completion of the reservation is created and transmitted to From :.

  S205: If the reservation fails, there may be a failure due to insufficient hard disk capacity or an excessive number of reservations. Here, attention is paid to the case where the reservation time zones overlap. If the reservation is duplicated, the user ID of From: is IDx, and the user ID of the reserved program to be duplicated is IDy. If IDx and IDy are equal, From: Create and send an e-mail.

  S206: If IDx and IDy are different from each other, create and send an e-mail with a content “From Reservation failed due to duplication with user IDy reservation”. The user who made the reservation now knows that the reservation has failed. In addition, an e-mail with the content “Reservation of user ID x has been entered, but your reservation has been given priority” is created and transmitted to user ID y. The user IDy knows that the IDx reservation has failed because of his reservation.

  S207: When deleting a reservation, a reservation deletion number is extracted from the mail text. Then, the reservation list is acquired from the reservation manager 115, and the reservation information indicated by the deletion number is extracted (hereinafter referred to as “deleted program”). When the user ID of the deleted program is equal to the user ID of From :, that is, it is permitted to delete the reservation by the user who made the reservation. Therefore, the reservation manager 115 is requested to delete the reservation. When the deletion is complete, create an email notifying that the reservation has been deleted and send the email to From :.

  S208: If the user ID (IDy) of the deleted program is different from the user ID (IDx) of From :, the reservation entered by another user cannot be deleted. So you can't delete it. " On the other hand, an e-mail is created and sent to the user ID y, with the content “The user xxx tried to delete the program xxx you reserved but was not allowed because the user was different.” As a result, it is possible to prevent the reservation entered by the user from being deleted by another user.

  S209: When a reservation list is requested, a reservation list is acquired from the reservation manager 115, an e-mail is created, and sent to From :.

  Therefore, according to the second embodiment, the user ID can be saved in addition to the reservation information, and the user who has made the reservation is set as the administrator of the reservation, so that other users other than the administrator Can be deleted or modified. In addition, when a reservation conflicts, an email is transmitted to each user, so that it can be understood that other users want to use the time zone reserved by themselves, and the conflicting reservations can be transferred.

<Third Embodiment>
In the third embodiment, a priority is given to the user to provide a mechanism for correcting the reservation according to the priority when the reservation resources compete.

  When priorities are assigned to the user IDs in the second embodiment described above, the table shown in the following table is obtained. In this case, an e-mail address can be set for each user ID (priority order), and father@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp of user ID 1 has the highest priority, and second-son @ xxxx of user ID 4 .yyyy.co.jp has the lowest priority.

  In addition, the reservation manager 115 that manages the reservation information needs to store the user ID in addition to the conventional reservation information (broadcast date, program start time, end time, broadcast station, program title). It is assumed that the user ID is always attached to the one reserved by the mail recording reservation. The user ID of the program reserved by father@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp is 1.

  For example, a program reserved by father@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp cannot be deleted or changed by a low-priority user. Also, for programs reserved by mother@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp, oldest_son@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp and second_son@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp, which have lower priorities, should be deleted or changed. However, you can delete or change father@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp, which has a higher priority.

  Furthermore, when the program reserved by mother@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp is deleted by father@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp, the video recorder 10 is reserved for deletion at mother@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp. Send an email to notify you. Thus, it can be seen that mother@xxxx.yyyy.co.jp has been reserved and deleted by another user, and that the deletion has been performed by a user with a higher priority than himself.

  FIG. 3 to FIG. 7 explain the contents of control by the CPU 105 serving as the control means in the video recorder 10 as the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the third embodiment, in particular, the operation of the mail manager 114 that manages transmission / reception of mail. It is a flowchart.

  4 is a reservation correction routine in step S306 in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a transition in the case where the user ID is “2” when the transmission source is determined to be a reservation permission mail address in step S302 in FIG. FIG. 6 shows a transition process when the user ID is “3” when the sender is determined to be a reservation-permitted email address in step S302 of FIG. 3, and FIG. 7 shows the sender of the sender in step S302 of FIG. FIG. 8 shows the migration process when the user ID is “4” when it is determined that the reservation permission mail address is “4”. Hereinafter, the operation of the video recorder 10 will be described in the order of steps along these flowcharts.

  S301: It is checked whether a mail has arrived at the mail server 40 at a predetermined interval, for example, every 5 minutes. When the mail has arrived, the mail is received, and it is determined whether or not it is a recording reservation mail from the mail title and body format.

  S302: In the case of the recording reservation mail, if “From:” is extracted and the reservation permission mail address is found from the reservation permission mail address table, the process proceeds to the next. If not in the table, the process returns to S301 because the user is not an authorized user.

  S303: If From: is priority 1 (user ID 1) and a reservation is set, reservation information is extracted from the mail text and a reservation setting request is made to the reservation manager 115.

  S304: If the reservation is successful, an e-mail notifying the completion of the reservation is created and transmitted from From :.

  S305: If the reservation fails, it may be caused by a lack of hard disk capacity or an excessive number of reservations. Here, attention is paid to the case where the reservation time zones overlap. If the reservation is duplicated and the user ID of the reserved program that is the duplicate partner is “1”, the reservation cannot be corrected because the reservation is made by the user (user ID 1). Send a reservation failure email to From :. If the user ID of the reserved program is “2” to “4”, that is, if the program is reserved by a user with a lower priority than the user (user ID 1), the process proceeds to a reservation correction routine by the priority user.

S306: Call a reservation correction routine by the priority user.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the contents of the reservation correction routine by the priority user. This routine operates in the following order of steps.

S306a: First, the reserved program is deleted.
S306b: Next, the reservation of the program designated by the priority user (the reservation has failed previously) is set again. Since the duplicated partner's program was deleted, the reservation was successful.
S306c: Create an e-mail notifying that the reserved program has been deleted by a user with high priority, and send it to the e-mail address indicated by the user ID of the deleted program.
S306d: An e-mail notifying that the reservation is successful is created and transmitted to the priority user. This completes the reservation correction routine.

  S307: When From: is priority 1 (user ID 1) and the reservation is to be deleted, the reservation information is extracted from the mail text and the reservation manager 115 is requested to delete the reservation. Create an email notifying you that the reservation has been deleted and send it to From :. At this time, to the users whose user IDs of the deleted programs are “2” to “4”, an email notifying that the reservation has been deleted is transmitted to the users with high priority.

  S308: When a reservation list is requested, a reservation list is acquired from the reservation manager 115, an e-mail is created, and sent to From :.

  S309: If From: is priority 2 (user ID 2) and the reservation is set, the process proceeds to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5, and the reservation information is extracted from the mail body and the reservation manager 115 is requested to set the reservation.

  S310: If the reservation is successful, an e-mail notifying the completion of the reservation is created and transmitted to From :.

  S311: If the reservation fails and it is a failure due to overlapping time zones, if the user ID of the reserved program that is the duplication partner is “1”, the priority is higher than that of the user (user ID 2) Since the reservation entered by the user cannot be modified, a reservation failure mail is sent to From :. If the user ID of the reserved program is “2”, a reservation failure mail is transmitted to “From:” because the reservation is made by the user (user ID 2). If the user ID of the reserved program is “3” or “4”, that is, if it is a program reserved by a user with a lower priority than oneself (user ID 2), the reservation correction routine by the priority user shown in FIG. move on.

  S312: When From: is priority 2 (user ID 2) and the reservation is deleted, when the user ID of the program to be deleted is “1”, that is, a user with a higher priority than himself (user ID 2). Since it is a reserved program and cannot be deleted, an email notifying that the reservation deletion has failed is created and transmitted to From :. When the user ID of the program to be deleted is “2” to “4”, it can be deleted because it is a reservation of the user (user ID 2) or a user with a lower priority than the user. Create an email notifying you that the reservation has been deleted and send it to From :. At this time, if the user IDs of the deleted programs are “3” and “4”, a mail notifying that the reservation has been deleted is created and transmitted to the user having a higher priority.

  S313: When From: is priority order 3 (user ID 3) and reservation is set, the process proceeds to the flowchart shown in FIG. 6, where the reservation information is extracted from the mail text and the reservation manager 115 is requested to set the reservation.

  S314: If the reservation is successful, an email notifying the completion of the reservation is created and transmitted from From :.

  S315: If the reservation fails and it is a failure due to overlapping time zones, if the user ID of the reserved program that is the duplication partner is “1” or “2”, the user (user ID 3) Since a reservation made by a user with high priority cannot be modified, a reservation failure mail is sent to From :. When the user ID of the reserved program is “3”, a reservation failure mail is transmitted to “From:” because the reservation is made by the user (user ID 3). If the user ID of the reserved program is “4”, that is, if it is a program reserved by a user with a lower priority than the user (user ID 3), the process proceeds to the reservation correction routine by the priority user shown in FIG.

  S316: If From: is priority 3 (user ID 3) and the reservation is deleted, if the user ID of the program to be deleted is “1” or “2”, that is, priority over self (user ID 3). Since it is a program reserved by a high-user, it cannot be deleted, so an email notifying that the reservation deletion has failed is created and transmitted to From :. If the user ID of the program to be deleted is “3” or “4”, it can be deleted because it is a reservation for the user (user ID 3) or a user with a lower priority than himself. Create an email notifying you that the reservation has been deleted and send it to From :.

  S317: When From: is priority 4 (user ID 4) and reservation is made, the process proceeds to the flowchart shown in FIG. 7, and when reservation overlap occurs, the priority is the lowest, and From: reservation fails. send mail.

  S318: From: is priority 4 (user ID 4), and the reservation is deleted, it can be deleted only when the user ID of the program to be deleted is 4. When deletion is completed, From: Sends a reservation deletion completion mail to the address.

  Therefore, according to the third embodiment, when a plurality of users make a mail reservation for the same recorder, the reservation setting rules are clarified by giving priority to the users, and it is possible to know which user has been deleted or modified. Also, since there is a priority for each email address, the user with the highest priority can freely modify the reservations of other users, and the reservations he / she has entered are deleted / corrected by other users. There is nothing.

As described above, the recording / playback apparatus and the recording reservation method according to the present invention can prevent a reservation from being deleted or modified by another user by limiting users who are permitted to make an email reservation by address. By setting an administrator for each user, it is possible to prevent other users' reservations from being deleted or modified accidentally, and by assigning priorities to administrators, the rules for deleting and correcting reservations among multiple users are clarified. It is useful for a recording reservation system by e-mail.

It is a flowchart explaining the operation | movement of the mail manager which manages the control content by CPU used as the control means in the video recorder as a recording / reproducing apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention, especially mail transmission / reception. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of the mail manager which manages the control content by CPU used as the control means in the video recorder as a recording / reproducing apparatus concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention, especially mail transmission / reception. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of the mail manager which manages the control content by CPU used as the control means in the video recorder as a recording / reproducing apparatus concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention, especially mail transmission / reception. It is a flowchart which shows the reservation correction routine in step S306 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the transfer process in case a user ID is "2" when it determines with a transmission origin being a reservation permission e-mail address in step S302 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the transfer process in case a user ID is "3" when it determines with a transmission origin being a reservation permission e-mail address in step S302 of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the transfer process in case a user ID is "4" when it determines with a transmission origin being a reservation permission e-mail address in step S302 of FIG. It is a whole block diagram explaining the outline | summary of the video recording reservation system based on this invention and a prior art example. It is a block diagram which shows the circuit structure of the video recorder 10 with an Ethernet (R) function shown in FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating software that operates on the CPU illustrated in FIG. 9, in which hardware is arranged on the lower side and the configuration of software that operates on the hardware is hierarchically illustrated.

Explanation of symbols

10 Ethernet (R) function-equipped video recorder (recording and playback device, video recorder)
11 Broadband access router 12 Modem (ADSL modem / CATV modem)
20 provider 30 internet 40 mail server 50 control terminal 51 personal computer (control terminal)
52 Mobile phone (control terminal)
61 Radio base station 62 Exchanger 63 Router 70 Recording reservation site 101 Video signal recording / reproducing circuit 101a A / D converter 101b Compression / decompression circuit 101c Video data recording / reproducing circuit 102 System control circuit 103 Ethernet (R) circuit 103a Ethernet (R) Driver 104 Recording medium 105 CPU (control means)
106 Memory (storage unit)
110 IP
111 TCP
112 POP3
113 STMP
114 Mail Manager 115 Application (Reservation Manager)
116 System Control Manager

Claims (4)

In a recording / reproducing apparatus that performs recording reservation based on an e-mail transmitted from a control terminal capable of connecting to the Internet,
A storage unit for storing a table in which a user ID and a reservation permission e-mail address of the control terminal are associated with each other;
When a recording reservation email is received from the control terminal, a transmission source email address is extracted. When the extracted transmission source email address is registered as the reservation permission email address in the table, the recording reservation email is recorded. Information is acquired, and when the reservation time zone does not overlap with other recording reservations for which recording reservation based on the acquired recording reservation information is already permitted, the recording reservation based on the recording reservation information is permitted, said Ruyu over the ID to respond to the sender e-mail address and save it added to the recording reservation information, while transmitting a reservation completion mail to the sender mail address, the reservation time zone has a duplicate, In addition, the user ID corresponding to the sender email address and the user added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the other recording reservation If a and D differ, it transmits an email notifying the reservation overlapping the sender mail address is associated with the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the other recording reservation A control means for transmitting an e-mail notifying that a reservation has been entered from the control terminal of another user ID to the reservation permission e-mail address;
A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising:   The control means corrects the recording reservation only by a recording reservation mail from the control terminal of a reservation permission mail address associated with the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the recording reservation, and The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein deletion is permitted. In a recording reservation method executed by a recording / reproducing apparatus that performs recording reservation based on an e-mail transmitted from a control terminal capable of connecting to the Internet,
A first step of storing a table in which a user ID and a reservation permission e-mail address of the control terminal are associated with each other in a storage unit;
When a recording reservation email is received from the control terminal, a transmission source email address is extracted. When the extracted transmission source email address is registered as the reservation permission email address in the table, the recording reservation email is recorded. Information is acquired, and when the reservation time zone does not overlap with other recording reservations for which recording reservation based on the acquired recording reservation information is already permitted, the recording reservation based on the recording reservation information is permitted, said Ruyu over the ID to respond to the sender e-mail address and save it added to the recording reservation information, while transmitting a reservation completion mail to the sender mail address, the reservation time zone has a duplicate, In addition, the user ID corresponding to the sender email address and the user added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the other recording reservation If a and D differ, it transmits an email notifying the reservation overlapping the sender mail address is associated with the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the other recording reservation A second step of sending an e-mail notifying that a reservation has been entered from the control terminal of another user ID to the reservation permission e-mail address;
A recording reservation method comprising:   In the second step, the recording reservation is performed only by the recording reservation mail from the control terminal of the reservation permission mail address associated with the user ID added to the recording reservation information corresponding to the recording reservation. 4. The recording reservation method according to claim 3, wherein correction and deletion are permitted.

Images