JP2000047827A - Disk emulator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain the effective authoring for production of a multimedia disk. SOLUTION: When an operator clicks the position of a path C1, for example, on a display screen, a reproducing operation is performed in a reproduction section set between a prescribed position slightly before the end time of a program P1 and a prescribed position slightly after the start time of a program P2. In an authoring step of a multimedia disk, the areas where the operations are not executed against the intention of a producer or the operations must be executed again are almost identical to the areas corresponding to the vicinity of the inter-program changeover timing. Thus, it's possible to perform the effective authoring by checking only the reproduction section.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a disk emulator used for producing a multimedia disk for storing a plurality of types of program data such as video and audio by an authoring system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various types of program data are stored on multimedia disks such as CD-ROMs and DVDs. Since these multimedia discs are non-rewritable, a program is actually reproduced by a reproducing machine before mass production, and a test (emulation) is performed to determine whether various operations such as reading are performed without fail and smoothly. There is a need.

A device for performing this emulation is called a disk emulator, and is a graphical user interface (hereinafter abbreviated as “GUI” as appropriate) for an operator to operate using a keyboard and a mouse while looking at a display. A hard disk storing a disk information file and a disk image file of the same program as the program stored on the multimedia disk; and a disk information file and a disk image file in the hard disk based on an instruction from an operator via a GUI. It comprises a data controller for reading out the reproduction data, and a reproduction device for reproducing each program based on the reproduction data read out by the data controller.

[0004] Then, the operator actually reproduces the contents of each program to be written on the multimedia disk using the disk emulator having the above-described configuration, and causes inconvenient phenomena such as errors, distortion of video, and interruption of audio. Check for any occurrences. If the operator finds a place where an inconvenient phenomenon occurs as a result of this check, the operator corrects the program contents and reproduces the corrected program again to perform the check.

[0005]

As described above, before mass production of multimedia discs, the operator repeatedly corrects and reproduces program data to be written to the multimedia discs several times to eliminate inconvenient portions. To make sure.

[0006] By the way, when modifying the program data, there are a case where the contents of each program are largely changed and a case where only a part of the contents of each program is changed. In the former case, it is preferable to perform the check based on the reproduction over all the programs, but in the latter case, it is not always necessary to perform the check over the entire program.

[0007] That is, it has been known from the experience so far that when a program is changed, the location where an inconvenient phenomenon occurs is concentrated at the location corresponding to the switching timing between programs and in the vicinity thereof. Therefore, when only a part of the program is changed in this manner, the operator uses the position data of the disk information file stored on the hard disk to change the position slightly before the position corresponding to the switching timing between the programs. By reproducing only the portions near the read and program switching timings, an efficient check is performed as much as possible.

However, when the number of programs is large, the operator has to spend considerable effort and time in searching for the position slightly before the program switching timing from the position data of the disk information file, so that efficient authoring is required. May not be possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide a disk emulator capable of efficiently performing authoring when producing a multimedia disk.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for emulating a plurality of programs stored on a multimedia disk. An interface, a hard disk having a disk information file and a disk image file of the program, and reproducing data read from the disk information file and the disk image file based on input of an instruction from the graphical user interface. A disk controller including a data controller for performing the reproduction operation of each program based on the reproduction data from the data controller. Only reproduced data in the vicinity before and after the timing and has a switching vicinity data output means for outputting said reproduction apparatus, characterized in that.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the data controller outputs display data relating to a program switching path between the plurality of programs to the graphical user interface. Display means, the switching near data output specifying means, only when a predetermined switching path on the program switching path displayed on the screen of the graphical user interface is specified,
The reproduction data before and after the switching timing on the designated switching path is output to the reproducing apparatus.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the data controller outputs display data relating to a program switching path between the plurality of programs to the graphical user interface. Display means, and the switching near data output designating means automatically reproduces only the reproduction data before and after the switching timing between the plurality of programs sequentially, and displays the data on the screen of the graphical user interface. The program switching path is displayed so that the position of the reproduction data being reproduced can be recognized.

[0013]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. The disk emulator 1 includes a GUI (graphical user interface) 2, a data controller 3, a hard disk 4 having a disk information file 5 and a disk image file 6, and a playback device 7. The data controller 3 has a program switching path display means 10 and a switching vicinity data output designating means 11. And
A playback signal from the playback device 7 is output to a video monitor 8 and an audio speaker 9.

The GUI 2 includes a display, a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, and has a function of allowing an operator to interact with the disk emulator 1 using these, that is, an interface function. All the predetermined operations performed by the operator on the GUI 2 are transmitted to the data controller 3 in the form of commands.

When the data controller 3 receives, for example, a reproduction command from the GUI 2, the data controller 3 reads the position of the reproduction data stored in the disk image file 6 from the position data of the disk information file 5 in the hard disk 4, and reads the reproduction data. To the playback device 7.

The playback device 7 separates the playback data sent from the data controller 3 into different data types such as video data and audio data, and performs D / A conversion on these data signals. The reproduced data is output to a video monitor 8 and an audio speaker 9.

The data controller 3 converts the reproduction data currently output from the reproduction device 7 into a G
The data is output to the UI2, and the GUI2 displays this on the display. Therefore, the operator can know what reproduction data is currently being reproduced up to which side position.

The program switching path display means 10 in the data controller 3 is for displaying display data on a program switching path between a plurality of programs on a display of the GUI 2. The operator can designate any one of the program switching paths displayed on the display, for example, by clicking with a mouse.

Switching near data output designating means 11
As described above, when the operator designates any one of the program switching paths shown on the display, only the reproduction data before and after the program switching timing on the designated switching path is read from the disc information file 5. The data is read from the disk image file 6 based on the position data, and is output to the reproducing device 7.

Next, the contents of emulation performed by an operator using the disk emulator 1 of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described. The operator
First, a command is output to the data controller 3 by the GUI 2 to start emulation. Thereby, the data controller 3 reads the reproduction data from the disk information file 5 and the disk image file 6 in the hard disk 4 and transfers the read reproduction data to the reproduction device 7.

The playback device 7 separates the playback data sent from the data controller 3 into different data types such as video data and audio data, and performs D / A conversion on these data signals. , And outputs the reproduced data to the video monitor 8 and the audio speaker 9.

The operator checks the video and audio reproduced by the video monitor 8 and the audio speaker 9 and corrects the contents of the program when finding an inconvenient location. Then, after the correction (in this case, correction of only a part of the program) is completed, the operator uses the GUI 2 to check again in the data controller 3 whether or not the program contents after the correction are correct. Program switching path display means 1
For 0, a command to display the program switching path is output.

Then, on the display of the GUI 2, as shown in FIG. 2, blocks indicating a plurality of programs P1 to P9 and arrows indicating a plurality of paths C1 to C8 are displayed on the screen. The contents of the application program displayed in FIG. 2 are as follows. That is, after the user finishes the program P1, the program P2
When any one of P4 is selected, the program P5 is executed after the selected program ends. After the program P5 ends, the user sets the program P6
To P8, and the program P9 is executed after the selected program ends. Program P2 to P4 or Program P6
As examples of P8 to P8, when the reproduction data conforms to the DVD format, video taken from multiple angles (multi-angle video), multiple types of subtitles (sub-video), or audio (multi-channel) Stream audio).

As described above, it is known that when the contents of a program are changed, the location where an inconvenient phenomenon occurs is concentrated near the switching timing between the programs. In other words, as described above, in the authoring stage of a multimedia disc having a complicated data structure in which multi-angle video and multi-stream audio are mixed, the operation does not operate as intended by the creator, or a retry is required. In most cases, the location corresponds to the vicinity of the switching timing between the programs shown as the “reproduction section” in FIG.

Therefore, according to the present invention, only this section can be reproduced by the operator by a simple operation. For example, when the operator clicks on the position of the route C1 on the screen, the switching vicinity data output designating means 11 detects that the route C1 has been selected, and sets a predetermined position slightly before the end of the program P1 and the program P2. Is read out based on the position data in the disc information file 5, and the reproduction data between both positions is extracted from the disk image file 6 and transferred to the reproduction device 7. The playback device 7 outputs the transferred playback data and causes the video monitor 8 and the audio speaker 9 to perform a playback operation. Then, based on the reproduced video or audio, the operator checks whether or not any inconvenience occurs near the switching timing between the programs P1 and P2.

As described above, the operator reproduces and checks between the predetermined position slightly before the end point of the program P1 and the predetermined position slightly after the start point of the program P2, and then checks the path C2. Click on the location and program P1
A check is made by reproducing between a predetermined position slightly before the end of the program and a predetermined position slightly after the start of the program P3. In this case, if it is known in advance that there will be no inconvenience near the switching timing between the programs P1 and P3, the operator skips reproduction near this switching timing and skips the route C2. A check may be made by clicking C3 and reproducing between a predetermined position slightly before the end of the program P1 and a predetermined position slightly after the start of the program P4. Hereinafter, in the same manner, the operator clicks up to the route C8 and ends the check as to whether or not there is any inconvenience near the switching timing between the programs. By the functions of the program switching path display means 10 and the switching neighborhood data output designating means 11 in the data controller 3 as described above, the operator can select the programs P1 to P9.
Without playing back all of the above, only the part where the inconvenience may have occurred is reproduced by a simple operation, and the unnecessary part that seems to be unlikely to have inconvenience is omitted is reproduced. And efficient authoring can be performed.

In the above embodiment, the data controller 3 has both the program switching path display means 10 and the switching vicinity data output designating means 11, and the operator can select a desired one of the paths C1 to C8 in FIG. Is clicked, the playback data near that path is played back. However, the playback data near the program switching paths C1 to C8 can also be played back automatically automatically. In the case of this configuration, the switching neighborhood data output designating means 11 automatically switches between the programs P1 and P2 and the programs P1 and P3.
,..., The reproduction data in the vicinity of each switching timing between the programs P8 and P9 is sequentially transferred from the hard disk 4 to the reproducing device 7, and the program switching display means 10 displays the paths C1 to C4 in FIG. The reproduction position of C8 is displayed by blinking or other colors. In this case, it is possible to automatically reproduce the vicinity of all the switching timings of the program without omission, and the operator checks all the reproduction data being reproduced displayed on the switching path display means 10 while checking all the path positions. The contents near the switching timing can be checked without omission.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the switching vicinity data output designating means outputs only the reproduction data before and after the switching timing between a plurality of programs to the reproducing apparatus. With simple operations, it is possible to reproduce only the part where the inconvenience may have occurred and to omit the reproduction of the unnecessary part which seems to be unlikely to have the inconvenience. Authoring can be performed.

In the case where only the reproduction data before and after the switching timing between a plurality of programs is automatically reproduced sequentially and the program switching path is displayed so that the position of the reproduction data being reproduced can be known. In addition, it is possible to confirm all the contents near the switching timing without fail while confirming the path position of the reproduced data being reproduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a program switching path displayed on a display of a GUI 2 by a program switching path display means 10 of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 disk emulator 2 GUI 3 data controller 4 hard disk 5 disk information file 6 disk image file 7 playback device 8 video monitor 9 audio speaker 10 program switching path display means 11 switching near data output designating means C1 to C8 program switching path

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A graphical user interface used when emulating a plurality of programs stored on a multimedia disk, a hard disk having a disk information file and a disk image file of the program, and the graphical user interface. A data controller that outputs reproduction data read from the disk information file and the disk image file based on an instruction input from a user interface; and a reproduction that performs a reproduction operation of each program based on the reproduction data from the data controller. A disk emulator comprising: a switching controller that outputs only the reproduction data before and after the switching timing between the plurality of programs to the reproducing device; A disk emulator comprising data output designation means. 2. The data controller according to claim 1, further comprising: a program switching path display unit that outputs display data relating to a program switching path between the plurality of programs to the graphical user interface. Only when a predetermined switching path on the program switching path displayed on the screen of the graphical user interface is designated, the reproduction data near the switching timing in the designated switching path is reproduced. The disk emulator according to claim 1, wherein the disk emulator outputs the data to the playback device. 3. The data controller includes program switching path display means for outputting display data relating to a program switching path between the plurality of programs to the graphical user interface. The means automatically and sequentially reproduces only reproduction data in the vicinity of before and after the switching timing between the plurality of programs, and displays the position of the reproduction data being reproduced on the screen of the graphical user interface. The disk emulator according to claim 1, wherein the disk emulator displays a program switching path.