JP2000287156A - Information recording and reproducing device, its method and service medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To retrieve an optional part in a program. SOLUTION: An MPEG encode section 3 employs the MPEG 2 system to apply compression coding to AV data included in a television signal received from a tuner 2 and outputs the coded data to a recording section 5. A VBI data extract section 4 extracts attached information included in the VBI of the television signal and outputs it to the recording section 5. The recording section records an MPEG file and a VBI file to a hard disk 7 after correlating them with each other. A retrieval reproduction section 6 uses a character string entered by a user for a keyword to retrieve the contents of the VBI file and reads the MPEG file corresponding to coincident lines, decodes the contents of the file starting from the position of the lines and outputs the decoded contents onto a monitor.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus and method, and a providing medium, and more particularly to an information recording / reproducing apparatus and method suitable for retrieving a recorded television program and a providing medium. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional VCR (Video Cassette Recorder) records information on a program to be recorded (for example, a program name or recording time input by a user) at the beginning of a magnetic tape during recording. At the time of reproduction, only the information recorded at the beginning of the magnetic tape is reproduced to allow the user to recognize the program recorded on the magnetic tape, and the information corresponding to the information selected by the user. Some programs can be reproduced from the beginning.

[0003]

However, in the related art, information about specific contents (for example, a momentary scene, music of a BGM, utterances of performers, etc.) that changes with the time of a program to be recorded is described as character information. There is no way to record as Therefore, there is a problem that it is not possible to search for a corresponding part in a program using a character string related to a certain event in a recorded program as a search condition.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and records additional information existing during a vertical blanking period in association with AV data to be recorded, so that an arbitrary portion in a program can be recorded. Can be searched.

[0005]

An information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention exists in an AV data recording means for recording AV data included in a television signal, and during an interval of vertical blanking of the television signal. Extracting means for extracting additional information, additional information recording means for recording the additional information extracted by the extracting means in association with AV data, search means for searching for the additional information recorded by the additional information recording means, Reproducing means for reproducing the AV data recorded by the AV data recording means in response to the search result.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information recording / reproducing method for recording AV data included in a television signal, and extracting additional information existing during a vertical blanking period of the television signal. Step, an additional information recording step of recording the additional information extracted in the extraction step in association with the AV data, a search step of searching for the additional information recorded in the additional information recording step, and a search step corresponding to the search result in the search step. And reproducing the AV data recorded in the AV data recording step.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium comprising: an AV data recording step of recording AV data included in a television signal; and an extraction step of extracting additional information existing during a vertical blanking period of the television signal. An additional information recording step of recording the additional information extracted in the extraction step in association with the AV data, a search step of searching for the additional information recorded in the additional information recording step, and a search result in the search step. Recorded in the AV data recording step
A computer-readable program for causing an information recording / reproducing apparatus to execute a process including a reproducing step of reproducing AV data is provided.

[0008] In the information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect, the information recording / reproducing method according to the third aspect, and the providing medium according to the fourth aspect, the AV included in the television signal is included.
Data is recorded, additional information existing during the vertical blanking period of the television signal is extracted, and the extracted additional information is recorded in association with the AV data. Further, the recorded additional information is searched, and according to the search result,
The recorded AV data is reproduced.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A configuration example of a video recorder to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. This video recorder uses a vertical blanking interval (hereinafter referred to as VBI (Vertical
The TV broadcast signal includes subtitles (character information) corresponding to the program as additional information in a blanking interval (described as Blanking Interval), and records and reproduces it.

Here, additional information included in the VBI will be described. NTSC (National Television System Committe
The interlace method is adopted for the television signal of the e) method. That is, one frame image composed of 525 horizontal scanning lines is composed of a field image composed of odd-numbered horizontal scanning lines of the 525 horizontal scanning lines and a field image composed of even-numbered horizontal scanning lines. Have been. Therefore, one field image has 262.5 horizontal scanning lines.

By the way, the first to 21st of the 262.5 horizontal scanning lines of the field image, called VBI, are not portions that are viewed as video (video data is not included). Note that a vertical synchronization signal is recorded in the data area of the first to ninth horizontal scanning lines of the VBI, and the data area of the remaining tenth to 21st horizontal scanning lines is This is an area for transmitting additional information.

As additional information to be transmitted, for example, in the United States, the data area of the 21st horizontal scanning line is an area for transferring data for closed captions (captions). In Japan, the data areas of the tenth to thirteenth horizontal scanning lines are used for a data broadcasting service based on the ADAMS system (using the TV Asahi system) or the bitcast system (using the TBS system). Also, the fourteenth
The data area of the 16th to 16th and 21st horizontal scanning lines is used as an area for transferring teletext data.

In this video recorder, the control unit 1
Controls each part of the video recorder in response to an operation command input from the user. The tuner 2 receives a television signal corresponding to the channel selected by the user under the control of the control unit 1 and outputs the television signal to the MPEG2 encoding unit 3 and the VBI data extracting unit 4. The MPEG2 encoding unit 3 converts an AV signal (video signal and audio signal) contained in the television signal input from the tuner 2 into an MPEG signal.
(Moving Picture Experts Group) 2 and compression encoding using the method, and output to the recording unit 5. VBI data extraction unit 4
The text data as additional information included in the VBI of the television signal is extracted and output to the recording unit 5.

As shown in FIG. 2, the recording unit 5 converts the encoded AV data input from the MPEG2 encoding unit 3 into, for example, an MPG file whose file name is “file 001.MPG” on a hard disk ( HDD) 7. Further, the recording unit 5 converts the VBI data (text data) input from the VBI data extraction unit 4 corresponding to the encoded AV data into a file obtained by changing only the file name and extension of the corresponding MPG file. Hard disk 7 as a VBI file whose name is “file 001.VBI”
To record. FIG. 3 shows the VB recorded on the hard disk 7
This shows the data structure of the I file. That is, text data (for example, dialogue or narration) included in the VBI data is recorded in the VBI file in association with the elapsed time from the recording start time. Note that a channel may be recorded in the VBI data.

The search / reproduction unit 6 searches the contents of the VBI file recorded on the hard disk 7 using a character string input by the user as a keyword, and displays a list of dialogues or the like matching the keyword on a monitor (not shown). Output. Further, the search / reproduction unit 6 reads out the MPG file corresponding to the dialogue or the like selected by the user from the list displayed on the monitor from the hard disk 7 and reproduces the MPG file from the position of the dialogue (decodes to the monitor) Output).

Next, the recording process of the video recorder will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The recording process is started when a recording start command is input from the user to the control unit 1 or when a preset recording start time is reached.

In step S1, the tuner 2 receives a television signal corresponding to the channel selected by the user and outputs it to the MPEG2 encoding unit 3 and the VBI data extracting unit 4. The MPEG2 encoding unit 3 compresses and encodes an AV signal included in the input television signal using the MPEG2 method, and outputs the obtained MPEG2 data to the recording unit 5. The recording unit 5 generates an MPG file on the hard disk 7, and outputs the MPEG2 file input from the MPEG2 encoding unit 3.
Record the data. Further, the recording unit 5 generates a VBI file corresponding to the generated MPG file.

In step S 2, the VBI data extraction unit 4 extracts text data such as subtitles and narration as additional information included in the VBI of the television signal, and outputs it to the recording unit 5. In step S3, the recording unit 5
Records the text data input from the VBI data extraction unit 4 in the VBI file generated in step S1 in association with the elapsed time from the recording start time.

In step S4, the control section 4 determines whether or not to end the recording (whether a recording end command has been input from the user or the end time of the scheduled recording has been reached). If it is determined that the recording is not to be ended, the process returns to step S2, and the subsequent processing is repeated.

Thereafter, if it is determined in step S4 that the recording is to be ended, the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, the recording unit 5 ends the recording of the MPG data and the VBI data, and closes the MPG file and the VBI file on the hard disk 7.

Next, the search processing of the video recorder will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step S11, when the user inputs a search command and a character string as a search condition to the control unit 1, the information is supplied from the control unit 1 to the search information unit 6. Step S
At 12, the search / reproduction unit 6 searches the contents of the VBI file recorded on the hard disk 7 using the character string input from the control unit 1 as a keyword.

In step S13, the search / reproduction unit 6
Determines whether there is a match with the keyword, and if it is determined that there is a match, the process proceeds to step S14. In step S14, the search / reproduction unit 6
Causes the monitor to display a list of matching dialogues and the like.

In step S15, the control unit 1 determines whether or not a reproduction command has been input from the user who has visually recognized the list (whether one of the dialogues or the like included in the list has been designated) and the user performs reproduction. If it is determined that a command has been input, the process proceeds to step S16. In step S16, the search / reproduction unit 6 reads the MPG file corresponding to the dialogue or the like specified in step S15 based on the control from the control unit 1, decodes the MPG file from the position of the specified dialogue or the like, and monitors it. Output to

If it is determined in step S13 that there is no match, the search process is terminated. Also, in step S15, when it is determined that the reproduction command is not input from the user (for example, when a command other than the reproduction command is input),
This search processing ends.

As described above, additional information (text data such as captions and narration) that changes as the program progresses
Is recorded in association with the AV data of the program,
It is possible to search for a certain scene in the middle of the program.

Further, the present invention records, for example, a news program transmitting subtitles as additional information, searches using a keyword registered in advance, and when a news item matching the keyword is included, the user is notified. The present invention can be applied to a device that prompts viewing. In addition, a plurality of news programs are recorded, searched using a keyword registered in advance, erased recording data of news that does not match the news program, and stored recording data of a matching news for a certain period after the recording. It is also possible to apply to the device.

In the above-described search processing, the character string is used as the search condition, but the time at which the character string was transmitted (the elapsed time from the recording start time) may be used as the search condition.

Further, in the present embodiment, the search and reproduction section 6 of the video recorder performs the search for the VBI file. For example, the VBI file is recorded on the hard disk 7 by using a personal computer external to the video recorder. A search may be made for a VBI file that is present.

Further, in the present embodiment, the MPG file and the VBI file are recorded on the hard disk 7, but other randomly accessible storage media (for example,
(A magneto-optical disk or the like).

Further, additional information other than the text data included in the VBI may be recorded in the VBI file.

It should be noted that the computer program for performing each of the above processes can be provided to the user via a network medium such as the Internet or a digital satellite, in addition to a medium such as a magnetic disk or a CD-ROM. it can.

[0032]

As described above, according to the information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect, the information recording / reproducing method according to the third aspect, and the providing medium according to the fourth aspect, the perpendicularity of a television signal is improved. Extract additional information that exists during the blanking interval, and
Since the data is recorded in association with the data, it is possible to search for an arbitrary part in the program.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a video recorder to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the correspondence between MPG files and VBI files.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data structure of a VBI file.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a recording process of a video recorder.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a video recorder search process.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 control unit, 2 tuner, 3 MPEG2 encoding unit, 4 VBI data extraction unit, 5 recording unit, 6 search / playback unit, 7 hard disk

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An information recording / reproducing apparatus for receiving, recording, and reproducing a television signal, comprising: an AV apparatus for recording AV data included in the television signal;
Data recording means, extraction means for extracting additional information existing during a vertical blanking period of the television signal, and additional information recording means for recording the additional information extracted by the extraction means in association with the AV data Search means for searching for the additional information recorded by the additional information recording means; and reproducing means for reproducing the AV data recorded by the AV data recording means in accordance with a search result of the search means. An information recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extracting unit extracts text data as the additional information. 3. An information recording / reproducing method for an information recording / reproducing apparatus for receiving, recording, and reproducing a television signal, wherein the AV recording apparatus records AV data included in the television signal.
A data recording step; an extraction step of extracting additional information existing during a vertical blanking period of the television signal; and an additional information recording step of recording the additional information extracted in the extraction step in association with the AV data. A search step of searching for the additional information recorded in the additional information recording step; and a reproduction step of reproducing the AV data recorded in the AV data recording step in response to a search result in the search step. An information recording / reproducing method comprising: 4. An information recording / reproducing apparatus for receiving, recording, and reproducing a television signal, wherein the information recording / reproducing apparatus records AV data contained in the television signal.
A data recording step; an extraction step of extracting additional information existing during a vertical blanking period of the television signal; and an additional information recording step of recording the additional information extracted in the extraction step in association with the AV data. A search step of searching for the additional information recorded in the additional information recording step; and a reproduction step of reproducing the AV data recorded in the AV data recording step in response to a search result in the search step. A providing medium for providing a computer-readable program that causes a computer to execute a process including the following.