JP2001036861A - Program recorder and program recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a program recorder and a program recording medium in which a picture quality of a recorded program can be selected by easier operation in accordance with a user's taste. SOLUTION: This device is equipped with a program receiving means 101 for receiving a broadcast program, a program kind acquisition/decision means 103 for acquiring or deciding a kind of a program received by the program receiving means 101, a recording mode decision/control means 107 for deciding recording mode of the received program from the decided program kind based on a corresponding table 108 which indicates a correlation between the kind of the program and the recording mode in accordance with the kind, and a recorder 102 for recording the program received by the program receiving means 101 based on the decided recording mode.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a program recording device and a program recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when recording a program transmitted from a broadcasting station by broadcasting or the like, a user himself / herself selects a recording mode (for example, a standard mode,
3 times mode).

On the other hand, recently, information about the broadcast time length of a program to be recorded is previously obtained from an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) or the like, and the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium and the previously obtained time length information are obtained. A digital recording apparatus and a digital recording method (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-65616) for automatically setting a recording mode by using the method described above are known.

This recording apparatus focuses on the remaining recording capacity of a recording medium and automatically sets a recording mode so that a program to be recorded can be entirely recorded in the remaining recording capacity. Therefore, recording the entire program is prioritized over image quality of the recorded program.

[0005]

However, there is a case where the user wants to freely select the image quality according to the genre of the program to be recorded according to the user's preference. In such a case, in the above-mentioned conventional recording apparatus, for example, a movie or a drama program is set to a high-quality recording mode (standard mode). From the viewpoint of saving storage capacity, the operation of setting the recording mode to a low image quality (3 × speed mode) must be performed by the user every time for each program, which involves an extremely troublesome operation. Was.

Further, in the latter conventional recording apparatus, even if the above-mentioned automatic setting function is provided, control is performed by giving priority to recording all programs regardless of the user's preference for image quality. Therefore, there was a problem that the preference of the user was not reflected at all.

In view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional recording apparatus, the present invention provides a program recording apparatus and a program recording medium in which the quality of a recorded program can be selected by a simpler operation according to the user's preference. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems The first invention (claim 1)
(Corresponding to the present invention described above) comprises: a program receiving means for receiving a broadcast program; a program type obtaining / determining means for obtaining or determining the type of the program received by the program receiving means; Recording mode determining means for determining a recording mode of the received program from a received program type based on a correspondence table indicating a correspondence between the type of the program and a recording mode corresponding to the type; Recording means for recording the program received by the receiving means based on the determined recording mode.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention (corresponding to the ninth aspect of the present invention), a program for causing a computer to execute all or some of the functions of the program recording apparatus of the present invention is recorded. It is a program recording medium.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a program recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the recording device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG.
1 receives a program (including video, audio, and EPG data) transmitted from a broadcasting station by broadcasting or the like, outputs video and audio signals to the hard disk recorder 102, and transmits channel information such as a reception channel to the program. Type acquisition / determination means 1
It is a means for outputting to 03 or the like. In the present embodiment,
It is assumed that the program reception signal is an analog signal.

The EPG extracting means 104 is a means for extracting EPG information from the received data output from the program receiving means 101 and outputting it to the EPG storing means 105. The program type acquisition / determination unit 103 is a unit for specifying the type (genre) of the program currently received or the type of the program to be recorded. That is, the program type acquisition / determination unit 103 searches the EPG information stored in the EPG storage unit 105 for the currently received program based on the current time information obtained from the clock unit 106, and This is a means for acquiring program genre information.

The recording mode determining / controlling means 107
Using the acquired genre information of the program, a corresponding recording mode (compression rate of the encoder) is determined with reference to the correspondence table 108 held in advance, and the recording unit 102 is controlled. Correspondence table 108
As shown in FIG. 2, is a table holding the correspondence between the genre of the program and the recording mode corresponding to the genre, that is, the compression ratio of the encoder 109, and is preset in advance. The hard disk recorder 102 is a device that records video and audio signals while holding a hard disk 110 with an encoder 109 as a recording medium.

The correspondence changing means 111 is means for changing the correspondence stored in the correspondence table 108 in advance according to the user's preference. The display unit 112 is a unit that displays the correspondence, and the remote controller 113 is a unit that allows the user to change the correspondence while checking the display content of the display 112.

Next, the operation of this embodiment in the above configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

Here, the operation of the present apparatus when the user records a movie program about to start broadcasting will be mainly described.

That is, the user selects a channel number on which a desired program is broadcast, and turns on a recording start switch (not shown). Thus, the movie program to be recorded is transmitted to the encoder 109 from the broadcast radio waves received by the program receiving means 101. At the same time, the program receiving unit 101 sends the program type acquisition / judgment unit 103 the currently watched program (the program to be recorded).
Is sent.

On the other hand, when the broadcast wave received by the program receiving means 101 is sent to the EPG extracting means 104, the EPG extracting means 104 extracts the EPG information from the information, and
Output to the PG storage means 105. The EPG information includes program information for two weeks to be broadcast, and is updated at intervals of about once an hour.

In the program type acquisition determining means 103, the current time information obtained from the clock means 106 and the program receiving means 10
EPG storage means 1 using the channel information from
With reference to the EPG information stored in the program 05, the program which is currently being received is specified, and the genre information of the specified program is obtained from the EPG information. In the case of the present embodiment, the acquired program genre information is the genre of “movie”.

Next, information indicating that the program genre to be recorded is “movie” is sent from the program type obtaining / determining means 103 to the recording mode determining / controlling means 107. The recording mode determination / control means 107 uses the transmitted program genre information (“movie”) to generate a correspondence table 108.
With reference to FIG. 2 (see FIG. 2), as a recording mode corresponding to this, data compression at a low compression rate of 10 Mb / sec is determined. If the genre of the recorded program is news, the recording mode is set to 2 Mb / sec with a high compression ratio.
Is determined.

The recording device 102 is controlled based on the recording mode determined in this way.

That is, the encoder 109 converts the analog video / audio signal of the movie program transmitted from the program receiving means 101 into the low compression rate recording mode “10 Mb” included in the control signal from the recording mode determination / control means 107. / Se
c "and is recorded on the hard disk 110 as digital data.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the recording mode is automatically selected by the recording mode determination / control means 107 according to the genre of the program.
Here, 10 Mb / sec is a mode with the highest priority on image quality, and 2 Mb / sec is a mode with the highest priority on capacity to save the recording capacity of the recording medium.

Next, the operation when the user changes the correspondence of the predetermined correspondence table (see FIG. 2) according to his / her own preference will be described.

First, the user operates the remote controller 113 to cause the correspondence changing means 111 to display the contents of the previously set correspondence table on the display means 112. The display unit 112 displays five types of compression ratios (10 Mb
/ Sec to 2 Mb / sec), five levels of levels 5 to 1 are displayed. Here, level 5 is 10 Mb / sec and level 1 is 2 Mb / sec.
c. The user looks at the program genre displayed on the display means 112 and the level display (the numerical value in the level display column in FIG. 3) indicating the recording mode, and the remote controller 1
By operating the button 13, for example, the recording mode set for the genre of the hobby is changed from level 1 (2 Mb / sec) to level 3 (6 Mb / sec). FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the correspondence after the change. The contents of the correspondence table 108 are updated with the new correspondence thus changed.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a program recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the recording device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The configuration of the present embodiment and the first embodiment
The main difference from the configuration described in the above section is that the recording medium is not a hard disk but a VHS tape. Accordingly, the configuration of the VHS recording device 402, the recording mode determination / control unit 407, and the correspondence table 408 is different from the above case. In the present embodiment, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Here, the differences will be mainly described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG.

That is, the VHS recording device 402 transmits the program from the program receiving means 101 to the recording mode determination / control means 4.
07 on the basis of the control signal from the VHS video tape 4
10 is a device for recording. In the correspondence table 408,
As shown in FIG. 5, two types of recording modes (standard mode, triple speed mode) corresponding to the program genre are set in advance. The recording mode determination / control unit 407 determines the recording mode using the program genre information sent from the program type acquisition / determination unit 103 and the correspondence table 408, and sends the standard mode to the VHS recording device 402. Or 3
This is a means for instructing one of the double speed modes.

In the above configuration, the operation for recording a movie program will be described focusing on the differences from the above embodiment.

That is, the recording mode determination / control means 407
Uses the program genre information (“movie”) sent from the program type acquisition / determination means 103 to generate the correspondence table 4
08 (see FIG. 5), the use of the standard mode is determined as the corresponding recording mode.

The VHS recording device 402 stores the video tape 4
The running speed 10 is controlled for the standard mode selected as described above, and an analog video / audio signal of a movie program sent from the program receiving means 101 is recorded.

The operation when the user changes the correspondence in the predetermined correspondence table according to his / her own preference is the same as that in the above embodiment.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a program recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the recording device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The configuration of the present embodiment and the first embodiment
The main difference is that the broadcast data from the broadcast station is digital data. Accordingly, in the configuration of the present embodiment, the hard disk recorder 602 is provided with a bit rate converter 609 instead of the encoder 109. Other configurations are basically the same as those in FIG. 1, and thus the same reference numerals are given and description thereof is omitted.

The contents of the correspondence table 108 are the same as in FIG. 2, and the configuration of the recording mode determining / controlling means 107 is the same as in the first embodiment.

The operation of the bit rate conversion means 609 will be mainly described with a case where a news program is recorded in the above configuration as an example.

That is, in this case, the recording mode determination / control means 107 issues a command to perform recording in the high compression rate recording mode by the same operation as described in the first embodiment.

Upon receiving this command, the bit rate conversion means 609 reduces the AC component of the DCT coefficient of the frame or expands it once to baseband so that the bit rate becomes 2 Mb / sec, for example. Processing such as recompression of the expanded data at a bit rate of 2 Mb / sec is performed.

In the present embodiment, the case where the recording medium is the hard disk 110 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a tape for a digital VTR may be used. In this case, the recording mode of the digital VTR is changed to the LS mode when the bit rate is 7 Mb / sec or less, and to the LS mode when the bit rate is 7 Mb / sec or less, in accordance with the bit rate output from the bit rate conversion means 609. In this case, the mode is set to the STD mode, and when it is larger than 14 Mb / sec, the mode is set to the HS mode.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a program recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the recording device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The structure of the present embodiment and the second embodiment
The main difference from the configuration described in the above is that the determination of the program type is
This is a configuration in which image recognition is performed without using PG information. Note that, in the present embodiment,
The same reference numerals are given.

Here, the difference will be mainly described with reference to FIG.

That is, the feature extracting means 704 is a means for extracting the features of the image of the program to be recorded transmitted from the program receiving means 101 and generating feature vector data. The image pattern database 705 is a unit that previously holds, as image pattern data, feature vector data obtained by extracting features of image data of programs of a plurality of genres. The program type determination unit 703 is a unit that compares two feature vector data and determines the program type using the degree of approximation and the image pattern correspondence between the image pattern and the program type. Image pattern correspondence
The program type determination means 703 holds the information in advance.

In the above configuration, the operation of the present embodiment will now be described focusing on the determination of the program type.

That is, the program type determination means 703 sequentially compares the feature vector data of the program to be recorded sent from the feature extraction means 704 with the feature vector data stored in the image pattern database 706 in advance.
Calculate the degree of approximation. Then, an image pattern having the highest degree of approximation is selected, and a program type corresponding to the selected image pattern is specified from the previously stored image pattern correspondence.

The program type information determined in this way is:
The operation after being sent to the recording mode determination / control means 407 is the same as in the above embodiment.

Although the above embodiment has been described with respect to a configuration in which the program type determination means based on image recognition is combined with a VHS tape recorder, the recorder is not limited to this, and may be, for example, a recorder having an encoder. (Figure 1
) Or a recording device having a bit rate conversion means (see FIG. 6).

In the above embodiment, in the configuration using a hard disk as a recording medium, instead of this,
A configuration using a digital VTR tape may be adopted.

In the above embodiment, the EPG information is
I explained the case where it is sent along with the broadcast program,
However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a configuration in which the program is transmitted via a different transmission path from the program may be used. The EPG information may be either analog data or digital data.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the correspondence is initially set in the correspondence table has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the user himself / herself may initialize the correspondence. good. In this case, for example, when the user operates the remote controller 113 to enter the initial setting mode, the correspondence changing unit 111 in FIG.
Next, the program types shown in FIG. 2 and levels 1 to 5 are displayed as selectable recording mode types. However, the correspondence between the two has not been displayed yet. Therefore, the user operates the remote controller 113 and gives an instruction to associate each program type with the level of the recording mode according to the user's preference while watching these displays. Thus, the contents of the correspondence table 108 are initialized. Further, it is possible to change the correspondence as described in the first embodiment.

In the above-described embodiment, the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium is not particularly described. However, a recording operation in consideration of the remaining recording capacity when a plurality of programs are reserved for recording will be described below. That is, in this case, the genre of each program to be recorded is acquired from the EPG information, and the recording mode of each program, that is, the compression ratio is specified from the correspondence table. At the same time, the required recording capacity when each program is recorded in the specified recording mode is calculated. Then, the required recording capacity is compared with the remaining recording capacity of the recording medium. If the remaining recording capacity is smaller, the ratio is obtained. For example, when the remaining recording capacity is 80% of the required recording capacity, the same result as when the required recording capacity is compressed by 20% while maintaining the relative relationship between the compression ratios of the specified programs described above. Thus, the compression ratio of each program is corrected to be further increased. Then, the reserved program is recorded at the corrected compression ratio. Thus, all programs can be recorded while reflecting the user's preference for the recording mode.

Further, a program recording medium is recorded on a recording medium such as a magnetic disk or an optical disk, in which a program for causing a computer to execute the functions of all or a part of the configuration of the above embodiment is created. By using the same, the same operation as described above is realized, and the same effect is exhibited.

[0055]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention has an advantage that the image quality of a recorded program can be selected by a simpler operation according to the user's preference.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a program recording device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a correspondence table according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a change of a correspondence table according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a program recording device according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram for explaining a correspondence table according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a program recording device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of a program recording device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Program receiving means 102 Hard disk recorder 103 Program type acquisition / determination means 104 EPG extraction means 105 EPG storage means 106 Clock means 107 Recording mode determination / control means 108 Correspondence table 109 Encoder 110 Hard disk 111 Correlation relation changing means 112 Display means 113 Remote control 410 VHS video tape 609 Bit rate conversion means 704 Feature extraction means 705 Image pattern database

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Claims (9)

[Claims] A program receiving means for receiving a broadcast program; a program type obtaining / determining means for obtaining or determining a type of the program received by the program receiving means; A recording mode determination unit that determines a recording mode of the received program based on a correspondence table indicating a correspondence relationship between the type of the program and a recording mode corresponding to the type from the type; Recording means for recording the selected program based on the determined recording mode. 2. The program type obtaining / determining means uses program genre information for identifying a program genre included in an electronic program guide (hereinafter, referred to as an EPG) corresponding to the broadcast program. 2. The program recording device according to claim 1, wherein the type of the program is acquired. 3. The program recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said EPG is broadcast together with said program, and is received by said program receiving means. 4. The program type obtaining / determining means extracts a feature from video data and / or audio data of the broadcasted program and determines the type of the program based on the extracted feature. The program recording device according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The program recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a correspondence table for changing the correspondence recorded in the correspondence table, the program recorder having the correspondence table in advance. . 6. The recording means includes an encoder for encoding data of the program to be recorded, and a compression rate in encoding of the encoder is set according to the determined recording mode. 2. The program recording device according to claim 1, wherein: 7. The received program data is analog data, the recording destination of the program to be recorded is a tape medium, and the recording traveling speed of the tape medium is set to the determined recording mode. 2. The program recording device according to claim 1, wherein the program recording device is set according to the setting. 8. The received program data is digital data, wherein the recording means comprises bit rate changing means for changing a bit rate of the data of the program to be recorded, wherein the bit rate is: 2. The program recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the program recording apparatus is set according to the determined recording mode. 9. A program recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute the functions of all or a part of the program recording apparatus according to claim 1 is recorded.