JP2003153140A - Information recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To create a convenient user interface menu in an information recorder. SOLUTION: The list of the reduced images of representative images as recording units is displayed and when such a reduced image is selected and determined, that recording unit is reproduced. Such user interface menu information is created from temporary management information and an AV stream and recorded on a recording medium.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording device, and more particularly to a technique for recording information on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a device for recording information, there has been known a device for recording information by using a magnetic tape as seen in, for example, a VTR. On the other hand, as an information recording medium different from the above-mentioned magnetic tape, a disc-shaped information recording medium is used for recording. Since information is recorded continuously on a magnetic tape, it is necessary to continuously read and reproduce desired information, and the information access speed is slow. On the other hand, in the case of recording information on a disc-shaped information recording medium, the so-called random access that allows immediate reading and reproduction of desired information is possible, and thus has a characteristic that the access speed of information is high. is there.

Further, in a commercially available movie title or the like in which a DVD is a medium, the same user interface menu is activated on the display and can be operated by the buttons of the remote controller or the main body device, regardless of which DVD player plays the DVD.

[0004]

As described above, the commercially available D
User interface menus such as images and titles are recorded as information on the VD itself. On the other hand, the DVD player is required to have a function of decoding and displaying the information of the user interface menu. Therefore, the same user interface menu is activated regardless of which DVD player is used for reproduction.

With a commercially available movie title or the like, the time required to create the information to be recorded on the DVD is not particularly limited. In other words, create information to be recorded on the DVD in real time, and
No need to record in VD. However, in a movie or a stationary video recorder, it is necessary to record information in a recording medium in real time, and finally to create management information of information recorded in the recording medium and information of a user interface menu.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an information recording device capable of creating a user interface menu which is easy to use.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, in the information recording apparatus according to the present invention, while recording an AV stream on a recording medium in real time, temporary management information of the recording unit is created, The temporary management information is recorded on the recording medium. Finally, from the temporary management information all AV
Create stream management information and record it on a recording medium. Further, a user interface menu that displays a reduced image of a representative image of a recording unit and a list of menu information of a character string representing the recording unit, and that recording unit is reproduced when the menu information is selected and determined. Information is created from the temporary management information and the AV stream and recorded on the recording medium.

Further, in order to shorten the time for creating the user interface menu information, instead of creating a reduced image from the AV stream, A
When recording the V stream, the reduced image is recorded in the temporary management information. This can shorten the time for creating a reduced image from an AV stream.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings using examples. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an information recording apparatus according to the present invention. The information recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes an AV stream processing unit 101, a menu processing unit 102, and a management information processing unit 10.
3, temporary management information processing unit 104, recording medium drive processing unit 1
05, recording medium 106, control unit 107, user interface processing unit 10 having recording start and recording end buttons
8 and an AV information input terminal 110.

First, AV from the start of recording to the end of recording
A process of recording the stream on the recording medium 106 will be described. AV input from the AV information input terminal 110
The information is encoded by the AV stream processing unit 101, and A
The V stream is written in the recording medium 106 by the recording medium drive processing unit 105. In a movie or a stationary video recorder, the AV stream is written in the recording medium 106 from the start to the end of recording.
With this device, an AV stream of the next scene can be additionally recorded. Note that a scene generally indicates a delimiter from the start of recording to the end of recording, but the scene is not necessarily limited to the start of recording to the end of recording.
Any unit of video may be used.

Information is transmitted from the AV stream processing unit 101 to the temporary management information processing unit 104 during recording of the AV stream. The temporary management information processing unit 104 creates temporary management information at the end of recording, and the recording medium drive processing unit 105 writes the temporary management information in the recording medium 106. This temporary management information is additionally recorded each time recording is completed. Start recording of the user interface processing unit 108
When the end button is pressed, information on the start of recording or the end of recording is transmitted to the control unit 107. Control unit 107
Controls all the blocks of the processing unit 109 surrounded by the dotted line in FIG.

Next, the management information for managing the AV stream recorded on the recording medium 106 and the process for creating the user interface menu will be described. In order to achieve compatibility with other playback devices, it is necessary to create management information for managing the AV stream recorded in the recording medium 106 in a predetermined format and record it in the recording medium 106. Furthermore, in order to activate the same user interface menu on another playback device, it is necessary to create user interface menu information in a predetermined format and record it in the recording medium 106. In this way, in order to achieve compatibility with other playback devices, management information and
Creating the user interface menu information and recording it on the recording medium 106 will be referred to as finalization.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of titles and chapters in an AV stream. As shown in FIG. 2, the AV stream is divided into a title 201 of # 1, a title 202 of # 2, ..., A title 203 of #n. Furthermore, each title is a set of chapters. For example, the title 201 of # 1 is the chapter 20 of # 1.
4, # 2 chapters 205, ..., #n are chapter 206 folders. There is no particular limitation on how to divide the title. For example, chapters (scenes) recorded on the same date may have the same title, or if the number of chapters exceeds a predetermined number, the titles may be divided.

First, the creation of management information at the time of finalization will be described. Since the temporary management information is recorded in the recording medium 106 during the recording of the chapter, the temporary management information processing unit 104 reads the temporary management information from the recording medium 106 and manages the temporary management information necessary for creating the management information. It is transmitted to the unit 103. The temporary management information includes scene size (capacity), reproduction time, information required for special reproduction, position information, and the like. The management information processing unit 103
This temporary management information is created as management information that conforms to the formal format that conforms to the standard, and the recording medium drive processing unit 105 writes this management information in the recording medium 106.

Next, creation of user interface menu information at the time of finalization will be described. The temporary management information processing unit 104 reads out the temporary management information from the recording medium 106, and transmits this temporary management information to the menu processing unit 102. The AV stream processing unit 101 receives from the temporary management information processing unit 104 the position information in which the images representing each chapter are recorded, and the recording medium 106 receives the position information.
A representative image of each chapter is read from. The representative image of each chapter referred to here is, for example, the first image of the chapter, but it is not particularly limited. Further, a representative image of each title, for example, the first image of each title is also read from the recording medium 106. The representative image read by the AV stream processing unit 101 is transmitted to the menu processing unit 102. The menu processing unit 102 uses the representative image and the temporary management information,
Create user interface menu information.

An example of the user interface menu will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the title menu screen. As shown in an example of the title menu of FIG. 3, six titles are set as one page and the menu is displayed here. In the present invention, the number of titles per page is not limited and may be any number that is convenient. # 1 Title thumbnail 301 is # 1
The thumbnail image of the image representing the title and the thumbnail 302 of the # 2 title are the thumbnail images of the image representing the # 2 title. The previous page 303 is a button for accessing the previous page of this title menu 305, and the next page 304 is a button for accessing the next page of this title menu 305, which is necessary when the title menu has multiple screens. Becomes Of course, if the screen is the first page of the title menu, the previous page 303 may or may not be present, and if the screen is the last page of the title menu, the next page 304
It may or may not be present.

When the thumbnail of the title is selected and determined, the chapter menu is activated. Next, an example of the chapter menu will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the chapter menu screen. Here, an example is shown in which the menu is displayed with six chapters as one page, but the number of chapters per page is not limited and may be set to a convenient number. The thumbnail 401 of the # 1 chapter is a reduced image of the image representing the # 1 chapter, the thumbnail 402 of the # 2 chapter is a reduced image of the image representing the # 2 chapter, and so on. The previous page 403 is a button for accessing the previous page of this chapter menu 405, and the next page 404 is a button for accessing the next page of this chapter menu 405, which is necessary when the chapter menu has multiple pages. Becomes If the screen is the first page of the chapter menu, the previous page 403 may or may not exist, and if the screen is the last page of the chapter menu, the next page 404 may or may not exist. When the thumbnail of a chapter is selected and decided, the video of that chapter is played.

The menu processing unit 102 in FIG. 1 creates user interface menu information that operates in this manner, and the recording medium drive processing unit 105 causes the recording medium 10 to be processed.
Write to 6. As an example of the user interface menu, when a thumbnail of a title, which is the title menu, is selected, the data structure may be such that the title is reproduced from the beginning. Further, as an example of the user interface menu, a data structure without a title menu but only with a chapter menu can be adopted.

Next, other menus will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of the title menu, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of the chapter menu. In FIGS. 3 and 4, a thumbnail is created from a representative image to create a title menu and a chapter menu. However, instead of creating a thumbnail, the title menu 501 in FIG. 5 or the chapter menu 601 in FIG. As described above, for example, a user interface menu of text information such as a title name or a chapter name may be used. By doing so, the processing time can be shortened because the time for creating the thumbnail is unnecessary, and the number of display titles and the number of display chapters per screen can be increased.

In particular, a part that takes a long time to create a thumbnail is a process of reading an AV stream from the recording medium 106 and decoding it. To shorten this process,
When the AV stream is recorded on the recording medium 106, thumbnail information may be recorded inside the temporary management information. FIG. 7 shows an example of such temporary management information.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of temporary management information. The temporary management information 703 includes temporary management data creation information 701 and thumbnail creation information 702. This thumbnail creation information 702 is the thumbnail information of each title and each chapter itself. If a thumbnail of user interface menu information is created from this information, an image that is representative of each title or chapter is read from the AV stream and decoded. It is possible to create the thumbnail, create the user interface menu information, and record it in the recording medium 106 in a shorter time than the time required for the operation. It should be noted that the thumbnail creation information 702 may exist independently in another area instead of inside the temporary management information 703.

Further, the menu processing section 102 may switch between the reduced image and the character string to create the user interface menu. Further, as the recording medium 106, a medium which can be written only once may be used. The information recording apparatus of the present invention is a portable camera equipped with a lens and a CCD.

As described above, according to the present invention, the user interface menu is visually displayed by the thumbnail, and when the thumbnail is selected and determined, the user-friendly user can immediately reproduce the desired scene. The interface menu can be created on the recording medium.

Further, the thumbnail information is not created from the AV stream recorded on the recording medium, but is recorded on the recording medium as a thumbnail when the thumbnail information is recorded in real time. It can be shortened.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, the user interface menu is visually displayed by the thumbnail, and the desired scene can be immediately reproduced by selecting and determining the thumbnail. .
Further, by creating a thumbnail from the image recorded in real time and recording the thumbnail on the recording medium, it is possible to shorten the time for creating the user interface menu.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an information recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of a title and chapters in an AV stream.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a title menu screen.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a chapter menu screen.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another example of the title menu.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of the chapter menu.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a configuration of temporary management information.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... AV stream processing part, 102 ... Menu processing part, 103 ... Management information processing part, 104 ... Temporary management information processing part, 105 ... Recording medium drive processing part, 106 ... Recording medium, 107 ... Control part, 108 ... User Interface processing unit, 110 ... AV information input terminal.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Susumu Yoshida             292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa             Ceremony Hitachi Digital Media Development Book             Department F-term (reference) 5C052 AB04 AC01 DD04 DD06 EE03                 5C053 FA05 FA08 GB05 GB11 HA21                       JA01 LA02                 5D110 AA17 AA29 BB01 DA01 DA12                       DA20 DB03 DC16 DE01 EA07                       FA09

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An information processing means for encoding audio information and video information and recording the encoded information on a recording medium, and decoding audio encoding information and video encoding information, and temporary management information for each recording unit to the recording medium. A temporary management information processing means for reading and writing, a management information processing means for creating management information of all recording units and writing the management information in the recording medium, and information representative of the recording units recorded by the information processing means. Decoding from the medium, creating menu information from the decoded information, select one of the menu information,
And a menu processing means for creating a user interface menu capable of reproducing the image of the recording unit related to the selected menu information by determining and recording the user interface menu on the recording medium. Recording device. 2. The information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the menu information of the user interface menu created by the menu processing means is a reduced image of an image representing a recording unit, and the reduced image is selected. hand,
An information recording apparatus, wherein an image of a recording unit of the reduced image can be reproduced by determining. 3. The information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the menu information of the user interface menu created by the menu processing means is a character string, and by selecting and determining the character string, An information recording apparatus capable of reproducing an image of a recording unit corresponding to a character string. 4. The information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the menu processing means can switch between a reduced image and a character string. 5. The information recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the recording medium is a recording medium which can be written only once. 6. The information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a lens and a CCD are provided as an image input means.
An information recording device comprising: and being portable. 7. The information recording apparatus according to claim 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6, wherein a reduced image representative of each recording unit is recorded in said temporary management information, and the user is based on this reduced image. An information recording device characterized by creating a reduced image of an interface menu. 8. The information recording apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the reduced image representing each recording unit is recorded in an area other than the temporary management information of the recording medium.