JP2003289486A - Video reproducing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video reproducing apparatus capable of reading and reproducing desired video contents among one or more video contents recorded on a random accessible recording medium, easily grasping the contents of video contents and starting reproduction at a desired mid-position of the recording medium. <P>SOLUTION: The video reproducing apparatus related to this invention stores a plurality of thumbnail pictures indicative of each of a plurality of images included on the halfway position of video contents recorded in an HDD 4 and position information of each thumbnail picture, and a system controller 13 sequentially reproduces video data by a prescribed time from the position of each thumbnail picture in the HDD 4 depending on a reproduction operation of a digest file of a user and shifts to ordinary reproduction depending on an ordinary reproduction shift operation of the user during reproduction. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video reproducing apparatus capable of reading and reproducing video contents from a randomly accessible recording medium such as a hard disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a hard disk drive device (hereinafter referred to as HDD) and a video cassette tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as VCR) are built in the same housing, and a television signal received by a tuner is recorded in the HDD. In addition, the TV signal recorded in the HDD is changed to V
A video recording / reproducing apparatus capable of dubbing on a CR magnetic tape cassette has been developed. According to such a video recording / reproducing apparatus, it is possible to realize a high-performance recording / reproducing operation by high-speed random access by the HDD, and to store the video contents using the magnetic tape cassette by dubbing from the HDD to the VCR. Is possible.

[0003]

By the way, in the conventional video recording / reproducing apparatus, when a desired video content is searched from a plurality of video contents recorded in the HDD, the title or recording of the video content is performed. A selection screen that displays the date and time in text is used. However, on such a selection screen, it is difficult to grasp the actual content of the video content from the title and the recording date and time. Therefore, the first image (thumbnail) of each video content
A method of searching for a desired video content using a selection screen displaying a list can be considered.

However, even if the top image is a featureless image, it is difficult to grasp the content of the video content even on the thumbnail selection screen. Moreover, it is not possible to start the reproduction from the middle of one video content. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a video reproducing apparatus which can easily grasp the contents of recorded video contents and can start reproduction from a desired intermediate position of the video contents. is there.

[0005]

A video reproducing apparatus according to the present invention includes a recording medium capable of random access, and one or a plurality of video contents recorded on the recording medium, which are included in intermediate positions. For a plurality of images, a plurality of thumbnails representing each image, a thumbnail holding unit that holds position information of each thumbnail, and a fixed position from each thumbnail position of the recording medium according to a user's digest reproduction start operation. In response to digest reproduction control means for executing digest reproduction for sequentially reproducing video data for a time period, and in accordance with the user's normal reproduction transition operation during the digest reproduction, a series of video data is continuously generated from the time when the operation is performed. And a normal reproduction transition control means for shifting the reproduction operation to the normal reproduction for reproduction.

In the above-described video reproducing apparatus of the present invention, when the user performs a digest reproduction start operation, video data for a predetermined time is sequentially read from each thumbnail position on the recording medium, and the digest reproduction by a moving image is executed. It It should be noted that thumbnails representing images at appropriate plural positions are created in advance for one or a plurality of video contents recorded on the recording medium. Therefore, while watching the digest playback screen of this video, the user
It is possible to easily select a desired video content or easily specify a desired reproduction start position. Then, when the user performs a normal reproduction transition operation at the time when the desired reproduction start position is recognized, the normal reproduction is started from that time.

[0007] In a specific configuration, the system further comprises digest reproduction stop control means for stopping the digest reproduction in response to a reproduction stop operation of the user during the digest reproduction. Therefore, the user can end the digest reproduction in the middle, if necessary, without advancing the digest reproduction to the end.

In a specific configuration, further, there is provided a reproduction skip control means for skipping the digest reproduction from the next thumbnail position to the reproduction of the video data for a predetermined time in accordance with the reproduction skip operation of the user during the digest reproduction. I am. As a result, it is possible to quickly search for the desired video content and the reproduction start position.

In a specific configuration, further, in response to a user's operation during normal reproduction of video content, a thumbnail is created based on one image reproduced at the time of the operation, and the thumbnail position information is used together with the thumbnail position information. It has means for registering in the thumbnail holding means. This allows the user to create thumbnails at desired positions.

In a specific configuration, further, in accordance with a user's operation during normal reproduction of the video content, video data for a certain period of time is extracted from the time of the operation, and a digest file of a moving image having a thumbnail as a leading image is created. It has a means for creating digest files. If the digest file created in this way is recorded in another recording medium, the digest reproduction can be performed by another video reproducing apparatus.

[0011]

According to the video reproducing apparatus of the present invention, the contents of one or a plurality of video contents recorded on the recording medium can be easily grasped and reproduced from a desired intermediate position of the desired video contents. You can start.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a video recording / reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be specifically described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the video recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention comprises an HDD (4) having a hard disk and a VCR (9) capable of attaching and detaching a magnetic tape cassette (8). ) And the operation of the VCR (9) are controlled by the system controller (13).

Further, the video recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a tuner (1), and a program (video content) received by the tuner (1) is recorded in an NTSC decoding circuit.
A / D converted in (2), and MPEG encoding circuit
After being converted into MPEG data in (3), it is recorded in the HDD (4). In this way, multiple video contents are HD
While it is recorded on D (4), VCR is read from HDD (4).
Video content can be dubbed in (9). In the dubbing, the data read from the HDD (4) is supplied to the NTSC encoding circuit (7) through the MPEG decoding circuit (5), converted into a video reproduction signal (NTSC signal), and then VCR (9). It is recorded on the magnetic tape cassette (8).

The system controller (13) is connected to a memory (14) for storing various management information for a plurality of magnetic tape cassettes (8). Also, MPEG
The decoding circuit (5) includes a memory for decoding processing.
(6) is connected. The video reproduction signal obtained from the NTSC encoding circuit (7) and the video reproduction signal obtained from the VCR (9) are switched by the changeover switch (11), and one of the video reproduction signals is sent to the display device in the subsequent stage. Is output.

The video reproduction signal from the VCR (9) is supplied to the information extraction circuit (10) to extract various information such as the tape number of the VCR (9) and the result is the system controller (13). Is supplied to. The management information stored in the memory (14) is read by the system controller (13) and is displayed on-screen by the on-screen display circuit (12) on the subsequent display device.

FIG. 2 shows a procedure for creating a thumbnail and a digest file in response to a user's reproduction stop operation during reproduction of one video content. First, in step S1, when a reproduction stop request is issued by a user operation during reproduction of one video content, the reproduction of the content is stopped in step S2. Subsequently, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the setting for creating the thumbnail is set when the reproduction is stopped. If the determination is YES, in step S4, one image is reproduced from the reproduced video data at that time. Create thumbnails Next, in step S5, it is determined whether or not the setting for creating the digest file is made. If the determination is YES, in step S6, the thumbnail is used as the leading image for a certain time (for example, several bytes). Create a digest file from 10 seconds of video data. It should be noted that the thumbnail and the digest file have already been created at the time of recording on the HDD as shown in FIG. 5, and will also be created when playback is stopped by the above procedure.

FIG. 3 shows a procedure for creating a thumbnail and a digest file according to a user operation at an arbitrary position during the reproduction of one video content. First, in step S11, it is determined whether or not a request to create a digest file is issued by a user's operation, and if YES is determined, step S1 is performed.
After shifting to No. 2 and creating the thumbnail at the present time, in step S13, a digest file is created from the video data for a certain period of time using the thumbnail as the leading image. Then, in step S14, it is determined whether or not the reproduction position of the content has reached the end. If the result is NO, the process returns to step S11 and the same procedure is repeated. If the result is YES, the content reproduction is ended. Also in this case, the thumbnail and the digest file are stored in the HDD as shown in FIG.
It has already been created at the time of recording to, and by the above procedure, it will also be created at an arbitrary position designated by the user.

FIG. 4 shows a digest reproduction procedure according to a user's operation. First, in step S21, a plurality of thumbnails that have already been created are displayed in a list as shown in FIG. Next, in step S22 of FIG. 4, the reproduction of the moving image is started from the top thumbnail position. continue,
In step S23, it is determined whether or not a request for transition to normal reproduction is issued by the user's operation. If NO is determined, the process proceeds to step S24, and if YES is determined, digest reproduction is ended, and normal reproduction is terminated. Move to playback. In step S24, it is determined whether or not a reproduction stop request has been issued by the user's operation. If NO is determined, the process proceeds to step S25, and if YES is determined, digest reproduction is terminated.

In step S25, it is determined whether or not a reproduction skip request has been issued by the user's operation. If NO, the process proceeds to step S26 to determine whether a designated second (for example, several tens of seconds) has elapsed. If YES is determined, the process proceeds to step S27. When it is determined NO in step S26, the process returns to step S23 to repeat the same determination, and when YES is determined, the process proceeds to step S27. In step S27, it is determined whether or not the display of the moving image having all the thumbnails as the leading images is completed, and in the case of No, the process returns to step S22, and the process proceeds to the playback of the moving image having the next thumbnail as the leading image. In case of, the digest reproduction procedure is ended.

As shown in FIG. 8, the above-described digest reproduction procedure causes the moving images having the thumbnail as the first image to be reproduced in order. In this process, the user operates the digest reproduction stop request, the digest reproduction skip request, or the When a normal playback start request is issued,
At that point, the digest reproduction by the moving picture is stopped, the digest reproduction is skipped to the next moving picture, or the normal reproduction is started.

Therefore, the user can easily select a desired video content or easily specify a desired reproduction start position while looking at the digest reproduction screen by moving images.
Normal playback can be started from that point. or,
In the normal reproduction of the video content, the thumbnail is automatically created when the reproduction is stopped, so that the reproduction can be easily started from the continuation. Furthermore, since the user intentionally creates thumbnails, the digest file in which the favorite moving image parts are collected is automatically played back, so that the digest file is VCR (9).
By recording on a cassette tape (8) with and reproducing the digest file by another VCR, only the favorite moving image part can be viewed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a thumbnail and digest file creation procedure when content reproduction is stopped.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a thumbnail and digest file creation procedure at an arbitrary position.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a digest reproduction procedure.

[Fig. 5] Fig. 5 is a diagram for describing generation of thumbnails by stopping content reproduction.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating creation of a digest file at an arbitrary position.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a thumbnail display screen.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating progress of digest file reproduction and various requests made by a user.

[Explanation of symbols]

(1) Tuner (4) HDD (8) Cassette tape (9) VCR (13) System controller

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G11B 27/34 G11B 27/34 P H04N 5/765 H04N 5/781 510L 5/781 5/91 Z 5 / 91 F-term (reference) 5C052 AA01 AC08 CC01 DD04 5C053 FA06 FA14 FA22 FA23 GA11 GB37 HA30 LA06 5D044 AB07 BC01 CC01 CC04 DE23 DE38 FG23 GK12 HL07 5D077 AA08 AA22 BA09 BA12 HA07 HD03 HD04

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A video reproducing apparatus capable of reading desired video content from one or a plurality of video contents recorded on a randomly accessible recording medium and reproducing the video data, the recording medium comprising: A plurality of images included in the middle position of one or a plurality of video contents recorded in the above, a plurality of thumbnails representing each image, and a thumbnail holding unit holding position information of each thumbnail. A digest reproduction control means for executing digest reproduction for sequentially reproducing video data for a predetermined time from each thumbnail position of the recording medium in response to a user's digest reproduction start operation, and a normal reproduction transition operation by the user during the digest reproduction Depending on the above, a series of video data is continuously An image reproducing apparatus characterized by comprising normal reproduction transition control means for shifting reproduction operation to normal reproduction for reproduction. 2. The video reproduction apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising digest reproduction stop control means for stopping the digest reproduction in response to a reproduction stop operation of a user during the digest reproduction. 3. A reproduction skip control means for skipping the digest reproduction from the next thumbnail position to reproduction of video data for a predetermined time period in accordance with a reproduction skip operation of the user during the digest reproduction. The video reproduction device according to claim 1 or 2. 4. Further, in response to a user's operation during the normal reproduction of the video content, the content reproduced at the time of the operation 1
4. The video reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for creating a thumbnail based on the number of images and registering the thumbnail with the position information of the thumbnail in the thumbnail holding means. 5. A digest file for extracting a video data for a certain period of time from the time of the operation according to a user's operation during normal reproduction of the video content, and creating a video digest file having a thumbnail as a leading image. The video reproducing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a creating unit.