JP2005159861A - Image recorder/player - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image recorder/player capable of reducing consumption power by improving image quality and thus capable of driving for a long time by an internal power source. <P>SOLUTION: The image recorder/player includes an image decompression circuit 12, an image quality improvement circuit 13 for improving the image quality of an image signal, a switch 14 for selecting one of the decompressed image signal and the quality-improved image signal for outputting, internal image display devices 17 and 18 for displaying a reproduced image, a driving circuit 15 for supplying the selected image signal to the internal image display devices and an externally connected television receiver 30, a connection detection circuit 16 for detecting that the television receiver is not connected, and a control means 19 for stopping the operation of the image quality improvement circuit and controlling the switch to cause the image signal of the image decompression circuit to be selected, all of which are driven by a built-in power source respectively. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image recording / reproducing apparatus that is driven by a built-in power source such as a battery and reproduces or records / reproduces an image compressed by, for example, MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group).

The compressed image data is expanded and returned to the image data, and the reproduced image is displayed on an internal image display device integrated in the apparatus, and an external image display device such as a personal computer is connected to display the reproduced image. A digital camera is disclosed that can be operated for a long time with an internal power supply by turning off the power supply of the internal image display device when a personal computer is connected. (See Patent Document 1 below).
Japanese Patent No. 3268995 (paragraph 0029, FIG. 3)

  Incidentally, in a video camera as an image recording / reproducing apparatus, when an image signal compressed by MPEG or the like is expanded, image quality improvement processing such as deblocking or deringing is often performed. When a television receiver is connected to this video camera and a captured image is viewed, the image quality improvement effect is great. However, the effect of the image quality improvement processing hardly appears as long as the image is viewed on a small internal image display device, for example, an attached viewfinder or a liquid crystal display screen.

  In addition, since power consumption associated with the operation of the image quality improvement circuit cannot be ignored, the image quality improvement circuit is operated only when the television receiver is connected, and the television receiver is not connected. When confirming the shooting state with the attached internal image display device, stopping the operation of the image quality improvement circuit is effective in suppressing the power consumption of the internal power supply. In the above-described conventional digital camera, the image quality improvement processing circuit is to be used in a situation where the effect of the image quality improvement is difficult to appear even though the power of the internal image display device is turned off when the personal computer is connected. Is not mentioned.

  In general, when shooting with a video camera, it is often necessary to check the shot image on the spot. Therefore, even when the conventional digital camera technology is applied to this video camera, there is a problem that the power of the built-in power source such as a battery is consumed more than necessary by the image quality improvement circuit.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides an image recording / reproducing apparatus that can reduce power consumed in image quality improvement processing and can be driven by an internal power source for a long time. For the purpose.

  According to the present invention, after the image signal compressed to achieve the above object is expanded by an image expansion circuit, the image quality of the image signal is improved by an image quality improvement circuit and displayed on an internal image display device, or a television receiver. When connecting and displaying, a connection detection circuit for detecting that the television receiver is not connected, and when the television receiver is not connected, the operation of the image quality improvement circuit is stopped and the image quality expansion circuit And a control means for supplying the image signal to the internal image display device.

  According to the present invention configured as described above, it is possible to provide an image recording / reproducing apparatus that can reduce the power consumed in the image quality improvement processing and can be driven by the internal power supply for a long time. .

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an image recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, a compressed image recording / reproducing apparatus 10 corresponds to a configuration in which an image compression recording unit of a video camera is removed, for example, a viewer or a portable DVD, and an image compression signal from a recording medium such as a tape or a disk. A reproduction apparatus 11 that reproduces and outputs an image, an image decompression circuit 12 that inputs and decompresses and outputs a compressed image signal, and an image quality improvement circuit that inputs and outputs the decompressed image signal to improve the image quality 13, a switch 14 that selects and outputs one of the output of the image decompression circuit 12 and the output of the image quality improvement circuit 13 according to the control signal, and the image signal output from the switch 14 is a view as an internal image display device. When the television receiver (TV) 30 is connected to the output terminal 20 while being supplied to the finder 17 and the liquid crystal monitor 18, the television The output driver 15 serving as a drive circuit that also supplies an image signal to the receiver 30, the TV connection detection circuit 16 that detects that the TV receiver 30 is not connected to the output terminal 20, and the TV receiver 30 are connected. And a microcomputer 19 as control means for stopping the operation of the image quality improvement circuit 13 and controlling the switch 14 to select the output of the image decompression circuit 12 and supply it to the output driver 15. .

  FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram partially showing in block form the detailed configuration of the television connection detection circuit 16. This is because a resistor R (= 75Ω) is connected to the path connecting the output driver 15 and the output terminal 20, a voltage detection circuit 21 that detects the voltage generated at both ends, and a voltage detection signal from the voltage detection circuit 21. The output of the low-pass filter 22 is lower than the voltage of the battery 24 by comparing the low-pass filter 22 that removes the high-frequency component that becomes noise, the signal voltage that has passed through the low-pass filter 22 and the voltage of the battery 24 that outputs the reference voltage. A comparator 23 that detects that the television receiver 30 is not connected and applies an “L” level signal to the microcomputer 19.

  The operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described below. In the compressed image recording / reproducing apparatus 10, the reproducing apparatus 11 reproduces an image signal compressed from a recording medium such as a tape or a disk and applies it to the image decompression circuit 12. The image decompression circuit 12 decompresses the compressed image signal and applies the decompressed image signal to the image quality improvement circuit 13 as well as the one input of the switch 14. The image quality improvement circuit 13 performs image quality improvement processing such as deblocking and deringing or stops these processing operations by the control signal of the microcomputer 19, and switches the image signal when the image quality improvement processing is performed to the switch 14. As the other input. The switch 14 selects one of the image signals to be added thereto according to the control signal of the microcomputer 19 and applies it to the output driver 15. The output driver 15 supplies an image signal to the viewfinder 17 and the liquid crystal monitor 18 attached to the compressed image recording / reproducing apparatus 10, and also supplies it to a television receiver 30 that can be connected externally via the output terminal 20. The output terminal 20 can be any one of a pin terminal that outputs composite video, an S terminal that outputs a Y / C separate signal, and a D terminal that outputs a component signal. The television connection detection circuit 16 detects that the television receiver 30 is not connected to the output terminal 20 and applies an “L” level signal to the microcomputer 19. At this time, the microcomputer 19 stops the operation of the image quality improvement circuit 13 and at the same time, the switch 14 selects an image signal output from the image expansion circuit 12 and outputs a control signal supplied to the output driver 15.

  In the television connection detection circuit 16 shown in FIG. 2, when the television receiver 30 is connected to the output terminal 20, the voltage detection circuit 21 detects the voltage generated in the resistor R due to the high-frequency current flowing through the connection path, and the low-pass. When the signal level from which the high frequency component has been removed by the filter 22 falls below the reference voltage of the battery 24, an “L” level signal is output and applied to the microcomputer 19.

  As is clear from the above description, when the television receiver 30 is not connected to the output terminal 20 of the compressed image recording / reproducing apparatus 10, the operation of the image quality improvement circuit 13 is stopped, so that the image is captured by the viewfinder 17 or the liquid crystal monitor 18. Even if the image is confirmed, the power consumed in the image quality improvement processing can be reduced, and thus it can be driven for a long time by the internal power supply.

  In the above-described embodiment, an apparatus having only a reproduction function has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a known video camera having a compression recording apparatus that compresses and records an image signal. It can also be applied to.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of one Embodiment of the image recording / reproducing apparatus concerning this invention. FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram partially showing in block form a detailed configuration of a television connection detection circuit constituting the embodiment shown in FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Compressed image recording / reproducing apparatus 11 Reproducing apparatus 12 Image expansion circuit 13 Image quality improvement circuit 14 Switch 15 Output driver (drive circuit)
16 TV connection detection circuit (connection detection circuit)
17 Viewfinder (internal image display device)
18 LCD monitor (internal image display device)
19 Microcomputer (control means)
20 Output terminal 21 Voltage detection circuit 22 Low-pass filter 23 Comparator 24 Battery 30 Television receiver

Claims (1)

An image recording / reproducing apparatus for reproducing or recording / reproducing an image driven and compressed by a built-in power supply,
An image decompression circuit that is driven by the built-in power supply and decompresses the compressed image signal;
An image quality improvement circuit for improving the image quality of the decompressed image signal;
A switch that selects and outputs one of the image signal expanded by the image expansion circuit and the image signal improved by the image quality improvement circuit;
An internal image display device for displaying reproduced images;
A drive circuit capable of supplying an image signal selected by the switch to the image display device and a television receiver that can be externally connected;
A connection detection circuit for detecting that a television receiver is not connected to the drive circuit;
Control means for stopping the operation of the image quality improvement circuit when the television receiver is not connected, and controlling the switch so that an image signal of the image quality expansion circuit is selected;
An image recording / reproducing apparatus provided.

Images