JP2008085933A - Video distributing system and digest reproduction method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video distributing system capable of digestibly reproducing a content in even a server without a function to create summarized contents. <P>SOLUTION: In the video distributing system, the server 303 for storing the video contents; a summary reproducing apparatus 302 for the summary reproduction of the contents in the server; and a summary information creating apparatus 301 for creating the summary reproduction information of the contents having content information including an access location of the contents and a possibility for the summary reproduction, and notifying the content information to the summary reproducing apparatus are network-connected. The summary reproducing apparatus notifies summary reproduction conditions for the selected content to the summary information creating apparatus which creates summary location information from the summary reproduction conditions and the summary reproduction information, and notifies it to the summary reproducing apparatus. The summary reproducing apparatus executes summary reproduction by acquiring the video content from the server according to the summary location information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a video distribution system in which a content reproduction terminal and a content server are connected via a network, and more particularly to a video distribution system suitable for digest reproduction of server content.

  AV network-compatible devices that can transmit and receive moving images via a home network are becoming popular. Some of these network devices can perform summary reproduction in order to efficiently view and reproduce a large amount of accumulated content (for example, Patent Document 1).

  Specifically, in Patent Document 1, a server having content generates summary content from content to be transmitted / received according to conditions specified by the client side, and the client receives the generated summary content from the server. A technique for realizing summary playback of content between a server and a client is disclosed.

JP 2006-148526 A

  However, in Patent Document 1 described above, when there is a content server that does not have a summary content generation function, the client cannot perform summary playback on the content that the content server has. For example, if there is a server A that has a summary content generation function, a server B that does not have a summary content generation function, and a client A, the client A can perform summary playback of the contents of the server A. However, the contents of server B cannot be summarized and played back.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems and to provide a video distribution system that can perform digest reproduction of server contents even on a server that does not have a summary content generation function.

  A video distribution system that distributes video content via a network according to the present invention includes a content server that stores video content, a summary playback device that performs summary playback of the video content of the content server, and summary playback of the video content of the content server. A summary information generating device for generating information and having content information including the access location of the video content and summary playback availability information and notifying the summary playback device of the content information is connected to the network. Configured. The summary playback device receives a summary video from the content server based on the summary position information and the content information notified from the summary information generation device when a content whose summary playback enable / disable information of the content information is selected is selected. The content was acquired and the content was played back.

  Further, in the video distribution system, the summary playback device notifies the summary playback condition of the selected content to the summary information generation device, and the summary information generation device determines the summary position information from the summary playback condition and the summary playback information. Is generated and notified to the summary playback device.

  In the video distribution system, the summary playback device acquires the video content from the content server without summarizing and plays it from the beginning of the content when the content whose summary playback availability information is not selected is selected. I tried to do.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a video distribution system that can perform digest playback of server content even on a server that does not have a summary content generation function. Therefore, it is possible to grasp the content of the user and to easily view the content. Become.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In addition, the same number and the same code | symbol shall have the same function. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments of the present specification.

  First, before describing the details of the present embodiment, an outline of the video distribution system of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. A summary information generation device 301, a summary playback device 302, and a content server 303, whose details will be described later, are connected to a network 304. The network 304 may be a home network or an external network. However, when the network 304 is inside or outside the home, the connection target device can be uniquely determined, and security such as authentication and packet encryption can be ensured.

  Here, the summary information generating apparatus 301 receives content such as video stored in the content server 303 and generates summary reproduction information. After that, the summary information generating apparatus 301 generates and publishes summary playback information-added content information 402 obtained by adding summary playback enable / disable information to the content information 401. As described above, the summary reproduction information generating apparatus 301 can generate the summary reproduction information of the content included in the content server 303 that does not have the summary reproduction function, and can further disclose the content information including the summary reproduction availability information.

  The summary playback device 302 acquires the content information 402 with summary playback information and allows the user to select playback content. The summary playback device 302 notifies the summary information generation device 301 of the summary playback conditions of the selected content, and acquires summary playback position information. Then, the summary playback device 302 acquires and plays back content from the content server 303 in accordance with the summary playback position information transmitted from the summary information generation device 301.

  In the system configuration diagram of FIG. 4, each of the summary information generation device, the summary playback device, and the content server is described as an example. However, it is needless to say that the summary playback device may have a plurality of configurations. . In addition, the content of a content server that does not have a plurality of summary generation functions may be viewed and managed by a single summary playback device.

  Even when a content server having a summary generation function is connected, the summary reproduction information generated by the content server is transferred to the summary information generation device, and is summarized in the content information 401 in the same manner as the contents of other content servers. The content information 402 with summary reproduction information added with the reproduction permission information may be generated and made public. According to this, regardless of the summary generation function of the content server, the content is centrally managed by the user, and there is an effect that the content can be easily viewed.

Next, the configuration and function of a summary information generation apparatus that generates summary playback information and transmits summary playback position information will be described with reference to FIG.
The summary information generation device 301 includes a CPU 101, a memory 102, an HDD 103, a network I / F unit 104, a content information reception unit 105, a content information transmission unit 106 with summary reproduction information, a content reception unit 107, a summary reproduction information generation unit 108, a summary The playback condition receiving unit 109 and the digest playback position generating unit 111 are shown as being connected to the bus 120.

  The CPU 101, the memory 102, and the HDD 103 have functions for operating the OS and application programs of the summary information generation device 301, summary playback device 302, and content server 303. The OS and application program are not particularly limited. When the summary information generation device 301, summary playback device 302, and content server 303 are PCs, the OS and applications for PCs are used. When an HDD recorder is used, an OS and application for the HDD recorder may be used. Also, video content can be stored in the HDD 103. For example, in the case of an HDD recorder, broadcast video can be stored in the HDD. The network I / F unit 104 has a function of transmitting / receiving data to / from the network.

  The content information receiving unit 105 has a function of acquiring content information that the content server has from the content server. The received content information has the configuration shown in FIG. Content information 401, which is content information to be received, is composed of an ID that uniquely identifies the content, a content name that indicates the content information to the user, and a URL for accessing the content. The received content information may include channel information, owned user information, and the like.

  The content information transmitting unit with summary playback information 106 has a function of generating, publishing content information including summary playback permission / inhibition information, and transmitting the content information to the summary playback device. The content information to be transmitted has the configuration shown in FIG. Content information 402 with summary reproduction availability information, which is transmitted content information, is an ID for uniquely identifying the content, a content name for indicating content information to the user, a URL for accessing the content, and whether summary reproduction is possible The summary reproduction availability information. The URL of the content information 402 with summary reproducibility information is assumed to be the same as the URL of the received content information 401 shown in FIG.

  The content receiving unit 107 has a function of acquiring content included in the content server from the content server. The acquisition protocol may be a general protocol such as HTTP or RTP, as long as the content can be acquired from the content server.

  The summary playback information generation unit 108 has a function of generating summary playback information necessary for generating the summary playback position. The summary reproduction information indicates information ranked for each scene extracted from the content. For example, in soccer, shoot and goal scenes are extracted, and these scenes are ranked high. For example, when the playback ratio and playback time are specified, the summary playback positions are generated by selecting the ranked scenes in descending order until the specified ratio and time conditions are reached.

  The digest playback condition receiving unit 109 has a function of receiving the digest playback conditions transmitted by the digest playback apparatus. The summary playback condition will be described later.

  The summary playback position generation unit 111 has a function of generating a summary playback position according to the summary playback information and the summary playback condition. The data format of the summary playback position has a configuration as shown in FIG. Data format 1 501 is composed of a reproduction range character string, and is represented by a reproduction range in seconds. Also, the playback range of MPEG-2 PTS or DTS may be used instead of seconds. Moreover, it is good also as a structure by CSV format, such as 5-10, 25-30, 55-70. As other data formats, data format 2 502 and data format 3 503 can also be configured. Data format 2 502 is a configuration in which the start time and end time of the playback range are arranged in order in binary, and each element has a constant data size. For example, if each element is 4 bytes, one playback range consists of 8 bytes. Data format 3 503 has a configuration in which the number of reproduction ranges is arranged at the beginning of data, and each reproduction range is arranged behind the number. The number of reproduction ranges and each reproduction range may be expressed by a character string or binary data. In this embodiment, the number of reproduction ranges is arranged in front of each reproduction range, but may be arranged behind.

  In the present embodiment, the above configuration is used, but it is also possible to use the summary information generation device as a content server. In this case, the summary reproduction information generation unit 108, the summary reproduction condition reception unit 109, the summary reproduction position generation unit 110, What is necessary is just to have the summary reproduction position transmission unit 111.

Next, the configuration and function of a summary playback device that performs summary playback of content according to the acquired summary position information will be described with reference to FIG.
The digest playback device 302 includes a CPU 101, a memory 102, an HDD 103, a network I / F unit 104, a content information receiving unit 150 with summary playback availability information, a summary playback condition transmitting unit 151, a summary playback position receiving unit 152, a content receiving unit 107, A content processing unit 153, a display unit 154, and an input unit 155 are shown as being connected to the bus 120.

  The content information receiving unit 150 with summary reproducibility information has a function of receiving content information with summary reproducibility information.

  The digest playback condition transmission unit 151 has a function of transmitting the digest playback condition. The summary playback condition includes, for example, playback time of summary playback and playback ratio. Further, when there are contents of various genres in the content server, genre designation for performing summary reproduction suitable for the genres can be mentioned. As described above, any information that is an element for determining the summary playback position can be used as a summary playback condition.

  The summary playback position receiving unit 152 has a function of receiving the summary playback position.

  The content processing unit 153 has a function of decoding the content received by the content receiving unit 107.

The display unit 154 has a function for displaying the video decoded by the content processing unit 153.
The input unit 155 has a function of accepting information for the user to operate the summary playback device 302. For example, in the case of home appliances, information from a remote controller is received, and an operation instruction is given to each processing unit according to the information.

Next, the configuration and function of a general content server that transmits content to the network will be described with reference to FIG.
The content server 303 is shown in a configuration in which the CPU 101, the memory 102, the HDD 103, the network I / F unit 104, and the content transmission unit 202 are connected to the bus 120.

  The content information transmission unit 201 has a function of generating, publishing, and transmitting content information of content that the content server 303 has. The content information to be transmitted has the configuration shown in FIG. 5 as described above.

  The content transmission unit 202 has a function of transmitting content to the network. In content transmission, it is possible to accept a time range specification or a byte range specification, and upon receiving the specification, the content transmission unit 202 transmits content data in a range according to each specification.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 8 to 10, the flow of summary playback operations performed among the summary information generation device 301, summary playback device 302, and content server 303 will be described.
First, processing for generating summary reproduction information between the summary information generating apparatus 301 and the content server 303 will be described. The operation flow of the summary information generation apparatus 301 at this time is shown in FIG.

  The summary reproduction information generating apparatus 301 acquires the content information 401 published by the content server 303 (S101). Next, for each content of each ID of the acquired content information 401, the content is received and summary reproduction information is generated. The generated summary reproduction information is stored in the HDD 103 (S102). After generating the summary playback information, the summary playback information generating apparatus 301 generates and publishes the content information 402 with summary playback information by adding the summary playback enable / disable information to the content information 401 (S103). As described above, the summary reproduction information generating apparatus 301 can generate the summary reproduction information of the content included in the content server 303 that does not have the summary reproduction function, and can further disclose the content information including the summary reproduction availability information.

  Next, summary playback position information is transmitted and received between the summary information generating device 301 and the summary playback device 302, and summary playback is performed. The operation flow of the summary information generation device 301 at this time is shown in FIG. 9, while the operation flow of the summary reproduction device 302 is shown in FIG. The summary playback device 302 acquires the content information 402 with summary playback information published by the summary information generation device 301 (S201). Next, in accordance with the acquired content information 402 with summary playback information, content information including summary playback enable / disable information is displayed to the user, and the user selects the content to be played back (S202). Next, it is determined whether or not the selected content can be summarized and played back (S203). If not, the summary playback device 302 acquires the content of the content server 303 without summarizing and plays back from the beginning of the content ( S204). On the other hand, if the content can be summarized and played back, the summary playback device 302 transmits user-specified or preset summary playback conditions to the summary information generating device 301 in the content specified by the user (S205).

The summary information generating device 301 receives the summary playback condition transmitted from the summary playback device 302 (S151), and generates summary playback position information using the summary playback information of the corresponding content and the summary playback condition. (S152). Next, the summary information generating device 301 transmits the generated summary playback position information to the summary playback device 302 (S153).
The summary playback device 302 receives the summary playback position information transmitted from the summary information generation device 301 (S206), and acquires and plays back content from the content server 303 according to the summary playback position information (S207).

  As described above, the summary playback device 302 can perform summary playback of the content of the content server 303 that does not have the summary playback function by acquiring the summary playback position information via the summary information generation device 302.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the summary reproduction | regeneration information generation apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of the summary reproduction | regeneration apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of a content server. It is a figure which shows the network system structural example. It is a figure which shows the content information of an Example. It is a figure which shows content information with summary reproduction | regeneration availability information. It is a figure which shows the data format of summary reproduction | regeneration position information. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement which produces | generates summary reproduction | regeneration information and content information with summary reproduction | regeneration availability information. It is a flowchart which shows the production | generation of summary reproduction | regeneration position information, and the operation | movement which transmits. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement which acquires summary reproduction | regeneration position information, and summary reproduction | regeneration.

Explanation of symbols

101 ... CPU, 102 ... Mori, 103 ... HDD, 104 ... Network I / F part,
105 ... content information receiving unit, 106 ... content information transmitting unit with summary reproduction availability information,
107: content reception unit, 108: summary reproduction information generation unit, 109: summary reproduction condition reception unit,
110: summary playback position generation unit, 111: summary playback position transmission unit, 120 ... bus,
150: Content information receiving unit with summary playback availability information, 151 ... Summary playback condition transmitting unit,
152 ... summary playback position receiving unit, 153 ... video processing unit, 154 ... display unit, 155 ... input unit,
201 ... content information transmission unit, 202 ... content transmission unit,
301 ... summary information generation device, 302 ... summary playback device, 303 ... content server,
304 ... Network, 401 ... Content information, 402 ... Content information with summary playback availability information,
501 ... Summary playback position information data format,
502 ... Summary playback position information data format,
503 ... Summary playback position information data format

Claims (5)

In a video distribution system that distributes video content over a network,
A content server for storing video content;
A summary playback device for performing summary playback of video content of the content server;
A summary information generating device for generating summary playback information of video content of the content server, having content information including an access location of the video content and summary playback enable / disable information, and notifying the summary playback device of the content information; Is connected to the network,
The summary playback device receives summary video content from the content server based on summary position information and content information notified from the summary information generation device when content for which summary playback enable / disable information of the content information is allowed is selected. A video distribution system characterized by acquiring content and performing content playback. The video distribution system according to claim 1, wherein
The summary playback device notifies the summary information generation device of a summary playback condition of the selected content, and the summary information generation device generates summary position information from the summary playback condition and the summary playback information and performs the summary playback. A video distribution system that notifies a device. The video distribution system according to claim 1,
The summary playback device is characterized in that when a content whose summary playback enable / disable information is not selected is selected, video content is acquired from the content server without being summarized and played back from the beginning of the content. Video distribution system. A digest playback method in a video distribution system for distributing video content via a network,
Generating summary playback information of a plurality of video contents on the network;
Generating, for each video content, content information of video content including summary reproduction availability information indicating whether the step can be generated and information on an access location on the network of the video content;
Selecting video content to be played based on the content information;
Generating summary position information of video content from the summary playback information when summary playback enable / disable information of the selected content is determined and summary playback is enabled;
A digest reproduction method comprising: distributing video content at an access location of content information of the selected content according to the summary position information. The digest reproduction method of the video distribution system according to claim 4,
The digest playback has a step of distributing the video content at the access location of the content information of the selected content from the top of the content when the summary playback permission information of the selected content is determined and summary playback is not possible Method.

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