JP2532649B2 - VTR converter - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a desired television standard by converting between different television standard systems in a video tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as VTR) for recording or reproducing a video signal. The present invention relates to a video tape recorder capable of producing a recording tape of a standard system and outputting a desired television standard system signal.

2. Description of the Related Art Television standard systems in various countries around the world are not unified and several types of signal formats are used. It is well known that there are three types of typical television standard systems, that is, NTSC system, PAL system and SECAM system, and there are systems in which they are slightly modified. The three typical video signal formats are as follows. The NTSC method is based on an interlaced scan of 30 frames per second (field frequency 60 cycles), the number of frame scanning lines is 525, and the carrier frequency of a color signal is 3.579 MHz. The PAL method is an interlaced scan of 25 frames per second (field frequency). 50 cycles), the number of frame scanning lines is 625, and the carrier frequency of the color signal is 4.433M Hz. The SECAM system is almost the same as the PAL system except that the two color difference signals are line-sequential and the frequency signals are transmitted by frequency modulation. Is.

Now, home VTRs are generally designed and shipped so as to conform to the television standard system of the consumer country.For example, in Japan and the United States, it conforms to the NTSC signal and the rotation frequency of the rotary head is the field frequency. The signal of 262.5H (H indicates one line) for one field is recorded on one track at 60Hz, and the color signal is a carrier color signal of 3.579MHz.
It is configured to record in the low frequency range converted to 29K Hz. Also, for PAL areas such as Germany and China, the rotation frequency of the rotary head was set to 50Hz to match the PAL signal, and 31 tracks per track.
The signal for 2.5H is recorded, and the color signal is configured to convert the carrier color signal of 4.433M Hz to 627K Hz. Furthermore, for France, etc., it is configured to record the frequency-modulated color signal by frequency conversion to a low frequency or by counting down (division) in order to support the SECAM method. The reproduction output signal is also adapted to be output in the same signal format as the television receiver of each country conforms to the television standard system adopted in each country.

However, in some areas where both PAL and SECAM formats can be received in Europe, and in areas where multiple standard format sources such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia are mixed, VTRs that support multiple television standard formats are being shipped. .

In this way, home VTRs are configured to support the television standard system of the area, so for example, playback of tapes recorded in PAL system using VTRs and television receivers that commonly exist in Japan. Then try to watch it in Germany with its domestic VTR and TV receiver NTS
It was impossible even if I tried to play back the tape recorded in C format. In addition, even if the VTR is compatible with multiple television standard systems such as the Middle East, you can play back tapes recorded with multiple systems and view them, but record the NTSC source in the PAL system. It was impossible to convert the data into another format and record it.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention Recently, information in the world tends to be unified, and there is an increasing need to freely convert images internationally. In response to these needs, it cannot be said that the current home VTRs are insufficient as mentioned above.

Furthermore, television standard system names such as NTSC, PAL, and SECAM are unfamiliar to general users, and the standard system names are different before and after conversion, and are easily confused. Therefore, when implementing a VTR with format conversion, one of the points is that the operation for converting the standard format can be easily understood by general users and is simple.

In view of the above problems, the present invention incorporates a conversion circuit for converting between signals of different television standard systems into a VTR, effectively switches the connection with a servo system or a video signal processing system, and a television different from the home country. The tape is recorded in the standard system and the recording is performed in a standard system different from that of the home country.The desired country name or standard system name specified from the switch panel and the input signal The exchange mode is detected from the result of automatically detecting the standard system name, and the operation of the system conversion circuit is switched. Further, by switching the designated country name or standard method name or the automatically detected country name or standard method name and displaying them on the display unit, it is possible to express where the tape came from or where it is sent to.

Means for Solving the Problems A servo system capable of recording or reproducing a plurality of television standard system signals, a recording processing system for recording a plurality of television standard system signals, and a reproduction processing system and recording for reproduction. A system conversion circuit having a video signal processing system having a reproducing head and for converting one television standard system signal into another television standard system signal, and an operator instructing a desired country name or television standard system name Equipped with a switch panel for conversion, the standard system of conversion source is automatically detected from the signal input to the video signal processing system,
The standard system of the conversion destination is a mode in which an operator's instruction is detected from the switch panel, and the inputted television standard system signal is converted into another television standard system signal for recording or a reproduced television standard system signal. Is configured to control the conversion operation so as to have a mode in which the signal is converted into another television standard system signal and output.

Operation The present invention, if the operator specifies the desired country name or television standard system name by the above configuration,
Since the standard method of the input signal is automatically detected, it is configured so that the desired conversion operation can be performed automatically so that signals of different standard methods can be recorded or signals of different standard methods can be output. Creation of recording tapes other than the standard method and playback of tapes recorded in other countries can be viewed on the TV set of the home country, and international video information can be unified via the VTR.

Embodiment A video tape recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a video tape recorder of the present invention. (A) is a recording system, 1 is an antenna terminal, 2 is a tuner, 3 is a video input terminal, 4 is an input selector switch, 5 is a system conversion circuit, 10 is a switch panel operated by a user, 38 Is a system detection circuit that detects the standard system,
Reference numeral 31 is a conversion mode detection circuit that detects the conversion mode from the outputs of the method detection circuit 38 and the switch panel 10. 6 is a VTR
Recording processing system, 7 is a video output terminal, 8 is a rotary head,
9 is a servo system. Reference numeral 35 is an RF converter, the output of which is connected to the terminal 36 as an RF output. (B) shows a reproduction system, and a reproduction processing system 11 is arranged between the rotary head 8 and the system conversion circuit 5.

The operation of the video tape recorder configured as described above will be described. Assuming that this video tape recorder is used in Japan, the operation of the recording system in (a) will be described first. The TV radio wave input from the antenna terminal 1 is tuned and demodulated by the tuner 2 and appears at the TV terminal of the input selector switch 4 as a so-called NTSC composite signal. Now, assuming that the television signal is selected by the input changeover switch 4, this NTSC signal is applied to the system conversion circuit 5. The system conversion circuit 5 is a circuit for realizing mutual conversion of the television standard system based on the output of the conversion mode detection circuit 31. The system detection circuit 38 is a circuit for automatically detecting which television standard system is used from the signal input to the system conversion circuit 5, and in this case, it is detected as the NTSC system. When the operator designates a desired conversion destination with the switch panel 10, and, for example, specifies the PAL method, the conversion mode detection circuit 31 determines that the conversion source is the NTSC method and the conversion destination is the PAL method, and the method conversion circuit. 5 is input NT
The SC signal is converted into a PAL signal, and the servo system 9 and the recording processing system 6 operate so as to record the PAL signal. Here, the servo system 9 supplies control signals to a capstan motor, a cylinder equipped with a rotary head, and a control head for recording control signals so that PAL signals can be recorded. The recording processing system 6 receives the PAL signal and performs appropriate processing such as emphasis and frequency modulation so that the rotary head 8 records the PAL signal. At this time, the NTSC signal which is the input of the format conversion circuit 5 is output to the video output terminal 7, and is converted to the RF signal by the RF converter 35 at the terminal 36.
NTSC signal is output. Therefore, the NTSC signal input to the antenna terminal 1 and selected and demodulated by the tuner is recorded on the magnetic tape by the rotary head 8 in the PAL signal format.
At this time, the NTSC signal before conversion is output to the video output terminal 7 and can be monitored by an ordinary NTSC receiver in Japan. As described above, it is possible to create a recording tape in a PAL system different from the NTSC television standard system being broadcast.

Furthermore, when the input selector switch 4 is selecting a video signal, a signal applied to the video input terminal 3, for example, a reproduction signal from another VTR can be converted into a PAL signal by the system conversion circuit 5 and recorded. After all, it is possible to dub a tape recorded in NTSC format to PAL format.

In the above description, the conversion mode detection circuit 31 for controlling the system conversion operation is driven by the output of the system detection circuit 38 for selecting the television standard system and the command from the switch panel 10. The switch panel 10 displays country names and television standard system names existing in the world.If the user operates, for example, the country name "USA", the conversion mode detection circuit 31 selects NTSC as the conversion destination based on that. If another country name "West Germany" is operated, the conversion mode detection circuit 31 selects PAL as the conversion destination. If the standard method name is directly operated, that method is selected by the conversion mode detection circuit 31. Therefore, the user can select either the television standard system name or the target country name by the panel switch 10, and the operation is easy to use over a wide range.

In the above description, the conversion from the NTSC system to the PAL system has been described, but the reverse and conversion between other systems including the SECAM system can be easily realized by this configuration.

 The operation of the reproduction system of (b) is as follows.

Assuming that a tape recorded by the PAL system is put on this VTR, the signal is picked up by the rotary head 8 and subjected to processing such as de-emphasis and FM demodulation by the reproduction processing system 11, and the PAL signal is output at the output. Is played. In this case, it is usual to determine which television standard system the recorded signal is, by the system detection circuit 38 automatically by measuring the field frequency, and the command is issued by the reproduction processing system 11 or It is given to the servo system 9. By the way, since TV receivers in Japan are compatible with the NTSC system, even if you monitor the reproduced PAL signal as it is, it will not be normal and it will be very unsightly if it does not appear. turn into. Therefore, if you operate "Japan" with the switch panel 10, the conversion mode detection circuit 31 will change from PAL to N.
Recognizing the conversion to TSC, the command is transmitted to the system conversion circuit 5, and the system conversion circuit 5 converts the reproduced PAL signal given to the input to the NTSC signal and outputs it to the video output terminal 7. Therefore, if the video output terminal is connected to the video input terminal of the NTSC receiver, it can be viewed as a normal image. Also, the RF output is available at terminal 36
It can also be viewed by connecting to the antenna terminal of the SC receiver.
In other words, it becomes possible to monitor the tape recorded by the PAL system normally with the NTSC receiver. Of course NTSC to PA
Conversion between other television standards, including L or SECAM, can be easily done.

Fig. 2 is an example of the switch panel 10 in Fig. 1, and draws a world map, displays the main countries of the main countries on the matrix with leader lines, and NTSC, P in the bottom column.
Television standard system names such as AL are arranged.

A touch switch is arranged under the country name and the standard method name so that it can detect which country name or standard method name the operator has pressed. Since a world map is displayed on the switch panel 10, when the operator selects a desired country, the operator can find it quickly and easily, as compared with the case where only the country name is displayed. If you display the flag instead of the country name, you can create a more visual panel.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the system conversion circuit 5 in FIG. The composite video signal applied to the input terminal 12 is separated into a luminance signal and a chrominance signal by the Y / C separation circuit 13, the luminance signal is digitized by the AD converter 14 and applied to the memory 20, and the chrominance signal is sent by the decoder 15 to the NT.
According to the system such as SC, PAL, SECAM, etc., they are respectively demodulated into color difference signals and digitized by the AD converter 16 and stored in the memory 20
Is applied to The memory 20 is a digital memory in units of fields, and is controlled by the memory control circuit 21, and its write clock is generated by the clock generator 19 based on the sync signal obtained from the low pass filter 17 and sync separation circuit 18 from the input signal. Use the generated one.
The read clock is given from the clock generator 22. Of the digital signals that have undergone the format conversion processing in the memory 20, the luminance signal is returned to analog by the DA converter 23,
After the color difference signal is returned to analog in the DA converter 24,
An encoder 25 modulates a carrier color signal that conforms to each television standard system such as NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. Mixer 26
Outputs a composite signal obtained by mixing the luminance signal and the carrier color signal and converting the system at the output terminal 27.

The method conversion operation is performed as follows. Now NTSC
Consider when you are instructed to convert to PAL. NTSC
Has a field frequency of 60Hz and the number of scanning lines in one field
It is 525/2 lines and PAL is 50Hz and 625/2 lines respectively, so it is necessary to convert the field frequency and the number of scanning lines. Therefore, a signal for one field is written in the memory 20 at a predetermined clock for storage, and the signal can be read at a clock independent of writing. And when the conversion command from NTSC to PAL comes to the memory control circuit 21,
60 fields of NTSC for field frequency conversion
PAL reads as 50 fields. In other words, this can be realized by controlling the memory so that one field is skipped every six fields. Also, the conversion of the number of scanning lines is 525/2
Since it is necessary to make the number of books 625/2, this can be realized by using the line memory in the memory 20 and interpolating from the preceding and following scanning line information to create new scanning line information. Such control is performed by selecting or calculating information in the memory by a control signal from the memory control 21.

On the other hand, conversion from PAL to NTSC is performed by performing field frequency conversion by reading one field twice every six fields, and conversion of the number of scanning lines can be realized by thinning out or calculating scanning line information.

The SECAM system has the same field frequency and the same number of scanning lines as the PAL system, and is different in that the color signals are FM-modulated and multiplexed in the order of the forward line. It can be realized.

In addition to the method described in FIG. 3, it can be easily inferred that a more advanced system conversion can be realized by adding a memory and performing interpolation between fields and frames.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the system conversion circuit 5, the switch panel 10, the system detection circuit 38, and the conversion mode detection which are separately arranged for the recording system and the reproduction system. The circuit 31 is configured to be shared by the recording and playback systems, and the configuration of the recording / playback processing circuit 28 is generally realized by switching internal circuits, and the tuner / RF converter is deleted. However, the difference is that only the video input / output terminal is used. The recording / reproducing selector switch (R / P selector) switches the processing of the recording / reproducing processing circuit 28, and switches the input to the following equation conversion circuit 5 and the output to the video output terminal as described in FIG. Similarly, it realizes recording and reproduction of different television standard systems.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, and relates to a display for notifying the operator of the system conversion operation more easily. The system detection circuit 38 detects which television standard system is used from the input to the system conversion circuit 5, transmits the information to the conversion mode detection circuit 31, and supplies it to the selection circuit 39. On the other hand, an instruction (country name or system conversion name) from the switch panel 10 is encoded by the encoder 37 into a television standard system name (NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc.), and information on the standard system name is supplied to the conversion mode detection circuit 31. And supplies it to the selection circuit 39. The conversion mode detection circuit 31 knows which standard system is to be converted to which standard system based on the both information, transmits the result to the system conversion circuit 5, and controls to perform the desired conversion operation. It was

The selection circuit 39 includes the output of the method detection circuit 38, which is the standard method name of the conversion source, and the switch panel, which is the standard method name of the conversion destination.
The output from 10 is added, one of them is selected by the display switch 42, and the display section is passed through the drive circuit 40.
Displayed at 41. (For example, the corresponding portion of the switch in FIG. 2 is displayed in a light emitting state.) When the display switch 42 is tilted to the FROM side, the output of the method detection circuit 38 is selected as the output of the selection circuit 39, and the standard method from which is selected. It is displayed, and if pushed down to the TO side, the standard method from the switch panel is selected and the standard method is displayed. This way display 41
Even if there is only one, the operator can know the effective information by providing the display switch 42.

It is also possible to easily realize a configuration in which the display switch is linked with the record / re-switch, and the TO can be automatically selected when recording and the FROM can be automatically selected when reproducing.

As described above, according to the present invention, a servo system capable of recording or reproducing a plurality of television standard system signals, a recording processing system for recording a plurality of television standard system signals, and a reproducing process for reproducing. System and a video signal processing system having a recording / reproducing head, and a system conversion circuit for converting one television standard system signal into another television standard system signal, and a country name or television standard system desired by the operator. The standard system of the conversion source is automatically detected from the signal input to the video signal processing system, and the standard system of the conversion destination is to detect the instruction of the operator from the switch panel. , A mode in which an input television standard signal is converted to another television standard signal for recording or a reproduced television standard signal It is configured to control the conversion operation so that it has a mode in which the signal is converted to another television standard system signal and output, so that the television broadcasting in Japan can be recorded in the PAL system with simple and easy operation and display. Send it to friends and family in the European PAL area, take home European video software and watch it on Japanese TV, PA the latest situation of the family filmed with movie
It can be used in various ways, such as dubbing on L-tape and sending it to family members staying in Europe.

In addition, video input with the tuner and RF converter removed
If it is applied to a video tape recorder with an output terminal, it can be used in any country in the world, so if one model is produced, it can be supplied to the world and it will greatly contribute to the standardization of production.

As described above, the present invention can break the wall of the television standard system in the world by the VTR to unify the image information, and has an extremely great effect of further expanding the application of the video tape recorder.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a top view of a switch panel used in the present invention, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a system conversion circuit used in the present invention,
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a display device according to another embodiment of the present invention. 5 ... Method conversion circuit, 10 ... Switch panel, 31 ... Conversion mode detection circuit, 38 ... Method detection circuit, 28 ... Recording / reproduction processing system, 37 ... Encoder, 39 ... Selection circuit, 40 ...
Drive circuit, 41 …… Display unit, 42 …… Display switch.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A servo system capable of recording or reproducing a plurality of television standard signals, a recording processing system for recording a plurality of television standard signals, a reproducing processing system for reproducing and a recording / reproducing head. A video signal processing system having a video signal processing system, and a system conversion circuit for converting one television standard system signal into another television standard system signal, and for an operator to indicate a desired country name or television standard system name. The conversion source standard system is automatically detected from the signal input to the video signal processing system, and the conversion destination standard system is an input TV by detecting an operator's instruction from the switch panel. A mode in which a television standard signal is converted to another television standard signal for recording or a reproduced television standard signal is transmitted to another television standard signal. Conversion device VTR, characterized by being configured to control the conversion operation to have a mode that converts to a standard system signal. 2. A servo system capable of recording or reproducing a plurality of television standard system signals, a recording processing system for recording a plurality of television standard system signals, a reproducing processing system for reproducing, and a recording / reproducing head. A video signal processing system having a video signal processing system, and a system conversion circuit for converting one television standard system signal into another television standard system signal, and for an operator to indicate a desired country name or television standard system name. Switch panel and a display unit for displaying the country name of the target country or the television standard system name, the standard system of the conversion source is automatically detected from the signal input to the video signal processing system, and the standard system of the conversion destination. Detects the operator's instruction from the switch panel, converts the inputted television standard system signal into another television standard system signal, and records it. Conversion device VTR, characterized by being configured to control the conversion operation to the de or regenerated television standard system signal is converted into another television standards system signal having a mode for outputting. 3. A standard system automatically detected from a signal input to a video signal processing system or a mode of displaying a target country name thereof and a standard system instructed from a switch panel or a mode of displaying a target country name thereof are selected. In order to display on the display unit, the standard circuit detected by the system detection circuit from the input signal to the system conversion circuit and the standard system obtained by the encoder from the switch panel are added to the selection circuit, and the display switch is added. 2. The VTR conversion device according to claim 1, wherein any one of the above is selected and displayed on a display unit via a drive circuit. 4. In the recording mode, the standard system designated by the switch panel or its target country name is displayed on the display unit, and in the playback mode, the standard system or target country name automatically detected from the signal reproduced from the tape is displayed. The VTR according to claim 1, characterized in that
Converter.