JP2751111B2 - Video access method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical field to which the invention pertains) The present invention uses a plurality of moving image recording media such as video disks and a plurality of reproducing apparatuses thereof, and each of the moving images is requested in response to a plurality of output channels. The present invention relates to a moving picture access method for transmitting signals in parallel.

(Prior Art) Conventional moving picture access methods include those using a video tape as a recording medium for moving pictures and those using a recent video disc. Is changing to A conventional system using a video disk will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 shows a moving image access system using a video disk according to the conventional method. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a moving image display device such as a monitor TV on the user side, and 2 denotes a moving image signal to each moving image display device 1. A video signal channel on the user side, such as a coaxial cable to be sent, 3 is a plurality of video playback devices on which video disks are set, 4 is a video signal output from each video playback device 3 via a playback signal line 8. A video signal exchange device 5 for connecting to the video signal channel 2 on the user side is used for accessing / operating the video playback device 3, storing video disc management information, and connecting the video signal exchange device 4 to the control line 7. A moving image access control device 9 controls the state of a series of moving images recorded on a video disk set in the moving image reproducing device 3. It has enjoyed in the video disk.

According to the conventional method, the video signal channel 2 on the user side
In response to a moving image access request requested from the (Y channel), the moving image access control device 5 checks the video disc management information and specifies a plurality of moving image reproducing devices 3 storing the corresponding video disk medium. The video signal exchange device 4 is connected to the channel q to be output and the video reproduction device, and reproduction is started. In this case, as shown in the moving image recording state, a series of moving images is recorded in units of a medium such as a video disk, and reproduced in units of a medium. Therefore, if access to a moving image having the same content is continuously requested, the next reproduction is performed after the reproduction for the previous channel is completed, or the same video disk on which the moving image is recorded is used. Are prepared.

In the conventional method, access to the same moving image is concentrated,
Moreover, if the number of access channels is equal to or greater than the number of video disk media on which the moving image is recorded, the user must wait for the reproduction of the moving image already being reproduced to end. Reproduction may be started only after waiting for a long time. In particular, when the moving image is a long-time moving image such as a movie, for example, it may be necessary to wait for one hour or more.

On the other hand, in order to solve the above problem in the conventional method, in order to reduce overlapping of accesses to moving image information, a sufficient number of video disk media are examined after examining the frequency distribution of requests for each type of moving image. Is prepared, but the frequency of requests generally varies. However, it is difficult to respond flexibly to changes in frequency.
Further, as the actual frequency deviates from the predicted request frequency, the number of users who wait for a long time increases, so that the service quality is significantly deteriorated.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention significantly reduces a long waiting time that can occur when trying to access the same moving image from a plurality of channels as seen in the above-described conventional method, and also requests the user to request a specific moving image. The object of the present invention is to provide moving image information quickly to a large number of users by not being greatly affected by changes in the moving image information.

(Constitution of the Invention) (Differences between Features of the Invention and the Prior Art) The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems by dividing a series of moving images and distributing and recording the divided moving images on separate moving image recording media. The image recording medium collects and records divided partial moving images of a series of various moving images, sets the moving image reproducing device in a plurality of moving image reproducing devices, and sets the contents of the moving image and the moving image reproducing device. Start playback of partial copper image
The most main feature is to control the access to moving images in units of division time by managing end information and sequentially reproducing the divided moving images.

In the related art, the unit of moving image access is the entire time width of a series of moving images, but the present invention is greatly different in that it is reduced by the division time width.

According to the present invention, even if access to the same moving image is concentrated, the moving image is divided and recorded on different media, so that the moving image recording medium and the moving image reproducing apparatus can be used. Since the time occupied by one channel is the time width of the division, the reproduction delay is in units of the division time, and the response time to the access request is significantly reduced. Further, being able to respond to a plurality of requests for a specific moving image does not require any change in the system in response to a change in the request frequency.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a moving image access system for realizing a moving image access method according to an embodiment of the present invention and a recording state of a divided moving image on a moving image recording medium. In the drawing, the same numeral numbers as those in FIG. 6 have the same functions, but reference numeral 6 denotes the recording state of the divided moving image recorded on the recording medium set in the moving image reproducing apparatus 3. This is different from recording condition 9 in the figure.

In the system shown in FIG. 1, the number of moving image recording media is not necessarily limited to the number of moving image reproducing devices. In addition, a device for mechanically replacing a moving image recording medium such as an auto chainer for a video disk is used. Can be added, and the moving image access control device 5 can control the replacement. In addition, it is also possible to record a plurality of discontinuous partial moving images of the same moving image on one moving image recording medium.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a resource management table, which is used when the moving image access control device 5 in FIG. 1 manages a schedule relating to the moving image reproducing device 3 and the occupation time. It is a registration table of the playback device number and slot information corresponding to the image recording medium. Here, the slot refers to a portion divided on a medium in units of time width of a divided moving image, and the information is reproduction start / end frame information of the divided moving image.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes a name of a series of moving images p _i , 11 denotes a time sequence j in slot units, 12 denotes a moving image name 10 and a time sequence 11
And the playback device v _ij and slot information S _ij corresponding to.

FIG. 3 is a dynamic playback schedule management table for managing an actual schedule, in which a moving picture playback device number 21 is arranged vertically and a cyclic time axis in units of slot time width is arranged horizontally.
Taking 22, each content 23 of the table is slot information to be reproduced from the time corresponding to the location in the table. The circulation time axis 22 circulates at the beginning of the table in a certain time unit longer than the maximum recording time of the moving image recording medium. 24 is the moving image p _i
Request point / start point, 25 request point of the moving image p _m, 26 moving picture p _i
Shows the second starting point of

FIG. 4 shows a third example using the resource management table shown in FIG.
This figure shows a specific scheduling flow in the figure, and will be described in accordance with this flow.

First, the moving image example in FIG. 3, at a certain time T ₁ shown in 24
When the reproduction request p _i came, commit is generated in p _i corresponding in process 30. Initialization of the temporary start time T _s of the playback start a parameter i of process division unit in the process 31 (T _s = T ₁₎
I do. In the process 32, values V _ij and S _ij corresponding to the j-th division are obtained from the continuous playback device number and slot information sequence of the moving image p _i , which can be understood from the resource management table of FIG.

Next, in process 33, attention is paid to v _ij , and it is checked in the resource management table of FIG. FIG. 2 shows an example in which v _i1 = V _{1 and} there is no overlap. If there is no overlap as shown in this figure,
Provisional start time T _s as 35 and as to repeat the process with the next split.

On the other hand, a plurality of video playback devices 3
If a duplicate conditions occurs, replaced by a reproduction end time of the newly preceding the provisional start time T _s, again a check from the beginning as j = 1. In this way, T _s when the overlap is eliminated for all the divided portions is set as the actual start time.

By the above process, since it was confirmed that can be played by reproducing reservation Moreover continuous without overlapping of the preceding to the playback end, the resource of the second diagram the reproduction of the moving image p _i from the time T _s in the processing 37 management table , The moving image reproducing device indicated by the table value and the moving image of the slot are sequentially reproduced.

The reproduction request to the third view of the reproduction schedule management table 25 another moving picture in the shows the time that happened time T _2,, in this case, the time T _2, still preceding the moving image reproduction is performed During playback, the actual playback start time is T ₂ ′. In actual playback, the moving picture access control device 5 performs playback of each divided moving picture before
The moving picture signal exchange apparatus 4 connects the moving picture reproducing apparatus 3 to the channel which has requested moving picture reproduction.

In the first moving image access method, the moving image access control device 5 manages a reproduction schedule over the entire reproduction time with respect to the moving image reproduction device 3 during reproduction and the occupation time, and requests a moving image access request from a certain channel. In the case where there is, the reproduction management schedule table (FIG. 3) of the moving image reproducing apparatus 3 involved in the reproduction of the moving image among the moving images during the preceding reproduction is checked, and the moving image is continuously and continuously output. In this case, reproduction is performed from the earliest start time at which the use of the moving image reproduction device does not overlap in time.

FIG. 5 shows a processing flow in the moving image access control device 5 in a case where recording of divided moving images is collectively performed for each division order and the schedule management table shown in FIG. 3 is not required. Is shown.

In this case, the time widths of the divided moving images shown in FIG. 6 are all equal, and the m-th divided moving image in a series of moving images is all recorded on the same moving image recording medium.

In Figure 5, the process 40 is an access process without reproducing management schedule of the moving image p _i, the process 41 tentative start time T _s to request time T ₁ and initialization, the access request from the resource management table of FIG. 2 A continuous playback device number and slot information corresponding to the name of the moving image having the error are sequentially extracted (process 42). In process 43, the state of the playback device number taken out is checked, and if it is not used, the playback of the moving image is started immediately (process 45). If the preceding moving image is already being played (process 44) To), wait for the end, and if there is a playback waiting ahead of time, start the playback after waiting for the start / end of the playback (step 45).

As in the first access method, the moving image access control device 5 controls the moving image signal exchanging device 4 to connect the moving image reproducing device to a reproduction request channel. In this case, since the order and the time width of the divided moving images on the moving image recording medium are equal to each other, it can be ensured that the moving image reproducing apparatus does not overlap the reproduction of another moving image. The scheduling as in the first method is unnecessary. However, in the first method, it is possible to reproduce an arbitrary portion of a series of moving images at an arbitrary time width. In the second method, however, a condition that the series of moving images must be reproduced from the beginning is required. And

In the moving picture access method 2, under the condition that moving picture access is always reproduced from the beginning of a series of moving pictures, a series of equally divided A partial moving image of a moving image is collected and recorded in each division order, and when an access request for a certain moving image is received from a certain channel, a moving image in which a moving image recording medium on which only the first divided moving image is collected is set. If the playback device 3 is not being used at that time, the playback of the moving image is started immediately if the playback device 3 has been used, and if it has been used, the playback of the moving image is started. The reproduction management schedule table (FIG. 3) is not used.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the present invention divides a series of moving images and records them on a moving image recording device, manages information related to the recording, and includes a plurality of moving image reproducing devices and a moving image signal exchange device. By switching the moving image reproducing apparatus in units of the moving image division time, even if the reproduction requests for the same moving image overlap, it is not necessary to wait until the reproduction of a series of moving images is completed. Also, since reproduction can be started with a waiting time in units of divided time, it is possible to provide a plurality of users with a moving image with significantly less waiting time than in the conventional method.

In particular, the present invention is not greatly affected when a moving image is a long time unit such as a movie and the access frequency of a user changes depending on time, and the effect is great.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a moving image access system for realizing the method of the present invention and a recording state of a divided moving image on a moving image recording medium, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a resource management table,
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a reproduction schedule management table, FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of an access method 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an access method according to another embodiment of the present invention. Operation flowchart of 2nd, 6th
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional moving image access system and a recording state of a continuous moving image on a moving image recording medium. Reference numeral 1: a moving image display device on the user side; 2, a moving image signal channel on the user side; 3, a moving image reproducing device on which a moving image recording medium is set; 4, a moving image signal exchange device; ... moving image access control device, 6 ... moving image recording condition (divided moving image), 7 ... control line of moving image reproducing device, 8 ... reproduction signal line of moving image reproducing device, 9 ... moving image recording condition (Continuous moving image), 10: moving image name, 11: slot unit time order, 12: playback device number, slot information, 21: moving image playback device number, 22: cyclic time axis, 23 ... slot information, 24 ...... moving image p _i requests point / starting point, the actual start point of the requested point and moving image p _m of 25 ...... moving image p _m, 26 ...... moving image p _i
Start point of the second part of 30, task occurrence, start, 31 ...
... Parameter initialization, 32 ... Refer to resource management table, 33 ... Playback device duplication check, 34 ... Temporary start time re-initialization at the time of duplication, 35 ... Division order parameter update, 36 ...
Check of end of all divisions, 37: Start of reproduction, control, 41: Initialization of parameters, 42: Refer to resource management table, 43
... First playback device duplication check, 44... Start time delay at the time of duplication, 45.

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Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A moving picture reproducing apparatus capable of accessing a moving picture at random, and an X on a moving picture recording medium of the moving picture reproducing apparatus.
A moving image signal exchange device having a switching function of outputting a moving image signal of a channel to a Y channel on a user side, a moving image access control device for performing access control of the moving image reproduction device and exchange control of the moving image signal exchange device, (A) separately and separately recording the partial moving images obtained by dividing a series of moving images into a plurality of moving images on the moving image recording medium; and (b) the moving image access apparatus performs the divided recording. In order to continuously reproduce the set of moving images, the moving image reproducing apparatus number on which the moving image recording medium is set, the reproduction order,
The reproduction start / end position on each moving image recording medium is stored and managed as moving image reproduction management information for all of the recorded moving images. When there is a request to output a series of moving images P to channel q, The video playback management information is checked, and playback is started so that the use of the video playback device does not overlap with the playback of the video that is being played back in advance and that the video P is played back continuously. Adjusting the time; (c) sequentially accessing the divided moving images P on the moving image reproduction device in accordance with the moving image reproduction management information, and instructing the moving image access control device to the moving image signal exchange device; A moving picture access method characterized in that moving picture signals sequentially output from separate moving picture reproducing apparatuses and the moving picture signal output destination channel q are continuously and continuously output.