JP3302405B2 - Recording and playback device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly to recording / reproducing of an image signal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in home VTRs, recording and reproduction of television signals have been performed under the concept of time shift. Examples of the time shift include an absence recording by setting a timer and a one-touch timer that is convenient when the user stops watching television.

[0003] As a well-known general example, an outline of absence recording by setting a timer will be described. This is to receive and record a broadcast program from a desired television station at a desired time by a VTR device including a TV tuner, a TV signal recording / reproducing device, and a timer means for controlling these devices. This makes it possible to shift the time at which a certain program is broadcast and the time at which the program is viewed.

[0004]

However, in order to set the one-touch timer, a video tape capable of recording the television signal must be mounted on a VTR beforehand so that the user must suddenly stop. If it occurs, it has a problem that it cannot be made in time. When resuming viewing, if the program being recorded has not ended yet, the user must either select to resume viewing from the middle of the program or wait until the program ends. did not become. Therefore, it was not favorable for the viewer anyway.

[0005] Further, there are cases where it is desired to confirm the scene currently being viewed again. In such a case, a conventional VTR can cope with this. However, since the television signal cannot be recorded during the period of the reverse playback, if the reverse playback is performed during the broadcast of the program, the portion is later recorded. There was an inconvenience that viewers could not watch. Therefore, in order to perform reverse playback without such inconvenience, it was necessary to complete the recording of the program being viewed and then rewind to a desired location to start reverse playback, which was troublesome and time consuming. Was very costly.

[0006] In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a VTR.
Equipment without first to pre-recording preparation end state, excused
It is an object of the present invention to be able to easily start the recording for performing the reproduction, and to be able to immediately reproduce from a desired position when normal viewing is resumed.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: memory means capable of simultaneously executing recording and reproduction of a moving image signal; manual instruction means; The input moving image signal is recorded in the memory means, and the moving image signal after the first instruction is recorded while continuing to record the moving image signal in the memory means in response to the second instruction by the manual instruction means. Memory control means for controlling a recording / reproducing operation of the memory means so as to reproduce an image signal from the memory means, wherein the memory control means sets a write address and a read address of the moving image signal with respect to the memory means, respectively. And controlling the stop of the reproducing operation in accordance with a result of comparison between the write address and the read address. There. Further, another feature of the recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention includes a receiving unit for receiving a moving image signal, and a compressing unit for compressing an information amount of the moving image signal received by the receiving unit, The memory control means writes the moving image signal compressed by the compression means into the memory means. Also,
Other features of the recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention include:
It is characterized in that it comprises a decompression means for decompressing the information amount of the moving picture signal reproduced from the memory means, and an output means for outputting the moving picture signal decompressed by the decompression means to an external monitor. Further, the recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention and other features include a memory means capable of simultaneously executing recording and reproduction of an audio signal, a manual instruction means,
While recording the voice signal input after the first instruction by the manual instruction means in the memory means,
The recording / reproducing operation of the memory means is performed so as to reproduce the audio signal after the first instruction from the memory means while continuing to record the audio signal in the memory means in response to the second instruction by the manual instruction means. A memory control unit for controlling the memory unit, wherein the memory control unit generates a write address and a read address of the audio signal with respect to the memory unit, respectively, and performs the reproduction in accordance with a comparison result between the write address and the read address. It is characterized in that the stop of the operation is controlled.

Another feature of the present invention is that
Controlling the read address of the information memory means so as to be sequentially reduced from the read address at the time of receiving the review instruction while maintaining a state where the write address of the information memory means is increased when the review instruction is received. Thus, the information recorded in the information memory means is reproduced in the reverse direction from the time when the review instruction is received.

[0009]

According to the above-mentioned invention, even if recording is being performed, any information already recorded in the information memory can be accessed. Can be played back from any recording position, so that even if the program being recorded is not over when returning from the middle position, it is possible to continue the recording and continue Can be resumed from the location.

Further, a write address and a read address of the moving image signal with respect to the memory unit are generated, and the stop of the reproduction operation is controlled in accordance with a result of comparison between the write address and the read address. It is possible to prevent the address (read address) from overtaking the recording address (write address) and reading data from an unrecorded area on the memory to reproduce an unnatural image or sound. Becomes

[0011]

Next, the configuration and operation of the first embodiment of the information storage / reproduction device of the present invention will be described with reference to the configuration diagram of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, an analog input video signal provided from an AV receiver 11 or the like is received via a video input terminal 12, and an audio signal is received from an audio input terminal 14.

The analog video and audio signals input from the input terminals 12 and 14 are converted into digital signals by A / D converters 13 and 15, respectively. Then, the data amount is reduced by the image compressor 31 and the audio compressor 30 for compressing the data thereafter. Next, the video data and the audio data are synthesized by the synthesizer 16, converted into a data block for each predetermined unit as composite data of video and audio, and written into the buffer memory 17 once. In the present embodiment, a memory element capable of simultaneously accessing a plurality of ports, such as two or more ports, is used as the buffer memory 17.

The data compressor used here is:
Video information is based on DCT or the like. For example, simple fixed-length encoding may be used in addition to JPEG-recommended still image processing for each screen, or advanced variable-length encoding recommended by MPEG. For example, in the case of audio information, encoding in consideration of auditory characteristics, adaptive conversion encoding based on a theory such as entropy encoding, and 32 to 102
At present, a method of analyzing a music signal in each band by subdividing it into four frequency bands, which is being studied by MPEG such as band division coding, shows good compression characteristics.

[0014] Incidentally, JPEG and MPEG are study groups for international standardization of images.
point Photographic Expert
It is an abbreviation of Group. Also, MPEG stands for Mobi
ng Picture Expert Group, which is a still image and a moving image, respectively. The details of such image compression are introduced on pages 1 to 32 of the special edition of Nikkei New Media March 4, 1991.

After that, the data read from the buffer memory 17 under a predetermined control is given to a separator 18 where it is separated again into a video signal and an audio signal. These signals are provided to the image decompressor 33 and the audio decompressor 32, respectively, and are decoded into information amounts before compression. The decoded data is converted into analog signals by the D / A converters 19 and 22, and output from the output terminals 20 and 23 as video signals and audio signals with an arbitrary time delay. The output signal is supplied to the video monitor 21 and the speaker 24, whereby the video and audio of the desired broadcast program are reproduced.

Such a predetermined control is performed mainly by the system controller 28. The write controller 25 and the read controller 26 instructed by the system controller 28 control the buffer memory 17 and the synthesizing unit. The operations of the vessel 16 and the separator 18 are controlled.

To interrupt the viewing of the television broadcast, pause instruction information is input via the key input unit 29. The input pause instruction information is provided to the system controller 28. When the pause instruction information is given, the buffer memory 17 starts recording the AV information, repeatedly reads out the image information corresponding to the top screen of the write information, and displays this as a still image.

When the television broadcast can be viewed again, instruction information for canceling the pause state is input from the key input unit 29. When the pause state release instruction information is given to the system controller 28, the reproduction processing of the information recorded in the buffer memory 17 is started.

The operation of recording data in the buffer memory 17 is continued from the time when the pause instruction is issued. When the memory is full using all the storage capacity of the buffer memory 17, or otherwise, When an instruction to end viewing is given to the system controller 28 via the key input unit 29, the information recording operation is started and ended.

Next, an execution procedure of the timer recording process controlled based on the timer setting will be sequentially described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows the lapse of time from time T0 to time T6, and FIG. 3 shows the state of the buffer memory 17 at each time from time T1 to time T6, distinguishing between unrecorded, recorded, and reproduced.

In FIG. 2, time T0 is an initial state. Here, assuming that a pause instruction is input from the key input unit 29 to the system controller 28 at the timing of the time T1, recording is started from the time T1. The state of the buffer memory 17 at this time is in an unrecorded state (indicated by φ) just after the start, as shown at T1 in FIG.
It is.

At time T2 after a lapse of time t1 from time T1, the memory capacity of the portion corresponding to time t1 has been recorded, and the rest is in the unrecorded state φ. In the information storage / reproduction device of the first embodiment, while continuing the recording in this manner, the reproduction processing of the still screen substantially at the time when the pause instruction information is input is performed.

Next, when the pause state is released at time T3, the reproduction of the recorded information is started. The memory state at the start of the reproduction is, for example, as shown at time T3 in FIG. 3, where the recorded area and the unrecorded memory area are distributed, and the reproduction area does not yet exist. Next, at a time T4 when a time t2 has elapsed from the time T3, a memory area that has been subjected to the reproduction process has already been generated for the time t2.

At the same time, the recording corresponding to the time t2 is also progressing compared to the time T3. In the first embodiment, since a memory element capable of simultaneously accessing two or more ports is used,
Such simultaneous recording and reproduction processing can be realized.

In this state, the simultaneous recording / reproducing process is continued,
When the memory is full, the recording process ends. In this case, the reproduction time so far is t3, and the remaining reproducible time is T3-T1. When the recording process ends,
Thereafter, only the reproduction processing is performed. When the end of the reproduction process is instructed at time T6, an unrecorded portion φ and a recorded portion corresponding to the pause execution period T3-T1 are left as shown at T6 in the figure. In the present embodiment, data is not erased or the like at the time of reproduction processing, so that reproduction can be performed as many times as necessary thereafter.

It is also possible to change the above-mentioned reproducing operation. If it has been changed, the time interval between time T3 and time T6 changes according to the playback speed. In this case, the reproduction speed can be freely set as long as the reproduction (read) address does not exceed the recording (write) address.

As an example, a high-speed reproduction mode is provided, and when this instruction is input from the key input unit 29, this is detected and the read address count is increased faster than the standard speed (interrupt designation at every several addresses). FIG. 4 introduces a flowchart in which the processing of FIG.

The operation flowchart of FIG. 4 shows the control of the system controller 28.
It consists of five processing steps. In the following description, each processing step is described as S01 to S15.

First, in S01, the key input unit 29 is operated, and the AV receiver 1 is transmitted via the system controller 28.
AV information (audio information and video information) from the speaker 1
The AV signal path is set so as to be reproduced by the monitor 4 and the monitor 21. Next, in S02, it is monitored whether or not a pause instruction has been input.
Go to 03 to S07 sequentially.

In S03, the reproduction controller 26 initializes the reproduction start address for the read controller 26, and in S04, initializes the recording start address for the write controller 25. In S05, recording of the information supplied from the data synthesizer 16 is started. When the information recording is started, the write address of the memory 17 is sequentially counted up in S06, and the write address is monitored in S07.
Jump to the processing of and stop recording.

Next, the flow advances to S08 to determine whether or not the pause is OFF. If the pause is OFF, the flow advances to S09 to count up the reproduction address. If there is room for the address, the process proceeds to S10 to determine the presence or absence of a fast-forward instruction. If the fast-forward instruction is present, the reproduction address is counted up at a high speed in S11. When it is determined that there is no fast-forward instruction, the fast-forward reproduction process S11 is bypassed.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S08 that there is no pause release instruction, the flow advances to step S12, bypassing the reproduction processes S09 to S11. In S12, an instruction to end reproduction and an instruction to stop recording are monitored, and if there are these instructions, the flow proceeds to S13. If the instruction to end the reproduction and the instruction to stop the recording have not been issued, the process returns to S06, and the above processing is repeated.

In S13, the recording operation is stopped under the instruction of the end of the reproduction or the condition of the capacity excess. Next, the process proceeds to S14, where the magnitude relationship between the reproduction address (A _pb ) and the recording address (A _rec ) is compared. In this case, if the reproduction address (A _pb ) ≦ the recording address (A _rec ), since the area is a recorded area, the flow returns to S08 to continue the reproduction operation.

When the reproduction address (A _pb )> the recording address (A _rec ), it means that the data has entered an unrecorded area.
Proceeding to S15, the reproducing operation is stopped, and the entry into the unrecorded area is prevented.

The information recording / reproducing apparatus of the first embodiment records / reproduces information in this manner, and thus, as shown in the operation conceptual diagram of FIG. 5, for example, stops while watching a television broadcast. For this reason, when the TV pause on instruction is issued,
A freeze display state in which the moving image is paused is displayed, and the screen at the time when the instruction to turn on the TV pause is issued is displayed as a still image. Also, the recording of the television broadcast is started from the time point when the TV pause-on instruction is issued.

Then, when the viewer returns from the middle seat and instructs to pause TV, the reproduction of the television broadcast viewed before the middle seat is started. In addition, since the reproduction can be performed from a position interrupted by the center seat, the viewer can consistently view the television broadcast despite the center position.

Next, a description will be given of a second embodiment of the information storage / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. In the second embodiment, when the reverse reproduction instruction information is given from the key input unit 29, the operation is performed as described below. That is, when the reverse reproduction instruction information is given, it is input to the system controller 28.

Upon receiving the reverse playback instruction information, the system controller 28 starts the playback process in the reverse direction with respect to the time axis while continuing to record the television signal.
This is a subtraction from the current address value in a direction opposite to the address count-up in the recording process described above.
In this way, the search is performed by the reverse playback, and when a desired position is reached, a forward playback instruction is input from the key input unit 29 to the system controller 28 instead of the reverse playback instruction.

Thereafter, when the television signal can be viewed again, the viewer inputs a pause release instruction from the key input unit 29 to the system controller 28 to start the reproduction process. The recording process is
In this case, the operation is still continued from the initial setting, and when the memory is full using all the storage capacity of the memory, or an instruction to end the viewing is issued from the key input unit 29 to the system controller 28. The recording ends only when input is made.

Next, the recording / reproducing procedure of the information storage / reproducing apparatus in the second embodiment will be described in order with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 shows the lapse of time from time T0 to time T6, and FIG. 7 shows the state of the buffer memory 17 at each time from time T1 to time T6, distinguishing between unrecorded, recorded, and reproduced.

First, recording of a television signal is started at T1 for initialization. In this case as well, in the initial state of the memory, all are unrecorded states (indicated by φ). When a review instruction is input from the key input unit 29 to the system controller 28 at a time T2 after a lapse of a time t1 from the time T1, reverse playback is started from this point.

Assuming that the time interval between time T1 and time T2 is t1, a television signal corresponding to time t1 is recorded at this time. In the state of the buffer memory 17 at this time, as shown at T2 in FIG. 7, the portion corresponding to the time t1 has been recorded, and the rest is the unrecorded state φ.

At time T3 after the lapse of the time t2, the memory area corresponding to the time t2 is further recorded, and at the same time, the area corresponding to the time t2 is reproduced in the reverse direction. As described above, the reproduction processing is performed in the reverse direction from the time when the review instruction is input while the recording is continued, and a desired screen search is executed. Then, when the desired screen is retrieved, the review instruction is released.

The release point of the review instruction is defined as T3,
From here, reproduction of the recorded information in the forward direction is started. The state of the buffer memory 17 at the start of the forward reproduction is shown at T3 in FIG. As is apparent from T3 in FIG. 7, it is described that the recording and the reproduction are respectively advanced in the opposite directions for a time period t2 from the start of the review.

Next, at time T4, at which some time has elapsed from time T3, the memory areas are a recorded area, a reproduced area, a recorded area, and an unrecorded area in order from the one with the smallest address. Is illustrated as a state where there is still room. On the other hand, at time T5, a time period t3 has elapsed from time T3, and the state where information is stored in the entire capacity of the buffer memory 17 is illustrated.

In this embodiment, the setting is made such that the recording operation is completed when the information is stored in the entire capacity of the buffer memory 17. Further, when an instruction to end the reproduction operation is sent from the key input unit 29 to the system controller 28 at time T6 when the capacity of the buffer memory 17 has room,
Recording is set to end at the same time. In the second embodiment, a memory element capable of simultaneously accessing a plurality of ports, such as two or more ports, is used, so that such simultaneous recording and reproduction processing can be realized. Also, in this case, data is not erased or the like at the time of the reproduction process, so that reproduction can be performed as many times as necessary thereafter.

The above-described reproduction processing can be changed. If it has been changed, the time interval between time T2 and time T6 changes according to the playback speed. In this case, the reproduction speed can be freely set as long as the reproduction (read) address does not exceed the recording (write) address.

As an example, a high-speed reproduction mode is provided, and when this instruction is input from the key input unit 29, this is detected and the read address count is increased faster than the standard speed (interrupt designation at every several addresses). FIG. 8 introduces a flowchart in which the processing is performed.

The operation flowchart of FIG. 8 shows the control of the system controller 28.
It consists of four processing steps. In the following description, each processing step is described as S01 to S14. First, in S01, the key input unit 29 is operated to transmit AV information (audio information and video information) from the AV receiver 11 via the system controller 28 to the speaker 24 and the monitor 21.
The AV signal path is set so as to be reproduced by.

Next, in S02, an initial setting of the reproduction start address is performed for the read controller 26, and in S03
To set the recording start address for the write controller 25. In S04, recording of information supplied from the data synthesizer 16 is started. Then, when the information recording is started, the write address of the memory 17 is sequentially counted up in S05, and the write address is monitored in S06. If the capacity is exceeded, the process jumps to S13 to stop the recording.

Next, the process proceeds to S07, where it is determined whether or not there is a review instruction. If there is a review instruction, the process proceeds to S08 to count down the reproduction address. Next, S0
If there is no forward playback instruction in step 9, the forward playback process is executed in S10.
And if there is a forward reproduction instruction, the reproduction address is counted up.

On the other hand, when it is determined in S07 that there is no review instruction, the process proceeds to S11, bypassing the reproduction processes S08 to S10. In S11, recording or reproduction end instructions are monitored, and if there are these instructions, the flow proceeds to S12. If the reproduction end instruction and the recording stop instruction have not been issued, the process returns to S05, and the above-described processing is repeated.

In S12, the recording operation is stopped under the instruction of the end of the reproduction or the condition of the capacity excess. Next, the process proceeds to S13, where the magnitude relationship between the reproduction address (A _pb ) and the recording address (A _rec ) is compared. In this case, if the reproduction address (A _pb ) ≦ the recording address (A _rec ), since the area is a recorded area, the flow returns to S08 to continue the reproduction operation.

If the reproduction address (A _pb )> the recording address (A _rec ), it means that the data has entered an unrecorded area.
Proceeding to S14, the reproduction operation is stopped to prevent the reproduction point from entering the unrecorded area.

The information recording / reproducing apparatus of the second embodiment records / reproduces information in this manner. For example, as shown in the operation conceptual diagram of FIG. When a review instruction is issued for confirmation, reverse playback is started. Then, when a playback instruction is issued after viewing the reverse playback for a desired period, the playback of the television broadcast that was viewed before the start of the reverse playback is started. Moreover, since this playback can be performed from the point where it was interrupted by the reverse playback, the viewer can view the television broadcast consistently despite performing the reverse playback while watching the television broadcast. You can do it.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In response to the second instruction, the moving image signal after the first instruction is reproduced while continuing to record the moving image signal in the memory. Can be confirmed. Also,
According to another feature of the present invention, a write address and a read address of the moving image signal with respect to the memory unit are respectively generated, and the reproduction operation is stopped according to a comparison result between the write address and the read address. Since the control is performed, the reproduction address (read address) overtakes the recording address (write address), and the data from the unrecorded area on the memory is read to reproduce an unnatural image or sound. Can be prevented beforehand.

[0057]

[0058]

[0059]

[0060]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information storage / reproduction device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the information storage / reproduction device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a memory area showing a use state of a memory according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a processing procedure of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an operation conceptual diagram of the information storage / reproduction device of the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the information storage / reproduction device according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a memory area showing a use state of a memory according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an operation conceptual diagram of the information storage / reproduction device of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 display unit 11 AV receiver 13 A / D converter 15 A / D converter 16 synthesizer 17 buffer memory 18 separator 19 D / A converter 25 write controller 26 read controller 27 timer unit 28 system controller 29 key input Part 30 sound compressor 31 image compressor 32 sound expander 33 image expander

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A memory unit capable of simultaneously executing recording and reproduction of a moving image signal, a manual instruction unit, and the moving image signal input after a first instruction by the manual instruction unit is stored in the memory unit. The memory is configured to record and reproduce the moving image signal after the first instruction from the memory while continuing to record the moving image signal in the memory in response to the second instruction by the manual instruction. A memory control unit for controlling a recording / reproducing operation of the unit, wherein the memory control unit generates a write address and a read address of the moving image signal with respect to the memory unit, respectively, and compares the write address with the read address. A recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein the stop of the reproducing operation is controlled in accordance with a comparison result. 2. A receiving device for receiving a moving image signal, and a compressing unit for compressing an information amount of the moving image signal received by the receiving unit, wherein the memory control unit is compressed by the compressing unit. 2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a moving image signal is written into said memory means. 3. An image processing apparatus comprising: a decompression means for expanding an information amount of a moving picture signal reproduced from the memory means; and an output means for outputting the moving picture signal decompressed by the decompression means to an external monitor. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein 4. A memory unit capable of simultaneously executing recording and reproduction of an audio signal, a manual instruction unit, and recording the audio signal input after a first instruction by the manual instruction unit in the memory unit. Along with
The recording / reproducing operation of the memory means is performed so as to reproduce the audio signal after the first instruction from the memory means while continuing to record the audio signal in the memory means in response to the second instruction by the manual instruction means. A memory control unit for controlling the memory unit, wherein the memory control unit generates a write address and a read address of the audio signal with respect to the memory unit, respectively, and performs the reproduction in accordance with a comparison result between the write address and the read address. A recording / reproducing apparatus for controlling stop of operation.