JP3369733B2 - Video printer - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video printer for producing a hard copy from a video signal. 2. Description of the Related Art In a video printer for producing a hard copy from a composite video signal of an NTSC format or the like, a video signal having video (video image) information is taken into an image memory such as a field memory or a frame memory and printed. Sometimes, a video signal is read out and printed. NTSC
In a composite video signal of a standard such as a format, since the timing of the horizontal synchronization signal and the video signal and the time length of the video signal are determined, the input timing of the video signal is determined based on the horizontal synchronization signal, and the video signal is determined. Only can be stored in a field memory or the like. At the time of printing, an effective video signal extracted from the image memory is supplied to the printing unit, so that only a video image can be printed. On the other hand, in a TV game machine or the like, a game video (game image) is displayed within a range slightly inside the TV display screen in order to save the memory of the RAM. Therefore, the composite video signal output from the TV game machine conforms to the NTSC format, but the number of scanning lines containing a valid video signal is smaller than that of the standard standard, and even on one scanning line. The range of the effective video signal is narrow. [0004] Therefore, when a composite video signal from a TV game machine or the like is input and a video signal is captured, a signal of a scanning line that does not include the video signal is captured in an image memory, A signal having no image information before and after the signal is taken into the image memory. Since the extra signal captured in this way has a signal level indicating black, a black frame is recorded around the printed video image, and there is a problem that the appearance is deteriorated. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a video printer capable of obtaining a hard copy of a video image without black frames even when a non-standard composite video signal is input. The purpose is to: SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage means for fetching and storing a fixed range of signals for each scanning line from a composite video signal being input. ,
Black portion from the beginning and the end of each scanning line
Out of the range of the video signal so that
And a plurality of rear end positions stored in the storage means.
Adjust the signals of the scanning line or all the scanning lines respectively.
And the middle of each of the obtained start and end positions.
The one closer to the center is the end of the video signal range for each scanning line.
Determining means for determining a head position and a rear position, from among the signals of each scan line, the head position which has been determined by said determining means
Than ash is provided with recording means for recording is taken out from the storage means the image signals between the location and the rear end position. A signal within a certain range for each scanning line is taken into the recording means from the input composite video signal. When printing,
The start position of the video signal is determined so that the black portion of the stored signal is determined to be outside the video signal range.
And the position of the rear end of multiple scanning lines or all scanning lines
Issues, of which the most centered
Are the start position and the rear end position of each scanning line.
Is retrieved video signals between location and the rear end position, it is sent to the recording means. FIG. 2 shows a thermal printer embodying the present invention. A video player,
A TV game machine or the like is connected, a video reproduced by a video player is input as a standard NTSC composite video signal, and a composite video signal of a game video is input to the input terminal 10 from the TV game device. The composite video signal input to the input terminal 10 is input to an RGB demodulation circuit 11 and a synchronization signal separation circuit 12. The synchronization signal separation circuit 12
The horizontal synchronizing signal (H.SYNC) and the vertical synchronizing signal (V.SYNC) are separated from the composite video signal, and each synchronizing signal is sent to the controller 13. The RGB demodulation circuit 11 decodes the composite video signal and separates the composite video signal into a red signal, a green signal, and a blue signal. These color signals are sampled for each pixel by the A / D converter 14 and then converted into digital signals. The obtained red image data, green image data, and blue image data of each pixel are sent to the field memory 15. [0009] The controller 13 is controlled by the CPU 16 to write and read image data in the field memory 15. Further, the controller 13 includes a counter for performing field write control for taking in image data for one field, and the count value Ch of this counter is reset to “0” at the rising edge of the vertical synchronization signal. Is incremented by "1" each time the horizontal synchronization signal falls. Further, the controller 13 has a timer for controlling line writing for taking in image data for each scanning line. This timer resets the timer value Ct to “0” every time the horizontal synchronizing signal falls. , Time keeping. The field memory 15 includes a red DRAM 15 a and a green DRAM 15.
b, a blue DRAM 15c, and a red DRAM
Red image data is written in the DRAM 15a, green image data is written in the green DRAM 15b, and blue image data is written in the blue DRAM 15c. The controller 13 performs field write control based on the count value Ch when a freeze instruction is given, and performs line write control based on the timer value Ct during this control. In the line write control, the controller 13 decodes and samples a predetermined range of signals from the time when a predetermined time has elapsed from the fall of the horizontal synchronization signal to the fall of the next horizontal synchronization signal, and writes each color image data into the field memory 15. . At the time of this writing, image data for one field is written so as to be arranged in the field memory 15 for each scanning line. At the time of printing, the controller 13 reads out each color image data from the field memory 15 at an address designated by the CPU 16 and sends it to the CPU 16. Note that each DRAM 1
5a to 15c, the controller 13 performs a data refresh operation. [0011] A keyboard 17 is connected to the CPU 16.
Freeze instructions and print instructions can be given. C
At the time of printing, the PU 16 reads out one line of each color image data from the field memory 15 via the controller 13, determines whether or not these image data are valid image data, and determines the range of the video in one line. I do. The CPU 16 reads out each color image data of the video signal range via the controller 13 and sends it to the printing unit 20. The printing section 20 includes an interpolation processing circuit 21, an image processing circuit 22, a head driver 23, and a thermal head 24. The interpolation processing circuit 21 forms a field image into a frame image using the color image data sent for each line, and sends the frame image-formed color image data to the image processing circuit 22. The image processing circuit 22 performs a masking process using the image data of three colors, or converts the image data into image data of yellow, cyan, and magenta.
Of the three color image data, only the color to be printed, for example, yellow image data, is extracted and sent to the head driver 23. The thermal head 24 has a large number of heating elements formed in a line, and each heating element is selectively driven by a head driver 23 according to image data.
A yellow image is thermally recorded on the color thermosensitive recording paper 25 line by line. The color thermosensitive recording paper 25 is thermally recorded in three color planes sequentially by using light fixing. Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. First, a case of a standard NTSC composite video signal will be described. For example, a video player is connected to the input terminal 10, and the video player is set to a reproduction state. It is assumed that the video player is also connected to a monitor, for example, a home television, so that the reproduced video can be observed on the monitor. A composite video signal from a video player is input to an RGB demodulation circuit 11 and a synchronization signal separation circuit 12 via an input terminal 10. As shown in FIG. 3 which shows an example of a composite video signal of an odd field of the standard NTSC, the horizontal synchronization signal and the vertical synchronization signal are separated from the composite video signal by the horizontal synchronization signal separation circuit 12. Each of these synchronization signals is sent to the controller 13. The composite video signal is separated into a red signal, a green signal, and a blue signal by an RGB demodulation circuit 11, sent to an A / D converter 14, and the A / D converter 14 samples each color signal for each pixel. It is converted into each color image data. Each color image data is sequentially sent to the field memory 15. In this state, each color image data is not written in the field memory 15. The operator operates the keyboard 17 to give a freeze instruction when an image to be printed is displayed while observing the image on the monitor. CP when freeze instruction is given
U16 instructs the controller 13 to start the field write control. Upon receiving this instruction, the controller 13 waits for the rising edge of the vertical synchronizing signal to detect a field break. When the rise of the vertical synchronization signal is detected, the count value Ch of the counter becomes “0”.
And the counting of the horizontal synchronization signal is started. The controller 13 counts 19 horizontal synchronization signals, and starts line writing control from the subsequent horizontal synchronization signals. Note that the horizontal synchronization signal is continuously counted. The reason why 19 horizontal synchronization signals are counted is that, in a composite video signal, a signal of a scanning line including a video signal is provided after 17H (horizontal synchronization cycle) from the rise of the vertical synchronization signal. This is because a signal of only an image is surely taken in the vertical scanning direction. In addition, when the even field is captured, half the video signal of the other video signal is input with a delay of 0.5 H from the horizontal synchronizing signal in the first scanning line of the even field, so this video signal is not captured. Like that. This count value may be a value larger than "19" or "18". The controller 13 sets the timer value Ct to "0" at the fall of the horizontal synchronization signal after the count value Ch becomes "19", that is, at the fall of the horizontal synchronization signal at which the count value Ch becomes "20". ”And start timing. Then, the timer value Ct is 9.4.
The scanning line after the horizontal synchronizing signal whose count value becomes “20” from the point in time when μs has elapsed (hereinafter referred to as a twentieth scanning line)
Of the respective color image data into the field memory 15 is started. As shown in FIG. 4A, an enlarged waveform of one scanning line is a video signal 9.2 μs after the fall of the horizontal synchronizing signal in the standard NTSC composite video signal. Further, as shown in FIG. 4B, each of the color signals output from the RGB demodulation circuit 11 surely has a video signal portion in the composite video signal 9.4 μs after the fall of the horizontal synchronization signal. The decoded signal,
These color signals are input to the A / D converter 14. Therefore, the video signal portion of the signal of the twentieth scanning line is written to the first line of the field memory 15 as each color image data. Writing of each color image data is performed until the falling of the horizontal synchronization signal at which the count value Ch becomes “21” is detected. In this manner, a certain range of signals among the signals of the scanning lines is taken into the field memory 15. The video signal of the 20th scanning line and the count value "2"
There is a portion (front porch) that is not a video signal between the horizontal synchronizing signals "1", and color image data obtained by sampling each color signal obtained by decoding this portion is also written in the field memory 15, so that the first line is The rear end portion is a pixel having no color, that is, each color image data indicating black. When the falling of the horizontal synchronizing signal at which the count value Ch becomes "21" is detected, the writing of the image data for the twentieth scanning line is completed. At the same time, the controller 13 resets the timer value Ct to “0” and starts time counting again. Then, when the timer value Ct reaches 9.4 μs, writing of each color image data for the 21st scanning line to the second line of the field memory 15 is started, and the horizontal synchronization signal at which the count value Ch becomes “22” Image data is written until the falling edge is detected. The line writing control is similarly performed for the 23rd scanning line and thereafter, and each color image data is written. When the count value Ch becomes “257”, the field write control is terminated, and the capture of the video of one field is terminated. In the NTSC composite video signal, the 25th
After eight scanning lines, there are several scanning lines having a video signal. However, in order to surely capture a video-only signal, the writing is completed with leaving several scanning lines. In addition, this prevents the signal of the last scanning line of the odd field which is only half the length of the normal video signal from being captured. As shown in FIG. 5, the field memory 15 in which each color image data is written is slightly smaller in the vertical scanning direction than the image 30 reproduced by the video player in the vertical scanning direction, and is horizontal. Image 3 in the scanning direction
The image data is stored from a portion slightly inside the leading end of the image 0, and further, the image data is written at the trailing end up to a portion of the front porch unrelated to the image 30 (a portion indicated by hatching in the figure). When printing, the operator operates the keyboard 17 to instruct printing. When a print instruction is issued, the CPU 16 instructs the controller 13 to read out image data of an arbitrary line, for example, a pixel on the 120th line near the center, by designating an address, in order to determine the range of video information. To instruct. Each color image data of each pixel is read from the field memory 15 in order from the head pixel of the 120th line. The CPU 16 determines that a pixel that is not black data first among the pixels read in order is a head pixel of one line of the video. Thereafter, each color image data is read out in order from the pixel after the 120th line, and a pixel which is not black data first in the read image data of each color is determined as a rear end pixel of one line. In this manner, the first pixel and the last pixel in one line are determined,
These and the pixels between them are defined as a video range for one line, that is, a video signal range. After determining the video signal range, the CPU 16 calculates the addresses of the pixels in the video signal range of the first line. The CPU 16 reads out the color image data from the field memory 15 by sequentially specifying the address of the video signal range of the first line via the controller 13. These color image data are sent to the printing unit 20 via the CPU 16.
Sent to Similarly to the first line, the address of the video signal range of the second line is calculated, and the field memory 15
, The respective color image data in the video signal range of the second line is read out and sent to the printing unit 20. Thereafter, similarly, for the third line to the 239th line (final line), the color image data in the video signal range is sequentially read from the field memory 15 and sent to the printing unit 20 line by line. The data is read out in this manner and is
Pixels sent to 0 are obtained by removing pixels in the range indicated by hatching from the range of the field memory 15 shown in FIG. The range indicated by the hatching is not the range of the video signal, but becomes a black frame when printed. Each color image data input to the printing unit 20 is subjected to interpolation processing by an interpolation processing unit 21 to form a frame image, and the frame image-formed color image data is sent to the image processing circuit 22 line by line. Each color image data is subjected to masking processing and color conversion processing in the image processing circuit 22, and then yellow image data is extracted and sent to the head driver 23. The head driver 23 drives the thermal head 24 to thermally record a yellow image line by line on the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer of the color thermosensitive recording paper 25. After thermal recording of the yellow image, ultraviolet light of 420 nm is irradiated on the color thermosensitive recording paper 25 to fix the yellow thermosensitive coloring layer. After the thermal recording of the yellow image, when the platen drum makes one rotation and the color thermal recording paper 25 comes to the position of the thermal head 24 again, the thermal recording of the magenta image is started. Also in the thermal recording of the magenta image, each color image data in the video signal range is read from the field memory 15 line by line. The image processing circuit 22 sends the magenta image data to the head driver 23,
4 is driven. The thermal head 24 thermally records a magenta image line by line on a magenta thermosensitive coloring layer of a color thermosensitive recording paper 25. After thermal recording of the magenta image, 36
The color thermosensitive recording paper 25 is irradiated with ultraviolet light of 5 nm to fix the magenta thermosensitive coloring layer. After the thermal recording of the magenta image, the cyan image is thermally recorded on the cyan thermosensitive coloring layer of the color thermosensitive recording paper 25 line by line. No light fixing is performed on the cyan thermosensitive coloring layer. On the color thermosensitive recording paper 25 recorded in this way, only an image is recorded as shown in FIG. 5B. Next, a case where a game video is printed from a composite video signal from a TV game machine will be described. As shown in FIG. 6A, in the composite video signal output from the TV game machine, the time from the horizontal synchronization signal to the video signal is 10 to 13 μs, and the time from the end of the video signal to the next horizontal synchronization The time until the signal (front voucher) is about 4 μs, and the range of the video signal of the TV game machine is narrower than that of the standard NTSC composite video signal. When a freeze instruction is given, the controller 1
No. 3 detects the rising edge of the vertical synchronizing signal and starts the field write control, as in the case of the standard NTSC composite video signal. The count value Ch is reset to “0”, and the counting of the horizontal synchronization signal starts. Then, when the count value Ch becomes “20”, the line write control is started, the timer value Ct is reset to “0”, and the time count is started. When the timer value Ct reaches 9.4 μs, writing of each color image data of the twentieth scanning line output from the A / D converter 14 to the first line of the field memory 15 starts. The writing to the first line is terminated by the horizontal synchronization signal having the count value Ch of “21”. In this manner, in the case of a composite video signal from a TV game machine or the like, similarly to the case of a standard NTSC composite video signal, a signal in a certain range of scanning lines is taken into the field memory 15. Regarding the 21st scanning line to the 257th scanning line,
Similarly, each color image data is written from the second line to the 239th line of the field memory 15. As shown in FIG. 6B, after 9.4 μs from the horizontal synchronizing signal, the RGB demodulation circuit 11 outputs each color signal obtained by decoding a signal portion which is not a video signal yet. Each color image data from the / D converter 14 becomes black image data, which is written from the head of each line of the field memory. After 10 to 13 μs, the video signal is decoded into each color signal, and each color image data obtained by sampling these is written into the field memory 15 following the previous black pixel. When the video signal ends, each color image data indicating black by the front porch is written to the rear end of each line. In this way, as shown in FIG. 1 (a), the field memory 15 is slightly smaller in the vertical scanning direction and is wider and wider than the game image 31 in the horizontal scanning direction. Becomes When a print instruction is given, the CPU 16
For example, the image data of the 120th line is read out in order, and the first pixel of one line is determined. In the 120th line, valid image data exists after a plurality of pixels having black image data. The CPU 16 determines that the pixel having the black image data is a pixel outside the video signal range, and continues reading. When a pixel having image data other than black is read first, this pixel is determined to be the first pixel in the video signal range. After the determination of the first pixel, the 120th line is read from the next pixel. Also at this time, the black image data is continuously read, and it is determined that these pixels are not in the video signal range. Then, when a pixel having image data other than black is read out first, this pixel is determined to be the rear end pixel of the video signal range. After determining the video signal range, each color image data within this range for each scanning line is sequentially read out line by line and sent to the printing unit 20. Print section 2
In the case of 0, after the image data is subjected to the interpolation processing, thermal recording is sequentially performed on the color thermosensitive recording paper 25 in three color planes. As described above, the color thermal recording 25 includes:
Since each color image data of pixels only in the video signal range is extracted and recorded, a black frame is not recorded around the game video as shown in FIG. In the embodiment described above, the first pixel and the last pixel of one line are determined from the image data of the pixels for one line, and the video signal range for all lines is determined from this. For each line or all lines, the first pixel and the last pixel are determined, and the positions of the first pixel and the last pixel that are averaged are determined from these to determine the video signal range. The video signal range may be determined based on the shifted pixels. In the above embodiment, the image signal range in the vertical scanning direction is fetched by not fetching several scanning lines in the vertical scanning direction of the image. From the direction ie first
Each line may be read from both directions of the line and the 239th line (final line) to determine the leading line and the trailing line of the video signal range. By doing so, it is possible to more reliably print only the video signal range in the vertical scanning direction, and black edges are not recorded above and below the video. Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to a case where a field image is captured, a frame image may be captured. In addition, although the description has been given of a composite video signal of NTSC, the present invention is not limited to this.
Etc. can also be used for composite video signals. R, G,
The image data of each color B is stored in the field memory 15, but may be stored as data such as a luminance signal and a color difference signal. Furthermore, although a video printer of a thermal recording system has been described, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a video printer of a thermal fusion system or an inkjet system may be used, and a serial printer may be used in addition to a line printer. be able to. As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a predetermined range for each scanning line is taken into the storage means from the composite video signal, and then the range of the video signal is determined. Then, only the video signal is taken out and printed, so even if the video signal output from a game device or the like is a composite video signal whose range is narrower than the standard, only the video is recorded without recording a black frame. Can be recorded.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a game video from a TV game machine taken into a field memory and a game video to be printed. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a thermal printer embodying the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing signals in odd fields of a standard NTSC composite video signal. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing one horizontal scanning line signal of a standard NTSC composite video signal. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an image of a standard NTSC composite image signal taken into a field memory and an image to be printed. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a composite video signal output from a TV game machine and its write timing. [Description of Signs] 11 RGB demodulation circuit 13 Controller 14 A / D converter 15 Field memory 16 CPU

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-5-336482 (JP, A) JP-A-3-89785 (JP, A) JP-A-2-104077 (JP, A) JP-A-5-137099 (JP) , A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5/76-5/956

Claims (1)

(57) [Claim 1] A storage means for taking in and storing a certain range of signals for each scanning line from a composite video signal being input, and a head and a rear for each scanning line Black from the end
So that the part is outside the range of the video signal
A plurality of positions and rear end positions stored in the storage means;
For each signal of one scan line or all scan lines
Check and obtain the most
The one closer to the center is the range of the video signal range for each scanning line.
Determining means for determining a head position and rear end position, from among the signals of each scan line, the top is determined by the determining means
Recording means for taking out a video signal between the position and the rear end position from the storage means and recording the video signal .