JP4144636B2 - Program reservation apparatus and method, and recording apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a program reservation apparatus and method suitable for use in a television receiver in which a program is continuously recorded on a recording medium, and a recording apparatus and method.

  While enjoying a television broadcast, it is often the case that a telephone call suddenly rings or a visitor misses the broadcast program. If a television broadcast program is missed, it cannot be viewed again, except for a rebroadcast program. Programs that are rebroadcast in a short period of time are rare, and news programs and sports programs are not rebroadcast in most cases. Therefore, in many cases, if a television broadcast program is missed, the program cannot be viewed again.

  In addition, scenes that are desired to be saved while watching broadcast programs such as famous scenes of movies and dramas, interviews with important persons, highlight scenes of sports programs, etc. may suddenly start. In such a case, even if the VTR is set immediately, the scene is often not in time and the scene cannot be recorded.

  Therefore, the present inventor has proposed a television receiver that records a program on a recording medium continuously while watching a broadcast program. In such a television receiver, even if there is a sudden telephone call or visitor, the program can be played back retroactively, so that the program is not missed. In addition, the program can be easily saved, and it is possible to cope with a sudden start of a program to be recorded.

  Further, the inventor of the present application proposes to use a hard disk drive as a recording medium in a television receiver that continuously records a program on a recording medium. Conventionally, a magnetic tape has been widely used as a recording medium for recording a video signal. However, the magnetic tape has a low access speed and is difficult to use as a recording medium used in such a television receiver. Although semiconductor memory can be used, large-capacity semiconductor memory is very expensive, and the stored program disappears when the power is turned off. It is not suitable for cases where In contrast, a hard disk drive has a large capacity and a sufficiently high access speed.

  Thus, in a television receiver equipped with a hard disk drive, the program being received is constantly recorded, and this program can be easily stored. In a television receiver equipped with such a hard disk drive, it is further desired to easily and reliably record from the start to the end of a desired program.

  That is, conventionally, as a video signal recording apparatus, a VTR for recording a video signal on a tape has been widely used. In the VTR, when a recording key is pressed during program reception, the program being received is recorded as it is. Therefore, when a desired program is stored in the VTR, the recording key must be pressed at the start of the program, and the stop key must be pressed at the end of the program. However, if attention is not paid, the start time of the program is missed, and recording cannot be performed from the start of the program.

  The VTR has a timer reservation function, but the timer reservation operation is complicated, and setting the recording start time and the recording end time is a very difficult task. As described above, in the conventional VTR, it is difficult to record a desired program from the start to the end of the program.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a program reservation apparatus and method, and a recording apparatus and method capable of easily and surely recording a desired program from the start to the end.

The invention provides means for providing a command for recording a program being received;
Means for calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
A program reservation device comprising: means for setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as the reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly .

The invention provides means for providing a command for recording a program being received;
Means for calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
Means for setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as the reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly;
A recording apparatus having means for recording a program at a set reservation start time and reservation end time.

The present invention provides a command for recording a program being received;
Calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
A program reservation method comprising: setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as the reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly. .

The present invention provides a command for recording a program being received;
Calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
Setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as the reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly; and
A recording method comprising a step of recording a program at a set reservation start time and reservation end time.

  In many cases, a television broadcast program is broadcast every 30 minutes or 1 hour from the start time of the program. From this, it is possible to manage programs in units of 30 minutes or 1 hour. In the present invention, when a program recording start is input, the program start time and end time are set on the assumption that the program is broadcast every 30 minutes or one hour from the program start time. The received broadcast is recorded from the start time to the end time of the program set in this way.

  According to the present invention, when the program recording start is input, the program start time and end time are set on the assumption that the program is broadcast every 30 minutes or 1 hour from the program start time. The received broadcast is recorded from the start time to the end time of the program set in this way. Therefore, it is possible to reliably record from the start to the end of the program only by performing a simple key operation in the middle of the program.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is applied to a television receiver in which a hard disk drive is built in the television receiver. In a television receiver equipped with such a hard disk drive, it is possible to play back a missed scene or a scene to be viewed again, or to record and play back a desired program.

  FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a television receiver to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, the reception signal received by the antenna 1 is supplied to the tuner circuit 2. A channel setting signal is supplied from the system controller 10 to the tuner circuit 2. The tuner circuit 2 selects a signal of a desired reception channel based on the channel setting signal, and converts this signal into an intermediate frequency signal.

  The output of the tuner circuit 2 is supplied to the video intermediate frequency circuit 3. The intermediate frequency signal from the tuner circuit 2 is amplified by the video intermediate frequency circuit 3, and this signal is detected by video. Thereby, for example, an NTSC composite video signal is obtained. This video signal is supplied to one input terminal 5 A of the video source selector switch 5. Further, an audio signal is detected from a beat component of, for example, 4.5 MHz output from the intermediate frequency circuit 3. This output is supplied to the audio demodulation circuit 12.

  A video signal from the external video input terminal 6 is supplied to the other input terminal 5B of the video source changeover switch 5. A select signal is supplied from the system controller 10 to the video source selector switch 5. The video source changeover switch 5 switches between a video signal based on the received television broadcast and a video signal from the external video input terminal 6.

  The output of the video source selector switch 5 is supplied to the video signal processing circuit 7. The video signal processing circuit 7 separates the luminance signal Y and the chroma signal C from the NTSC composite video signal, further demodulates the color difference signals U and V from the chroma signal C, and converts the component video signals Y, U and V into It is formed. The component video signals Y, U, and V are supplied to the terminal 8A of the switch circuit 8 and also supplied to the A / D converter 21 in order to store the video signal in the hard disk drive 30. The output of the D / A converter 35 is supplied to the other input terminal 8B of the switch circuit 8 in order to output a reproduction screen from the hard disk drive 30.

  The switch circuit 8 is for switching between a screen based on a received television broadcast or a video signal from the external video input terminal 6 and a reproduction screen from the hard disk drive 30. The switch circuit 8 is controlled by the system controller 10. When the screen based on the received television broadcast or the video signal from the external video input terminal 6 is projected, the switch circuit 8 is switched to the terminal 8A side. When the reproduction screen from the hard disk drive 30 is displayed, the switch circuit 8 is switched to the terminal 8B side.

  The output of the switch circuit 8 is supplied to the video output circuit 9. The video output circuit 9 drives the three primary color signals R, G and B from the component video signals Y, U and V from the switch circuit 8 and drives the three primary color signals R, G and B to perform color. And a video amplification circuit for supplying to the picture tube 11. In the video output circuit 9, the component video signals Y, U, and V from the switch circuit 8 are converted into three primary color signals R, G, and B and supplied to the color picture tube 11.

  An audio signal detected from a beat component of, for example, 4.5 MHz output from the intermediate frequency circuit 3 is supplied to the audio demodulation circuit 12. The audio demodulation circuit 12 demodulates the audio signal. This audio signal is supplied to the input terminal 13A of the audio source selector switch 13.

  The audio signal from the external audio input terminal 14 is supplied to the other terminal 13B of the audio source changeover switch 13. The audio source changeover switch 13 selects an audio signal based on the received television broadcast and an audio signal from the external audio input terminal 14.

  The output of the audio source changeover switch 13 is supplied to the terminal 15A of the switch circuit 15 and also supplied to the A / D converter 25 in order to store the audio signal in the hard disk drive 30. The other input terminal 15B of the switch circuit 15 is supplied with the output of the D / A converter 38 in order to output the audio signal from the hard disk drive 30.

  The switch circuit 15 switches between a received television broadcast or an audio signal from the external audio input terminal 14 and an audio signal reproduced from the hard disk drive 30. The switch circuit 15 is controlled by the system controller 10. When the received television broadcast or the audio signal from the external audio input terminal 14 is output, the switch circuit 15 is switched to the terminal 15A side. When outputting an audio signal from the hard disk drive 30, the switch circuit 15 is switched to the terminal 15B side.

  The output of the switch circuit 15 is supplied to the audio amplifier 16. The audio signal from the switch circuit 15 is amplified by the audio amplifier 16. This audio signal is supplied to the speaker 17.

  The component video signals Y, U, and V from the video signal processing circuit 7 are supplied to the A / D converter 21 for storage by the hard disk drive 30. The component video signal from the video signal processing circuit 17 is digitized by the A / D converter 21. The output of the A / D converter 21 is supplied to the field memory 22. The output of the field memory 22 is supplied to the image compression circuit 23. The component video signal is compressed by the image compression circuit 23. As an image compression method, for example, motion JPEG is used, and compression is performed so that the code amount of one field becomes equal. The video data compressed by the image compression circuit 23 is sent to the bus 29 via the buffer memory 24.

  The audio signal from the audio source switching circuit 13 is supplied to the A / D converter 25 for storage by the hard disk drive 30. The A / D converter 25 digitizes the audio signal from the audio source switching circuit 13. The output of the A / D converter 25 is supplied to the audio compression circuit 26. The audio compression circuit 26 compresses the audio signal. As an audio compression method, for example, non-linear PCM is used. The audio data compressed by the audio compression circuit 26 is sent to the bus 29 via the buffer memory 28.

  Video data from the buffer memory 24 and audio data from the buffer memory 28 are combined into fixed-length blocks. Each block is provided with a predetermined header for identifying the block.

  Thus, the blocked video data and audio data are recorded on the hard disk drive 30 via the bus 29 under the control of a recording / reproducing controller 27 comprising a CPU (Central Processing Unit). Thereby, video data and audio data are stored in the hard disk drive 30.

  Video data and audio data recorded in the hard disk drive 30 are reproduced under the control of the recording / reproducing controller 27. Reproduction data from the hard disk drive 30 is supplied to the buffer memories 31 and 36 via the bus 29.

  Video data from the buffer memory 31 is supplied to the image decompression circuit 32. Component video data Y, U, and V are formed from video data compressed by, for example, motion JPEG in the image decompression circuit 32. The output of the image expansion circuit 32 is supplied to the D / A converter 35 via the image processing circuit 33 and the field memory 34 for forming a multi-screen. The digital video signal is converted into an analog video signal by the D / A converter 35. The output of the D / A converter 35 is supplied to the terminal 8B of the switch circuit 8.

  The audio data from the buffer memory 36 is supplied to the audio decompression circuit 37. The output of the audio decompression circuit 37 is supplied to the D / A converter 38. The digital audio signal is converted into an analog audio signal by the D / A converter 38. The output of the D / A converter 38 is supplied to the terminal 15B of the switch circuit 15.

  The system controller 10 performs overall control of the television receiver. The system controller 10 and the recording / playback processing controller 27 are connected bidirectionally.

  An input from the remote commander 52 is given to the system controller 10 via the light receiving unit 42. Various operations are set based on the input from the remote commander 52. The output of the system controller 10 is supplied to the display generation circuit 44. The display generation circuit 44 generates display signals indicating various operation setting states. The output of the display generation circuit 44 is supplied to the video output circuit 9, and various operation states are displayed on the screen. A timer 45 is provided for the system controller 10. The timer 45 is used when setting the time for storing a program.

  A television receiver to which the present invention is applied can be operated using a remote commander 52 as shown in FIG.

  The remote commander 52 has various keys for performing basic settings of the television receiver, that is, a power switch 61 for turning on / off the power of the television receiver, and a channel key for performing channel setting. 62, 62, 62,..., Channel up / down keys 63A and 63B, volume up / down keys 64A and 64B, and an input source changeover switch 65 are arranged.

  Further, the remote commander 52 for operating the television receiver to which the present invention is applied includes a program pause key 66, a bookmark as various keys for controlling recording / reproduction of the hard disk drive 30 of the television receiver. Record key 67, section repeat key 68, cancel key 69, reverse skip playback key 70, reverse fast feed key 71, double speed key 72, forward fast feed key 73, forward skip key 74, overview search key 75, arrow Keys 76A and 76B and an enter key 77 are provided.

  When the program pause key 66 is pressed, the receiving screen is stopped on the spot and displayed as a still image. Meanwhile, the program is recorded on the hard disk drive 30 of the television receiver. When the program pause key 66 is pressed again, the program recorded in the hard disk drive 30 is reproduced from the scene where it is a still image.

  When the bookmark recording key 67 is pressed, the program broadcast at this time can be stored in the hard disk drive 30 of the television receiver.

  Repeat playback is set by the section repeat key 68. When the section repeat key 68 is pressed first, the repeat start position is set. When the section repeat key 68 is pressed next, the repeat end position is set.

  A cancel key 69 is pressed when canceling a set operation or function.

  The reverse skip reproduction key 70, reverse high speed feed key 71, double speed key 72, normal rotation high speed feed key 73, and normal rotation skip key 74 are keys for performing variable speed reproduction.

  An overview search key 75, arrow keys 76A and 76B, and an enter key 77 are used for program search. When the overview search key 75 is pressed, the screen of the television receiver is divided into a central screen and a plurality of surrounding small screens. On the surrounding small screen, a screen for every predetermined time is displayed from the screens recorded on the hard disk drive 30. When a desired screen is selected from a plurality of screens by operating the arrow keys 76A and 76B and the reproduction start position is searched, the enter key 77 is pressed. When the enter key 77 is pressed, playback is started from the selected screen.

  As described above, the remote commander 52 of the television receiver to which the present invention is applied is provided with the bookmark key 67. When the bookmark key 67 is pressed, the program broadcast at this time is displayed on the hard disk drive. 30 can be recorded. The recording of the program by the bookmark key 67 will be described in further detail.

  In most cases, current television broadcast programs are broadcast in units of 30 minutes or 1 hour. For example, a television broadcast program of a certain broadcasting station is as follows.

7:00-7:30: News 7:30-8:00: News commentary ...
10:00 to 10:30: News 10:30 to 11:00: Documentary 12:00 to 13:00: Drama

  As described above, with some exceptions, in many cases, a television broadcast program starts at X0: 00 (so-called X hour) or X: 30, and then X: 30 or X0: 00 It is broadcasted in units of 30 minutes or 1 hour. From this, it is possible to manage programs in units of 30 minutes or 1 hour.

  Program management by the bookmark key 67 is performed in units of 30 minutes or 1 hour. When such a program is managed in units of 30 minutes or 1 hour, the user can easily record the program by pressing the bookmark key 67 at the place of the program to be saved. No input is required to start or end recording.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 3, it is assumed that “program B” is broadcast from 21:00 to 22:00 and this “program B” is recorded. In the case of recording this “program B” in a conventional VTR or the like, it is necessary to press the recording key at 21:00 and press the stop key at 22:00. As shown in FIG. 3, if the recording key is delayed, and the recording key is pressed at 21:21 after 21:00, for example, and the stop key is pressed at 22:00, The saved program is a program from 21:21 to 22:00, and the first half of “Program B” is missing.

  On the other hand, since the program management by the bookmark key 67 is performed in units of 30 minutes or 1 hour, “program B” can be completely stored even in such a case.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 4, “program B” is broadcast from 21:00 to 22:00, and this “program B” is recorded. In this case, a one-hour program from 21:00 to 22:00 is managed as one unit. Therefore, if it is within the time from 21:00 to 22:00, the “program B” as one unit is completely stored regardless of the bookmark key 67 being pressed at any time. For example, if the bookmark key 67 is pressed at 21:21, this means that a program from 21:00 to 22:00 is saved, and as shown in FIG. 4, from 21:00 to 22:00 "Program B" up to is saved.

  Furthermore, the program set using the bookmark key 67 can be recorded daily or weekly by reserved recording.

  As described above, in the television receiver to which the present invention is applied, the video signal being received is always recorded in the hard disk drive 30. The hard disk drive 30 always stores, for example, 90 minutes of video signals. When a video signal of 90 minutes or more is accumulated by a ring address, the old video signal is discarded and a new video signal is written. Therefore, it is possible to retroactively store a program before the bookmark key 67 is pressed.

  Of course, one unit of the program to be recorded may be one hour, 30 minutes or 15 minutes. Further, the unit time of the program to be recorded may be changeable.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a program recording process using such a bookmark key 67.

  In FIG. 5, it is determined whether or not the bookmark key 67 is pressed (step ST1). When the bookmark key 67 is pressed, current time information T and channel information C are captured (step ST2).

Then, the recording start time T _start and the recording end time T _end are calculated from the current time information T (step ST3). For example, when a program is managed in units of one hour, the recording start time T _start is the current time T, and the value of the second is “00”. The recording end time T _end is obtained by incrementing the current time T by one hour and setting the minutes and seconds to “00”. For example, if the current time T is _21:21 , the recording start time T _start is _21:00:00 , and the recording end time T _end is _22:00:00 .

Then, a reservation setting process is performed (step ST4). In the reservation setting process, a reservation start time T _start and a reservation end time T _end are set using a daily or weekly reservation mode set in advance in the apparatus, and a reservation channel C is further set.

Then, the program that was broadcast before the current time is stored (step ST5). That is, for example, a video signal of 90 minutes is always stored in the hard disk drive 30 by a ring-shaped address. In step ST7, of the video data stored in the hard disk drive 30, the video data area from the recording start time _Tstart to the current time is prohibited from being erased.

And the preservation | save process of the broadcast program in reception is performed (step ST6). During the process of storing the broadcast program being received, the video data area stored in the hard disk drive 30 is prohibited from being erased. It is determined whether or not the _end time T _end has been reached while performing the process of storing the broadcast program being received (step ST7). If it is not the end time T _end , the process returns to step ST7, and the process of storing the broadcast program being received is continued. When you become the end time T _end, recording preservation end process is performed (step ST8), storage of the program is terminated.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing timer timer recording processing. As shown in the above-mentioned step ST4, when the bookmark key 67 is pressed and the program is saved, it is set to a scheduled recording mode in which a daily or weekly reservation is made. As described in step ST4, when the reservation recording mode is set, the reservation start time T _{start, the} reservation end time T _end , and the reservation channel C are set.

Whether present time T reaches the reservation start time T _start is determined (step ST11), the current time T is When a reserved start time T _start, received program process of the reserved channel C is performed (step ST12). Then, the process of storing the broadcast program being received is performed (step ST13). During the process of storing the broadcast program being received, the video data area stored in the hard disk drive 30 is prohibited from being erased. It is determined whether or not the reservation end time T _end has been reached while performing the process of storing the broadcast program being received (step ST14). If it is not the reservation end time T _end , the process returns to step ST13, and the process of storing the broadcast program being received is continued. When the reservation end time T _end is reached, a recording saving end process is performed (step ST15), and the program saving is ended.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, and various modifications and applications are possible without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

1 is a block diagram of an example of a television receiver to which the present invention is applied. It is a top view used for description of the remote commander in the television receiver to which this invention is applied. It is a basic diagram used for description of program recording. It is a basic diagram used for description of program recording. It is a flowchart used for description of program recording. It is a flowchart used for description of program recording.

Explanation of symbols

10 System controller 30 Hard disk drive 52 Remote commander 67 Bookmark key

Claims (4)

Means for providing a command to record the program being received;
Means for calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
A program reservation device comprising: means for setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as a reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly . Means for providing a command to record the program being received;
Means for calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
Means for setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as a reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly;
A recording apparatus comprising means for recording a program at the set reservation start time and reservation end time. Providing a command to record the program being received;
Calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
A program reservation method comprising: setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as a reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly . Providing a command to record the program being received;
Calculating a recording start time and a recording end time of the program so as to be a predetermined unit of time from the start time of the program being received at the time when the command is given;
Setting the calculated recording start time and recording end time as the reservation start time and reservation end time, and setting the set reservation start time and reservation end time as daily or weekly;
A recording method comprising a step of recording a program at the set reservation start time and reservation end time.

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