JP4834472B2 - Information processing apparatus, moving image reproduction method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processing apparatus and a moving picture reproducing method controlling high image quality processing in response to a reproducing state of a moving picture. <P>SOLUTION: A high image quality processing section 22 carries out high image quality processing on the basis of display information such as a display image size ensured for displaying an image and a state of a display application and image information such as an image resolution and a predetermined image size. The processing is automatically enabled when it is recognized that high image quality is required, without a setting change by a user, to reproduce a moving picture with an increased display image size and reproduce it on a full screen. Moreover, the high image quality processing section 22 can reduce a load imposed on a CPU by disabling the high image quality processing when the effect of high image quality cannot visually be recognized or the priority of another job executed in parallel is higher. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a moving image playback method, and more particularly to a moving image quality enhancement process.

At present, personal computers (hereinafter referred to as PCs) capable of decoding and playing back moving images compressed by an encoding method compliant with MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) standards and the like are widely used. In recent years, since the processing capability of CPUs has been improved, when a video such as a DVD is played on a PC, a method using a software decoder that decodes compressed data by software has become mainstream. Also, in order to reproduce video with higher quality, in addition to a normal display processor, a dedicated hardware for improving the image quality and a software-added image quality enhancement function are employed. Patent Document 1 discloses an information processing apparatus having a video processing controller that performs video processing for improving the image quality of a video signal. By performing high image quality processing according to the display device based on various correction parameters, more faithful color reproducibility can be obtained regardless of the characteristics of the display device.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-340954

  However, in the above invention, the CPU usage rate increases because the processing is performed even when the image quality enhancement processing is unnecessary or when the effect of the image quality enhancement processing is not visually effective. For this reason, there is a problem that the operation of another application that is used simultaneously with the moving image reproduction application becomes slow, or that the video reproduced due to the influence of the other application drops.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and a moving image reproduction method capable of controlling the image quality enhancement processing in accordance with the moving image reproduction state.

  In order to achieve the above object, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a decoding unit that decodes encoded moving image data, a reproducing unit that reproduces the moving image data decoded by the decoding unit, and a reproducing unit. Display means for displaying reproduced moving image data, image size obtaining means for obtaining a default image size from the moving picture data, and display image size obtaining means for obtaining a display image size of the moving picture data displayed by the display means And image quality control means for controlling the image quality of the reproduced video based on the default image size acquired by the image size acquisition means and the display image size acquired by the display image size acquisition means, It is characterized by providing.

  In order to achieve the above object, a moving image reproduction method according to the present invention decodes encoded moving image data, reproduces the decoded moving image data, displays the reproduced moving image data, Obtaining a default image size, obtaining a display image size of the displayed moving image data, and controlling an image quality of the reproduced moving image data based on the acquired default image size and the display image size. Features.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the information processing apparatus and moving image reproduction method which can control an image quality improvement process according to the reproduction | regeneration state of a moving image can be provided.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a notebook computer 1 will be described as an example of the information processing apparatus.

  FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a notebook computer 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The notebook computer 1 includes a main body 2, and a display unit 3 is rotatably attached to the main body 2 via a hinge portion 4. A circuit board on which a plurality of electronic components are mounted is accommodated in the main body 2. A touch pad 5 is attached to the front upper surface 2 a of the main body 2, and a keyboard 7 is attached to the rear upper surface 2 b of the main body 2.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The notebook computer 1 includes a CPU 10, a north bridge 11, a main memory (RAM) 12, a GPU 13, a video RAM 14, a display 15, a south bridge 16, a hard disk drive (HDD) 17, a ROMDrive 18, an embedded controller / keyboard controller IC (EC / KBC). 19), touch pad 5, keyboard 7 and the like.

  The CPU 10 is a processor that controls the operation of each component of the notebook computer 1. The CPU 10 executes an operating system and various application programs / utility programs loaded from the HDD 17 to the main memory (RAM) 12. The main memory (RAM) 12 is also used for storing various data buffers.

  The north bridge 11 is a bridge device that connects the local bus of the CPU 10 and the south bridge 16. The north bridge 11 also has a function of executing communication with the GPU 13 via an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) bus or the like. Further, the north bridge 11 also includes a memory controller that controls the main memory (RAM) 12.

  The GPU 13 is a display processor for outputting the frame data on the VideoRAM 14 to the LCD 15. The VideoRAM 14 stores frame data to be displayed on the LCD 15.

  The south bridge 16 is connected to a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus and an LPC (Low Pin Count) bus, respectively.

  The HDD 17 stores the OS and various application programs. The ROMDrive 18 reads video data from a storage medium such as a DVD.

  The embedded controller / keyboard controller (EC / KBC) 19 is a one-chip microcomputer in which an embedded controller for power management and a keyboard controller for controlling the touch pad 5 and the keyboard 7 are integrated.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the image quality enhancement processing function of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The moving image data read from the storage device 20 such as the HDD 17 is sent to the image decoding unit 21. The image decoding unit 21 expands and decodes the compressed moving image data. The decoded moving image data is sent to the image quality enhancement processing unit 22. On the other hand, the display information acquired by the display information acquisition unit 23 and the image information acquired by the image information acquisition unit 24 are sent to the high image quality determination unit 25. The display information is, for example, a display image size reserved for displaying an image, a state of a display application, and the like. The image information is information such as image resolution and default image size extracted by the image decoding unit, for example. Based on the acquired display information and image information, the image quality improvement determination unit 25 determines whether or not to improve the image quality of the moving image data, and notifies the image quality improvement processing unit 22 of the determination result. When the high image quality determination unit 25 determines that high image quality is necessary, the high image quality processing unit 22 performs high image quality processing on the decoded moving image data. For example, the image quality enhancement processing unit 22 performs image quality correction processing on the luminance component and color difference component of each pixel of the image frame. The moving image data that has been subjected to the high image quality processing is sent to the display processing unit 26. The display processing unit 26 performs enlargement / reduction of moving image data and superimposition of frames, and outputs the frame data to a display device 27 such as the LCD 15.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a moving image playback application of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which a moving image is displayed in full screen by the moving image reproduction application of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another moving image display state by the moving image reproduction application of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a display state when the moving image playback application is used together with another application.

  4 to 7 show screen configurations corresponding to the display image size of a moving image. FIG. 4 shows a state in which the video is displayed at a predetermined size by the moving image reproduction application. When no special operation is performed, a display image size corresponding to the default image size is set when a moving image is played. The reproduced moving image is displayed on the display device 27 with a display image size corresponding to the default image size. When a display image size is enlarged and a moving image is displayed by a user operation, it is desirable to perform an image quality enhancement process.

  On the other hand, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a state where the display image size of the moving image is maximized, that is, the display image size is displayed so as to be the same as the displayable area of the display device. In general, since the default image size is smaller than the maximum value of the display image size, the roughness of the image quality becomes conspicuous when a full-screen display with the maximum display image size is performed. For this reason, when playing back a moving image on a full screen, it is desired to perform a high-quality image processing and provide a finer image.

  On the other hand, FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a case where the viewing mode is set while the playback state of the video playback application is set. The moving image playback application is reduced and fixed to one end of the screen of the display device, and other work can be performed on the screen while the moving image is played back. At this time, since the moving image is displayed in a reduced size, the roughness of the image is often inconspicuous even without performing high image quality processing. Even if the image quality is improved, the effect may not be visually recognized. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the image quality enhancement process. Since no image quality enhancement processing is performed, the load on the CPU can be reduced.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 7, even when a video playback application is used, the priority of the video playback application is low when a document creation application or the like is used over the video playback application. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the image quality enhancement process. That is, when the moving image playback application is not selected as the main application, the load on the CPU can be reduced by not performing the image quality enhancement process. It may be determined whether or not to perform high image quality processing other than the above criteria.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of high image quality processing of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. When a moving image playback application is activated to play a moving image, first, the compressed data of the moving image is acquired and the compressed data is decrypted (step 1). When the compressed data of the moving image is decoded, the default image size of the moving image is acquired, and the image size for reproducing the moving image data is set (step 2). If the default image size predetermined for the moving image data is different from the currently set image size, the image size is changed to the currently set image size. When the image size for reproducing moving image data is set (step 2), the display image size of the moving image reproduction application is set (step 3). The display image size may be a predetermined size that is determined in advance by a user setting, or may be set based on the default image size of the moving image data. When the display image size is set, the moving image data is reproduced (step 4). When the moving image data is reproduced, the user can change the display image size by operating the moving image reproduction application. When the moving image data is reproduced, it is first determined whether or not the display image size is a full screen size (step 5). When the display image size is not the full screen size (No in step 5), it is determined whether or not the display image size is equal to or larger than the image size (step 6). If the display image size is smaller than the image size (No in step 6), the moving image data to be reproduced is displayed on the display device 27 without performing any special processing. When the display image size is the full screen size (Yes in Step 5), when the display image size is equal to or larger than the image size (Yes in Step 6), it is determined whether or not the moving image reproduction application is selected (Step 7). . When the display image size is a full screen size (Yes in Step 5), when the image size is equal to or smaller than the display image size (Yes in Step 6), and when the user preferentially uses the video playback application (Yes in step 7), since the image quality improvement process is effective for the user, the image quality improvement process is performed (step 8). Even when a user is playing a video with a video playback application, the priority of the video playback application is considered to be low when using a document creation application or the like over the video playback application. It is not necessary to perform the image quality enhancement process. That is, when the moving image playback application is not selected as the main application, the load on the CPU can be reduced by not performing the image quality enhancement process.

  When the user preferentially uses the video playback application (Yes in step 7), the image quality enhancement processing is performed (step 8), and the video to be played back is displayed on the display device 27 (step 9). On the other hand, when the video playback application is not selected as the main application and the priority of the video playback application is low (No in step 7), the video data is displayed as it is without performing the image quality enhancement processing (step 9). .

  As described above, when it is necessary to improve the image quality without changing the setting by the user, the processing can be automatically enabled. Also, when the effect of high image quality cannot be recognized visually or when the priority of other work performed in parallel is high, the load on the CPU is reduced by disabling the high image quality processing. can do.

  When the present invention is implemented, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus and a moving image reproduction method capable of controlling the image quality enhancement processing according to the reproduction state of the moving image.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment as long as it does not depart from the gist of the present invention, and various modifications are possible.

1 is an external perspective view showing a notebook computer 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of the information processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the image quality improvement processing function of the information processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the moving image reproduction application of the information processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the state which displayed the moving image by the full screen by the moving image reproduction application. The figure which shows the other moving image display state by a moving image reproduction application. The schematic diagram which shows the display state in the case of using a moving image reproduction application with another application. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation of high image quality processing of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Notebook computer, 2 ... Main body, 3 ... Display unit, 5 ... Touch pad, 7 ... Keyboard, 10 ... CPU, 11 ... North bridge, 12 ... RAM, 13 ... GPU, 14 ... VideoRAM, 16 ... South bridge, 17 ... HDD, 18 ... ROMDrive, 19 ... EC / KBC, 20 ... storage device, 21 ... image decoding unit, 22 ... high image quality processing unit, 23 ... display information acquisition unit, 24 ... image information acquisition, 25 ... high Image quality determination unit, 26 ... display processing unit, 27 ... display device

Claims (8)

A first application for playing back video data;
A second application different from the first application;
When the first application is executed and the second application is not executed , the moving image data is subjected to high image quality processing, and the second application is executed and the first application is executed. Is not executed, the image quality enhancement processing of the moving image data is limited, and when both the first and second applications are executed, the first application is preferentially used. Image quality control means for performing high image quality processing of the moving image data and limiting the high image quality processing of the moving image data when the second application is preferentially used;
An information processing apparatus comprising: The image quality control means limits the image quality enhancement processing of the moving image data when the second application is used above the first application on a display screen. 1. An information processing apparatus according to 1.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the process by the execution of the second application is a document creation process.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second application is a document creation application.   5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the process by the execution of the first application is a moving image reproduction process. 6.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first application is a moving image reproduction application. Executing any one of a first application for reproducing moving image data and a second application different from the first application;
When the first application is executed and the second application is not executed , the moving image data is subjected to high image quality processing, and the second application is executed and the first application is executed. Is not executed, the image quality enhancement processing of the moving image data is limited, and when both the first and second applications are executed, the first application is preferentially used. Performing a high image quality processing of the video data, and restricting the high image quality processing of the video data when the second application is preferentially used;
A video playback method comprising: Executing any one of a first application for reproducing moving image data and a second application different from the first application;
When the first application is executed and the second application is not executed , the moving image data is subjected to high image quality processing, and the second application is executed and the first application is executed. Is not executed, the image quality enhancement processing of the moving image data is limited, and when both the first and second applications are executed, the first application is preferentially used. Performing a high image quality processing of the video data, and restricting the high image quality processing of the video data when the second application is preferentially used;
A program that causes a computer to execute.

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