JPH02237380A - Video tape recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the reproduction and recording in the different television standard system by providing a circuit with a conversion circuit built therein, switching the connection with a servo system and a video signal processing system effectively, designating a desired country on the world map and selecting the TV system corresponding to the country automatically. CONSTITUTION:A servo system 9 able to record or reproduce plural television standard system signals, video signal processing systems 6, 11 and a system conversion circuit 5 are provided to the tape recorder. Moreover, the tape recorder has the mode in which the input television standard system signal is converted into other television standard system signal and recorded, or the reproduced television standard system signal is converted into the other television standard system signal and outputted. Then the conversion of a system conversion circuit 5 is controlled based on the output of a system selection circuit 31 selecting the television standard system corresponding to the designation of an object country from a switch panel 10 on which the world map is displayed. Thus, the signal with the different standard system is recorded or outputted by having only to designate the desired country on the switch panel 10 on which the world map is drawn.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention is used in a video tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as a VTR) for recording or reproducing video signals, by converting between different television standard systems and converting between different television standard systems. The present invention relates to a video tape recorder capable of creating a standard television recording tape and outputting a desired television standard format signal.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Television standard systems in various countries around the world are not unified, and several types of signal formats are used. Typical television standard systems are NTSC, PAL, and SEC.
It is well known that there are three types of AM systems, as well as systems that are slightly modified. Three typical video signal formats are as follows. NTSC is interlaced scanning at 30 frames per second (field frequency 6
0 cycle), the number of frame scanning lines is 525, and the carrier frequency of the color signal is 3,579 MHz.The PAL system is basically interlaced scanning at 25 frames per second (field frequency: 50 cycles), the number of frame scanning lines is 625, and the color signal is 3,579 MHz. The basic carrier frequency is 4,433MHz,
The SECAM system is almost the same as the PAL system except that the color signal is transmitted as two color difference signals line-sequentially and by frequency modulation.

Now, home VTRs are generally designed and shipped to conform to the television standard system of the consumer country.For example, in Japan and the United States, they are compatible with NTSC signals, and the rotation frequency of the rotating head is changed to the field frequency. 60Hz, and one track has a signal of 26.58 Hz for one field.
(H indicates 1 line) and the color signal is 3.5
It is configured so that a 79 MHz carrier color signal is low frequency converted to 629 KHz and then recorded. Also, Germany, China, etc.
For the L area, the rotation frequency of the rotary head is set to 50 Hz L to match the PAL signal, and the 11 rack is set to 31
Recorded 2.5H worth of signal, color signal was 4.433M
It is configured to convert Hz to 627KHz.

Furthermore, in order to make it compatible with the SECAM system, the French models are configured to record frequency-modulated color signals by converting the frequency to a lower frequency range or counting down (dividing the frequency). The reproduced output signal is also configured to be output in the same signal format as the television receivers of each country conform to the television standard system adopted in each country.

However, in some regions in Europe where both PAL and SECAM can be received, and in regions such as the Middle East and Southeast Asia where sources of multiple standards coexist, VTRs compatible with multiple television standards are being shipped. .

In this way, home VTRs are designed and sold to be compatible with the television standards of the region, so for example, VTRs commonly sold in Japan can
Trying to play back a tape recorded in the L format,
It was impossible to play back tapes recorded in Germany in the NTSC format. In addition, VTRs that support multiple television standard formats, such as those used in the Middle East, may be able to play back and view tapes recorded in multiple formats, but some standard formats, such as recording NTSC sources in PAL format, can be played back and viewed. It was impossible to convert and record to this format.

Problems that inventions aim to solve Recently, there has been a trend towards the centralization of information around the world, and there is a growing need to freely exchange images internationally. As mentioned above, it must be said that current home VTRs are insufficient to meet these needs. Furthermore, the N.T.S.
C. The names of television standard systems such as PAL and SECAM are not familiar to general users, and it is common for them to have no knowledge of which systems are used in which countries, so operators are required to specify the desired television system. That is not appropriate.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention incorporates a conversion circuit in a VTR to convert between signals of different television standard formats, effectively switches connections with a servo system and a video signal processing system, and makes it easy for users to become familiar with the system. By installing a circuit that allows you to specify a desired country on a modern world map and automatically select the corresponding system, it is possible to play back tapes recorded using a television standard system different from that of your home country, or To provide a video tape recorder that allows users from all walks of life to easily record in different standard formats.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the video tape recorder of the present invention includes a servo system and a video signal processing system capable of recording or reproducing a plurality of television standard format signals.
and a mode converting circuit that converts one television standard format signal to another television standard format signal, and converts the input television standard format signal to another television standard format signal and records it. This includes a mode in which the reproduced television standard signal is converted to another television standard signal and output, and the corresponding television standard system is determined by a switch panel displaying a world map and target country instructions from the switch panel. The system is equipped with a system selection circuit for selecting a system, and is configured to control the conversion operation of the system conversion circuit based on the output of the system selection circuit.

Operation The present invention is configured as described above so that when an operator specifies a desired country on a switch panel on which a world map is drawn, a corresponding conversion operation is performed, thereby converting signals of different standard formats. It allows you to record and output signals of different standard formats, and even without knowledge of television standard formats, you can use simple operations to create recording tapes in formats other than your own country's standard formats, or to record tapes recorded in other countries. This makes it possible to watch the playback on a TV receiver in one's own country, and to unify international video information via a VTR.

Embodiment Below, a video tape recorder according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the video tape recorder of the present invention.

(a) is a recording system, 1 is an antenna terminal, 2 is a tuner, 3 is a video input terminal, 4 is an input selector switch, 5
1 is a system conversion circuit, 10 is a target country switch panel operated by the user, and 31 is a system selection circuit for selecting a television standard system according to the target country. 6 is a recording processing system of the VTR, 7 is a video output terminal, 8 is a rotary head, and 9 is a servo system. Further, 35 is an RF converter whose output is connected to a terminal 36 as an RF output. (b) shows a reproduction system, in which a reproduction processing system 11 is arranged between the rotary head 8 and the format conversion circuit 5.

The operation of the video tape recorder configured as above will be explained. Assuming that this video tape recorder is used in Japan, the operation of the recording system in (a) will first be explained. The TV radio waves input from antenna terminal 1 are tuned by tuner 2 and demodulated into so-called NTSC.
T of input selector switch 4 as a composite signal of the method
Appears at the V terminal. Assuming that a television signal is selected by the input changeover switch 4, this NTSC signal is applied to the format conversion circuit 5. The system conversion circuit 5 is a circuit that realizes mutual conversion between standard television systems based on the output of the system selection circuit 31. For example, the system selection circuit 31
If C is selected, the input to the format conversion circuit 5 is an NTSC signal, so the format conversion circuit 5 enters a passing state and outputs the NTSC signal as it is. Then, a command to output an NTSC signal is transmitted to the servo system 9 and the recording processing system 6. Therefore, the servo system 9 is NTSC
Control signals are supplied to a capstan motor for recording signals, a cylinder equipped with a rotating head, and a control head for recording control signals. Further, the recording processing system 6 receives the NTSC signal and performs appropriate processing such as emphasis and frequency modulation in order to record it with the rotary head 8. At this time, the NTSC signal, which is the input of the format conversion circuit 5, is output to the video output terminal 7. Further, an RF signal obtained by converting this NTSC signal by an RF converter 35 is output to a terminal 36. When the system selection circuit 31 selects NTSC in this way, the conventional Japanese domestic V
It works exactly the same as TR.

Next, when the system selection circuit 31 selects the PAL system, the system conversion circuit 5 converts the input NTSC signal into the PAL system.
The servo system 9 and the recording processing system 6 are converted into signals, and the servo system 9 and the recording processing system 6 are
Operates to record AL signals. Therefore, the NT input to antenna terminal 1 and tuned and demodulated by the tuner
The SC signal is recorded on the magnetic tape by the rotary head 8 in PAL signal format. At this time, the NTSC signal before conversion is output to the video output terminal 7, and can be monitored with a normal NTSC receiver in Japan. As described above, it is possible to create a recording tape in the PAL system, which is different from the NTSC television standard system that is being broadcast.

Further, when the input selector switch 4 selects a video signal, the signal applied to the video input terminal 3, for example, a playback signal from another VTR, can be converted into a PAL signal by the format conversion circuit 5 and recorded. As a result, video information recorded in the NTSC system can be dubbed in the PAL system.

In the above description, the system selection circuit 31 for selecting the television system is driven by a command from the target country switch panel 10. That is, if the user operates a switch with the country name rUSA on the target country switch panel 10, the system selection circuit 31 automatically selects NTSC based on the switch, and if the user operates a switch with another country name ``West Germany'', the system selection circuit 31 automatically selects NTSC. 31 automatically selects PAT-. The target country switch panel 10 is lined with matrix switches displaying a world map, and the user only has to operate the switch to select the country he/she should select. It does not require any knowledge of whether the Therefore, users can easily select the television standard system of their desired country. The advantage of using a world map display here is that it is easier to understand the operating parts than simply displaying country names.

In the above explanation, conversion from the NTSC system to the PAL system has been explained, but the reverse and conversion between other systems including the SECAM system can also be easily realized with this configuration.

The operation of the reproduction system in (b) is as follows.

Assuming that a tape recorded in the PAL system is played on this VTR, the signal is picked up by the rotary head 8, processed by the playback processing system 11 such as de-emphasis and FM demodulation, and the output is PAL. The signal is played. In this case, it is automatically determined which television standard format the recorded signal is based on, for example, by measuring the field frequency. A control command based on the determination result is given to the reproduction processing system 11 and the servo system 9. Now, the TV receivers in Japan are NT.
Since it is compatible with the SC system, even if this reproduced PAL signal is input as is into an NTSC TV receiver, it will not produce a normal image; either no image will appear, or even if it does, it will be a very unsightly image. . Therefore, if you operate 'Japan' on the target country switch panel 10, the method selection circuit 3
1 selects the NTSC system, and the command is transmitted to the system conversion circuit 5, which converts the reproduced PAL signal given to its input into an NTSC signal and outputs it to the video output terminal 7. As a result, if the video output terminal is connected to the video input terminal of an NTSC receiver, the image can be viewed as a normal image. Also, the RF output is at terminal 3.
6, it can also be viewed by connecting it to the antenna terminal of an NTSC receiver. In other words, it is possible to properly monitor a tape recorded in the PAL system using an NTSC receiver.

Of course, conversion between NTSC and other television standards, including PAL or SECAM, is easily accomplished.

FIG. 2 is an example of the switch panel 10 shown in FIG. 1, in which a world map is drawn and the major countries are shown on a matrix with the country names indicated by leading lines. A touch switch is placed below this country name, and the structure is such that it can detect which country name the operator pressed.

Since a world map is displayed on the switch panel 10, when the operator selects a desired country, the user can quickly and easily locate the desired country, compared to a case where only the country name is displayed. You can make the panel even more visual by displaying the national flag instead of the country name.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the system conversion circuit 5 in FIG. 1. The composite video symbol applied to the input terminal 12 is separated into a luminance signal and a chrominance signal by a Y-C separation circuit 13, the luminance signal is digitized by an AD converter 14 and applied to a memory 20, and the chrominance signal is digitized by a decoder 15. The signals are demodulated in accordance with NTSC, PAL, SECAM, and other systems to become color difference signals, which are digitized by the AD converter 16 and applied to the memory 20. memory 20
is a digital memory in units of fields, which is controlled by a memory control circuit 21, and whose write clock is input from an input signal to a low-pass filter 17.
, a clock generated by a clock generator 19 based on a synchronization signal obtained by a synchronization separation circuit 18 is used. A read clock is also provided from a clock generator 22. Among the digital signals that have undergone format conversion processing in the memory 20, the luminance signal is returned to analog by the DA converter 23, and the color difference signal is returned to analog by the DA converter 24, and then converted to each television such as NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc. by the encoder 25. It is modulated into a carrier color signal that conforms to a standard system. A mixer 26 mixes the luminance signal with the carrier chrominance signal and outputs a composite 1 signal to an output terminal 27 which has undergone format conversion.

The system conversion operation is performed as follows. Now, NTSC
Consider the conversion from P A L to P A L. In NTSC, the field frequency is 60Hz and the number of scanning lines in one field is 52.
5/2, and P A L is 50Hz, respectively.
Since the number of lines is 625/2, it is necessary to convert the field frequency and the number of scanning lines. So 1 in memory 20
The structure is such that a field's worth of signals is written at a predetermined clock and stored in memory, and read out at a clock independent of the writing. Then, the memory control circuit 21
If the conversion command from TSC to PAL is <<, then 60 fields of NTSC will be
In L, it is read as 50 fields. In other words, this can be achieved by controlling the memory to skip at a rate of one field for every six fields. Also, the conversion of the number of scanning lines is 5
Since it is necessary to change the 2 5/2 lines to 6 2 5/2 lines, this can be achieved by using the line memory in the memory 20 to interpolate from the previous and next scanning line information and inserting the new scanning line information. . Such control is performed by the memory control 21.
This is done by selecting or calculating information in the memory using control signals from the memory.

Conversely, in conversion from PAL to NTSC, field frequency conversion is performed by reading one field twice at a rate of once every six fields, and conversion of the number of scanning lines can be realized by thinning out or calculating the scanning line information.

In addition, in the SECAM method, the field frequency and the number of scanning lines are P.
This method is the same as the AL method, except that the color signal undergoes FM modulation and is multiplexed sequentially, so it can be realized by processing the color signal taking this point into account.

It can be easily inferred that, in addition to the method explained in FIG. 3, more advanced format conversion can be realized by adding memory and performing interpolation between fields and frames.

FIG. 4 is a professional diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. The selection circuit 31 is configured so that it can be shared between the recording and playback systems, the recording/playback processing circuit 28 is also generally realized by switching internal circuits, so it is configured that way, and the tuner/RF converter The difference is that it has been removed and only has video input/output terminals. The recording/playback switching switch (R/P switching) is configured to switch the processing of the recording/playback processing circuit 28 and also switch the input to the format conversion circuit 5 and the output to the video output terminal, as described in FIG. Similarly, it realizes recording and playback of different television standard formats.

FIG. 5 shows the target country operation switch panel 10 in the present invention.
This is a specific circuit example of the method selection circuit 31, and the target country operation switch panel 10 surrounded by a broken line frame has a plurality of switches at b, C+, g, h corresponding to each country arranged. Countries with the same television standard system are grouped together and are called NAND gates (or OR gates) 32,3
3.34 has been entered.

For example, if you close switch b corresponding to “Japan”, NA
The output of the ND gate 32 becomes a high level lH1, which means that the system selection switch has selected NTSC. Similarly, switches d, e, and f in countries that adopt the PAL system are N
The signals are input to an AND gate 33, and switches g and h of countries adopting the SECAM system are input to a NAND gate 34. With such a simple configuration, even if the user has no knowledge of television standard formats, the user can select a format by simply indicating the name of a country on a world map.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention provides a video tape recorder with a servo system and a video signal processing system capable of recording or reproducing a plurality of television standard format signals, and a video tape recorder that is capable of recording or reproducing a plurality of television standard format signals. It is equipped with a format conversion circuit that converts the input television standard format signal into another television standard format signal and records it, or converts the reproduced television standard format signal into another television standard format signal. It includes a mode for converting to a standard format signal and outputting it, and is equipped with a format selection circuit that automatically selects the corresponding television standard format by specifying a desired country using a switch panel displaying a world map. This allows you to record domestic television broadcasts in Japan in PAL format and send it to a friend in a PAL area in Europe, or to take home video software from Europe and watch it on a Japanese TV using simple and easy-to-understand operations. It can be used in a variety of ways, such as dubbing a movie of your family's current situation onto a PAL tape and sending it to a family member staying in Europe.

Also, the video person who removed the tuner/RF converter/
If it is applied to a video tape recorder with an output terminal, it can be used in any country in the world, so if one model is produced, it can be supplied all over the world, making a major contribution to the standardization of design and production. .

As described above, the present invention is capable of unifying video information by using a VTR to break through the barriers imposed by television standards throughout the world, and has the extremely large effect of further expanding the use of video tape recorders as video information means. It is.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of a target country switch panel used in the invention, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a system conversion circuit used in the invention. , FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing a specific example of the configuration of a method selection circuit used in the present invention. 2...Tuner, 3...Video input terminal, 4...Input selection switch, 5...
System conversion circuit, 6... Recording processing system, 7...
・・Video output terminal, 8・・Rotating head, 9・
... Servo system, 10 ... Target country switch panel, 11 ... Regeneration processing system, 20 ...
・Memory, 21...Memory control circuit,
19, 22... Clock generator, 31...
...Method selection circuit, 32, 33.34...NA
ND gate, 35...RF converter, 36.
...RF output terminal. Name of agent Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano and one other person Procedural amendment (method) Person amending the name of invention videotape recorder in 1999 Address related to the case Name of representative Patent Applicant Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka (582) Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Akio Tanii 4 Agent Address: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture 571

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A video tape recorder that handles multiple television standard formats, is equipped with a servo system and a video signal processing system that can record or reproduce at least multiple standard format signals, and is capable of handling one television standard format signal. A mode in which the input television standard format signal is converted into another television standard format signal for recording or a reproduced television standard format signal. Including a mode that converts and outputs to other television standard format signals,
It is equipped with a switch panel displaying a world map and a system selection circuit that selects the corresponding television standard system based on the target country instruction from the switch panel, and controls the conversion operation of the system conversion circuit based on the output of the system selection circuit. A video tape recorder characterized in that it is configured to. (2) The video tape recorder according to claim 1, wherein the switch panel displaying the world map also displays a country name or a national flag.