JPH0522692A - Video printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To clearly print the conventional printing size with the same size by sampling and recording only the central part of an effective screen at the fixed rate to a memory at the time of recording plural screens. CONSTITUTION:The printer has memories 5A-5C to integrally record the video image of one screen and plural reduced screens, and is equipped with a memory control circuit which is a means to sample and record with a rate based on the prescribed reduction ratio only the central part of the effective screen of the individual video image of plural screens to the memories 5A-5C when plural screens are recorded, a Y memory 5A, an R-Y memory 5B, a B-Y memory 5C, a main CPU 6 and a printing part 22. When plural screens are recorded and printed to the memories 5A-5C, only the central part of the individual video screen is sampled and recorded with the rate based on the prescribed reduction factor to the memories 5A-5C. Only the main part of the video screen can be expanded and printed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video printer, and more particularly to recording an input video signal in a memory,
The present invention relates to a video printer capable of printing an image by recording it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A video printer usually has an image memory for recording a video signal, and a moving image such as a video movie can be recorded as a still image and printed according to a customer's request. In addition, such a video printer can record a plurality of screens in an image memory and can obtain a reduced print of a plurality of screens on one print sheet (hereinafter referred to as a multi-screen). FIG. 4A schematically shows an example of one normal screen OP, and FIGS. 4B and 4C schematically show an example of four screens and 25 screens by the multi-screen PP. Here, S indicates print paper. This multi-screen is for when you want to get a combined photo effect, or when you want to print a series of moving images side by side (eg golf swing).
In the case of 25 screens, it is particularly effective when the input source is a still video camera (SV camera).

A still video floppy (SV floppy) in a memory for recording images taken by an SV camera.
It is possible to record 25 screens for frame images and 50 screens for field images. Therefore, when 25-screen print is used, one SV floppy can record one print record in the case of a frame image, and two print records can be recorded in the case of a field image. Incidentally, in general, this is used as an index print for confirming what image is recorded on the SV floppy.

On the other hand, at present, the size of print paper used in home video printers is generally about A6 size or postcard size, and NTSC (National Telephone) is used for such print paper.
In the case of a vision system committee signal, a print of about 640 × 480 dots is 5 dots.
Printing is performed at a dot pitch of / mm to 6 dot / mm. The reason why the print is comparatively small is as follows.

(1) A print size as large as the service size of silver halide photography can be obtained.

(2) When the print size is larger than this, the image quality is not satisfactory due to lack of information amount of the video signal, noise of the video signal and the like.

(3) Increasing the print size increases the size of the print head in the case of the sublimation type thermal transfer system, resulting in an increase in cost. It also leads to higher mechanical costs.

[0008]

However, when one screen is formed with 640 × 480 dots, when 25 screens are formed, 128 × 96 dots, which is ⅕ of that, is the dot size for one screen. That is, the print size is 6
At a dot / mm pitch, the size is 21 × 16 mm, which is quite small, and an image is recorded in such a small print area at a sampling rate of ⅕ for sampling one screen. This results in image ambiguity.

The object of the present invention is to solve the ambiguity caused by the reduction of each screen in the multi-screen in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and to solve the problems, the size is the same as the conventional print size. An object of the present invention is to provide a video printer capable of obtaining clear prints individually.

[0010]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention comprises a memory for recording video images,
In a video printer capable of recording one screen of a video image and a plurality of reduced screens of the video image in the memory and capable of printing the same, when recording the plurality of screens, the video image is stored in the memory. Of the effective screen is sampled and recorded at a rate based on a predetermined reduction rate.

[0011]

According to the present invention, when recording and printing a plurality of screens in a memory, only the central portion of each video screen can be sampled and recorded in the memory at a rate based on a predetermined reduction ratio. Therefore, substantially only the main part of the video screen can be printed in an enlarged form as compared with the related art, so that the viewer can be provided with a clear screen.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

First, referring to FIG. 1, in the case of 25 screens according to the present invention, the sampling range is 80% (640
An example is shown in which 512 × 384 dots are set to × 480 dots) and the reduction ratio is changed from ⅕ to ¼. Here, OP shown in (A) is an original drawing when one screen is printed, of which a central partial view CP surrounded by a broken line is sampled as will be described later, and one frame PP of 25 screens is shown as shown in (B). Is recorded and printed. In this way, the conventional reduction ratio of 1/5 is 1
By setting / 4, the clarity of the image can be improved. In this case, the peripheral part of the image will be cut, but in general, the photographer of the image shoots with what he / she wants to take in the center, and cutting the peripheral part is considered to be less important. You may. Rather, it is considered more effective and appropriate to print a larger image of the central portion to be viewed. In particular, as described above, in the case of using as an index print of the SV camera, it is important to be able to more easily recognize what is recorded on the SV floppy, and from this point also, the multi-screen of the present invention can be displayed. The record is valid.

Next, the configuration and a specific example of image formation will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the construction of a sublimation type thermal transfer type video printer. Here, two systems of a composite video signal and an S video signal are used as the input video signal,
The composite video signal is Y in the comb filter circuit 1.
It is separated into (luminance signal) and C (color signal). Then, by further input selection, Y and C of the composite video signal
Or Y and C of S video is selected, and the color signal C is further converted by the decoder circuit 2 into color difference signals of RY and BY. Thus, these signals Y and RY,
BY is A / D converted by the A / D converter 3 and input to the memory control circuit 4. Then, when the user presses the memory SW on the panel 11, these are turned on via the memory control circuit 4 and the Y memory 5A,
It is recorded in the RY memory 5B and the BY memory 5C, respectively. In this example, 1/4/2 from the main CPU 6
It is recorded in each memory in accordance with a setting signal for 5 screens and a recording position designation signal for 4 or 25 screens. In the present embodiment, sampling as described below is performed for 25 screens. It is a thing.

That is, FIG. 3A shows a state in which the dot area in the case of one screen and the dot area in the case of 25 screen are overlapped. At the time of one screen, sampling is performed on an area of 640 × 480 dots, which is within the effective range of the video image (illustrated by ◯). In addition, here, in the case of 25 screens, the 512 ×
384 is the sampling range. Then, among the sampling pixels, only the pixels thinned to 1/4 as shown by the black circles are taken into the memories 5A to 5C. At this time,
As the A / D-converted video signal, the odd-numbered fields are output first, and then the even-numbered fields are alternately and continuously output, but only one-fourth is skipped, so one of the fields is discarded. It is enough to capture pixels from only the other field. In FIG. 3A, only one of the fields is shown. Therefore, in the vertical direction, 192 dots out of 240 dots are in the sampling range, and within this range 1 /
Only the dots (black circles) thinned to 2 are taken into the memory. Thus, as a result, as shown in FIG. 3B, a pixel of 128 × 96 dots becomes the main CPU.
It is taken into the memory position according to the recording position designation from 6, and the following operations are all performed by the memory control circuit 3.

Then, in this way, the memories 5A to 5C are
Whether the image stored in the monitor is output to the TV monitor or the input video signal is output to the TV monitor is selected by the operation of the panel SW11, and the main CPU 6 causes the memory control circuit 3 to select one of them. Is specified. When outputting the input video signal, the memory control circuit 3 simply sends the A / D pixel data to the D / A converter 7 as it is. In this way, two color difference signals R- out of the respective D / A converted signals.
Y and BY are combined into a color signal C by the encoder circuit 8,
It is output as S-video. The signals Y and C are Y,
C, MIX circuit 9 produces a composite video signal, and T
Output to V monitor.

The signal D / A converted by the D / A converter 7 is guided to the RGB matrix circuit 10 on the one hand, where it is combined into the three primary color signals of R, G and B. When a print SW (not shown) is pressed on the panel SW11, the printer starts a printing operation, and in the case of a sublimation type thermal transfer type printer, printing is sequentially performed in the order of yellow, magenta, and cyan. To this end, first of all R, G and B, B which is the complementary color of yellow is selected by the switch circuit 12 and A / D converted by the A / D converter 13. The A / D converted B data is stored in the line memory 15 via the line memory control circuit 14. When one line of printing is accumulated, the line memory control circuit 14 sequentially reads pixel data of one line, and accesses the gradation conversion ROM 17 via the data ROM control circuit 16. Since the gradation conversion ROM 17 stores a table for converting B data into yellow, it is converted into yellow data by its lookup. Next, the pulse width conversion ROM 18 is accessed to set time data for applying a constant voltage to the head 20. In the case of sublimation type thermal transfer, a constant density cannot be maintained unless the applied pulse time is made variable depending on the current temperature of the head 20. Therefore,
The head temperature data is also added to the address of the pulse width conversion ROM 18 to determine the pulse time.

By the yellow data signal which becomes the pulse width data in this way, each element of the head 20 is heated through the head driver 19 and yellow printing is performed. This is done for all lines, and when it is completed, the yellow printing is completed. Then, the print sheet (not shown) is returned to the initial position again, the ink sheet is fed, and the next magenta ink sheet is cued. Then, as before, magenta printing is performed with the G signal, and cyan printing is performed with the R signal. In FIG. 2, 21
Is a mechanical drive unit (hereinafter referred to as a mechanical unit) that constitutes the print unit 22 surrounded by a broken line, 23 is a driver of the mechanical unit 21, 24 is a ROM or RAM, and is connected to the main CPU 6. It is a mechanical control CPU for controlling the mechanical unit 21 of the print unit 22 originally.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is an object to alleviate the ambiguity of an image due to the reduction of individual images on a multi-screen. At times, only the central portion of the effective screen of the video image is sampled and recorded in the memory at a rate based on a predetermined reduction ratio, which enables the same size as the conventional print size and clearer print. Became.

Therefore, for example, in the case of 25 screens, assuming that the sampling range is 80% (512 × 384 with respect to 640 × 480) of one screen, and the reduction ratio is 1/4, it is 1/5 that of the conventional case. Although the reduction ratio of
Therefore, the clarity of the image can be improved. As a result, the peripheral portion of the image is cut, but in general, the photographer of the image shoots the object he wants to take in the center, and it is considered that the cutting of the peripheral portion is of low importance. .. Rather, it is more effective to print a larger image in the center part that you want to see. In particular, as described above, it is important to be able to recognize what is recorded on the SV floppy, in order to use the multi-screen as the index print of the SV camera.
The multi-screen recording according to the present invention can be effectively used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of recording and printing of a multi-screen according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the video printer of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of sampling during multi-screen recording according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing a conventional one-screen and multi-screen output side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 memory control circuit 5A to 5C memory 6 main CPU 11 panel SW 20 head 22 print unit

Claims (1)

Claim: What is claimed is: 1. A memory for recording a video image, the memory being capable of recording one screen of the video image and a plurality of reduced screens of the video image, and printing the same. When recording the plurality of screens, a video printer capable of performing recording is provided with means for sampling and recording only the central portion of the effective screen of the video image in the memory at a rate based on a predetermined reduction ratio. A video printer.