JPH06324819A - Recording/reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To constitute the device so that each data of an image and a voice can be retrieved easily and effeciently, and also, the data can be edited simply. CONSTITUTION:Each data of an image and a voice, and ID data for data retrieval are synthesized to a prescribed storage unit by a data synthesizing circuit 13 and recorded in a main memory 18 consisting of a solid-state storage element, and also, a retrieval file corresponding to the ID data is generated, and at the time of retrieval, each data of an image and a voice is read out of the main memory 18 and reproduced by using this file, by which the retrieval can be executed in a short perid, for instance, without executing fast forwarding and rewinding of a recording medium such as a conventional VTR. Also, at the time of editing, data to be deleted is set as a logically erased state on the main memory 18, so that this logically erased data can be returned easily, and covenience for data editing is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing video information and audio information, and in particular,
It is suitable for use in a recording / reproducing apparatus that performs retrieval and reproduction of the above-mentioned video information and audio information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when recording / reproducing a moving image signal, a so-called VTR (video tape recorder), which uses a magnetic tape having a tape width of 1/2 inch or 8 mm, is generally used as a recording medium. Met.

The VTR records / reproduces video information of one field on one track on a magnetic tape wound on a rotary drum by a rotary head provided on the rotary drum. When performing a video search, that is, a so-called cue, with such a VTR, the recorded video information is recorded by using functions such as fast-forwarding using a cueing index signal of a video scene, rewinding control, and special playback. I try to search while actually playing.

[0004]

However, when the conventional VTR is used for searching, since the video signal is recorded on the tape-shaped recording medium, it takes time to transfer the tape to search for the target video. It was necessary, and searching sometimes required a great deal of time and effort.

Further, during the search operation, the rotary head always traces the magnetic tape on which information is recorded while hitting it, so that the reliability or reliability of the recorded information is affected by wear or damage of the magnetic tape. was there.

Further, in the case where the VTR is of a recording system using an analog signal, there is a problem that when the retrieved information is copied (copied) to another medium, image quality deterioration due to so-called dubbing occurs.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and it is possible to easily and efficiently retrieve information, prevent the deterioration of the reliability of reproduced data, and further, to record. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording / reproducing apparatus that can easily edit the above information.

[0008]

The recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention configures a predetermined storage unit by associating video information, audio information, and search information for searching these two pieces of information with each other. Recording means for sequentially recording units in the solid-state storage element and a video signal by reading out the video information and the audio information from the solid-state storage element based on the search information when searching the information recorded in the solid-state storage element. And a reproducing means for reproducing an audio signal.

Another feature of the present invention is that a logical erased state is set at the time of editing the information recorded in the solid-state memory element, and the information to be deleted is kept in the logical erased state on the solid-state memory element. By doing so, before completely erasing information from the solid-state memory element,
It is possible to return whenever necessary.

The video information and the audio information may be variable-length information generated by variable-length coding by a data compression process, and the search information may be fixed-length information.

Address information indicating the recording position of the information of the storage unit to be reproduced next to the information of the storage unit currently reproduced by the reproducing means may be provided as one of the search information. Good.

Furthermore, the search information is grouped into predetermined units and managed, and at the time of editing the information recorded in the solid-state storage element, the information to be deleted is collectively set for each group. You may

[0013]

According to the present invention configured as described above, at the time of reproduction, the video information and the audio information recorded in the solid-state storage element for each predetermined storage unit become the search information for searching these two pieces of information. Based on this, it is searched and reproduced by address management of the solid-state storage element, and information can be easily searched for in a short time without performing fast-forwarding or rewinding of a tape-shaped recording medium as in the past. It becomes possible to do.

In particular, by making the search information for searching the variable length video information and audio information fixed length, it becomes possible to reduce the amount of data and efficiently use the limited storage area. .

In addition, when the information is edited, before the information to be deleted is completely erased from the solid-state memory element by physical erasing, a logical erasable state that can be restored by a predetermined operation is set to set the solid-state memory element. By setting the logically erased state above, the setting of the logically erased state can be canceled if necessary, and this information can be easily restored.

Furthermore, since the address information indicating the recording position of the information to be reproduced next is provided as one of the search information, each of the video and audio information is searched and reproduced based on this address information. Therefore, it is guaranteed that the information recorded at the spatially separated positions can be continuously reproduced by connecting them without mistake. Therefore, at the time of editing information, even if the recording time of the information to be newly inserted and the recording time of the information to be deleted do not coincide with each other, it is practical to exchange and record them. It becomes possible.

When the setting of the information to be deleted at the time of editing the information as described above is collectively performed for each group in which the search information is grouped by a predetermined unit, the setting of the information to be deleted is desired. This is done only by specifying the group of, and this makes it possible to edit the information with a simple operation.

[0018]

1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 1 and 2 denote input terminals for left (L) channel and right (R) channel audio signals (audio signals), 3 denotes input terminals for video signals (video signals), and 4 and 5 respectively denote left channels. And an AD converter 6 for converting the audio signal of the right channel into a digital signal, and 6 is an AD converter for converting the video signal into a digital signal.

Reference numerals 7 and 8 denote audio signal processing circuits for performing predetermined processing on the left channel and right channel digital audio signals respectively. Reference numeral 9 denotes a video signal processing circuit for performing predetermined processing on digital video signals. 10 is an audio signal processing circuit. An audio data compression circuit for compressing the left channel and right channel audio data processed by 7 and 8, and a video data compression circuit 11 for compressing the video data processed by the video signal processing circuit 9.

Next, reference numeral 12 denotes search information (ID) for data search based on time code, memory information, etc. described later.
An ID generating circuit for creating data), and 13 for an ID based on the compressed audio data, the compressed video data and the ID data.
A data synthesis circuit that creates a data block for each data,
Reference numeral 18 denotes a main memory as a recording medium for recording data blocks, which is composed of a solid-state storage element.

Next, 17 is a memory controller for controlling the reading / writing of the main memory 18, 16 is a system controller for controlling the memory controller 17 and the entire device, and 14 is a year / month / day / hour / minute / second. A calendar clock generation circuit for generating the time code of 15; a memory information generation circuit for generating memory information indicating the amount of information stored in the main memory 18; 19 an operation key operated by a user; It is a display device that displays necessary information such as the operation mode of the device.

Next, 21 is a data distribution circuit for distributing the data block read from the main memory 18 to ID data, video data and audio data, and 22 is a retrieval information reproduction circuit for reproducing the ID data from the distributed data. , 23 is a display information generating circuit for generating display information from ID data, 24 is a video data expanding circuit for expanding the distributed compressed video data, and 25 is audio data expanding for expanding the distributed compressed audio data. circuit,
Reference numeral 26 is a data selection circuit for synchronously selecting the expanded video data and audio data.

Next, 27 is an adder for adding the display information generated by the display information generating circuit 23 and the video data selected by the data selecting circuit 26, 28 is a DA converter for converting the added output into an analog signal, Reference numeral 30 is a video monitor for monitoring the video signal, 29 is a DA converter for converting the audio data selected by the data selection circuit 26 into an analog signal, 31 is an audio monitor for monitoring the audio signal, 3
Reference numeral 2 is an output terminal for video data, and 33 is an output terminal for audio data.

Next, the operation of the recording / reproducing apparatus having the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described separately for recording and reproduction.

First, the recording operation will be described. Left (L) channel and right (R) channel stereo audio signals are input from audio signal input terminals 1 and 2, respectively.
It is converted into a digital audio signal by the D converters 4 and 5. These digital audio signals are subjected to various noise removal processing and dynamic range restriction processing in the audio signal processing circuits 7 and 8, respectively, and then subjected to data compression processing in the audio data compression circuit 10.

This data compression processing is performed by, for example, MPEG.
Adaptive transform coding (ATAC, ASPEC) proposed by (Moving Picture Expert Group), band division coding (MUSICAM, SB / ADPCM), or the like may be used, and left / right using L / R correlation It is also possible to use vector coding of two channels mixed.

On the other hand, the video signal input from the video signal input terminal 3 is converted into a digital video signal by the AD converter 6 capable of processing at a higher speed than the AD converters 4 and 5. This digital video signal is subjected to signal processing of components described later in the video signal processing circuit 9 as needed, and then the data amount thereof is reduced to about several tens to several hundreds in the video data compression circuit 11. Compressed.

This data compression processing includes interframe correlation processing using image correlation between frames, motion vector compensation for reducing image quality deterioration in this processing, and further, this processing is performed for frames before and after the time axis (past and future). It can be realized by appropriately combining the both-side prediction interframe compression and the like. As an example, a so-called 1/2 inch VTR standard image quality level can be secured by the so-called MPEG-I algorithm proposed by MPEG.

When the data compression processing is completed, the I
The ID data output from the D generation circuit 12 and the compressed audio data and video data are combined in a data combining circuit 13 to form a data block that serves as a predetermined storage unit. Store in memory 18. The main memory 18 is a large-capacity solid-state memory circuit including a flash memory, a DRAM, an SRAM, etc., and the memory controller 17 controls the memory address and writing / reading. Further, the system controller 16 controls the memory controller 17.

In addition to the control of the memory controller 17, the system controller 16 controls the recording / reproducing / searching operation as a whole of the apparatus. That is, the system controller 16 controls the memory controller 17 in response to an instruction such as recording / playback / search input by operating the operation keys 19, and at the same time indicates the operating status and the recording / playback time. Information such as a time code is displayed on the display device 20, and
Information such as a time code is also notified to the memory information generation circuit 15.

There are two main types of this time code. The first is information indicating the elapsed time from the beginning of the main memory 18 or the video program and the cumulative time of camera shooting, and the second is the date and time information at the time of recording or camera shooting. A calendar clock generation circuit 14 is provided for the latter time code generation.

The memory information generation circuit 15 receives data such as the information storage status of the main memory 18 from the memory controller 17, and as the memory information indicating the data amount of the recorded information in the main memory 18, the ID generation circuit 12
Supply to. As the contents of this memory information, for example,
The time code based on the information from the system controller 16 and the data indicating the mode selection of the image quality and the sound quality, and the data amount of the video and audio based on the information from the memory controller 17 (the data length in the case of the variable length coding). ,
And the start address value of data storage on the memory.

The ID generation circuit 12 uses the memory information and the information from the system controller 16 to generate an ID.
Data is created and this ID data is supplied to the data synthesis circuit 13. The data synthesizing circuit 13 puts together the ID data and the compressed audio data and video data to form a data block as a predetermined storage unit. Then, the data block for each ID data is sequentially stored in the main memory 18. Also, the main memory 18
The head address of each data block stored in the main memory 18 is sequentially written into the set ID file in the main memory 18.

FIG. 2 shows an example of data storage in the main memory 18 and a data format of a data block.

In FIG. 2A, the horizontal axis is the time axis, and
It shows that an ID number is generated at every predetermined interval T ₀ . 2B to 2D are conceptual diagrams of the address space of the main memory 18. As shown in (d) of FIG. 2, after the ID data, video data and audio data having different data amounts are sequentially stored by the variable length coding for each predetermined processing period. Therefore, I
The generation interval T ₀ of the D data is a constant interval (for example, 1 second), but on the memory, the interval is not equal as shown in FIG. 2C.

Therefore, in order to enable quick access to the data block when searching for the video data and the audio data, an address indicating the storage location of each data block sequentially stored as shown in FIG. 2C. An ID file as shown in (b) of FIG. This ID file is stored in the main memory 18
In this area, only the head address of each data block is stored in an area preset according to the storage capacity.

The ID data in the data block has a fixed length, and has a total of eight types of basic information and ID as shown in (d) in the example of FIG. That is, as reference information, SMPTE (Sosiety of Motion Picture)
and Television Engineers), time code, data for selecting the image quality or sound quality mode by trade-off with recording time, start address and data amount of variable length AV data (audio data and video data), and deleted flag 8
Have a kind. The deleted flag is a logical erased state that can be restored before the physical delete process when the recorded data is erased, and prohibits normal reproduction by this flag.

The audio data in the data block is composed of initialization information (audio reset data) for each of the left and right channels and variable-length compressed audio data subjected to compression processing. The video data is composed of, for example, an initialization screen (video reset data) by intra-frame coding and the like, and compressed video data variable-length coded by various compression methods.

Then, for each ID data, the video data and the audio data having the above-mentioned configuration are integrated to form a data block. This data block is characterized in that it is generated at regular intervals T ₀ defined on the time axis.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the input video signal. In this example, the TV signal (television signal) of the NTSC system (vertical 525 lines) is basically used, and a TV signal having a horizontally long aspect ratio (9:16) with an aspect ratio close to that of a video screen is used as an input signal. The effective rate on this screen is
%, Information of 495 × 880 pixels is generated for 30 screens per second and is supplied to the video signal input terminal 3 of FIG.

This composite video signal corresponds to the AD of FIG.
After being converted into digital data by the converter 6, the video signal processing circuit 9 performs signal processing of components (for example, luminance Y: color difference RY: color difference BY = 4: 2: 2) as needed. It Here, if the luminance signal Y per pixel is quantized by 8 bits and the color difference signals RY and BY are quantized by 8 bits at a sampling rate of 1/2, respectively,
The information processing amount becomes about 700 Gbit in one hour.

Incidentally, a stereo audio signal of 48 KHz /
The information processing amount in 16-bit digitization is about 5.5 Gbit per hour, and when the above-mentioned compression processing is applied to this, the total of the video signal and the audio signal becomes about 4 Gbit.

Next, the reproducing operation will be described. When a reproducing operation is instructed by a reproducing key (not shown) included in the operation keys 19, the system controller 16 displays on the display device 20 that the reproducing operation is being performed. Further, the memory controller 17 controls the memory address and read / write switching, and reads the information stored in the above-described recording operation from the main memory 18.

Then, a predetermined amount of information is read out per unit time based on the read ID data. In the above example, the predetermined information amount is 30 screens of video data per second and 1 second of stereo (or 2 channels).
It is the information amount of voice data and ID data for searching these data.

The above three types of data are supplied to the data distribution circuit 21 in a mixed state (state of serial data information). According to this data format, the main memory 18
It is also possible to increase the number of devices and to adopt a replaceable memory form such as an IC card.

The mixed data of ID data, video data and audio data supplied to the data distribution circuit 21 is distributed and supplied to the search information reproduction circuit 22, the video data expansion circuit 24 and the audio data expansion circuit 25, respectively.

Regarding the ID data, in the search information reproducing circuit 22, for each ID, 8 as shown in FIG.
The basic information of the type is detected, and the display information generating circuit 23 generates the display information for the monitor from this information. And
This display information and the video information restored as described later are combined by the adder 27, and then converted into a versatile analog video signal by the DA converter 28, and the video monitor 3
Display at 0.

With respect to the video data, the video data decompression circuit 24 performs a data decompression process that is the reverse of the data compression process during recording, and reconstructs a video signal equivalent to the input signal during recording. Then, the reconstructed video signal is supplied to the adder 27 for synthesizing the video signal for display on the video monitor 30 via the data selection circuit 26, and is also supplied to the video data output terminal 32.

For the audio data, the audio data decompression circuit 25 performs the data decompression process that is the reverse of the data compression process at the time of recording in the same manner as the video data, and reconstructs the audio signal equivalent to the input signal at the time of recording. Then, the reconstructed audio signal is sent to the audio monitor 3 via the data selection circuit 26.
The audio signal is supplied to the DA converter 29 for generating the audio signal for reproduction at 1, and is also supplied to the audio data output terminal 33.

For each of the video and audio data, the above-mentioned ID data is used to correct the deviation due to the delay time required for the reproduction signal processing and the reproduction is performed. Further, in synchronization with the information from the display information generation circuit 23, the reproduction signals of video and audio are output from the data selection circuit 26.

The structure of the main data (ID data, video data and audio data) and the details of the processing of these data have been described above. Next, the present invention is used to improve the searchability of data. The created data file will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 4, the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes an AV data file (using the storage area of the solid-state storage element) 40 for storing main AV data (video data and audio data). A system controller 47 for performing various control of the apparatus, operation keys 48 for inputting various instructions to the system controller 47,
A basic configuration including an information processing circuit 41 that performs data processing according to an instruction from the system controller 47 and an information input / output circuit 42 that performs processing related to input / output of information; and an ID file 43 for data search, Time file 4
4, table of contents file 45 and these search files 4
And an index generating circuit 46 for generating 3, 44 and 45.

Since the above-described basic configuration is a rewrite of the configuration included in FIG. 1 described above, redundant description will be omitted below, and only description regarding data retrieval using a data file will be given. I shall. Hereinafter, a case will be described as an example in which shooting is performed using a video camera (not shown) and data search is performed based on later-described index information that is automatically generated at this time.

First, the operation during recording (when shooting with a video camera) will be described. AV signal input terminal 4
While video and audio signals are being supplied to the recording / reproducing apparatus from a video camera (not shown) via 9, 50,
When a shooting start or shooting end instruction is input by a shooting key (not shown) included in the operation keys 48, the system controller 47 issues an instruction to the index generation circuit 46 to generate index information. In response to this instruction, the index generation circuit 46 generates or updates the index information and the three search data files.

The index information corresponds to a heading such as a chapter or paragraph in a book, or a movement or a bar in music. In the present embodiment, as an example, the instruction information for start / end of shooting and recording is assigned as a subheading, and the power ON / OFF information is assigned as a middle heading. Further, if the date information obtained from the calendar clock generation circuit 14 of FIG. 1 is assigned as a major heading and the change of each information is detected and the value is updated, the index information can be updated easily. Can be generated automatically. If more complicated index information is to be generated, it can be arbitrarily generated according to preference by manually generating it using a setting key or the like not shown.

One of the search data files is the ID file 43. The index generation circuit 46 issues a new creation or update command of the ID file 43 in response to a shooting start instruction input from the operation key 48, and issues a generation stop command of the ID file 43 in response to a shooting end instruction. Thereby, the ID file 43 as shown in FIG. 5 is generated,
Or update.

In FIG. 5, the start No. And end N
o. Is the start ID number and end I of the data block in which the AV data recorded from the start to the end of shooting is stored.
It indicates the D number, and is the constant time T shown in FIG.
It corresponds to the ID number generated for each ₀ .

As described above, the index generation circuit 46 is operated by the I / O in response to the photographing start / end instruction from the operation key 48.
In addition to the configuration in which the D file 43 is generated, information such as the data amount of the recorded data may be directly written from the AV data file 40 to the empty area of the ID file 43.

The other one of the search data files is the time file 44. The time file 44 stores the time when the index information generation instruction is issued as time data in association with the ID file 43 corresponding to the storage location of the AV data being recorded. Therefore, if a data search as will be described later is performed using the time file 44, the time-based search operation can be performed quickly.

As described above, since the ID numbers forming the ID file 43 are updated at fixed time intervals T ₀ , if the start time and end time of shooting are known, an arbitrary time in the middle and AV data Correspondence with the storage location is possible.

Still another one of the search data files is
This is the table of contents file 45. Index generation circuit 46
Registers the index table of contents name in the table of contents file 45 as required. This table of contents name is, for example, the recorded A
By giving a name according to the contents of V data,
This is for allowing the searcher to easily grasp the recorded contents at the time of later data search. Then, a searcher can give a desired name by using an operation key (not shown). Of course, the table of contents name does not necessarily have to be registered and may be blank.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of the index information, the ID file 43, the time file 44, and the table-of-contents file 45 described above. In FIG. 5, the index information can be set from level I to level IV, the above-mentioned large, medium and small heading information are assigned to level I to level III, respectively, and all zeros are assigned to level IV because they are unused.

That is, every time the instruction to start or end the photographing recording is detected from the operation key 48 in FIG.
The information of is updated one by one. Also, turn the power on or O
Every time it is set to FF, the level II information is updated one by one and the level III information is reset. Furthermore, the level I information is updated by 1 each time it is detected that the date has changed due to the above date information, and the level II and level III information is reset. Then, the index word is configured in the minimum level unit generated in this way.

In addition, as described above, the start No. And end No. Is recorded, and the time file 44 records the time information of the year, month, day, and hour, minute, second when the image capturing is started. Furthermore, a desired index name is recorded in the index file 45 by the searcher as needed.

Next, the index information, I, shown in FIG.
The search operation at the time of reproduction will be described using the configuration examples of the D file 43, the time file 44, and the table of contents file 45. In the case of searching AV data using the time file 44, for example, when the user wants to reproduce and view a video shot in “summer morning”, (0701 ≦ monthday ≦ 0831) & (hour ≦ 0
The time file 44 is searched by the search condition expression 9). As a result, the index information 111 to 115
Is extracted.

Next, the ID numbers 0 to 89 corresponding to the indexes 111 to 115 are obtained by searching the ID file 43, and the ID numbers are used to generate the ID numbers 0 to 89 in FIG.
The ID file shown in is accessed to read the storage address of AV data. Then, with this address information, AV
By accessing the data file 40, it is possible to search and reproduce a desired portion.

On the other hand, when the AV data is searched using the table of contents file 45, first, the change point of the desired index level designated by the searcher is searched from among the level I to level III of the index information. . Then, the index word information detected by this is
The data is displayed on a display (not shown) through the video output terminal 50 of FIG. 4, and the searcher is allowed to select which of the detected index data is to be searched. The desired index level search is, for example, a search using only level I when it is desired to roughly understand the entire memory area.
When you want to do a detailed search, it means to search for changes in Level III information.

If the table of contents name corresponding to the detected index is registered in the table of contents file 45, the table of contents name is displayed on the display. This enables the searcher to easily select an index to be searched based on the table of contents name. If the table of contents name is not registered, the ID number corresponding to the index word information is read from the ID file 43, and the ID file shown in FIG. 2B is accessed. Then, the storage address of the AV data to be extracted from now may be read and the AV data file 40 may be accessed by this address information to be displayed on the display as video information.

When the searcher selects an index, the start ID corresponding to the selected index word information
Number and end ID number are read from the ID file 43, and the storage address of the AV data extracted by accessing the ID file shown in FIG. 2B is read using the start ID number and end ID number. , The AV data file 40 using this address information
By accessing to and reproducing the video signal and the audio signal, it is possible to search the data and perform the search reproduction in a short time.

6 and 7 are flowcharts showing the operation procedure for recording and reproducing AV data described above.

First, the operation during recording will be described with reference to FIG. 6, in steps S601 and S602, when the AV data recording start instruction from the operation key 48 of FIG. 4 is detected, in steps S603 to S607, the level is determined according to the presence or absence of the change in each of the large, medium and small heading information. The contents of I to Level III are updated to generate index information.

Next, in steps S608 and S609, the contents of the time file 44 are updated based on the time information when the index information was generated, and then in step S61.
0, in S611, the table of contents name is registered in the table of contents file 45 as required.

Next, in step S612, A at that time
Start ID according to the recording position on the V data file 40
Set the number. Then, the AV data is continuously recorded until the instruction to update the ID file 43 is issued in step S613 and the photographing end instruction is detected from the operation key 48 in step S614.

At the time of this recording, the ID number is incremented according to the number of data blocks of the recorded AV data. When an instruction to end shooting is detected in step S614, the ID number at that time is ended in step S615.
It is set as the D number, and the updating process of the ID file 43 is completed in step S616.

Next, the operation during search reproduction will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 7, first, in step S701, it is determined whether the time file 44 or the table-of-contents file 45 is searched.
In the case of performing the search by 4, the process proceeds to step S702. In this case, desired search condition expressions are generated in steps S702 and S703, the time file 44 is searched in steps S704 to S706, and index information that satisfies the generated search condition expressions is extracted.

On the other hand, if the contents file 45 is to be searched, the process proceeds from step S701 to step S707. In this case, a desired index level change point search is executed in steps S707 and S708 to detect index word information. The table of contents name corresponding to the detected index word information is the table of contents file 4.
If registered in step 5, steps S709 and S710
Then, the table of contents name is displayed on a display not shown. Then, in the next step S711, index information to be searched is selected based on this display information.

Next, in steps S712 and S713, when the time file 44 is searched, the start ID number and the end ID number corresponding to the index information extracted in steps S702 to S706 are read. If the index file 45 is searched, the start ID number and the end ID number corresponding to the index information selected in steps S707 to S711 are read.

Then, in steps S714 to S716,
Using the read ID number, I shown in FIG.
The D file is accessed and the start address and end address of the address where the AV data extracted by this is stored are read. In the following step S717, the AV data file 40 is accessed using this address information, and the AV data is reproduced in step S718.

When it is detected in step S719 that the AV data has been reproduced up to the end address, the process proceeds to step S720. If it is determined in step S720 that the data search is a search by the time file 44, the search reproduction is ended. Also, the table of contents file 45
If it is determined that the search is based on step S707,
Return to and execute the data search again.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the AV data is recorded for each data block by using the solid-state storage element, and the search corresponding to the fixed-length search data is performed separately from the variable-length AV data. Data file for
By searching AV data by address management using this data file, it is possible to speed up the search at the time of search reproduction and efficiently use the limited storage area.

In particular, when the time file 44 is used as the search data file, during search reproduction,
Since only the data satisfying the desired search condition can be searched, only the desired data can be reproduced in a short time, and the search efficiency can be further improved.

When the table-of-contents file 45 is used as the search data file, the data to be searched can be selected based on the index word information visually displayed, so that only the desired data can be easily selected. It becomes possible to select and search for, and it is possible to perform a search with better operability.

The case where the ID file 43, the time file 44, and the table-of-contents file 45 are generated as search data files and AV data is searched using these data files has been described above.
It is also possible to generate only the D file 43 and perform the data search using only the ID file 43. In this case, it is possible to simplify the configuration of the recording / reproducing device that performs the data search.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 8 to 16, the operation of logically erasing and physically erasing data will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the processing procedure for insert recording of video and audio. In FIG. 8, during a normal recording operation before insert recording, steps S801 to S803 form an operation loop thereof. That is, in step S801,
As described above, shooting is performed by a video camera (not shown) or the like, and a data file for data search is generated. Next, in step S802, the usage state of the main memory in which the AV data obtained by this shooting is recorded is confirmed.

When it is determined in the confirmation in step S802 that the storage area of the main memory is substantially full and there is no room to write new data, physical deletion of the logically erased data described later is performed. Therefore, the process jumps to step S814. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is still room to write data in the storage area,
In step S803, it is confirmed whether there is an instruction to start insert recording. Then, if there is no instruction to start insert recording, the process returns to step S801 to continue the above normal recording.

When the start of the insert recording is instructed, the operation loop of the above-mentioned normal recording is exited from step S803, the process proceeds to step S804, and the capture of a new image to be inserted is started. Then, the capture of this image ends in the next step S805.

As described above, steps S804 and S805
After setting an image to be newly inserted in, the positions in the memory where this image is to be inserted are set in steps S806 and S807. In addition, reverse the order of the setting of the image to be newly inserted and the setting of the insertion position,
The image to be inserted may be set after the setting of the insertion position.

By the way, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the ID corresponding to the image to be newly inserted (described in detail using a data configuration example described later) and the ID corresponding to the image deleted by the insertion of this image. In this case, if the position of the image to be newly inserted is set, the image to be deleted is automatically set.

Next, in step S808, step S8
Simulate and confirm the insert setting of the new image and its insertion position performed in 04 to S807. As a result of the confirmation, if the connection condition of the inserted images is not good, the process returns to step S804 or step S806 depending on the cause of the problem of the connection, and the image to be inserted and its insertion position are reset.

The loop of steps S804 to S808 is repeated until a satisfactory simulation result is obtained.
When the connection of the images is improved, the process proceeds to the next steps S809 and S810 to actually execute the data exchange between the set image to be inserted and the image to be deleted.

The processing of steps S804 to S810 described above will be described using the following data configuration example.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an apparent ID registration example of the ID file shown in FIG. 2B, from ID-001 to ID.
It is assumed that 60 IDs up to −060 indicate that a moving image for 60 seconds is recorded in the data block corresponding to these IDs.

In such a recording state, ID-01
It is assumed that the image for 10 seconds corresponding to 1 to ID-020 is replaced with a new image for 10 seconds by the insert processing. In this case, as shown in (b) of FIG. 9, in order to change the state of the old data block corresponding to ID-011 to ID-020 to be deleted from active to delete,
The deleted flag in the ID data is updated from 0 to 1. In response to this, in order to activate the state of the new data block to be inserted, as shown in (a) of FIG.
The deleted flag in the ID data is set to 0.

ID including the status of these deleted flags
The state of the file is shown in FIG. Figure 11
I required for playback or retrieval of AV data
D is 6 from ID-001-0 to ID-060-0
Only the ID of 0 data block. Therefore, the ID
Apparently, the file has ID- as shown in FIG.
Only IDs of 60 data blocks from 001 to ID-060 exist. However, a data block that is logically deleted (deleted) by the setting of the deleted flag “1” in the memory, but is not physically deleted (hereinafter referred to as logical erase data) is actually Exists in.

The ID corresponding to the logical erase data is stored in a predetermined area near the final address of the ID file as shown in FIG. 11, for example. Therefore, by accessing this predetermined area, it is possible to confirm whether or not there is a data block in the logically erased state in which the deleted flag is set to "1".

In this way, the old data block to be deleted at the time of insert recording is left on the memory as the logically erased data with the deleted flag "1" set. S804 to S8
It is possible to easily perform the resetting process of the image to be newly inserted and the insertion position in 08 by using this old data block as many times as necessary.

Further, for example, when performing reset processing N times, instead of setting the logical erased state using only the binary values of 0 and 1 of the deleted flag, the reset processing is performed according to the number of reset processing. By setting the logical erased state by using the data that can express the levels 0 to N, the degree of freedom of the resetting process of the image to be inserted and its insertion position can be further increased.

When the new image and the insertion position thereof are reset, and the connection of the images becomes good, data exchange between the set image to be inserted and the image to be deleted is actually performed. To run. That is, the recording address information of the data block including the image to be newly inserted is set to the ID.
The data is stored in association with -011-0 to ID-020-0. Also, the recording address information of the data block including the old image to be deleted is set from ID-011-1 to ID-020-1.
The data is stored in the above-mentioned predetermined area in correspondence with. This address information storage processing is performed in step S809 shown in FIG.
This corresponds to the process of S810.

Although the video insert recording has been described above, the audio insert recording is also performed in the same manner.

When the data blocks in which the video or audio is insert-recorded in this way are accessed in the order of the ID numbers of the ID files, the accessed address numbers become discontinuous. However, as described above, in the present embodiment in which the solid-state storage element is used as the recording medium, data retrieval can be performed in a short time, and therefore, when reading AV data, video and audio are substantially continuous. And can be played back.

Returning to FIG. 8 again, the operation after step S811 will be described. After the insert recording is completed up to the above step S810, it is determined in step S811 whether or not the insert recording is applied to other places. If insert recording is to be applied to other locations, step S8
Returning to 01, the same insert recording as described above is restarted.

When it is determined in step S811 that the insert recording is to be ended, depending on the ending method, when the power is turned off and the processing is to be ended, the process proceeds to step S814 via step S812. When the memory cartridge is taken out and the process is finished, the process proceeds to step S814 via step S813. Then, in step S814, the data block for which the deleted flag is set to "1" is deleted. The deletion executed here is a physical deletion that irreversibly deletes data from the memory.

In the above, the case where the ID corresponding to the image to be newly inserted and the ID corresponding to the image deleted by the insertion of this image have a one-to-one correspondence has been described. Also, it can be applied when these IDs do not correspond one-to-one.

The processing procedure of insert recording in such a case is as shown in the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 12, the operation of the part to which the same step number as in FIG. 8 is added is the same as the operation described in FIG.
A duplicate description will be omitted.

When the above two IDs do not have a one-to-one correspondence, even if the position of the image to be newly inserted is set as in steps S806 and S807 of FIG. It is not set. Therefore, in this case, the images to be deleted are set in steps S815 and S816 of FIG. Of course, setting of the image to be inserted in steps S804 and S805, and steps S815 and S8
The order of setting the image to be deleted in 16 may be reversed.

Steps S804, S805, S815,
In the image reset loop in S816 and S808, the image to be inserted and the image to be deleted are set so as to improve the connection condition of the images, and then the step S80
9. In S810, data exchange between the set image to be inserted and the set image to be deleted is actually executed.

For example, in the ID file of FIG.
If the images of 10 seconds corresponding to ID-011 to ID-020 are replaced by newly recorded images of 5 seconds by performing insert recording, the state of the ID file including the state of the deleted flag is as follows. It becomes like FIG. In FIG. 13, ID-016-0 to ID-02
The position corresponding to 0-0 is blank because there is no image to be newly inserted.

In such a case, step S in FIG.
At 817, renumbering processing of the ID number is performed. Figure 1
FIG. 14 shows the result of performing the renumbering process on the ID file shown in FIG. In FIG. 14, the part corresponding to the blank for 5 seconds is cut, and the entire ID is I.
It shows a state in which the number is decreased from D-001-0 to 55 of ID-055-0. Furthermore, the appearance of the ID file at this time is as shown in FIG.

ID thus renumbered
When reproducing AV data using a file, in order to connect the data addresses storing the AV data corresponding to the renumbered IDs in the correct order, as shown in FIG. As basic information of ID data, NEXT-ID address information indicating a storage address of ID data next to the ID data currently being reproduced is added.

In the video and audio insert recording, the data to be deleted instead of the new data to be inserted may be collectively designated as the recording unit grouped by the index information shown in FIG. it can.

In this case, step S81 in FIG.
5, the setting of the image to be deleted in S816 is performed using the index information of FIG. That is, for example, by selecting the level 1-1-2-0 of the index information, the start No. of the ID file 43 corresponding to this is selected. And end No. From ID-011-1 in FIG.
Insert recording can be performed by collectively setting the image of −020-1 for 10 seconds as the image to be deleted.

In the renumbering process in step S817 of FIG. 12, renumbering of index information is performed in addition to renumbering of ID numbers. As a result, the ID number and the index information can be managed in association with each other at all times, and appropriate data search can be performed even after insert recording.

[0113]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a solid-state storage element is used as an information recording medium, and video information and audio information, and search information for searching the video information and audio information. Is recorded in association with each predetermined storage unit, and at the time of search reproduction, each piece of desired video and audio information is searched and reproduced by address management of the solid-state storage element based on the search information.
It is possible to record and reproduce video and audio without using any mechanical member. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time required to transfer the recording medium, which is conventionally required, and perform the search in a short time. At the same time, it is possible to prevent deterioration of data reliability due to mechanical damage of the recording medium and the like, and it is possible to obtain a recording / reproducing apparatus having excellent information searchability.

In particular, although the main video information and audio information have variable lengths for the purpose of increasing the data compression rate, the search information for retrieving these two pieces of information has a fixed length, and the above video and audio information is set. Since the file management is configured separately from each of the above information, the amount of data can be reduced and the limited storage area can be efficiently used. Therefore, the recording time of each information of video and audio is lengthened. It is possible to improve the searchability of information.

Further, at the time of editing the information, before the information to be deleted is physically completely erased from the solid-state storage element, a logical erased state that can be restored by a predetermined operation is set to set the solid-state storage element. Since it has been set to the logically erased state above, coupled with the good searchability of the information described above, it is possible to easily restore the information for which the logically erased state has been set and perform re-editing, if necessary. Thereby, the convenience of the information editing process can be improved.

Further, since address information indicating the recording position of the information to be reproduced next to the information currently being reproduced is provided as one of the search information, the address management using this address information at the time of reproducing the information. Thus, it is possible to continuously reproduce information by connecting information recorded at spatially separated positions without making a mistake. Therefore, when editing information, there is a difference in the recording time of the information to be newly inserted and the recording time of the information to be deleted, so if these information items are exchanged and recorded, the continuity of the information will be apparent. Even in the case where the information cannot be secured, it is possible to exchange and record the information, which is a degree of freedom that cannot be achieved by the conventional recording medium.

Further, since the search information is grouped and managed by a predetermined unit and the information to be deleted at the time of editing the information is collectively set for each group, the information to be deleted is set. Can be performed by an extremely simple operation of only designating a desired group, which can significantly improve the operability when editing information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a data storage state in a main memory.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a television screen for explaining an example of an input video signal.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a recording / reproducing apparatus for improving the data searchability.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example of index information for data search and each data file.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure at the time of recording.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure during search reproduction.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure during insert recording.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration example of ID data.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the apparent data structure of an ID file.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a data configuration example of an ID file including a state of a deleted flag.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing another operation procedure during insert recording.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of an ID file including the state of a deleted flag before renumbering processing.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of an ID file including the state of a deleted flag after the renumbering process.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of the apparent data structure of an ID file after renumbering processing.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing another configuration example of ID data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 audio data compression circuit 11 video data compression circuit 12 ID generation circuit 13 data synthesis circuit 14 calendar clock generation circuit 15 memory information generation circuit 18 main memory 21 data distribution circuit 22 search information reproduction circuit 23 display information generation circuit 24 video data expansion circuit Circuit 25 Audio data decompression circuit 30 Video monitor 31 Audio monitor 40 AV data file 43 ID file 44 Time file 45 Table of contents file 46 Index generation circuit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A recording unit that associates video information, audio information, and search information for searching these two pieces of information with each other to form a predetermined storage unit, and sequentially records the storage unit in a solid-state storage element. And a reproducing means for reproducing the video signal and the audio signal by reading the video information and the audio information from the solid storage element based on the search information when searching the information recorded in the solid storage element. A recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by the above. 2. The solid-state memory is configured by setting a logic-erased state when editing information recorded in the solid-state memory element and keeping information to be deleted in the logic-erased state on the solid-state memory element. 2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording / reproducing apparatus can be restored at any time before the information is completely erased from the element. 3. The video information and the audio information are variable-length information generated by variable-length coding by data compression processing, and the search information is fixed-length information. The recording / reproducing apparatus described. 4. The address information indicating the recording position of the information of the storage unit to be reproduced next to the information of the storage unit currently reproduced by the reproducing means is provided as one of the search information. Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.
The recording / reproducing apparatus described. 5. The search information is grouped and managed for each predetermined unit, and when the information recorded in the solid-state storage element is edited, the information to be deleted is collectively set for each group. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 4, characterized in that.