JPH0746855B2 - Interactive video disc playback system - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an interactive video disc playback system.

BACKGROUND ART FIG. 1 shows a conventional example of an interactive video disc reproducing system. In the figure, a host computer 2 and a controller 3 are connected to the video disc player 1. The host computer 2 is a video disc player 1
Command signals are individually sent to the controller 3 and the status signals from the video disc player 1 and the controller 3. The first command signal (a) to the video disc player 1 is a signal for instructing the operation mode and power on / off of the video disc player 1, and the operating state of the video disc player 1 is determined by the first status signal (b) by the host computer. 2 is supplied. The second command signal (c) to the controller 3 is temporarily read by the command buffer 11 in the controller 3, then sequentially read and supplied to the control circuit 4. The control circuit 4 decodes the second command signal read from the command buffer 11 and the internal program read from the buffer memory 7, and decodes the video processing circuit 6, the buffer memory 7, the audio decoding circuit 8 and the audio in the controller 3. A control signal is supplied to the processing circuit 9, character data is supplied to the character generation circuit 10, and a second status signal (d) representing the operation state of the controller 3 is supplied to the host computer 2.

Further, the video signal (e) and the audio signal (f) reproduced by the video disc player 1 are supplied to the controller 3. The video signal includes, in addition to the image signal, compressed audio data obtained by time-compressing the audio signal and digital signals such as the above-mentioned internal program necessary for the operation of the control circuit 4. In the controller 3, the video signal supplied from the video disc player 1 is separated into an image signal and a data signal by the signal separation circuit 5, the image signal is supplied to the video processing circuit 6, and the data signal is buffer memory 7.
Written in. The internal program in the data signal read from the buffer memory 7 is supplied to the control circuit 4, the compressed audio data is decoded into an audio signal by the audio decoding circuit 8, and then supplied to the audio processing circuit 9. The other digital data of the data signal is supplied to the host computer 2. The video processing circuit 6 synthesizes the image signal separated by the signal separation circuit 5 and the character signal output from the character generation circuit 10 to output a video. The audio processing circuit 9 processes the audio signal directly output from the video disc player 1 and the audio signal output from the audio decoding circuit 9 to output an audio.

In the conventional interactive video disc reproducing system having such a configuration, the host computer 2 judges the operation of the keyboard (not shown) by the user, the first status signal from the video disc player 1 and the second status signal from the control circuit 4. Then, the first and second command signals corresponding to the determination result are individually supplied to the video disc player 1 and the controller 3. Video disc player 1
The first command signal to specify the operation mode and power on / off of the video disc player 1, and the video disc player 1 performs normal reproduction according to the content of the command signal.
Double speed reproduction, reverse or still reproduction is performed. On the other hand, the second command signal to the controller 3 specifies the processing method of the video signal and the audio signal supplied from the video disc player 1, and the control circuit 4 causes the signal separation circuit 5 to operate in accordance with the content of the second command signal. The operations of the video processing circuit 6, the buffer memory 7, the audio decoding circuit 8 and the audio processing circuit 9 are controlled to obtain appropriate audio output and video output.

However, in such a conventional interactive video disc reproducing system, since the host computer 2 individually sends command signals to the video disc player 1 and the controller 3 and receives status signals individually, There is a problem in that the computer 2 needs to execute all determinations of the contents of the sending end and the status signal, which imposes a heavy processing load on the host computer 2.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an interactive video disc reproducing system in which the processing of external control means such as a host computer is reduced.

The interactive video disc reproducing system of the present invention outputs a video disc player which obtains an operation mode corresponding to the content of the first command signal and generates a first status signal indicating the operation state, and the video disc player. Signal processing means for processing video signals and audio signals; internal control means for controlling the operation of the signal processing means in response to the second command signal and for generating a second status signal indicating the control state thereof; 2 external control means for discriminating the contents of the status signal and generating first and second command signals, the external control means outputting the first and second command signals from a single output port and supplying them to the internal control means. Then
The internal control means identifies the supplied first and second command signals and supplies only the first command signal to the video disk player, and the video disk player supplies the first status signal to the internal control means, and the internal control means. Is characterized in that it supplies the first and second status signals to a single input port of the external control means.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

2, the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the host computer 2 supplies the first and second command signals from the single output port to the command buffer 11 of the controller 3. A command switching circuit 12 is connected to the command buffer 11, and the command switching circuit 12 identifies whether the signal supplied from the command buffer 11 is a first command signal or a second command signal, and determines the first command signal as a video disc. The second command signal is supplied to the player 1, and the second command signal is supplied to the control circuit 4. On the other hand, the control circuit 4 of the controller 3 and the status sending circuit 13 are connected to the status signal output terminal of the video disc player 1.
The status signal output terminal of the control circuit 4 is also connected to the status sending circuit 13, and the control signal from the control circuit 4 is also the second signal.
It is supplied to the status sending circuit 13 separately from the status signal. The first and second status signals sent from the output terminal of the status sending circuit 13 are supplied to the single input port of the host computer 2. The rest of the configuration of the interactive video disc reproducing system according to the present invention is the same as that shown in FIG. 1, and a description thereof will be omitted here.

In the interactive video disc reproducing system according to the present invention having such a configuration, the command switching circuit 12 can distinguish the first command signal to be supplied from the host computer 2 to the video disc player and the second command signal to be supplied to the controller 3. As described above, the identification signal is added to the first and second command signals in advance, and the first and second command signals are sent from the host computer 2 to the controller 3. For example, a data string forming an identification signal is added to the leading and trailing ends of the second command signal, the one surrounded by this data string is the second command signal, and the one not added is the first command signal. On the contrary, a data string forming an identification signal may be added only to the leading end and the trailing end of the first command signal. Alternatively, a special data string forming an identification signal is added to the tips of the first and second command signals, and the first data string is received until the data string is received.
The command signal or the second command signal may be continuous. Similarly, the status sending circuit 13 has the first status signal so that the host computer 2 can distinguish the first status signal to be supplied from the video disc player 1 to the host computer 2 and the second status signal to be supplied from the controller 3 to the host computer 1. Also, the identification signal is added to the second status signal and the second status signal is sent to the host computer 2.

Therefore, the first and second command signals sent from the host computer 2 are once written in the command buffer 11, and the command switching circuit 12 sequentially reads them to detect an identification signal consisting of a data string for command identification, and the identification is performed. It is determined from the signal whether it is the first command signal or the second command signal. If the determination result is the first command signal, the first command signal is supplied to the video disc player 1, and if it is the second command signal, the second command signal is supplied to the control circuit 4. The control circuit 4 receives the second command signal supplied from the command switching circuit 12, the internal program from the buffer memory 7 and the first status signal from the video disc player 1, and decodes these to perform the video processing circuit 6 and the buffer. Memory 7, voice decoding circuit 8, voice processing circuit 9 and status sending circuit
A control signal is supplied to 13 and character data is supplied to the character generation circuit 10 and a second status signal is supplied to the status transmission circuit 13 at appropriate times.

The status sending circuit 13 adds the above-mentioned identification signal to the first status signal supplied from the video disc player 1 and the second status signal supplied from the control circuit 4 so as to distinguish the first and second status signals from the same line. To the single input port of the host computer 2. Therefore, the host computer determines which of the first and second status signals is supplied from the identification signal added to the status signal.

As described above, in the interactive video disc reproducing system of the present invention, the first command signal to be supplied from the external control means to the video disc player and the second command signal to be supplied from the external control means to the internal control means are the same. In the line, it is supplied to the internal control means to identify whether it is the first command signal or the second command signal. As a result of the identification, only the first command signal is supplied to the video disc player. Therefore, since the external control means such as the host computer only needs to supply the command signal to the internal control means, only one output line from the external control means is required and connection is simplified. Further, the internal control means has a first
Since the second command signal and the second command signal are supplied together, the processing conventionally performed by the external control means can be processed in the internal control means, and the processing of the external control means is reduced.

Further, in the interactive video disc reproducing system of the present invention, the first state indicating the operating state of the video disc player is displayed.
A status signal is supplied to the internal control means, and a first status signal and a second status signal representing the operating state of the internal control means are supplied from the internal control means to the external control means on the same line, and the external control means are connected to the first and second external control means. The second status signal can be identified. Therefore, since the external control means only needs to receive the status signal from the internal control means, the status information input line to the external control means is only one line and connection is simple. Further, since the status information from the video disc player is also supplied to the internal control means, the processing conventionally performed by the external control means can be processed in the internal control means, and the processing in the external control means is reduced. Of.

Further, for example, in the case of reproducing a still image with audio, a series of operations such as capturing audio data, switching to a still image reproducing mode of the video disc player, outputting decoded audio, releasing the still image reproducing mode of the video disc player after the end of audio, etc. With regard to the routine processing, the external control means can send only one command, and the subsequent series of processing can be entrusted to the internal control means, and the processing by the external control means is further reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conventional example of an interactive video disc reproducing system, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. Explanation of symbols of main parts 1 ... Video disc player 2 ... Host computer 3 ... Controller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A video disk player for obtaining an operation mode according to the content of a first command signal and generating a first status signal representing the operation state, and a video signal and an audio signal output from the video disk player. Signal processing means for processing, internal control means for controlling the operation of the signal processing means in response to the second command signal and generating a second status signal indicating the control state thereof, and the first and second status signals. External control means for determining the contents and generating the first and second command signals, the external control means outputting the first and second command signals from a single output port and supplying the internal control means. The internal control means discriminates the supplied first and second command signals and supplies only the first command signal to the video disc player. The video disc player supplies the first status signal to the internal control means, and the internal control means supplies the first and second status signals to a single input port of the external control means. Interactive video disc playback system.