JPH10257471A - Provision processing method for continuous images - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the interruption of images caused by connection delay for server switching by performing processing, with which images having possibility to get discontinuous from script information are previously fetched from a server to a viewing terminal, simultaneously and parallelly with image reproduction when utilizing images stored as continuous images in different servers. SOLUTION: Concerning a system with which a viewing terminal 1 acquires and views the image of VOD server 3 for storing/providing images based on the script information from an information providing server 2 on a network, when there is an image to let VOD server switching occur from the script information, the information providing server 2 previously instructs the fetch of the designated part in a video file to the storage device of the terminal 1, sends the image and changes a script. The images stored in the terminal are directly reproduced from the terminal and while eliminating the delay for server switching, the images are reproduced without being unnaturally interrupted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a continuous video providing method for smoothly connecting video connecting portions provided by a plurality of video providing servers via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional method for providing an image via a network, there is a video on demand (VOD) for providing an image in response to a request from a terminal.

In this system, a plurality of servers (hereinafter referred to as VOD) for storing and providing distributed video via a network are provided.
Server) and a plurality of terminals are connected. In order to view the video on the VOD server, a method of simply viewing the target video from the menu information, or the viewing order and the position of the video to be viewed by the inventor of the present invention (Japanese Patent Application No. 8-281994). There is a method of viewing using a script in which instructions are described.

[0004]

The viewing method using a script has the advantage that a video already registered in the VOD server can be re-edited and used, but in reality, the connection destination of the VOD server is changed or the file is not read. Changes,
There is a problem that a delay due to the change occurs, and continuous images to be provided are interrupted and discontinuous.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to prevent an image to be provided continuously from being interrupted and discontinuous.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention utilizes the fact that information of a video to be viewed in the future is described in a script. The process of importing from the server to the viewing terminal (client) is now performed in parallel with the video playback.

Using the method of the present invention, a plurality of distributed V
The necessary part of the video from the OD server is preloaded into the storage device of the viewing terminal itself, which can be accessed at high speed, so that the time required for connection change can be read at a speed that does not cause a substantial delay, and unnatural joints are generated. Images that do not occur can be viewed.

[0008]

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a system used by the present invention. Reference numeral 1 in the figure denotes a viewing terminal (hereinafter, referred to as a terminal) used by the user. Reference numeral 2 denotes an information providing server, and reference numeral 3 denotes a server that accumulates and provides a video (hereinafter, referred to as a VOD server). 4 is a network.

The terminal 1 obtains a script from the information providing server 2 on the network, and obtains and views the video of the VOD server 3 based on the information described in the script. FIG. 2 shows a description example of a script. FIG. 2A shows an example of the description format. Here, the server name, the file name, the start point of the video, and the end point of the video are shown, and s, f, st, sp are prefixed to distinguish them from each other.

FIG. 2B shows a specific example of a script having a plurality of lines. Here, there are four lines of script description,
The second line and the second line show the video of a portion where only the start point and the end point in the same video file aaa of the same VOD server A are different. Here, the numbers of the start point and the end point may be frames of the video (1/30 second) or units of seconds. The third and fourth lines are VOD server B, respectively.
The start point and the end point of the video files bbb and ccc of C and C are shown.

FIG. 3 schematically shows an example of actual execution of a script, in which an image starts on the left side and ends on the right side. Here, FIG. 3A shows an image of the file aaa in the server A. 3 (b) and 3 (c), the servers are B and C, and the files are bbb and ccc. When the first line of the script shown in FIG. 2B is executed, first, the hatched portion 5 in FIG. 3A is reproduced from the left. When this is completed, the script 2 in FIG.
Execute the line. Thus, the hatched portion 6 in FIG. 3A is reproduced. Since the reproduction in this case is the same file on the same server, it is a discontinuous video, but discontinuous reproduction that hinders viewing does not occur at the joint.

However, when the third line of the script shown in FIG. 2B is executed, the server moves from the server A to the server B, so that it takes time to change the connection of the server, and discontinuity occurs in video reproduction. . This phenomenon similarly occurs in the execution of the fourth line of the script in FIG. Here, FIG.
And the hatched portions 7 and 8 in FIG. 3 (c) are video playback sections by script.

This problem is caused by a server change or sometimes a file update, but the present invention utilizes the fact that the connection can be switched at a high speed when switching to a video file stored in the terminal. In the example of the 2 (b) script, the solution was achieved by previously capturing the video from the third line on which the server change occurs into the terminal.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of normal video reproduction. In step (1), execution of the script is started, and in step (2), connection with the server specified by the script is made.
Step (3) instructs the terminal to reproduce the video, and step (4) monitors the end. In step (5), it is monitored whether or not the script is final. If the script is completed, the process ends in step (8). On the other hand, if you are in the middle of a script,
In step (6), the next script is selected, and in step (7), it is monitored whether the current script is the same server as the previous script. If the servers are the same, step (3)
And instructs the next video reproduction. If the server is different, the process returns to step (2) to connect to the server specified by the script. Thus, normal video reproduction is performed.

In parallel with this, a step of searching for a script for replacing the server and, upon finding the script, executing a step of starting to store the designated video of the server described in the script in the terminal.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for taking a video file into a terminal. Starting at step (11), steps (12) and (13) search for scripts that use different servers. Step (14) instructs the storage device of the terminal to fetch the designated portion of the video file according to the searched script. This end is monitored in step (15). In step (16), the server name on the script is changed to a name corresponding to the storage device of the terminal. In step (17), it is monitored whether the same file name has already been stored in the storage device of the terminal. If the same file name exists, the file name of the script is changed in step (18). In step (19), the end point m of the video reproduction is changed to m = mn, and in step (20), the start point n is changed to n = 0. As a result, the start of the video can be reproduced from 0. In step (21), the script starts ending,
If not, the next script is selected in step (22) and the process returns to step (14). On the other hand, if it ends in step (21), it ends in step (23).

By performing the processes shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 in parallel, it is possible to accumulate the video with the server switching in the terminal in advance and change the server name and the file name of the script at the same time. For this reason, in the example of FIG. 2B, while the first and second lines of the script are being reproduced, the video after the third line is stored in the terminal 1, and the video after the third line is stored from the storage device of the terminal. Be able to play. As a result, it is possible to reproduce an image without an unnatural seam.

In the case of sequential reproduction according to the script by the processing of FIG. 5, the above processing basically eliminates unnatural seams. However, similar to the rewind reproduction of a video tape, the video reproduction is started at the beginning or in the middle. When performing the operation of returning to the terminal, the video not stored in the storage device of the terminal, that is, the video corresponding to the first and second lines of the script in the example of FIG. Since it is not stored, a connection operation to another server is required. In this case, a long time is required for connection, and an unnatural joint occurs. To avoid this, the operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 continues the operation of capturing all the images that have not been completely captured.

Beginning at step (31) in FIG. 6, in steps (32) and (33), a script in which a device other than the storage device of the terminal is specified is searched. Step (34) instructs the storage device of the terminal to capture the designated portion of the video file in accordance with the searched script. This end is monitored in step (35). In step (36), the server name on the script is changed to a name corresponding to the storage device of the terminal. In step (37), it is monitored whether the same file name exists in the storage device of the terminal. If the same file name exists, the script is changed in step (38). In step (39), the end point m of the video reproduction is changed to m = mn, and in step (40), the start point n is changed to n = 0. This gives
The start of the video can be reproduced from 0. In step (41), the end of the script is monitored. If not, the next script is selected in step (33), and the process returns to step (32). On the other hand, if the processing ends in step (41), the processing ends in step (42).

In this way, all the images are taken into the storage device of the terminal, and the subsequent reproduction of the image uses the storage device of the terminal. Here, the processing shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 4, 5, and 6 may be performed in parallel or sequentially through a network. In the case of performing the processing in parallel, the terminal may be connected to a plurality of servers. It is necessary to be able to connect at the same time, and in the case of sequential processing, the transfer speed of the video information sent through the network needs to be sufficiently high compared to the video reproduction in step (3) of FIG.

[0021]

According to the present invention, it is possible to avoid an unnatural stoppage of video due to a connection delay for server switching even when a video stored in a different server is used as a continuous video. . In addition, all video files are transferred to terminal 1
However, since the first video playback uses the server connected via the network and then uses the video stored by the terminal, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to wait for the video reproduction until the storage is completed. Furthermore, since the previous video is finally stored in the terminal, a connection delay can be prevented even when the video is played back backward.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows an overall configuration diagram of a system.

FIG. 2 shows a description example of a script.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of an image.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of video reproduction.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of capturing a video file.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart in the case where video playback is returned to the beginning or in the middle and played back.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: terminal 2: information providing server 3: terminal 4: network 5: video playback section 6: another video playback section 7: another video playback section 8: another video playback section

Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Kazuo Okada Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation 3-19-2 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

Claims (2)

[Claims] In an environment in which a plurality of video servers for storing video and a terminal for presenting video according to a script are connected via a network, the terminal obtains the video from the video server according to an instruction of the script, In addition to providing a video, the terminal is configured to capture the video stored by a video server different from the video server being connected from the analysis of the script into the terminal, and the terminal is configured to perform the video reproduction in which the script instruction is captured. A method for providing a continuous image, the method comprising changing the image. 2. A method for providing a continuous video, comprising: searching for a video that has not been captured by the terminal from among videos in which video has been reproduced in accordance with the script, and capturing the video into the terminal.