JPH10304301A - Display device for image information and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simply retrieve a desired scene or a program among recorded images and to avoid increase in the circuit scale and cost increase in an image information recording device and in a recording/reproducing method that are suitably applied to a television receiver where a received program is recorded continuously on a recording medium of a hard disk drive unit. SOLUTION: An image area of a disk play is divided into a plurality of thumb-nail areas 81A, 81B,... and each divided image is displayed as an index image for each prescribed time corresponding to a plurality of the thumb-nail areas 81A, 81B,... being divisions of the image area of the disk play. In the case that a desired image is designated among the index images, moving image information corresponding to the designated index image is read from a hard disk drive and displayed. Moreover, a prescribed offset time is given to the index images displayed separately as above.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a display apparatus and method for displaying image information suitable for use in a television receiver in which a received program is constantly recorded on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art While enjoying a television broadcast, it is often the case that a telephone call is suddenly heard or a visitor is present and a broadcast program is missed. If a television broadcast program is missed, the program cannot be watched again, except for the program to be rebroadcast. Programs that are rebroadcast in a short period of time are rare, and news and sports programs are not often rebroadcast.
Therefore, in many cases, if a television broadcast program is missed, the program cannot be watched again.

[0003] In addition, there are cases where scenes that are desired to be saved while watching a broadcast program, such as a famous scene of a movie or drama, an interview with an important person, or a highlight scene of a sports program, suddenly start. In such a case, even if the VTR is set immediately, it is often impossible to record the scene in time for the scene.

Therefore, the inventor of the present application has proposed a television receiver in which a broadcast program is constantly recorded on a recording medium while watching the program. In such a television receiver, even if there is a sudden telephone call or a visitor, the program can be reproduced retroactively, and the program is not missed. In addition, the program can be easily stored, and it is possible to cope with a sudden start of a program to be recorded.

Further, the inventor of the present application has proposed using a hard disk drive as a recording medium in a television receiver in which a program is constantly recorded on the recording medium. Conventionally, magnetic tapes have been widely used as recording media for recording video signals. However, a magnetic tape has a low access speed, and is difficult to use as a recording medium for such a television receiver. It is also conceivable to use a semiconductor memory, but a large-capacity semiconductor memory is very expensive, and in a semiconductor memory, a stored program disappears when the power is turned off, and the program is stored for a long time. It is not suitable for such cases. On the other hand, a hard disk drive has a large capacity and a sufficiently high access speed.

In such a television receiver in which a program is constantly recorded on a recording medium, if a hard disk drive is used as a recording medium, the hard disk drive has a large capacity, so that it is possible to store programs for a long time. Become. Furthermore, if a video signal is compressed and recorded using a high-efficiency code, it is possible to record for a longer time.

[0007]

However, as the recording time of a program becomes longer, it becomes difficult for the user to search for a desired scene. For example, when a video signal is recorded using a hard disk drive having a capacity of about 1 Gbyte and compressed by motion JPEG, a recording time of about 60 minutes can be secured. However, it is not easy to search for and reproduce a desired scene from such a long recording screen.

[0008] Therefore, a method of pre-recording an image distinguished as an index image, reading out the index image according to a predetermined procedure and performing a search, detecting a scene change, and using the detected image at the time of the scene change as an index image. A method of performing a search, a method of simply dividing a recording time for each predetermined time, and using a representative image for each time zone as an index can be considered.

However, in a method in which an image distinguished as an index image is recorded in advance, and the index image is read out according to a predetermined procedure to perform a search,
It is necessary to record a fixed index image, and this method cannot be applied when searching for the recorded content of the reception screen.
Also, the method of detecting a scene change on the playback screen and using the place where the scene change occurs as an index requires a correlation detection circuit and a motion detection circuit for detecting the scene change, which increases the circuit scale and costs. Invite. Also, in the method of simply dividing the recording time for each predetermined time and using a representative image for each time slot as an index, the image is not necessarily a meaningful image that can identify the position of the search image. Cannot perform efficient searches.

[0010] As described above, when the received screen is recorded on the hard disk drive, the video data is compressed and recorded. Therefore, it is difficult to simply divide the recording time for each predetermined time to form an index image. Have difficulty.

That is, when the received screen is recorded on the hard disk drive as described above, the video data is compressed to improve the recording time. As a video data compression processing method, MPEG (Motion Picture Exp
erts Group) and Motion JPEG (Joint Photog)
raphics Coding Group) method is known. MPEG
Although the method has a high compression efficiency, the compression in the time axis direction is performed, so that it is difficult to search or perform variable speed reproduction in field units. Therefore, when the reception screen is recorded on the hard disk in this way, it is conceivable to compress the video data by the motion JPEG method.

However, in the motion JPEG system,
The compression ratio of the screen differs depending on the picture or the like. For this reason, when video data is compressed by motion JPEG and recorded on the hard disk drive, the correspondence between the address of the hard disk drive and the recording time cannot be established. For this reason, the recording time cannot be simply obtained from the address of the hard disk drive, and it is difficult to display the recording time by dividing the recording time at every predetermined time.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a display device and a method for displaying image information which can easily search for a desired scene or program from a recording screen and do not cause an increase in circuit scale or cost. It is in.

[0014]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which moving picture information is recorded, time dividing means for dividing the moving picture information recorded on the recording medium at predetermined time intervals, and moving picture information. And a display area for displaying the display area, the screen area of the display means is divided into a plurality of small screen areas, and the moving image at predetermined time intervals divided by the time dividing means in accordance with each of the plurality of divided small screen areas. A screen division display unit for displaying information as an index image, and an input unit for designating a desired index image from index images displayed in a plurality of small screen areas, wherein the index image is designated by the input unit And moving image information corresponding to the specified index image from the recording medium and displaying the moving image information on the display means. That.

[0015] The invention according to claim 2 is an image information display apparatus further comprising an offset means for giving a predetermined amount of offset time to moving image information divided by the time dividing means at every predetermined time. .

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the moving image information is recorded on a recording medium, the moving image information recorded on the recording medium is divided at predetermined time intervals, and a plurality of screen areas for displaying the moving image information are provided. Displaying the moving image information divided for each predetermined time as an index image, corresponding to each of the plurality of divided small screen areas, and displaying the divided moving image information in the plurality of small screen areas. A step of designating a desired index image from index images to be performed, and a step of, when an index image is designated, reading out moving image information corresponding to the designated index image from a recording medium and displaying the moving image information. This is a method for displaying image information, characterized in that:

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for displaying image information, further comprising the step of giving a predetermined amount of offset time to moving image information at predetermined time intervals.

When the overview search key is pressed, the display screen is divided into a plurality of small screens, and each divided screen displays an image of video data recorded on the hard disk drive at predetermined time intervals. Then, when the overview search key is further pressed, the time of each screen is offset by a predetermined time. Therefore, a desired reproduction start position can be easily searched from these index screens.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention is applied to a television receiver in which a hard disk drive is built in the television receiver. A television receiver equipped with such a hard disk drive can play back a scene that has been missed or a scene that the user wants to watch again,
It becomes possible to record and reproduce a desired program.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a television receiver to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, a received signal received by an antenna 1 is supplied to a tuner circuit 2. The tuner circuit 2 includes a system controller 1
A channel setting signal is supplied from 0. The tuner circuit 10 selects a signal of a desired reception channel based on the channel setting signal, and converts the signal into an intermediate frequency signal.

The output of the tuner circuit 2 is supplied to a video intermediate frequency circuit 3. In the video intermediate frequency circuit 3, the intermediate frequency signal from the tuner circuit 2 is amplified, and this signal is video-detected. Thereby, for example, a composite video signal of the NTSC system is obtained. This video signal is supplied to one input terminal 5A of the video source changeover switch 5. Further, an audio signal is detected from a beat component of, for example, 4.5 MHz of the output of the intermediate frequency circuit 3.
This output is supplied to the audio demodulation circuit 12.

A video signal from an external video input terminal 6 is supplied to the other input terminal 5B of the video source changeover switch 5. A select signal is supplied from the system controller 10 to the video source switch 5. The video source changeover switch 5 switches between a video signal based on the received television broadcast and a video signal from the external video input terminal 6.

The output of the video source switch 5 is supplied to the video signal processing circuit 7. The video signal processing circuit 7 separates the luminance signal Y and the chroma signal C from the NTSC composite video signal, further demodulates the color difference signals U, V from the chroma signal C, and converts the component video signals Y, U, V It is formed. The component video signals Y, U, and V are supplied to a terminal 8 of the switch circuit 8.
A and supplied to the A / D converter 21 for storing the video signal in the hard disk drive 30. The output of the D / A converter 35 is supplied to the other input terminal 8B of the switch circuit 8 in order to output a reproduction screen from the hard disk drive 30.

The switch circuit 8 switches between a screen based on a received television broadcast or a video signal from the external video input terminal 6 and a playback screen from the hard disk drive 30. Switch circuit 8
Is controlled by the system controller 10. When displaying a screen based on a received television broadcast or a video signal from the external video input terminal 6, the switch circuit 8 is switched to the terminal 8A side. When projecting the playback screen from the hard disk drive 30,
The switch circuit 8 is switched to the terminal 8B.

The output of the switch circuit 8 is supplied to a video output circuit 9. The video output circuit 9 drives a matrix circuit that forms three primary color signals R, G, and B from the component video signals Y, U, and V from the switch circuit 8, and drives these three primary color signals R, G, and B. A video amplification circuit for supplying the color picture tube 11; In the video output circuit 9,
The component video signal Y from the switch circuit 8,
U and V are converted into three primary color signals R, G and B and supplied to the color picture tube 11.

An audio signal detected from, for example, a 4.5 MHz beat component of the output of the intermediate frequency circuit 3 is supplied to an audio demodulation circuit 12. The audio signal is demodulated by the audio demodulation circuit 12. This audio signal is supplied to the input terminal 13A of the audio source changeover switch 13.

An audio signal from an external audio input terminal 14 is supplied to the other terminal 13 B of the audio source switch 13. The audio source switch 13 selects an audio signal based on the received television broadcast and an audio signal from the external audio input terminal 14.

The output of the audio source changeover switch 13 is supplied to a terminal 15 A of the switch circuit 15 and is also supplied to an A / D converter 25 for storing the audio signal in the hard disk drive 30. The other input terminal 15B of the switch circuit 15 has a D / D for outputting an audio signal from the hard disk drive 30.
An output of the A converter 38 is supplied.

The switch circuit 15 switches between an audio signal received from the television broadcast or the external audio input terminal 14 and an audio signal reproduced from the hard disk drive 30.
The switch circuit 15 is controlled by the system controller 10. When outputting a received television broadcast or an audio signal from the external audio input terminal 14, the switch circuit 15 is switched to the terminal 15A side. To output an audio signal from the hard disk drive 30, the switch circuit 15
Switch to B side.

The output of the switch circuit 15 is supplied to an audio amplifier 16. The audio signal from the switch circuit 15 is amplified by the audio amplifier 16. This audio signal is supplied to the speaker 17.

The component video signals Y, U, V from the video signal processing circuit 7 are supplied to an A / D converter 21 for storage in the hard disk drive 30. The component video signal from the video signal processing circuit 17 is digitized by the A / D converter 21. The output of the A / D converter 21 is supplied to the field memory 22. The output of the field memory 22 is supplied to the image compression circuit 23. The image compression circuit 23 compresses the component video signal. As the image compression method, for example, motion JPEG is used, and compression is performed so that the code amount of one field is equal. The video data compressed by the image compression circuit 23 is transmitted to the bus 29 via the buffer memory 24.

The audio signal from the audio source switching circuit 13 is supplied to an A / D converter 25 for storage in the hard disk drive 30. A /
Audio source switching circuit 1 with D converter 25
3 is digitized. A / D
The output of the converter 25 is supplied to the audio compression circuit 26. The audio signal is compressed by the audio compression circuit 26. As the audio compression method, for example, a non-linear PC
M is used. The audio data compressed by the audio compression circuit 26 is transmitted to a bus 29 via a buffer amplifier 28.
Sent to

The video data from the buffer memory 24 and the audio data from the audio compression circuit 26 are synthesized into fixed-length blocks. Each block is provided with a predetermined header for identifying the block.

As described above, the video data and the audio data which are divided into blocks are transmitted to the CPU (Central Processing).
The hard disk drive 30 via the bus 29 under the control of the recording / reproducing controller 27 comprising
Will be recorded. Thereby, the hard disk drive 3
0 stores video data and audio data.

Video data and audio data recorded on the hard disk drive 30 are recorded / recorded.
Playback is performed under the control of the playback controller 27. Playback data from the hard disk drive 30 is transmitted to the bus 29
Are supplied to the buffer memories 31 and 36 via the.

The video data from the buffer memory 31 is supplied to an image decompression circuit 32. Image expansion circuit 32
Thus, for example, component video data Y, U, and V are formed from video data compressed by motion JPEG. The output of the image expansion circuit 32 is an image processing circuit 33 for forming a multi-screen,
4 to the D / A converter 35. D /
In the A converter 35, the digital video signal is converted to an analog video signal. The output of the D / A converter 35 is supplied to a terminal 8B of the switch circuit 8.

The audio data from the buffer memory 36 is supplied to an audio expansion circuit 37. The output of the audio expansion circuit 37 is supplied to a D / A converter 38.
The digital audio signal is converted into an analog audio signal by the D / A converter 38. The output of the D / A converter 38 is supplied to the terminal 15B of the switch circuit 15.

The system controller 10 controls the whole of the television receiver. The system controller 10 and the recording / playback processing controller 27
Connected in both directions.

The system controller 10 includes a light receiving unit 4
2, an input is provided from the remote commander 52. Based on the input from the remote commander 52,
Various operations are set. The output of the system controller 10 is supplied to the display generation circuit 44. Display generation circuit 4
4 generates display signals indicating various operation setting states. The output of the display generation circuit 44 is supplied to the video output circuit 9, and various operation states are displayed on the screen. Further, a timer 45 is provided for the system controller 10. The timer 45 is used when setting a time for storing a program.

The television receiver to which the present invention is applied can be operated using a remote commander 52 as shown in FIG.

The remote commander 52 has various keys for making basic settings of the television receiver, that is, a power switch 61 for turning on / off the power of the television receiver, and for making channel settings. , Channel up / down keys 63A and 63B, volume up / down keys 64A and 64B, and an input source switch 65.

The remote commander 52 for operating the television receiver to which the present invention is applied includes a program pause key as various keys for controlling recording / reproduction of the hard disk drive 30 of the television receiver. 66, a bookmark recording key 67, a section repeat key 68, a cancel key 69, a reverse skip playback key 7
0, reverse high-speed feed key 71, double speed key 72, normal high-speed feed key 73, normal rotation skip key 74, overview search key 75, arrow keys 76A, 76B, enter key 77
Is arranged.

When the program pause key 66 is pressed, the screen being received is stopped on the spot and displayed as a still image.
During that time, the program is recorded on the hard disk drive 30 of the television receiver. When the program pause key 66 is pressed again, the program recorded in the hard disk drive 30 is reproduced from the scene where the still image is displayed.

When the bookmark record key 67 is pressed,
At this time, the program being broadcast can be stored in the hard disk drive 30 of the television receiver.

The section repeat key 68 sets repeat reproduction. When the section repeat key 68 is pressed first, a repeat start position is set, and when the section repeat key 68 is pressed next, a repeat end position is set.

The cancel key 69 is pressed to cancel a set operation or function.

A reverse skip reproduction key 70, a reverse high speed feed key 71, a double speed key 72, a normal high speed feed key 73, and a normal rotation skip key 74 are keys for performing variable speed reproduction.

Overview search key 75, arrow key 7
6A, 76B and the decision key 77 are used for program search. When the overview search key 75 is pressed, the screen of the television receiver is divided into a center screen and a plurality of surrounding small screens. On the surrounding small screens, screens at predetermined time intervals are displayed from among the screens recorded in the hard disk drive 30. When a desired screen is selected from a plurality of screens by operating the arrow keys 76A and 76B and the reproduction start position is searched, the enter key 77 is pressed. When the enter key 77 is pressed, the reproduction is started from the selected screen.

As described above, the overview command key 75 is provided on the remote commander 52 of the television receiver to which the present invention is applied. When the overview search key 75 is used, the hard disk drive 3
It is possible to easily search for a desired reproduction start position from the information recorded in “0”.

That is, assuming that the recording time of the hard disk drive 30 is, for example, 60 minutes, when the overview search key 75 is pressed, the recording screen of 60 minutes is displayed, for example, for 5 minutes.
The image is divided every minute and a screen every five minutes is displayed as an index image.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the screen 80 is divided into a plurality of small screens 81A, 81B, 81C,. If the screen 81A is a screen of “0 minutes”, the screens 81B, 81C, 81D,.
The screen of “minute”, “15 minutes”... Is displayed. Each screen 81
The time order of A, 81B, 81C,... Is clockwise so that the user can easily recognize it. Each screen 81B,
The elapsed time is displayed in characters in 81C, 81D,.... The moving image of the selected screen is displayed on the central small screen 83.

The screens 81A, 81B, 81 every 5 minutes
A desired screen of interest is selected from C,. The attention screen can be selected by using the arrow keys 76A and 76 of the remote commander.
This is performed by the operation of B. On the selected screen among the screens 81A to 81L, a screen frame 82 different from other screen frames is displayed. At the same time, the center screen 80 shows
A moving image corresponding to the selected attention screen is displayed. The elapsed time is displayed in characters in this moving image. The time zone of the currently reproduced image is associated with the time zone of which index image, so that the color of the screen frame is the same, so that it can be visually recognized.

Further, when the overview search key 75 is pressed, as shown in FIG. 3B, each screen is offset by one minute, and the screens 81A, 81B, 81C, 81D,. , "6 minutes", "11 minutes", "16 minutes", ...
・ ・ The screen of is displayed. When the overview search key 75 is further pressed, the screens are further offset by one minute, and the screens 81A, 81B, 81C, 81D,.
・ ・ "2 minutes", "7 minutes", "12 minutes", "17 minutes"
Screen is displayed.

The user can use these index screens 81
A, 81B, 81C,. When the time zone in which the video playback is to be started is searched, the enter key 77 is pressed. Enter key 7
When 7 is pressed, as shown in FIG. 3C, the full screen is displayed, and the reproduction of the moving image is started from the screen at the selected time.

As described above, according to the present invention, the time zone of the index image to which the currently played time zone is associated can be visually recognized by making the colors of the screen frames the same. In addition, each screen 81A, 81B, 81
The time order of the index screens displayed on C, 81D,... Is clockwise in consideration of real life. Also, screens 81A, 81B, 81C, 8 of each index
In 1D,..., The elapsed time is displayed with characters, and in the moving image on the center screen 83, detailed playback elapsed time is displayed in characters. For this reason, the user can easily recognize the time and can easily search.

As described above, the overview search key 75
Is pressed, the 60-minute recording screen recorded on the hard disk drive 30 is divided, for example, every 5 minutes, and displayed on a plurality of screens 81A, 81B, 81C, 81D,. Further, when the overview search key 75 is pressed, each screen is offset by one minute. Therefore, these index screens 81A, 81B, 81
An image serving as an index of a screen that the user wants to search is displayed somewhere in C, 81D,...
A desired reproduction start position can be searched.

FIG. 4 shows a process for dividing the image information stored in the hard disk drive 30 for each predetermined time and displaying the divided image information so that a desired reproduction start position can be easily searched. It is a flowchart which shows.

In FIG. 4, an overview search key 7
It is determined whether or not to create an index screen as shown in FIG. 3 based on whether or not 5 is pressed (step S).
T1). When creating an index screen, a division time T, a division interval t, and an offset time n (n = 0) are set (step ST2).

The image information recorded on the hard disk drive 30 is divided at time T at division intervals t (step ST3). In the present invention, one field of video data is recorded in the hard disk drive 30 after being compressed into a fixed-length field. Therefore, there is a correspondence between the address of the hard disk drive 30 and the recording time. Therefore, the image information recorded on the hard disk drive 30 can be divided for each predetermined time by a simple address calculation.

When the image information of the hard disk drive 30 is divided every predetermined time, the screen is accessed,
An index image is created from these divided screens, and a search screen is created and displayed (step ST4). As a result, as shown in FIG. 3A, an image for each time is displayed as an index screen on multiple screens.

On such a multi-screen, a time zone in which a desired moving picture is reproduced is selected (step ST5), and it is determined whether or not to update the index screen (step ST5).
6). When updating the index screen, the overview search key 75 is further pressed.

To update the index screen, a division offset time n is set (step ST).
7), the process returns to step ST3. This allows
As shown in FIG. 3B, the index screen advanced by the offset time n is displayed on multiple screens.

If the index screen is not updated in step ST6, it is determined whether or not a screen for starting moving image reproduction on multiple screens has been determined (step ST6).
8). When the time zone of the screen on which the video playback is to be started is set, the enter key 77 is pressed. When the enter key 77 is pressed and the time zone in which the reproduction of the moving image is to be started is determined, the video data at that time is read from the hard disk drive 30 and the moving image is displayed on the full screen as shown in FIG. 3C. (Step ST9).

As described above, in the television receiver to which the present invention is applied, video data is compressed by motion JPEG so that one field of data has a fixed length. Therefore, the image information recorded on the hard disk drive 30 can be divided for each predetermined time or an offset time can be given by a simple address calculation. These calculations are performed by the system controller 10, for example, and the hard disk drive 30 is accessed based on the calculation results.

That is, in the television receiver to which the present invention is applied, when video data is compressed and recorded on the hard disk drive 30, the image compression circuit 23
The compression processing is performed so that the compressed data of the fields become equal. This means, for example, that the input video data is dropped to 1/4 field, the compression of the video data of the same field is tried a plurality of times, the code amount is estimated, and the quantization table is set so as to have a predetermined code amount. This is done by doing

The video data of one field having a predetermined code amount is divided into fixed-length blocks as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG.
The field is composed of video data and audio data whose fields are compressed with a fixed length, and a predetermined header for identifying the block is provided at the head of each block. As described above, data is recorded on the hard disk drive 30 using the fixed-length block as a file.

As described above, since the image of each field is recorded as a fixed-length file on the hard disk drive 30, the access address of the index image at a certain time T on the hard disk 30 is determined by the time elapsed from the recording start time. By converting time to the number of fields,
It can be obtained by a simple calculation. That is, the logical address on the hard disk (HDD) is obtained as follows from the start address of the hard disk and the number of fields converted from the elapsed time and the number of fixed-length block sectors.

(Logical address on HDD) = (Start address of HDD + (Number of fields) × (Block fixed sector length)) The conversion of the number of fields is defined by how many seconds of one recorded field correspond to real time. For example, in the case where a frame is played back with 1/4 field dropped, the image data for one field is about 0.
This corresponds to 25 seconds.

As described above, in the television receiver to which the present invention is applied, when the overview search key 75 is pressed, the 60-minute recording screen is divided, for example, every five minutes, and a plurality of five-minute recording screens are divided. Screens 81A, 81B, 81C, 81
D, ... Further, when the overview search key 75 is pressed, each screen is offset by one minute. Therefore, these index screens 81A,
An image serving as an index of a screen that the user wants to search is displayed in any of 81B, 81C, 81D,..., And a desired recording position can be searched from this screen.
Since video data is recorded in the hard disk drive 30 with one field compressed to a fixed length, a playback screen for each time can be displayed by simple address calculation.

In this embodiment, the video data based on the reception screen is stored in the hard disk drive. However, according to the present invention, the video data is stored in a semiconductor memory based on another recording medium, for example, the reception screen. The same can be applied to such a case.

[0071]

According to the present invention, when the overview search key is pressed, the display screen is divided into a plurality of small screens, and video data recorded on the hard disk drive at predetermined time intervals is displayed on each of the divided screens. Split display. Then, when the overview search key is further pressed, each screen is offset every predetermined time. Therefore, an image serving as an index of a screen that the user wants to search is displayed somewhere on these index screens, and a desired recording position can be easily searched from this screen.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a television receiver to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a plan view used for explaining a remote commander in the television receiver to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram used for explaining an index screen.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart used to explain an index screen.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram used for describing a data structure in a television receiver to which the present invention is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

22, 34 ... field memory, 23 ... image compression circuit, 30 ... hard disk drive, 75 ...
・ Overview search key

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Naoki Okamoto 6-7-35 Kita Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Inside Sony Corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium on which moving picture information is recorded, time dividing means for dividing moving picture information recorded on the recording medium at predetermined time intervals, a display means for displaying moving picture information, Divide the screen area into multiple small screen areas,
In correspondence with each of the divided small screen areas,
Screen division display means for displaying, as index images, moving image information at predetermined time intervals divided by the time division means, and an input for designating a desired index image from the index images displayed in the plurality of small screen areas Means, and when an index image is designated by the input means,
A display device for image information, wherein moving image information corresponding to the designated index image is read from the recording medium and displayed on the display means. 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an offset unit for giving a predetermined amount of offset time to the moving image information divided by said time dividing unit at a predetermined time interval.
A display device for the described image information. 3. A step of recording moving image information on a recording medium and dividing the moving image information recorded on the recording medium at predetermined time intervals, wherein a screen area for displaying the moving image information is divided into a plurality of small screen areas. Displaying the moving image information divided for each predetermined time as an index image, corresponding to each of the plurality of divided small screen areas; and displaying the index displayed in the plurality of small screen areas. A step of designating a desired index image from images, and a step of, when the index image is designated, reading out moving image information corresponding to the designated index image from the recording medium and displaying the moving image information. A method for displaying image information, characterized in that: 4. The method for displaying image information according to claim 3, further comprising a step of giving a predetermined amount of offset time to said moving image information for each predetermined time.