JPH10313435A - Time measuring instrument and method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform continuous display and also to measure an accurate reproduction time by calibrating a time counting means which produces a reproduction time each second with a counting means which operating on a block number. SOLUTION: A block detection circuit 101 detects a change point of a block in every sixty-four fields and outputs a block number at the change point of the block. the block number is supplied to a time counter 102 which produces a reproduction time T1 based on the block number. A time counter 103 counts a clock in every second from a reference block generating circuit 104 and calculates a reproduction time T2 . A block number decision circuit 105 detects a block number in which remainder of (block number and the field number of one block/field number per second) becomes zero based on a block number from the circuit 101, allows a calibration circuit 106 to operate and calibrates the value of the counter 103 with the value of the counter 102.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a time measuring apparatus and method suitable for displaying a reproduction time in a television receiver in which a 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.

[0006] As described above, when reproducing video data recorded in a hard disk drive in a television receiver having a built-in hard disk drive,
It is desirable to be able to display the playback time. When displaying the reproduction time, for example, it is conceivable to calculate the reproduction time from the number of fields read out.

That is, for example, when the video data processing is performed with the number of fields M as one block,
Assuming that the number of fields per second is L, the reproduction time T of the block number N can be calculated as T = N · M / L.

For example, when data from a hard disk drive is processed by treating 64 fields as one block, the number of fields per second in the NTSC system is 60.
Since it is a field, the time per block is (M / L) = (64/60) seconds. Therefore, the reproduction time T of the block number N can be calculated as T = N · 64/60.

When the reproduction time is obtained from the block number in this way, the result is as shown in FIG. For example, as shown in FIG.
8 seconds ", the block number" 131 "is" 2 minutes 19 seconds ", and the block number" 132 "is" 2 minutes 20 ".
Seconds ”and the block number“ 133 ”are“ 2 minutes 21
Seconds ”and block number“ 134 ”are“ 2 minutes 22 seconds ”
It becomes.

[0010]

However, when the reproduction time is calculated from the block number as described above, since the number of fields in one block is larger than the number of fields per second, the time to advance per block is one second. It becomes a value larger than. For this reason, there is a place where the timer value thus obtained becomes discontinuous.

That is, in FIG. 7, the block number "13"
"4" becomes "2:22" and the block number "1"
“35” becomes “2 minutes 24 seconds” and “2 minutes 23 seconds” is missed. If the timer value becomes discontinuous due to such a lack of seconds, it is unnatural, and a problem arises when trying to access in units of seconds.

If the reproduction time is displayed using a counter that advances every second, such a missing of the count value does not occur. In this case, however, the actual reproduction time and the time that the counter advances by one counter are used. Errors accumulate, making it impossible to display the correct reproduction time.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a time measuring apparatus and method capable of performing continuous display and accurately measuring a reproduction time.

[0014]

According to the present invention, the processing of video data is performed in units of blocks consisting of the number of screens M, and the reproduction time is determined by the block number N of the blocks and the number of screens L per second. (M / L), a second time counting means that counts up every second and calculates a reproduction time, and (N · M / L)
When the remainder of L) is a block number at which the remainder is 0, the second reproduction time obtained by the first time counting means
And a means for calibrating the reproduction time obtained from the time counting means.

Processing of a video signal is performed in units of blocks each having the number M of screens. Then, based on the block number N of the block and the number of screens L per second, the reproduction time is set to (N
(M / L) to obtain the playback time. In the reproduction time obtained in this way, there may be a case where the number of seconds is not continuous. On the other hand, if the reproduction time is calculated by counting up every second, an error may occur from the actual reproduction time. In the present invention, when the remainder of (N · M / L) is a block number at which the remainder is 0, the reproduction time is counted up every second and the reproduction time is updated by the reproduction time obtained by (N · M / L). doing. As a result, continuation of the number of seconds can be maintained, and errors do not accumulate.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The present invention can be 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 can be 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 a 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.

The audio signal detected from the output of the intermediate frequency circuit 3 from, for example, a 4.5 MHz beat component 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 13B of the audio source changeover 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 an 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 combined into a fixed-length file. Each file is provided with a predetermined header.

As described above, the video data and the audio data synthesized into the fixed-length file are transmitted to the CPU (Centra).
The data is recorded on a hard disk drive 30 via a bus 29 under the control of a recording / reproducing controller 27 comprising an l Processing Unit). Thus, the video data and the audio data are stored in the hard disk drive 30.

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 32 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 entire 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 section 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.

Further, a 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 immediately 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 recording 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 repeat reproduction is set by the section repeat key 68. 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.

The reverse skip reproduction key 70, the reverse high speed feed key 71, the double speed key 72, the normal rotation high speed feed key 73, and the 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 remote commander 52 of the television receiver to which the present invention is applied is provided with the overview search key 75. 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 60-minute recording screen 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 currently reproduced image is associated with the time zone of which index image by visually determining the color of the screen frame. 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.

As described above, the reproduction time is displayed in characters on the reproduction screen. The present invention is used to display the reproduction time of the screen being reproduced on the hard disk drive 30, as described above.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration for obtaining the count value of the reproduction time. In this example, 6
Processing is performed with four fields as one block.

In FIG. 4, the block detection circuit 101
Detects a change point of a block for every 64 fields and outputs a block number at the change point of the block. This block number is supplied to the time counter 102.

The time counter 102 calculates the reproduction time T ₁ based on the block number. That is, when the video data is processed with the number of fields M in one block and the number of fields per second is L, the reproduction time T ₁ of the block number N can be calculated as T ₁ = N · M / L. The number of fields M per block is 64
Since the number of fields in one block is 60 in the NTSC system, the reproduction time T ₁ is obtained by T ₁ = N · 64/60. Time counter 102 performs the calculation as described above, obtaining the reproduction time T _1.

The time counter 103 counts the clock for each second from the reference block generation circuit 104 to obtain a reproduction time T ₂ .

Based on the block number from the block detection circuit 101, the block number determination circuit 105 calculates (N / M /
It is detected whether the remainder of L) is a block number of 0. Then, when the remainder of (N · M / L) is a block number at which the remainder is 0, the calibration circuit 106 is operated to calibrate the value of the time counter 103 with the value of the time counter 102.

That is, the time T ₁ obtained by the time counter 102 is advanced by (M / L) seconds, that is, (64/60) seconds. For each block number that is a common multiple of M and L, that is, for each block number that is a common multiple of 64 and 60, 15, 30, 45,.
Becomes zero. When the remainder of (N · M / L) is 0, the time T ₁ of the time counter 102 and the time counter 10
The time T _{2 of} 3 should match. From this,
When the remainder of (N · M / L) is a block number of 0, the value T ₂ of the time counter 103 is changed to the time counter 102
If the calibration by the value T _1, the error of the time counter 103 is not deposited.

If the reproduction time is displayed based on the value of the time counter 103 obtained in this way, the reproduction time continues and the correct time can be displayed without accumulation of errors.

For example, block numbers 130, 131, 1
At 32,..., The value of the time counter 102 is as shown in FIG. On the other hand, FIG.
The reproduction time obtained from the time counter 103 shown in FIG. 3B is continuous, but since the clock is obtained by counting every second, there may be a slight error from the actual reproduction time. There is. When the value of the time counter 103 is calibrated by the value of the time counter 102 at the time of the block number N where the remainder of (N · 64/60) is 0, as shown in FIG. You can get playback time without any.

Note that such control can be performed by software. FIG. 6 shows a flowchart in the case where the above processing is performed. In FIG. 6, it is detected whether or not the block number has changed (step ST1). If there is no change in the block number,
It is determined whether one second has elapsed (step ST2).
When one second has elapsed, a time counter for measuring the reproduction time is incremented (step ST3), a one-second timer is set (step ST4), and the routine returns.
If one second has not elapsed in step ST2, the process returns. By performing the processing of steps ST2 to ST4, the value of the time counter for measuring the reproduction time is incremented every second.

If it is detected in step ST1 that the block number has changed, the reproduction time is calculated from the block number N (step ST5). This calculation is obtained by (N · 64/60) as described above.

As a result of the calculation, it is determined whether or not a remainder has occurred (step ST6). If there is a remainder, it is returned. If there is no remainder, the value of the time counter for measuring the reproduction time is updated with the reproduction time obtained from the block number N (step ST7). And 1
A second timer is set (step ST8), and the process returns.

In the above example, one block is composed of 64 fields, but the number of fields in one block is not limited to 64 blocks. Also,
In the above example, the number of fields is set to 60 Hz.
The same applies to the case where the number of fields is 50 Hz.

[0067]

According to the present invention, the video signal is processed in units of blocks each consisting of the number M of screens, and the reproduction time is obtained as (N · M / L), and the reproduction time is counted up every second. Seeking. And (N / M /
When the remainder of L) is a block number where the remainder is 0, the reproduction time obtained by counting up every second is calculated as (N · M /
L) is updated based on the playback time obtained. As a result, continuation of the number of seconds can be maintained, and errors do not accumulate.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

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

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

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram used for describing an example of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram used for describing an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart used to describe an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram used to explain a conventional reproduction time measurement.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 ... Block detection circuit, 102, 103 ...
Time counter, 105... Block number judgment circuit, 10
6 ... Calibration circuit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. Processing of video data is performed in units of blocks consisting of the number M of screens, and a block number N
And the number of screens L per second, the playback time is (N ·
(M / L), a second time counting unit that counts up every second to calculate a reproduction time, and a remainder of (N · M / L) becomes zero. Means for calibrating the reproduction time obtained from the second time counting means based on the reproduction time obtained by the first time counting means at the time of the block number. . 2. Processing of video data is performed in units of blocks each including the number M of screens, and a block number N
And the number of screens L per second, the playback time is (N ·
(M / L), calculating the playback time by counting up every second, and (N · M / L) when the remainder is 0, the (N · M / L) (M / L) and calibrating the reproduction time obtained by counting up every one second as described above.