JPH11150720A - Real time data reproduction device and system therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide the real time data reproduction device and system therefor that reproduces real time information with higher quality than that limited by restriction of a communication channel and a communication cost. SOLUTION: This real time data reproduction system is made up of a transmitter 304 that transmits part 313 of real time data divided into a plurality via a communication means 303 and up of a real time data reproduction device 305 that acquires the part 313 of the real time data from the communication means 303, acquires the remaining part 312 from a storage medium 302 and reproduces in real time the two parts 312, 313 of the real time data based on control information 314 acquired at least either of the communication means 303 and the storage medium 302 while combining them.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data reproducing apparatus for acquiring and reproducing data stored in a server device on a transmitting side using a communication means such as a network, such as a video-on-demand receiving terminal. The present invention relates to a device and a data reproducing system such as a video-on-demand system including a transmitting server device. In particular, the present invention relates to a data reproducing apparatus which handles data whose data is managed in a time-series order, and furthermore, which handles data having such a property that use of the data is managed by time information such as a time stamp. About the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows a conventional general configuration of a data reproducing apparatus and system of this kind. The system is roughly divided into a server device 101, a network 102, and a receiving terminal device. The main part of the receiving terminal device is divided into a network terminal device 103 and a video reproducing device 104 including a decoder and a display device. In this configuration, the video-on-demand receiving terminal is connected to the network 10
2. Get all of the video data from 2. In this case, the same video source is prepared in advance in the server apparatus 101 in a plurality of kinds of quality. The user selects any of several types of quality data when acquiring video data. Alternatively, the video reproduction device 10
4 automatically selects the optimal quality. This acquisition status,
It depends on the bandwidth of your network. Similarly,
In a video-on-demand system including a server device 101 and a network 102 as a communication means, the quality of video information transmitted and received is
2 band.

[0003] Video and video on the Internet, which is a general network using such devices and systems, are used.
In the on-demand service, the spatial resolution and the time resolution of video information are often limited due to the limitation of available network bandwidth. Although these limitations are being improved by the advancement of video compression technology, an increase in network bandwidth is indispensable for reproducing video of the same quality as television broadcasting.

[0004]

As described above, in order to reproduce high-quality real-time information in a conventional real-time data reproducing apparatus or conventional real-time data reproducing system, it is necessary to increase a communication band usable by communication means. . However, this increase in communication band causes an increase in communication cost. Also, there is a problem in increasing the communication band from the viewpoint of effective use of the communication band resources. In the case of the video-on-demand service on the Internet, it is not possible to know the contents until the service is actually paid for by paying the communication cost or usage fee, and services that are attractive to users cannot be provided. It is the current situation.

According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional data reproducing apparatus and system, and to reproduce real-time information having a quality higher than the quality limited by the limitation of the communication band and the communication cost. It is an object to provide a real-time data reproducing device and system.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A real-time data reproducing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a receiving means for acquiring a first part of a plurality of divided real-time data from a communication means, and accumulating a second part of the divided real-time data. Media playback means for acquiring from the media, and playback means for performing real-time playback while combining the first and second parts of the real-time data based on the control information acquired by at least one of the reception means and the media playback means. It is characterized by the following.

Further, a real-time data reproducing system according to the present invention provides a transmitting device for transmitting a part of real-time data divided into a plurality of parts via a communication means, and obtaining a part of the real-time data from the communication means.
A real-time data reproducing device that obtains the remaining part from the storage medium and that performs real-time reproduction while combining the two parts of the real-time data based on the control information obtained from at least one of the communication means and the storage medium. I do.

According to the apparatus and system of the present invention having the above configuration, real-time data generated from one real-time data source is divided into a plurality of pieces in advance according to a certain rule, and a part is stored in a storage medium. And transmit the rest via the communication means. Then, by combining the part obtained via the communication means and the part reproduced from the storage medium on the receiving side, that is, the reproducing apparatus side, the real-time information before being divided is restored. As described above, by utilizing the real-time reproduction data from the storage medium, the real-time information having a quality superior to the quality of the real-time information reproduced from the real-time data of the information amount limited by the limitation of the communication band and the communication cost. Can be played.

Preferably, the media reproducing means acquires the receiving means control information from the storage medium together with the second part of the real-time data, and the reproducing means converts the first part of the real-time data into the real-time data based on the receiving means control information. The receiving means is controlled so as to be obtained from the communication means in synchronization with the second part. Alternatively, the receiving means acquires the media reproduction means control information together with the first part of the real-time data from the communication means, and the reproduction means converts the second part of the real-time data into the first part of the real-time data based on the media reproduction means control information. The media playback means may be controlled so as to acquire from the storage media in synchronization with the media playback.

[0010] Preferably, the reproducing means is configured to be able to reproduce the real-time data using only the first part of the real-time data obtained by the receiving means. Conversely, it is also preferable that the reproducing unit is configured to be able to reproduce the real-time data using only the second part of the real-time data obtained by the media reproducing unit.

Preferably, a computer network or a television broadcast is used as the communication means.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention is particularly applicable to a case where data stored in a server device on a transmitting side is communicated in real time, such as a video-on-demand service connected to a wide area network. This is effective as a method for reducing the communication band and communication cost.

Hereinafter, embodiments of a real-time data reproducing system and a real-time data reproducing apparatus included therein according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the following description will be made regarding the acquisition of video data.
The acquired data is not necessarily limited to video data. General real-time data may be data other than video, for example, audio data, multiplexed audio and video data, and the like.

Here, the present invention is directed to data in which data is managed in a time-series order, and furthermore, the use of the data is managed by time information such as a time stamp. An apparatus and a system related to data of various properties. In this specification, these data are collectively called real-time data.

In general, in real-time data transmission, MPEG (Motion Picture E) is used.
xpert Group), a time stamp is attached in a multiplex transmission format as represented by the standard,
Time is often managed. The following description also assumes such a case.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a video-on-demand system as a real-time data reproducing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This system is roughly divided into a server device 20 which is a real-time data transmission device.
1. It comprises a network 202 as communication means connecting the server device 201 and the receiving terminal device, and a receiving terminal device as a real-time data reproducing device. The main part of the receiving terminal device further includes a network terminating device 203 as a receiving means for obtaining real-time data from the communication means, a media reproducing device 204 for obtaining real-time data from the storage medium, and real-time reproduction while combining the divided real-time data. It is divided into a video playback device 205 as playback means.

FIG. 2 shows an example of handling video data in the video-on-demand system shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2A, one video source 311 is divided into two layers by the layer encoder 301 and encoded, and among them, the lower layer (base layer)
CD-ROM3 as a storage medium
02, and the hierarchical code 313 of the upper layer (enhancement layer) is stored in the video-on-demand server device 304 on the network 303.

On the receiving side, as shown in FIG. 2B, in accordance with a user's request, the decoder 305 makes the CD-ROM 3
02 and the network terminating device control information (ie, receiving unit control information) 314
Through the CD-ROM drive 306. Further, the decoder 305 outputs the network terminating device control information 314.
Based on the network terminating device (ie, receiving means) 3
07 via the network 303,
The upper layer data 313 stored in the demand server device 304 is acquired as a real-time bit stream. Then, the decoder combines the lower layer data 312 obtained from the CD-ROM drive 306 and the upper layer data 313 obtained from the network terminating device 307 to reproduce real-time video data.

With such a configuration, the network 30
Thus, video data having an information amount larger than the information amount that can be obtained using only the band unique to No. 3 can be reproduced.
Further, since the lower layer data 312 encoded hierarchically is stored in the CD-ROM 302, the CD-RO
Simple video reproduction can be performed by acquiring data only from M302.

As an effect, for example, the user can preview the video contents using only the CD-ROM 302 before paying the communication cost or the service usage fee and receiving the full service. Then, it is possible to enjoy the complete video reproduction by paying the communication cost and the service fee only for the contents agreed upon in the preview. Also,
By distributing the inexpensive CD-ROM, the service provider can carry out advertisement including simple contents of the video-on-demand service.

In the above embodiment, the lower layer code 312 is stored in the CD-ROM 302 as a storage medium, and the upper layer code 313 is stored in the video-on-demand server device 304 as a transmitting device. Conversely, a configuration may be employed in which the upper layer layer code is stored in the CD-ROM and the lower layer layer code is stored in the server device. This configuration has an advantage that the preview can be provided using a network when the distribution of video data by CD-ROM is the main purpose for the information provider. In addition, since the user is connected to the video-on-demand server every time the user plays the CD-ROM, there is an advantage that advertisement of other services can be effectively performed simultaneously with distribution of video data. is there.

In the above embodiment, the CD-ROM 3
02, the network terminating device control information 314 is obtained from the decoding device 305.
14 is controlled on the basis of the CD-ROM drive control information from the network 303, and the decoding device 305
CD-ROM drive 30 based on drive control information
6 may be controlled.

The storage medium is not limited to a CD-ROM, and various known storage media such as a DVD-ROM can be used. Accordingly, the CD-ROM drive 306 as a media playback device will be replaced with an appropriate media playback device.

The method of dividing real-time data is not limited to division using hierarchical coding into two layers.
Using hierarchical coding to three or more layers, multiple communications,
A configuration using a combination of storage media is also conceivable. Further, a data division method that cannot perform low-quality data reproduction using only a part of the divided data may be adopted, or a time division method such as frame thinning may be used. Is also good.

The present invention is applicable not only to the case where the real-time data to be divided is compressed data but also to the case where uncompressed real-time data is divided and used. The effect of cost reduction can be obtained. Further, the communication means for communicating a part of the divided real-time data is not limited to a computer network, but may be a television broadcast such as a CATV. In this case, the receiving device uses a broadcast receiving device instead of the network terminating device.

[0026]

As described above, according to the real-time data reproducing apparatus and system of the present invention, the quality of the real-time information reproduced from the real-time data of the information amount limited by the limitation of the communication band and the communication cost is superior. Real-time information having high quality can be reproduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a configuration diagram of a video-on-demand system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data flow in the video-on-demand system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional video-on-demand system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 201, 304 Video on demand server device 202, 303 Network 203, 307 Network termination device 205 Video playback device 204 Media playback device

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A real-time data reproducing apparatus for reproducing real-time information, comprising: a receiving unit for acquiring a first part of a plurality of divided real-time data from a communication unit; Real-time reproduction while combining the first and second parts of the real-time data based on control information obtained by at least one of the receiving means and the media reproduction means; A real-time data reproducing apparatus comprising: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the media reproducing unit acquires receiving unit control information from a storage medium together with the second part of the real-time data, and the reproducing unit performs the first part of the real-time data based on the receiving unit control information. 2. The real-time data reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said receiving means is controlled so as to acquire the data from said communication means in synchronization with said second part of said real-time data. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit acquires media playback unit control information together with the first part of the real-time data from a communication unit, and the playback unit determines a second portion of the real-time data based on the media playback unit control information. 2. The real-time data reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said medium reproducing means is controlled to acquire a part from said storage medium in synchronization with said first part of said real-time data. 4. The real-time data reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said reproducing means is configured to be able to reproduce the real-time data using only the first part of the real-time data acquired by said receiving means. 5. The real-time data reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reproducing means is configured to be able to reproduce the real-time data by using only the second part of the real-time data obtained by the media reproducing means. 6. A transmitting device for transmitting a part of a plurality of divided real-time data via a communication means, acquiring a part of the real-time data from the communication means, and acquiring a remaining part from a storage medium, A real-time data reproducing system comprising: a real-time data reproducing device that performs real-time reproduction while combining two parts of the real-time data based on control information obtained from at least one of a communication unit and the storage medium. 7. The real-time data reproduction system according to claim 6, wherein a computer network is used as said communication means. 8. The real-time data reproduction system according to claim 6, wherein a television broadcast is used as said communication means.