JPH11327838A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system by which a user adapted to a network environment does not need to execute a trouble means in a home color printer. SOLUTION: A means converting information on a plurality of media into printing information is installed. A means 100 converting information on a plurality of media into printing information is installed and therefore one printer 1 can correspond to printing corresponding to multimedia information on a network. Then, a user does not need to execute a trouble means in a printing system.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a configuration of a home full-color printer suitable for a home multi-media environment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional home full-color printers include an ink jet printer, a fusion heat transfer printer, and a laser printer.
Local direct connection was the mainstream. As a media conversion means, an NTSC signal of a TV is transferred to a personal computer (PC) by an expansion board (Video Cap).
The data is digitized for PC and displayed on a PC display. Further, by making the digital data have the same format as the data in the PC, it is possible to output to a PC printer.

[0003] Recently, in response to a request from Nikkei Electronics, 1997, No. 698, pp99-119 to connect a PC to a home appliance, the network IEEE
It is described that the 1394 interface is receiving attention.

[0004]

In recent years, digitalization of home AV equipment has been progressing, and each of them has been conventionally independent.
PCs are also connected to the network, and the environment used within the network is being prepared. A conventional home color printer can print some media via a PC or the like, but cannot provide printing corresponding to the plurality of media.
There is a problem that you have to take a complicated procedure that manipulates.

Further, even if a network for printing a plurality of media by a printer is created as described above, there is a problem that the performance of each media is reduced when viewed from the whole network.

Further, by having functions redundantly,
There is a problem in that cost performance is degraded due to excess load of hardware and software.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system suitable for a network environment without requiring a user to perform complicated means.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a network system and a printer capable of converting a plurality of media information into printable information and printing by a printer regardless of the arrangement of each device.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve at least one of the above problems, the present invention provides a plurality of media, a recording device for printing various information of the plurality of media, and a plurality of media. An information conversion unit for converting various information of the recording device into printable printing information from the recording device; and a network in which the plurality of media, the one recording device, and the information conversion unit are connected by the same type of connector and cable. And a net.

By providing means for converting information of a plurality of media into printing information in this way, printing corresponding to multimedia information can be performed by a single printer on a network, so that the user does not need to perform complicated means. It is possible to provide a good printing system.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Before describing the present invention, its background will be briefly described.

[0012] SOHO (Smoll Office Home office), R
As represented by OHO (Remote Office Home Office), a simple network has permeated the home. This is an environment in which OA devices such as scanners, printers, digital devices, and the like are mainly connected to personal computers via a network. In the future, in addition to this, digitalization of communication devices and AV devices at home is expected to accelerate at an accelerated pace. In an environment where information is digitally processed, it is expected that a network environment in which all devices are integrated to exchange data with each other will be developed.

[0013] As a network for realizing the above, IEEE13
94 have received attention. IEEE1394 is a standard for networks, and standardization has been promoted mainly by AV equipment manufacturers. In 1995, IEEE 1994-1955, which standardized the OSI lower two layers of communication, was specified. Here, cables, connectors, and data transfer formats have been standardized.

The present invention will be described below using the IEEE 1394 network which has received attention as an example.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the overall configuration of a home network according to the present invention. A digital TV 105, a DVD (Digital TV), and a personal computer 102, together with OA devices such as a printer 101, a scanner 103, and an MO 104.
Video Disc) 106, AV of digital camera 107, etc.
Devices are connected on the same network and mutually transfer data. The transmission medium is an example in which high-speed serial transmission standardized by IEEE1394 is used. Same IE between devices
IEEE1394 cable 109 via EE1394 I / F108
Are connected to each other.

In the future home network, as shown in FIG. 1, each device has a common IEEE 1394 terminal.
It is expected that the configuration will be connected with a common IEEE1394 cable. As a result, the exchange of data between the various media described above is performed smoothly and the AV
OA and OA will be integrated.

FIG. 14 shows a current home network environment for reference. At present, it is customary that the AV and OA environments are configured by separate networks. In many cases, the network configuration has a star configuration centering on one device. As shown in the figure, the connectors and cables are all different.
In the system, the printer is also different.

A feature of the present invention is that, in view of environmental changes, an information conversion unit 100 for converting information of a plurality of media into printing information is provided in a network environment using the same type of connector and cable, and various types of printers are used. The ability to print media information. As a result, as shown in FIG. 14, the printing process, which was conventionally performed on a point-to-point basis, can be realized with a common printer for various media on the network, and the usability of the network is remarkably improved. improves.

Various functions can be provided to the information conversion means 100. The minimum required functions are various media information (MPEG, NTSC, JPEG, RGB VIDEO).
Etc.) into printing information. Here we say. The printing information is to convert various types of compressed and uncompressed multi-valued color image data into data such as the number of pixels and colors (for example, RGB to YMCK, lower color processing, etc.) suitable for printer output. Thus, when the information conversion unit 100 is viewed from the printer, the data format is always the same, and the hardware and software load of the printer can be greatly reduced.

The next stage is a process of actually performing printing while handshaking with the printer. For example, send a print start signal to the printer, receive a start ready signal from the printer, and then perform handshake data transfer depending on the printer hardware,
When a print end command is received from the printer, the print end command is sent to the original print request source. As a result, various media devices can operate without impairing the performance during printing, that is, there is an effect that the load on hardware and software can be significantly reduced.

Further, if the stages are advanced, it is important that the future network can provide an environment with good cost performance throughout the network. In order to realize this, for example, it is effective to control the node operation itself on the network so as to effectively use resources on the network. For example, when a print request for a screen display is issued from a user interface (for example, a person who is watching a digital TV from a DVD issues a print request for a certain scene from a remote control button), a display function and a print function are assigned to the digital TV. It is not always advisable to have a specific data transmission function for network resources. For example, if the information conversion means 100 has M
It is effective to instruct to send the PEG data to the information conversion means 100. As a result, the performance of individual devices has greatly reduced the performance of the entire network, even if they were conventionally connected via a network. The excess load caused cost performance degradation. This point can be solved by applying this embodiment.

The future network will depend on how individual devices share capabilities and performance under an environment with sufficient transmission bandwidth as represented by IEEE1394.
How efficient and efficient hardware look at the whole network,
It is important to be able to pursue the performance of the entire network with the amount of software.

FIG. 13 shows the same network configuration as in FIG. 1, except that the information conversion means 100 is attached to the terminal node. In IEEE1394 (IEEE1394-1935),
Up to 64 nodes (terminals) can be connected, and the network can take a so-called daisy-chain configuration combining a bus (linear connection) and a tree (multi-stage star connection) structure.
Information communication can be performed simultaneously between a plurality of nodes as long as the transmission band permits. Since the information is provided by broadcasting, the performance of the information conversion means 100 is not impaired even if it is arranged at any position. As described above, in the present system configuration, there is an advantage that the user can freely use hot plug and plug and play as desired when he / she wants to use, without being restricted by the arrangement of individual devices.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the information conversion means 100. Data is input and output via the IEEE1394 I / F 108. Normally, each device is provided with multiple IEEE1394 I / Fs, but may be used alone. However, considering the data throughput and the development of the network configuration, it is effective to have an I / F with two or more ports as shown in the figure. The information conversion means 100 is entirely controlled by a central control unit 201.
The central control unit is an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) IEEE1394 OS
It manages I (Open Systems Interconnection) layer 3 or higher. IEEE1394 phy. Link. 205, 206
Manages the IEEE1394 layers 1 (physical layer) and 2 (link layer), and various manufacturers provide LSIs as chip sets. The I / F unit 204 absorbs the difference in speed between the internal and external buses in a FIFO-like role together with bus arbitration (arrangement of bus contention). The data conversion unit 202 has a role of converting image data having different formats and compression methods, such as a camera, a TV, and a DVD, into a format that can be output by the printer 101. This is the personal computer 102 for OA equipment.
However, while the above request is processed, AV equipment does not currently have such a function, and having such a function causes an increase in price due to a hardware load, which is not a good idea. AV system image data transmitted through the IEEE1394 cable 109 is either raw data taking advantage of high speed or MPEG (Motion Jpeg Expert Group) data which is the center of standardization. The data conversion unit 202 converts the data for a printer and performs color adjustment or the like that differs for each medium. The conversion information storage unit 203 includes the data conversion unit 2
02 saves various conversion formats. In this configuration example, the IEEE1394 phy. Link. 205 and 206 have an internal independent bus configuration, but the internal bus may be IEEE1394. With this configuration, it is possible to provide an environment in which IEEE1394 data can be handled with a small load on the entire network. In addition, by making the internal bus independent, distributed control is promoted in many cases even in the entire network. If the internal bus is made of IEEE1394, there is an effect that a simple network configuration can be realized by a unified architecture and the amount of hardware can be reduced. It is important to determine the architecture according to the balance and target cost of the entire network.

The patentability of the present invention is summarized in the information conversion means 100 in FIG. 2. A specific operation example, a central control unit 201, a data conversion unit 202, and a conversion information storage unit 203 will be described below. I do.

FIG. 15 shows a specific operation example of the information conversion means 100. For example, when the user issues a request to print the displayed node information to the digital TV 105 serving as a user interface, the node information stored in the information conversion unit 100 is checked. Further, necessary data is received from the node (or from the digital TV 105), and the data is converted into data for printer output. While the above process is in progress, the printer is started to confirm that the printer is ready. When a series of these operations are completed, printing is started, and after the printing is completed, an end notification is sent to the node (or the digital TV 105) that has issued the print request. A feature of the present invention resides in that the information conversion means 100 has node information to be stored and updated, and performs smooth data conversion using this.

FIG. 18 shows an example of the configuration of the central control unit 201. The data input / output unit 1801 serves as an I / F unit with an external bus. The control unit 1802 performs overall control of the central control unit 201. The node information storage unit 1803 stores the data format of each node connected by plug and play. The information is accumulated at the time of initializing, and the node information newly connected by plug and play is updated as needed. The print priority control unit 1804 performs print priority control when there are print requests from a plurality of nodes. Specifically, priority is given to those close to the user interface. For example, if a user has made a print request directly and a print request has been made via an outdoor communication line, the user's direct request is given priority. Node communication unit 180
Reference numeral 5 controls data communication between the node and the central control unit 201.
A printer communication unit 1806 manages data communication between the printer 101 and the central control unit 201. By having the node communication unit 1805 and the printer communication unit 1806 in multiples, it is possible to perform multiple operations such as performing transmission while receiving according to the capacity of the communication band.

FIG. 16 shows an example of the configuration of the data converter 202. The data input / output unit 1601 serves as an I / F unit with an external bus. The control unit 1602 performs overall control of the data conversion unit 202. Node input data accumulation buffer 1603
Is a buffer for receiving print code data sent from the node to the data conversion unit 202. The code data conversion unit 1604 converts the code data into printer data in accordance with the information in the conversion information storage unit 203. The printer transmission data accumulation buffer 1605 is a communication buffer for transmitting data from the data conversion unit 202 to the printer 101. Separate storage units and separate conversion units allow multiple operations to proceed simultaneously.

FIG. 17 shows an example of the configuration of the conversion information storage section 203. The conversion information storage unit has a table or a conversion circuit for converting various multimedia data into a format of printer output data. Input / output unit 17
01 is an I / F section with an external bus. Control unit 1702
Performs overall control of the conversion information storage unit 203. The printer information storage unit 1703 stores information about the printer. The main stored data includes color conversion data for a printer, a page printer or a line printer, a data transmission / reception protocol, and the like. The MPEG → printer conversion data table 1704, NTSC → printer conversion data table 1705,..., Digital-CAMERA → printer conversion data table 1796 is a table or conversion circuit for converting each multimedia data into a printer output data format. And supports desired data conversion in accordance with a command from the central control unit.

As described above, the information conversion means 100
Is responsible for shaking hands between various devices and the printer, but the destination of the final data does not need to be specialized for the printer. Is more likely.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the overall configuration of a home network according to the present invention. The information conversion means is cable TV,
External I / F 801 such as ISDN and receiving antenna 802
In addition to the functions described with reference to FIG. 1, the STB (Set Top Box), which is an in-home receiving unit for ISDN and satellite broadcasting, has a function that is added to the functions described above. By adopting this configuration, there is an effect that mutual data transmission / reception with an open network is possible instead of a mere local network. In addition, since the internal bus is in the IEEE1394 format, it also plays the role of a bus bridge with buses such as a wide area network and an external receiver, which has the effect of greatly increasing versatility.

FIG. 9 shows the information conversion means 100 in FIG.
This is an example of the configuration. External I / F 801 and receiving antenna 8
02 from the external data transmission / reception unit 901
To convert to the internal bus data format.
Asynchronous, IP (Internet Protoco
l) Converting various data such as MPEG image data into IEEE1394 format, and prioritizing them according to the real-time necessity and the situation of the internal network and sending them to the internal network maximizes the performance of the entire network. It is extremely important to make the most of it. As a result, there is an advantage that the user can realize the networking without being aware of seamless networking with the outside.

FIG. 3 shows a standardization trend of IEEE1394. For AV equipment, see IEEE1394 phy. Link.
(IEEE1394-1955 compliant) controls Layers 1 and 2, and has an AV Prot that is common to digital equipment and independent of the model
ocol is located. Standardization of various AV devices is in progress. In the OA direction, since the standardization is almost completed, various standardized protocols are stored in the conversion information storage unit 203 in FIG. By this. Data conversion is possible in accordance with global standardization. Since such conversion is possible, there is an effect that data conversion with compatibility can be performed regardless of differences between manufacturers, models, and the like.

When the printer requires real-time characteristics (such as electrophotography) (such as a method of continuously scanning with a laser beam and a high-speed constant-rotation polygon mirror), or when the printer does not require real-time characteristics (such as ink-jet). Can be considered. (Because the moving speed (feed) of the print head can be controlled, etc.) In recent years, among ink jets, a method called an electrostatic ink jet, which can output gradation within one dot, is attracting attention. Future user demands are likely to be toward higher image quality and are effective in meeting these demands.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the overall configuration of a home network according to the present invention. AV devices such as a digital TV 105, a DVD 106, and a digital camera 107 are connected on the same network together with OA devices such as a printer 102, a scanner 103, and an MO 104, centering on a personal computer 102, and mutually transfer data. I have. The transmission medium is an example in which high-speed serial transmission standardized by IEEE1394 is used. The devices are mutually connected by an IEEE1394 cable 109 via the same IEEE1394 I / F 108. The feature of the present invention is that the personal computer 102 has the information conversion means 100 which is a feature of the present invention. Due to the remarkable improvement in performance of recent personal computers, it is effective to provide the information conversion means 100 to a personal computer capable of performing multi-jobs. In the future, the current OA in the home
Although the processing capacity is the same as that of a personal computer, it is expected that the personal computer will rapidly spread in a form fused with AV. The system configuration shown in FIG. 4 is an effective configuration in terms of reducing the hardware load on other devices and providing a cost merit, together with a high-speed home communication network such as IEEE1394. As is the case at present, personal computers have the highest performance at home. Considering that these capabilities are hardly utilized at present, and that in the future it will be transformed into a form that will penetrate as a central device in the home, so that the role of a home network center is assigned to the personal computer. Is extremely effective. As will be described later, the external I / F of the personal computer is rapidly moving to a form called a device bay, and this concept of using the IEEE1394 as the I / F and incorporating it in the personal computer is extremely effective.

FIGS. 5 to 7 show examples in which the information conversion means 100 is provided in an actual personal computer. Since it is a general-purpose drawing that has been shown in response to changes in the future, individual descriptions are omitted. FIG. 5 shows a case where the present invention is applied to a personal computer. Specifically, the configuration shown in FIG. 2 is mounted on the expansion board 509 as a PCI expansion board. FIG. 6 shows the internal structure prediction of the personal computer from the latter half of 1998 to 1999. As in the case of FIG. 5, the information conversion means 100 is mounted as a PCI expansion board, or is incorporated in an I / F section of a peripheral device corresponding to a device bay and taken in. FIG. 7 shows the internal structure prediction of the personal computer after 2000. IEEE1394 ph in peripheral chipset
y. link. The layer is imported, and the IEEE1394
Will be adopted. The information conversion means 100 is built in the I / F section of the peripheral device corresponding to the device bay and is taken in. Commercialization of a compatible chip (Triger chip) has been steadily progressing so that the user can smoothly cope with the above-mentioned change process, and it is certain that the above-mentioned flow will become the mainstream in the future. As shown in FIGS. 5 to 7, a system capable of reliably supporting the present and the future is being prepared, and this configuration is effective in view of the flow of the entire industry, and is expected to become mainstream.

Also, if an ultra-high speed IEEE1394 bus is used inside the personal computer, the data handling capability and the external I / F capability will be dramatically improved. It is thought that the configuration shown in FIG. 4 will be more and more effective.

[0038] By the way, IEEE1394 is used for home AV and OA.
When used as a network bus connecting devices,
The speeds of 100, 200, and 400 Mbps defined in the phy layer are not necessarily high speed. The reason is that IEEE 1394, which is used as a broadcast, has a real performance of 70 when multiple data transfers are performed.
%, And the digital raw data of the NTSC image is 1%.
Considering that the speed is about 00 Mbps, it is not realistic to send uncompressed data in the isochronous mode (real-time transmission guarantee mode) in order to reduce memory, no matter how fast data communication is possible. By utilizing equipment with code and decode functions in a distributed control,
It is important to reduce the cost of the entire network, and to build a system that brings out the transmission performance. As a specific example of the distributed control, various conversions between data such as raw image data, MPEG data, and printer data are required on a network, but a processing load and hardware and software necessary for the processing are exchanged between devices. It is a method of using resources that are distributed and have free resources as needed.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a system configuration for satisfying the above requirements. The network management unit 1000 having the function of the information conversion unit 100 is replaced with the information conversion unit 100. The network management means 1000, in addition to the data conversion described above,
It controls the amount of data flowing on the network and controls the data flow between devices. For example, digital camera 1
08, while watching the output uncompressed data monitored in real time with the digital TV 105 (without MPEG encoding and decoding functions),
When EG data (TV phone or the like) is sent, for example, the network management unit 1000
105 is instructed for multi-window display, and DVD1
Encode MPEG data to digital TV 10
5 to manage traffic and operation of individual devices. A technique in which the network management means 1000 manages power on / off information of individual devices and automatically manages the information together with user information is also effective. With the above functions, it is possible to construct a network system that can maximize the performance while minimizing network resources, and it is very effective in combination with the flexibility of the network.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the configuration of the network management means 1000. A network management unit 1100 is newly added. The network management unit 1100 manages the entire network as described above. Specifically, information (performance information, operation status, current performance status for the maximum performance, etc.) of each node (various devices, devices, etc.) and information of the entire network (current performance status for the maximum performance,
It is necessary to manage the assignment of priorities to various nodes, prediction of future interrupt information, preparation of countermeasures for emergency information interrupts, etc.).

In the future, a large amount of information of various media will be exchanged in the home with the same architecture (for example, IEEE1394), and at the same time, an era of exchanging large amounts of information of various media with the outside is approaching. It should be noted that the main role of the user at that time is not good at knowledge of personal computers and networks, and it is mainly the one who does not keep handling AV equipment alone. The user is unaware of the hardware and software handling various media under the simple user interface as much as possible.
It is essential to provide an environment where various media can be used without knowing it. For this reason, it is important for the network side to easily provide information to the user via a user interface such as a display as needed. Providing the network environment as described above is very effective in expanding the range of users and providing a simple use environment at low cost.

FIG. 12 shows an example of the configuration of the information conversion means 100. Like the future personal computer, internal bus architecture
This is a case where IEEE1394 is used. In IEEE1394-1955, 64 nodes can be provided, but having multiple nodes for each device has the merit of unifying all architectures, but it necessarily limits the total number of devices in the network. Not a good idea. In consideration of data handling and the like, a method in which the IEEE 1394 node is closed at the I / F unit and the internal bus is independent is effective. In addition, as the system becomes larger and more complex, bus resets and the like frequently occur, which lowers the effective throughput. In this sense, the simple configuration of the daisy chain of IEEE1394 is effective.

As described in the description of the latest trends in the industry, the internal bus architecture of the personal computer is expected to be unified to the high-speed serial communication IEEE1394 which guarantees real-time transmission in the future. From the viewpoint of the entire network, it is expected that the use of the internal bus architecture for all devices will be an overspec function that does not match the performance required by the user in terms of cost. However, the processing capacity required for network management is expected to increase in the future, and the need for a high-performance machine to process the processing smoothly is considered essential. In the future, it is expected that one high-performance machine will be required for the network regardless of whether it is a personal computer.

Providing the above-described network environment has the effect of providing a user-friendly environment at a reasonable cost.

[0045]

According to the present invention, by providing means for converting information of a plurality of media into printing information, printing corresponding to the multimedia information can be performed by one printer on the network, and the user does not need to perform complicated means. A good printing system can be provided.

Further, by providing means for converting information of a plurality of media into printing information other than various types of media and printers, the hardware load when viewed over the entire network can be significantly reduced, and a distributed processing environment can be provided. Is possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of a home network according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing one embodiment of an information conversion unit in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a standardization trend of IEEE1394.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the home network according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first embodiment of the internal structure of the personal computer of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the internal structure of the personal computer of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the internal structure of the personal computer of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the home network according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the information conversion means of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a network environment system according to the present invention.

11 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the network management means of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an embodiment in a case where the network management means of FIG. 11 is replaced with an information conversion means.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the home network according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a conventional home network.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an operation example of an information conversion unit.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a data conversion unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a data storage unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a central control unit according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100: information conversion means, 101: printer, 102: personal computer (PC), 103: scanner, 1
04 ... MO, 105 ... Digital TV, 106 ... DV
D, 107: Digital camera, 108: IEEE1394 I
/ F, 109 IEEE1394 cable, 201 central control unit, 202 data conversion unit, 203 conversion information storage unit,
204: I / F section, 205, 206: IEEE1394 phy. Li
nk., 501: microprocessor, 502: secondary cache, 503: main memory, 504: peripheral chip set,
505: Graphics LSI, 506: Internal hard disk drive, 507: Internal CD-ROM device, 508:
Bridge LSI, 509 ... Expansion board, 510 ... SCS
I board, 511... Hard disk device for expansion, 512
... sound source LSI, codec LSI, 513 ... expansion board, 514 ... PCI bus, 515 ... ISA bus, 516
... IDE, 601 ... cartridge, 602 ... device
Bay control LSI, 603 ... LSI for IEEE1394
I, 604: Peripheral device corresponding to the device bay, 605:
AGP, 607, 701 ... IEEE1394, 702 ... USB,
703: For device bay control, 801: External I / F,
802: receiving antenna, etc., 901: external data transmission / reception unit, 1000: network management means, 1100: network management unit, 1401: video printer, 1402
... Video input terminal, 1403 ... Video output terminal, 140
4 Digital output terminal, 1405 Digital input terminal, 1406 Analog cable, 1407 Digital cable, 1408 SCSI terminal, 1409 Printer terminal, 1410 SCSI cable, 1411 Printer cable.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of media, one recording device for printing various information of the plurality of media, and one information for converting various information of the plurality of media into printing information printable from the recording device A printing system comprising: a conversion unit; and a network in which the plurality of media, the one recording device, and the information conversion unit are connected by the same type of connector and cable. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the information conversion unit is provided in a personal computer that is one of the plurality of media. 3. The conversion information storage unit according to claim 1, wherein the information conversion unit stores at least various conversion tables for converting various information of the plurality of media into the printing information; A printing system, comprising: a data conversion unit that converts printing information based on a table; and a central control unit that executes instructions and control for converting the printing information. 4. The printing system according to claim 3, wherein the information conversion unit has an external data transmission / reception unit capable of transmitting and receiving media from outside the plurality of media.