JPH11353799A - Information recording/reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make reproduction coinciding with an encoding system possible by discriminating an encoding means used for encoding information recorded on a recording medium. SOLUTION: At a recording operation time, when a recording start instruction is received, a system control part 36 confirms a present audio recording mode state and selects a prescribed encoding system by a user's selection command inputted from the encoding system incorporated in an audio compression- extension part 12 to the system control part 36 according to advance user's designation to start audio encoding. By generating the data by one packet, encoding system information is added to a prescribed position in the packet to be recorded on the recording medium 35 together with the audio data to perform the audio encoding till a user's recording end instruction. At a reproducing time, by the instruction of a reproducing start, the system control part 36 reads out a reproducing objective packet from the recording medium 35 and sets the encoding system recorded on the prescribed position and according to the above, a video compression-extension part 22 starts audio decoding in order opposite to a compression time to repeatedly perform the audio decoding till a user's reproducing end instruction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information recording / reproducing apparatus having a plurality of encoding methods for information recorded on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for recording information at a high density on a disk-shaped recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk (hereinafter simply referred to as a "recording medium"). For this purpose, there are various high-efficiency coding methods. For example, for an image, a method called MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) is generally well known. There are various methods for audio signals. For example, ATRAC (Adaptive
Transform Acoustic Coding), ATRAC2 level2,
The ATRAC2 level3 scheme and the like have been proposed and put into practical use.

[0003] These encoding systems have different characteristics. For example, ATRAC described above has a small compression ratio but can be encoded with high quality.
The compression ratio of level2 and ATRAC2 level3 increases in order, but the sound quality decreases. Therefore, ATRAC is suitable for high-quality recording of music, while ATRAC2level2, ATRAC
It can be said that AC2 level 3 is suitable for recording a long conversation such as a conference.

[0004] However, if the information recording / reproducing apparatus is provided with only one encoding method, there is a case where recording must be performed using an encoding method that does not match the purpose of use. That is, the sound quality is moderate, but the ATRAC method is inappropriate when recording for a long time is desired. On the other hand, when recording with high sound quality is desired, ATRAC2level2 and ATRAC2le are used.
Not suitable for vel3.

[0005]

Therefore, according to the present invention, recording is performed in an encoding system that matches the purpose of use, and when the recorded recording medium is reproduced, the encoding system is automatically determined and reproduced. An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording / reproducing apparatus for performing the above.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has an information recording / reproducing apparatus for encoding, recording, and reproducing information according to a predetermined rule.
At least, a plurality of encoding units for information to be recorded, a selection unit for selecting a predetermined encoding unit from among the plurality of encoding units, and information encoded by the selected encoding unit on a recording medium. Information having a recording means for recording, a discriminating means for discriminating an encoding means used for encoding information recorded on the recording medium, and a reproducing means for reproducing in accordance with the discriminated encoding means. A recording / reproducing device is configured.

In an information recording / reproducing apparatus for encoding, recording, and reproducing information according to a predetermined rule, at least a plurality of encoding means for the information to be recorded, and a recordable remaining amount of a recording medium being smaller than a predetermined amount. Detecting means for detecting that the number is small, selecting means for selecting a predetermined coding means from the plurality of coding means based on a result of the detecting means, and information coded by the selected coding means. Means for recording the information recorded on the recording medium, discriminating means for discriminating the encoding means used for encoding the information recorded on the recording medium, and reproducing means for reproducing in accordance with the discriminated encoding means. The above problem is solved by configuring an information recording / reproducing apparatus having the following.

According to the above arrangement, of the plurality of encoding means provided in the information recording / reproducing apparatus, the encoding means suitable for the purpose of recording compresses the information and records the information. It is automatically detected and reproduced according to the encoding means.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of an audio compression / decompression unit. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a recording area of a recording medium. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a packet structure of information to be recorded. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of recording of the information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of reproduction.

The recording medium used in the present embodiment is a mini disk (MD: a trademark of Sony Corporation) known as a kind of magneto-optical disk, and the information recording / reproducing apparatus is a Video MD (Video). MD DATA Syste
m). However, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to this system alone.

First, an information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 according to the present invention
Will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 includes an audio input / output unit 11 for inputting and outputting audio data, an image input / output unit 21 for inputting and outputting image data, A sampling reference signal generator 31 for generating a reference signal for the input / output unit 21;
An audio compression / expansion unit 12 for compressing / expanding audio data; a memory 13 for temporarily storing audio data; an image compression / expansion unit 22 for compressing / expanding image data; a memory 23 for temporarily storing image data; A data transfer control unit 32 for controlling data transfer, and a data transfer control unit 32
And a recording / reproducing unit 3 for recording and reproducing data on and from a recording medium 35.
4 and a system controller 36 for controlling these blocks.
And is configured.

The voice sampling reference signal to the voice input / output unit 11 by the sampling reference signal generating unit 31 and the image input / output unit 2
The image sampling reference signal to 1 is one whose frequency ratio is kept constant, for example by a PLL.

Next, the operation of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 1 having the above configuration will be described. First, the recording system will be described. The audio input / output unit 11 samples the audio data input from the outside with a predetermined code length in accordance with the reference signal generated by the sampling reference signal generation unit 31, and outputs an audio sampled signal. The image input / output unit 21 samples image (moving image or still image) data input from the outside with a predetermined code length in accordance with the reference signal generated by the sampling reference signal generation unit 31, and outputs an image sampled signal. .

The audio compression / decompression unit 12 includes an audio input / output unit 11
Is temporarily stored in the memory 13 and a predetermined number of data are collected and read out.
The signal is converted into a high-efficiency voice coded signal by a high-efficiency coding method such as C.

The image compression / decompression unit 22 includes an image input / output unit 21
Is temporarily stored in the memory 23, and a predetermined number of data are collected and read out.
And the like, is converted into an image high efficiency coded signal.

The data transfer control unit 32 temporarily stores the respective signals output from the audio compression / expansion unit 12 and the image compression / expansion unit 22 at random in the memory 33. Thereafter, in accordance with an instruction from the system control unit 36, each signal is read out from the memory 33 by a predetermined unit, multiplexed, and identification information is added. A signal to which the identification information is added is transmitted to the recording / reproducing unit 34 at an appropriate transfer speed,
And output at appropriate timing. However, the multiplexing and the addition of the identification information may be performed at the time of storage in the memory 33.

The recording / reproducing section 34 corresponds to a mechanism component for magneto-optical recording / reproducing provided with an optical pickup for recording / reproducing, and performs data transfer control in accordance with an instruction from the system control section 36. The signal from the unit 32 is processed, for example, the MD. The data is recorded on a recording medium 35 formed of a DATA2 format magneto-optical disk.

Next, the reproducing system will be described. The recording / reproducing unit 34, according to an instruction from the system control unit 36,
The data is read from the recording medium 35, the signal is processed and output.

The data transfer control unit 32 includes a recording / reproducing unit 34
, Receive the signal irregularly, and divide the signal into a high-efficiency coded signal and a high-efficiency coded signal by referring to the identification information included in the signal, and temporarily store it in the memory 33. After that, according to the instruction of the system control unit 36, the required amount is read from the memory 33 at random, and the audio data is input to the audio compression / expansion unit 12 and the image data is input to the image compression / expansion unit 22, respectively. The signal separation may be performed at the time of reading from the memory 33.

The audio compression / expansion unit 12 expands the input signal in a procedure reverse to that at the time of compression, stores it in the memory 13, reads it out in the order of recording, and outputs it as an audio sampled signal. Further, the image compression / expansion unit 22 expands the input signal in a procedure reverse to that at the time of compression, stores the expanded signal in the memory 23, reads out the signal in the order of recording, and outputs it as an image sampling signal.

Thereafter, the audio input / output unit 11 converts the audio sampled signal output from the audio compression / decompression unit 12 into audio data in accordance with the reference signal generated by the sampling reference signal generation unit 31, and outputs it to the outside. . The image input / output unit 21
Converts the image sampled signal output from the image compression / decompression unit 22 into image data according to the reference signal generated by the sampling reference signal generation unit 31, and outputs it to the outside.

The system control unit 36 is, for example, C
Each block shown in FIG. 1 is controlled by a PU or the like according to a control command such as start / end of recording / reproduction input from the outside.

As shown in FIG. 2, the audio compression / decompression section 12 has ATRAC, ATRAC2 level2, ATRAC2
A level 3 coding system is built in, and a predetermined coding system is selected by a user's coding system selection command input to the system control unit 36, and is used for compression of audio information.

FIG. 3 shows a recording medium 35 which is a magneto-optical disk.
It comprises a data area 35a for recording video and audio data, and a management area 35b for storing information about the recorded data. The data relating to the AV packet, which will be described in detail later, is also stored in the management area 3.
5b is stored in a predetermined format.

In the Video MD system,
The audio and video data are divided in units of about two seconds, and compressed into high-efficiency codes to form a packet structure as shown in FIG. At the beginning of the packet, a header for recording recording conditions and the like is placed, followed by audio data and image data for about 2 seconds. An unused area may be provided as shown in FIG.

This packet has a format of “M” which enables higher density recording in a format for recording data in the MD.
The size is an integral multiple of the size of a cluster which is a physical rewrite unit of a disk having a format called “D DATA2”. Therefore, it is possible to easily read and write only a specific packet. In addition, TMS (Track Management) which is a method of managing the area of the MD DATA2 disk.
System), the management unit of the area is also a cluster. Therefore, the packet can be easily replaced, added, or deleted only by changing the contents of the TOC (Table of Contents), which is the area management information table of the TMS.

At the beginning of this packet, as described above,
A header, which is information recording attributes of stored audio and image data, is added. In the Video MD system, ATRAC and ATR are used for audio.
Information indicating which encoding method is used, AC2level2 or ATRAC2level3, and information indicating the number of channels are recorded. When reproducing the audio, the reproducing device examines this information and selects an appropriate decoding method to decode the compressed signal.

Next, the recording and reproducing operations of the information recording and reproducing apparatus 1 according to the present invention will be described.

First, in the recording operation, when a recording start instruction is received from the user, the system control unit 36 confirms the current state of the audio recording mode, and performs the encoding of the encoding apparatus in accordance with the user's advance designation. Mode is ATRAC, ATR
AC2 level2 or ATRAC2 level3 is set and speech coding is started. When data for one packet is generated, coding mode information is added to a predetermined position in the packet and recorded on a recording medium together with audio data.
The audio encoding is continued until the user gives an instruction to end the recording.

An example of the operation at the time of actual recording will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, it is determined whether or not the selected recording mode is ATRAC (step S301).
If it is s, the encoding device is set to ATRAC mode (step S302). If No, it is determined whether the selected recording mode is ATRAC2level2 (step S3).
03) If Yes, set the encoding device to ATRAC2 level
The l2 mode is set (step S304). If No in step S303, the encoding device is set to ATRAC2.
The mode is set to the level 3 mode (step S305).

After the setting of the coding apparatus is completed as described above, coding is started (step S306). Next, it is determined whether or not encoding for one packet has been completed (step S307). If No, the encoding is continued in step S307, and if Yes, the encoding mode is recorded in the header of the packet ( (Step S308) Then, the packet is recorded on the recording medium (Step S30).
9). Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the recording is completed (step S3).
10) If No, step S3 until recording is completed
From step 07, step S310 is repeated. If Yes, the encoding is terminated (step S311), and the recording operation is completed.

In the above-described example, an example in which the same encoding mode is applied from the start to the end of recording has been described. However, the encoding mode can be changed in units of one packet.

At the time of reproduction, upon receiving a reproduction start instruction from the user, the system control unit 36 reads the packet to be reproduced and checks the information of the encoding mode recorded at a predetermined position in the packet. According to this information, the decoding mode of the decoding device is set to ATRAC, ATRAC2level2, ATRAC
Set to one of AC2 level3 and start speech decoding. This operation is repeated until the user gives an instruction to end the reproduction, and the sound is reproduced.

Next, an example of the operation at the time of actual reproduction will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the packet is reproduced from the recording medium (step S401). From the header of the packet, it is determined whether the recording mode is ATRAC (step S402).
The mode is set to the AC mode (step S403). If No, it is determined whether the recording mode is ATRAC2level2 (step S404), and if Yes, the decoding device is set to A
Set to TRAC2 level2 mode (step S40)
5). If No in step S404, the decoding device is set to ATRAC2 level3 mode (step S404).
406).

After the setting of the decoding device is completed as described above, decoding of the audio data in the packet is started (step S407). Next, it is determined whether or not decoding for one packet has been completed (step S408). If No, decoding is continued in step S408; if Yes, decoding is ended (step S409). ,
It is determined whether or not the reproduction is completed (Step S410). If No, Steps S401 to S410 are repeated until the reproduction is completed. If Yes, the reproduction operation is completed.

As described above, the audio information is compressed in the selected encoding mode, the encoding mode used is recorded in the header in the packet, and the compressed audio data is recorded in the audio data area following the header. Is done. Also,
In the reproduction, the encoding mode recorded in the header is read out, and the audio data subsequent thereto is decoded according to the encoding mode, and the audio is reproduced.

Incidentally, the recording and reproducing operations are not limited to the above-mentioned flow, but may be constituted by another flow realizing the same operation.

In the above-described embodiment, a device for selecting a coding system is provided, and the user sets the coding system by his / her own judgment. However, the coding system is automatically determined and set. In addition, it is also possible to configure a recording device. In this case, as a criterion for the determination, for example, the frequency component of the input signal is monitored to determine whether the signal is a conversation or a music signal, or the remaining capacity of the recording area of the recording medium is monitored. For example, it is also possible to switch to a more efficient encoding method and select a method capable of recording for a long time.

For example, the method of monitoring the remaining amount of the recording area at the time of recording and automatically selecting an encoding method is performed by the system control unit 36 shown in FIG. You can also. The system control unit 36
It is easy to instantly recognize the total recordable capacity, the recorded address, the recorded capacity, and the like in which U is built-in, and the data is compared with a recording capacity that is set in advance as a threshold. Thereby, it can be used as a detection means of the remaining amount. Based on the result of the detection means, a predetermined coding method is selected from a plurality of coding methods provided in the audio compression / decompression unit 12, and the information is coded and recorded.

Although the disk-shaped recording medium of the present embodiment has been described using a mini-disk, which is known as a kind of magneto-optical disk, it is a matter of course that the present invention is not limited to this.

Although only audio has been described, similar means can be constructed for video.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to compress and record information using an encoding method suitable for the purpose of recording among a plurality of encoding methods provided in the information recording / reproducing apparatus. It can also automatically detect and reproduce the encoding method used at the time of recording in the reproduction,
One information recording / reproducing apparatus can be suitably used in many environments.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an audio compression / decompression unit.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a recording area of a recording medium.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a packet structure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of recording of the information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of reproduction of the information recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Information recording / reproducing apparatus, 11 ... Audio input / output part, 12 ... Audio compression / decompression part, 13 ... Memory, 21 ... Image input / output part, 2
2. Image compression / decompression unit, 23 memory, 31 sampling reference signal generation unit, 32 data transfer control unit, 33 memory
34 recording / reproducing section, 35 recording medium, 35a data area, 35b management area, 36 system control section

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An information recording / reproducing apparatus for encoding, recording, and reproducing information according to a predetermined rule, comprising: at least a plurality of encoding means for information to be recorded; and a predetermined code from the plurality of encoding means. Selecting means for selecting encoding means; recording means for recording information encoded by the selected encoding means on a recording medium; encoding means used for encoding information recorded on the recording medium. An information recording / reproducing apparatus, comprising: a discriminating means for discriminating the information; and a reproducing means for reproducing the discriminated data in accordance with the discriminated encoding means. 2. An information recording / reproducing apparatus for encoding, recording, and reproducing information according to a predetermined rule, comprising: at least a plurality of encoding means for the information to be recorded; Detecting means for detecting that the number is small; selecting means for selecting a predetermined coding means from the plurality of coding means based on a result of the detecting means; and information coded by the selected coding means. Recording means for recording the information recorded on the recording medium, discriminating means for discriminating the encoding means used for encoding the information recorded on the recording medium, and reproducing means for reproducing in accordance with the discriminated encoding means. An information recording / reproducing apparatus, comprising: