JP4437754B2 - Video signal recording and playback device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a video signal recording / reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, to a video signal recording / reproducing apparatus capable of displaying a thumbnail list of recorded contents using a high-capacity recording medium having good accessibility such as a hard disk drive.

A video tape recorder (VTR) using a video tape as a recording medium is known as a recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing video (and audio) content such as a television broadcast program. Recently, a hard disk drive (HDD) ), Optical disks, semiconductor memories, and the like, video signal recording / reproducing apparatuses that digitally record video and audio signals using these accessible recording media have become widespread.
Since such a video signal recording / playback apparatus can store a large number of TV broadcast programs on a recording medium, a thumbnail (reduced) of one scene of each video content is provided so that the user can quickly find the recorded content. The image is created in advance, and a means for displaying the list as a list and making it easy to check the contents is used (for example, see Patent Document 1).

Such thumbnail list display is one of the important functions because it is easier to understand the contents of the contents than text list display, but it may not be useful at all when thumbnail image selection is not appropriate. is there. For example, in a scene where the image is moving greatly or in a dark setting, it is impossible to determine what the content is with a single thumbnail, and in the case of an advertisement, the content is not directly related to the content. There is a drawback in that it cannot be determined.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-100188

  Conventional selection of thumbnails is to uniformly capture images immediately after the start of recording or a few seconds after that, but as described above, images at this timing are always capable of determining the content contents. Not exclusively. In particular, commercial broadcast programs with advertisements and pay broadcast programs without advertisements, or NHK programs have different configurations from the start of the program, so selecting thumbnails at a uniform timing is not good.

  Also, in digital broadcasting, which has recently started broadcasting, a delay of several seconds may occur in the video / audio signal depending on the device on the receiving side. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the delay time on the receiving side when acquiring thumbnail images. Become.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and an object thereof is to display a list of contents recorded and stored in large quantities in a video signal recording / reproducing apparatus using a recording medium such as an HDD. As a thumbnail to be used sometimes, it can be recorded with finely set acquisition timing so that it can be acquired as an image that can always distinguish the contents of the content, avoiding advertisements, etc. , and when dubbing such content It is an object of the present invention to provide a video signal recording / reproducing apparatus capable of dubbing by deleting the beginning of the content in consideration of the delay time in the transmission path and the tuner .

The present invention has the following configuration as means for solving the above problems. That is, in a video signal recording / reproducing apparatus using a large-capacity recording medium capable of recording and reproducing a plurality of contents that can be randomly accessed, broadcast receiving means for receiving a plurality of contents broadcast from a broadcasting station, and reception by the broadcast receiving means Recording means for recording the recorded content on the large-capacity recording medium, and the predetermined time for acquiring, as a thumbnail, an image after a predetermined time has elapsed from the recording start point of the content received by the broadcast receiving means. A thumbnail acquisition time setting means for setting for each broadcasting station; a delay time setting means for setting a delay time in the broadcast receiving means; and a predetermined recording start point of the content recorded on the large-capacity recording medium. The image at the time point delayed by the time and the delay time is selected and the large thumbnail is displayed as the content thumbnail. Thumbnail generation recording means for recording on a volume recording medium, delay time recording means for recording the delay time on the large-capacity recording medium, and copying a certain content recorded on the large-capacity recording medium to another recording medium And a copy means for reading out the delay time when the content is recorded from the large-capacity recording medium and copying the content by deleting the beginning portion of the content by the delay time value. A recording / reproducing apparatus.

  When acquiring thumbnails to be used for displaying a list of recorded content, the timing of acquisition can be set in advance for each of the multiple tuners used to record the content, so that the advertisement Even if it is a commercial broadcasting station that enters, or even if the delay time of the transmission system is different, the acquired thumbnail is very likely to be an image that can be used to distinguish the recorded content, so it is desirable from a large amount of content It becomes effective to look for.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a structure of a TS (transport stream) of digital broadcasting, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of a remote controller used in the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 4 to FIG. 7 are diagrams showing examples of screen display during operation with the remote controller.

First, the configuration and operation of the video signal recording / reproducing apparatus in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. It is assumed that the tuner of the video signal recording / reproducing apparatus in this embodiment only supports reception of digital broadcasts.
In FIG. 1, 1A, 1B, and 1C are broadcast receiving antennas. Since the video signal recording / reproducing apparatus of the present embodiment has three tuners inside, the corresponding antennas are connected. The tuner (1) 2A is a tuner that receives terrestrial digital broadcasting, the tuner (2) 2B is a tuner that receives BS (broadcast satellite) digital broadcasting, and the tuner (3) 2C is a tuner that receives CS (communication satellite) digital broadcasting. is there. The BS and CS digital broadcasting antennas may be shared by one.
The digital broadcast signal received by each tuner has, for example, the broadcast TS (transport stream) structure shown in FIG. 2, and is composed of a repetition of a 188-byte TS packet and a 16-byte error correction code. The TS packet further has a configuration in which signals such as SI (service information), EPG (electronic program guide), video stream, and audio stream are sequentially repeated.

The signals received by the antennas are subjected to error correction, descrambling, and the like after the channels are selected by the respective tuners under the control of the microcomputer 11, and the following DEMUXs (demultiplexers) 3A, 3B, 3C, respectively. The video stream, audio stream, and SI signal are divided and input to the selector 4.
The selector 4 selects one of the three video streams, the audio stream, and the SI signal input under the control of the microcomputer 11. The video stream is converted into a video signal by the video decoder 5, and the audio stream is converted into an audio signal by the audio decoder 6. SI information including date and time information is decoded (decoded) by the SI decoder 7.

The decoded video signal passes through a GUI (Graphical User Interface) synthesizing circuit 8 from a video output terminal 18 and the audio signal is output from an audio output terminal 17 to the outside and displayed on a monitor television.
The decoded video signal is supplied to the video encoder 9, and the audio signal is supplied to the audio encoder 10. Each of the decoded video signals is encoded (digitally encoded) into a digital signal suitable for recording, which will be described later, and input to the next formatter 13.
The SI information decoded by the SI decoder 7 is temporarily input to the microcomputer 11 where necessary information such as date, time, title, program time, etc. is selected and supplied to the formatter 13 and the GUI composition circuit 8. The GUI synthesis circuit 8 synthesizes these SI information with the video signal so that it can be displayed on the screen.

  The formatter 13 converts the encoded signals from the video encoder 9 and the audio encoder 10 and the SI information from the microcomputer 11 into a recording digital signal of a predetermined recording format and outputs it to the next recording / reproducing circuit 14. The recording / reproducing circuit 14 records the supplied recording digital signal on the HDD 15 that is a built-in hard disk drive, the optical disk 16 that is a removable recording medium, or both.

  At the time of reproduction, the reproduction digital signal of the HDD 15 or the optical disk 16 is sent to the formatter via the recording / reproduction circuit 14 where it is divided into a video stream, an audio stream, and an SI signal and supplied to the selector 4. Thereafter, the video stream and the audio stream are decoded by the video decoder 5 and the audio decoder 6 via the selector 4 and output from the respective output terminals 18 and 17 as video signal audio signals. The SI signal is also decoded by the SI decoder 7 in the same manner as at the time of recording, and is synthesized with the video signal by the GUI synthesis circuit 8 via the microcomputer 11.

  Next, thumbnail recording will be described. For the thumbnail, the microcomputer 11 extracts image information for one frame or one field from the video encode signal input to the formatter 13 at a predetermined timing to generate a reduced image, and the HDD together with other management information. In the search information recording area. Details of the predetermined timing for extracting thumbnails will be described later.

Next, the thumbnail in the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 to 7. First, the playback operation using the thumbnail screen will be described.
When the “mode” button on the remote control shown in FIG. 3 is pressed, a mode selection screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on the monitor screen. Select one from "List display", "Edit", and "Setting" on the display screen with the "Right" and "Left" buttons on the remote control, and confirm with the "Enter" button in the center. FIG. 5 shows a state in which “list display” with a thick frame is selected. When the “OK” button is pressed here, a list image of the recorded video contents of the six thumbnails shown in FIG. 4 is displayed. Enter mode.
Furthermore, one thumbnail is selected using the “up”, “down”, “left”, and “right” buttons in the display of FIG. The figure shows a state in which the central content 5 is selected. When the “OK” button is pressed here, the video content of the content 5 is reproduced on the television screen.

Next, generation of thumbnails will be described. The number of seconds delayed from the start of video content recording during recording is set by the following operation.
When “Setting” is selected with the “Left” and “Right” buttons on the remote controller and the “Enter” button is pressed on the mode selection screen shown in FIG. 5, the screen shifts to the setting menu screen shown in FIG. When “thumbnail setting” in the screen is selected and determined with the “up” and “down” buttons on the remote controller on this screen, the thumbnail setting mode shown in FIG. 7 is entered.

In the example shown in FIG. 7, the thumbnail generation timing can be individually specified for the tuners 1, 2, 3 and all channel numbers of the respective tuners.
First, select the channel position of the tuner you want to set with the “Up”, “Down”, “Right”, and “Left” buttons on the remote control, and then operate the “Up” and “Down” buttons to increase or decrease the channel number. The number of channels can be specified. At this time, it is preferable to provide one position where all the channels can be set at once in case it is not necessary to set them individually.
When you have finished selecting the number of channels, press the “Right” button, select the “Thumbnail Start (seconds)” position, set the desired value using the “Up” and “Down” buttons, and press the “Enter” button. Push. Similarly, select and set the next “thumbnail correction (seconds)” position.

  When set in this way, the thumbnail is generated from a screen at a point delayed from the recording start point by the sum of “thumbnail start (seconds)” and “thumbnail correction (seconds)”. Further, if this delay time value is recorded on the HDD simultaneously with the thumbnail, it is effective at the time of dubbing recording from the HDD to the optical disk, which will be described later.

Here, a supplementary description will be given of a preferable setting example of the above-mentioned “thumbnail start (second)” and “thumbnail correction (second)”.
1. Setting example of “thumbnail start (seconds)” When an advertisement is entered at the beginning of the start time of a program guide in a private broadcasting station or the like, and the content does not start immediately, it becomes a relatively large value such as 60 seconds to 180 seconds. This value varies from broadcast station to broadcast station, but it is almost constant for the same program, so it should be set after actually measuring it. In pay broadcasting and NHK broadcasting, content starts immediately from the beginning of the program table start time. Therefore, a relatively small value of about 1 to 10 seconds is preferable.
In particular, a channel that specially broadcasts content of the same genre by pay broadcasting has a constant time from the start time of the program guide to the start of the content, and is set by knowing the timing.
2. Setting example of “Thumbnail correction (seconds)” When there is almost no delay in the transmission path or tuner as in the conventional broadcasting, the value of “Thumbnail correction (seconds)” may be 0, but in digital broadcasting this delay Time may be large. As a setting example of this value, a value such as 2 to 5 seconds is suitable. However, a high quality broadcasting form using a satellite or a high transmission rate may have a larger value. It is desirable to set.

  As described in detail above, in this embodiment, means for setting the thumbnail acquisition timing individually for each tuner and each channel is provided, so that the content of each video content is determined as a thumbnail image to be generated. It is possible to increase the probability that an easy-to-use image can be acquired. In particular, in the case of content that contains commercial broadcast advertisements, the beginning portion is inappropriate as a thumbnail, and the present invention can avoid inconvenience.

  When the content recorded on the HDD 15 is dubbed to the optical disc 16 by the video signal recording / reproducing apparatus of the present embodiment, the “thumbnail correction (seconds)” when the content is recorded is read from the HDD 15 and only the value is read. If recording is performed with the beginning portion deleted, useless images are prevented from entering the beginning of recording, and good saved content can be created.

  In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the received transport stream is once decoded into an analog signal, then encoded again into a digital signal and digitally recorded on the HDD 15. A configuration in which the digital signal is converted into the format 13 and recorded is also possible. In this case, the thumbnail acquisition setting of the present invention can be performed effectively.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the recording / reproducing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of TS (transport stream) of digital broadcasting. It is a figure which shows an example of the operation button of a remote control. It is a figure of the example of a display of a thumbnail list display screen. It is a figure of the example of a display of a mode selection screen. It is a figure of the example of a display of a setting menu screen. It is a figure of the example of a display of thumbnail setting mode.

Explanation of symbols

1A, 1B, 1C ... broadcast receiving antenna 2A, 2B, 2C ... tuner 3A, 3B, 3C ... DEMUX (demultiplexer)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 4 ... Selector 5 ... Video decoder 6 ... Audio decoder 7 ... SI (service information) decoder 8 ... GUI (graphical user interface) composition circuit 9 ... Video encoder 10 ... Audio Encoder 11 ... Microcomputer 12 ... Infrared remote control receiver 13 ... Formatter 14 ... Recording / reproducing circuit 15 ... HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
16 ... optical disc 17 ... audio output terminal 18 ... video output terminal

Claims (1)

In a video signal recording / reproducing apparatus using a large-capacity recording medium capable of recording and reproducing a plurality of contents that can be randomly accessed,
Broadcast receiving means for receiving a plurality of contents broadcast from a broadcasting station;
Recording means for recording the content received by the broadcast receiving means on the large-capacity recording medium;
Thumbnail acquisition time setting means for setting , for each broadcasting station, the predetermined time for acquiring, as a thumbnail, an image after a predetermined time has elapsed from the recording start point of the content received by the broadcast receiving means;
Delay time setting means for setting a delay time in the broadcast receiving means;
Thumbnail generating and recording means for selecting an image at a point delayed by the predetermined time and a delay time from a recording start point of the content recorded on the large-capacity recording medium and recording the selected image as a thumbnail of the content on the large-capacity recording medium When,
Delay time recording means for recording the delay time on the large-capacity recording medium;
When copying a certain content recorded on the large-capacity recording medium to another recording medium, the delay time when the content is recorded is read from the large-capacity recording medium, and the beginning of the content is calculated by the delay time value. A copy means for deleting and copying the part;
A video signal recording / reproducing apparatus comprising:

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