Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-13
2001-12-04
Tran, Thai (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327417
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a recorded program information managing apparatus and a recorded program information managing method for managing recorded program information of programs recorded on a tape-like recording medium such as a video cassette tape or the like, and a recording and reproducing apparatus and a recording and reproducing method with a recorded program information managing function provided by such a recorded program information managing apparatus and a recorded program information managing method.
BACKGROUND ART
According to one process of providing users with information relative to programs recorded in a video cassette by a VTR (Video Tape Recorder), a recording area dedicated for recorded program information is established on a leading portion of a magnetic tape in the video cassette, and, when necessary, the recording area for recorded program information is played back to obtain recorded program information, which is displayed as a recorded program guide on a monitor screen. The user can see the recorded program information displayed on the monitor screen to recognize contents of programs recorded in the video cassette presently loaded in the VTR, the order in which the programs are recorded, and recording start/end positions (times) on the tape.
With the above method of providing the recorded program guide, however, since recorded program information is recorded on magnetic tapes in video cassettes, the user is required to repeatedly load video cassettes into and eject video cassettes from the VTR until the user finds the particular video cassette in which a desired program that the user wants to see is recorded. Therefore, the user needs to perform a tedious and time-consuming task.
Furthermore, because the recording area for recorded program information is positioned on the leading portion of a video cassette tape, if the video cassette tape has been wound partway, then the user needs a time to rewind the video cassette up to its leading portion in order to see the recorded program information. This also puts the user under stress.
There has been known a process of recording a program by establishing a tape number with which to identify a tape on which the program is recorded and a program number with which to identify the program, storing information of the tape number and the program number in a tape library memory in a VTR in association with given program guide data, and superimposing the information of the tape number and the program number and address information indicative of a tape-like recording position upon a vertical blanking period of the video signal of the recorded program.
In order for the VTR to establish a tape number in recording a program in a tape cassette, the VTR plays back the loaded tape cassette for several seconds. If there is a program which has already been recorded in the tape cassette, the VTR detects a tape number that has been recorded together with the video signal of the recorded program, establishes the same tape number as the detected tape number, and thereafter starts to record the program. If there is no program which has already been recorded in the tape cassette even after the tape cassette has been played back for several seconds, then the VTR regards the tape cassette as a virgin tape cassette, and establishes a new tape number.
To establish a program number, the VTR searches the tape library memory using the tape number detected as described above, determines a program number to be established, and establishes the program number.
With identification information being thus allotted and managed to identify recorded programs, if the tape number of a certain recorded program can be identified when the loaded video cassette is played back for a short period of time, then it is possible to read and display program guide information that has been stored in the tape library memory according to the identified tape number. Therefore, necessary program guide information can be obtained through a playback for a short period of time. In addition, a label marked with a number corresponding to a tape number established by the VTR may be applied to the casing of the tape cassette. When information regarding programs recorded in the tape cassette is displayed on the basis of data stored in the tape library memory, the user can easily recognize the position where a desired program is recorded on the cassette tape.
When the VTR is about to establish a tape number for a certain tape cassette in which programs have already been recorded, if the tape cassette is loaded into the VTR with a blank (unrecorded) tape area positioned at the playback head, then since no recorded programs are detected by a playback started from the blank tape area for several seconds, the VTR decides that the tape cassette is a virgin tape cassette. In this case, the VTR establishes a new tape number, records the established tape number in the video signal of a program, and stores information of the recorded program together with information of the established tape number in the tape library memory. Consequently, though a plurality of programs are recorded on the same video tape, different tape numbers are recorded in their video signals, and these programs are managed as being recorded on different tapes in the tape library data. As a result, the programs actually recorded on the video tape do not match the management data presented as program guide information.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a recorded program guide function that can easily be used by the user, by solving the above problems. Another object of the present invention is to perform memory management as efficiently as possible in managing recorded program information to achieve a match between programs actually recorded on a video tape and management data presented as program guide information.
A recorded program information managing apparatus for managing information relative to programs recorded on tape-like recording mediums, comprises recorded program information establishing means for establishing, as recorded program information, at least recording medium number information indicative of different recording medium numbers assigned respectively to tape-like recording mediums which record programs thereon, and program number information indicative of different program numbers assigned respectively to the recorded programs in depending relation to the recording medium numbers, recording control means for recording, as identification information of the recorded programs, at least the recording medium number information and the program number information which are established by the recorded program information establishing means on the tape-like recording mediums in superimposed relation to video signals of the recorded programs, storage means for storing at least the recording medium number information and the program number information as recorded program information relative to the recorded programs recorded on the tape-like recording mediums, and reconstructing means for executing a reconstruction process to unify and manage the recording medium number information of recorded programs on a single tape-like recording medium if at least different recording medium numbers have already been established with respect to the recorded programs on the single tape-like recording medium.
The reconstructing means comprises reconstructive number establishing means for establishing reconstructive recording medium number information indicative of a reconstructive recording medium number with respect to a tape-like recording medium to be processed by the reconstruction process, identification information extracting means for extracting recording medium number information and program number information with respect to each of recorded programs from video signals reproduced from the tape-like recording medium to be processed by the reconstruction process, storage control means for storing the recording medium number information extr
Hanai Tomoyuki
Nishina Yasutomo
Chieu Po-lin
Frommer William S.
Frommer & Lawrence & Haug LLP
Sony Corporation
Tran Thai
LandOfFree
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