Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-19
2001-06-26
Chevalier, Robert (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000, C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06253025
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement of a system for encoding and decoding image information such as a sub-picture which is reproduced or played back simultaneously with a main picture.
The present invention also relates to a recording medium, such as an optical disk, and a data recording scheme for recording sub-picture data supplied together with picture data on the recording medium and simultaneously reproduced with the picture data from the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sub-pictures superimposed on main pictures, such as titles in a movie, and image contents to be displayed as a set value of the television volume level are mainly realized by two schemes, i.e., a character code scheme and a bit map data scheme.
In the character code scheme, characters, such as pre-registered and prepared characters and patterns, are held in a character recording area of a character generator. A code assigned to each character is input to the character generator to display a desired character.
According to this scheme, dedicated hardware, such as a character generator is required, but the volume of data to be sent to a display system can be smaller than that of a scheme for directly sending character bit map data to the display system so as to display a sub-picture, because a code is input to display a character. However, the applications of display of sub-pictures according to this scheme are limited since only the pre-registered and prepared characters can be displayed.
To the contrary, in the bit map data scheme, dedicated hardware for generating a sub-picture from a code need not be used, because the bit map data of the sub-picture is directly sent to a display system. The sub-pictures can be used in a variety of display applications since the form of the sub-picture to be displayed is not fixed.
According to this method, sub-picture color data, sub-picture outline color data required for superimposing a sub-picture on a main picture, and superimposing mixing ratio data of the main picture and the sub-picture must be provided for each pixel. Therefore, the volume of data to be sent to a display system is inevitably very large. In addition, in the bit map data scheme, data associated with all pixels on a display screen (to be referred to a frame hereinafter) must be sent to the display system regardless of the size of a sub-picture (see FIG.
50
). For this reason, a large amount of wasteful data are present in respect of display space.
In either the character code scheme or the bit map data scheme, even if the shape of a sub-picture being currently displayed does not change, sub-picture data must be basically kept supplied for each display frame period, and a large amount of wasteful data are present with respect to the display time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made to solve the conventional problems described above, and has its object to provide a data recording method and a recording medium, in which sub-picture data wasteful in respect of both display space and display time can be greatly reduced, the degree of freedom in sub-picture expressions is large, and a variety of applications of sub-pictures can be assured.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the first invention, there is provided a data recording method of forming, in a predetermined unit, a packet of sub-picture data simultaneously reproducible with main picture data, and recording the sub-picture data packet on a recording medium, wherein the sub-picture data packet includes at least packet header information (PH) including a playback start time of the sub-picture data packet which is expressed using a reference time, sub-picture content data (PXD) representing the display contents of a sub-picture, at least one portion of display control sequence information (DCSQT) representing a control sequence for displaying the sub-picture using the sub-picture content data, and sub-picture header information (SPUH) including a size of the sub-picture data packet and a recording position of the display control sequence information, and the sub-picture data packet is recorded on the recording medium.
According to the second invention, there is provided a data recording method of forming, in predetermined units, packets of sub-picture data of a plurality of channels simultaneously reproducible with main picture data, respectively, and recording a plurality of data packets of a selected one of the plurality of channels as one sub-picture data block on a recording medium, wherein the sub-picture data packet includes at least packet header information (PH) including a playback start time of the sub-picture data packet which is expressed using a reference time, sub-picture content data (PXD) representing the display contents of a sub-picture, at least one display control sequence information (DCSQT) representing a control sequence for displaying the sub-picture using the sub-picture content data, and sub-picture header information (SPUH) including a size of the sub-picture data packet and a recording position of the display control sequence information, the sub-picture data packet is recorded on the recording medium, and the playback start time (PTS) of the sub-picture data packet in the packet header information is recorded only for a start sub-picture data packet in the sub-picture data block.
According to the third invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in the first or second invention, wherein the display control sequence information (cf. DCSQ in
FIG. 33
) has at least a sub-picture display start time, a sub-picture display end time, the recording position of the sub-picture content data to be displayed, and a group of display control information for the sub-picture content data recorded at the recording position.
According to the fourth invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in the third invention, wherein the sub-picture display start time and the sub-picture display end time are defined as times relative to the playback start time of the sub-picture data packet.
According to the fifth invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in the third invention, wherein display start control information (cf. STA_DSP in
FIG. 34
) for controlling a start of display of the sub-picture content data is recorded as the display control information on the basis of the display start time included in the display control sequence information.
According to the sixth invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in-the third invention, wherein display end control information (cf. STP_DSP in
FIG. 34
) for controlling an end of display of the sub-picture content data is recorded as the display control information on the basis of the display end time included in the display control sequence information.
According to the seventh invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in the third invention, wherein color setting information (cf. SET_COLOR in
FIG. 34
) for setting a color of the sub-picture content data for each pixel type is recorded as the display control information.
According to the eighth invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in the third invention, wherein mixing ratio setting information (cf. SET_CONTR in
FIG. 34
) for setting a mixing ratio of the main picture and the sub-picture content data for each pixel type is recorded as the display control information.
According to the ninth invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in the third invention, wherein display area setting information (cf. SET_DAREA in
FIG. 34
) for setting a display area of the sub-picture content data on the main picture is recorded as the display control information.
According to the tenth invention, there is provided a data recording method as defined in the third invention, wherein use range setting information (cf. SET_DSPXA in
FIG. 34
) for setting a range to be used in a display in t
Aoki Tae
Kitamura Tetsuya
Mimura Hideki
Shirasuna Toshiaki
Chevalier Robert
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
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