Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1997-01-24
2001-05-01
Nguyen, Huy (Department: 2715)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06226441
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
A portion of this disclosure contains material in which copyright is claimed by the applicant. The applicant has no objection to the copying of this material in the course of making copies of the application file or any patents that may issue on the application, but all other rights whatsoever in the copyright material are reserved.
1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to the recording and/or reproduction of information on magnetic tape media.
2. Related Art and Other Considerations
In magnetic recording on tape using a magnetic tape drive, relative motion between a head unit (typically with both a write element and a read element) and the tape causes a plurality of tracks of information to be transduced with respect to the tape. One example of magnetic tape recording is streaming recording, such as serpentine recording. In serpentine recording, the relative motion between the head unit and the tape occurs primarily along the longitudinal axis of the tape to follow or form a track, with the vertical position between the tape and the head unit being adjusted for a change of tracks. The head unit thus travels longitudinally back and forth along the tape, changing tracks typically at longitudinal ends of the tape.
The magnetic tape is typically housed in a cartridge which is loaded into the tape drive. The tape is extracted by the drive from the cartridge into a tape path that travels proximate the head unit.
Some magnetic tape is preformatted so that frames or blocks of information are correlated with specific physical locations on tape. Tape preformatted in this manner is called “hard sectored” tape.
Typically in magnetic tape recording, when a block or frame of information is recorded on the tape, the block or frame is read back for verification purposes, either essentially immediately during the recording process by a read head which follows the write head along the track, or subsequently. In such a verification read-back, for streaming data if it is determined that the frame or block cannot be read or contains an error, the contents of such frame or block are re-recorded on the tape. Such re-recording is required for data integrity, but does hamper recording and reproduction rates.
Magnetic tape has historically been useful as a media for storing computer information, e.g., for backing up a computer or for storing computer data which is too voluminous to remain resident at the computer. In other applications, magnetic tape has also been useful for storing audio information, video information, or audio/visual information. Verification of recorded data is typically not provided in such audio/visual applications in view of the requirements for near real-time recording and reproduction rates.
More recently, a use for magnetic tape has been proposed for set-top boxes. A set-top box provides a direct satellite connection to a television, whereby a viewer can have a program downloaded by satellite connection in real time for viewing on the television. It has been recently proposed that magnetic tape be utilized to record the satellite-downloaded information received by the set-top box so that a program can be preserved for viewing, e.g., at a later time.
SUMMARY
While tape recording of satellite-beamed television programs is advantageous, magnetic tape can be formatted and utilized to provide even more flexibility and advantages. In particular, according to the present invention, a magnetic tape memory is formatted to be interchangeably usable by a plurality of types of devices, including an audio/visual recording/reproducing device, a random access recording/reproducing device, and a sequential access recording/reproducing device. The tape has frames of a plurality of frame types, including control frames and user frames. Each frame has an AUX data structure wherein resides a field which indicates the frame type of the frame.
A first partition of the tape is a vertical partition which is reserved for appropriate ones of a plurality of possible control or configuration tables. The configuration tables are each preferably in frame format. The configuration or control frames include a partition boundary frame which includes information concerning physical boundaries of partitions; a table of contents frame which includes information concerning the physical location of A/V program material; a track table frame which maps logical frame numbers to physical frame addresses on the tape; a defect map frame which includes e.g., a list of physical frame numbers on the tape which are unreliable; and, an identification frame which defines parameters about the tape. Each of the control or configuration frames include data structures for providing the information for the control frame in which it resides.
The user frames of the tape have a field therein which specifies the nature of the data therein, e.g., as general purpose data or audio/visual data. The field which specifies the nature of the data is, in the illustrated embodiment, the same field in the AUX data structure which specifies the frame type. In addition, the AUX data structure has multimedia source field which, for a user frame having audio/visual data, specifies at least one of the following: a source of the audio/visual data, a format of the audio/visual data, and copy protection parameters of the audio/visual data.
In addition to control frames and user frames, the tape can include marker frames a system frames. A marker frame is one of a filemark, a setmark, and an end of data marker. A system frame which is used by the device to load control code.
User frames of the tape further have a partition control field which selectively specifies whether the user frame constitutes at least one of the following: a first physical frame within a partition, a last physical frame with a partition, a vertical partition boundary. The user frames of the tape further have a partition description field which identifies a partition in which the user frame is included.
In the illustrated embodiments, the tape has a permanently embedded servo format whereby each of the frames are hard sectored with a permanent physical relationship to the tape. The frames of the tape further have a physical frame number field wherein is stored a physical frame number relative to the embedded servo format. In addition, the user frames of the tape further have a logical frame number field wherein is stored a logical frame number relative to an order of recording of the user frames on the tape.
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Contreras John M.
Contreras Marie
Hartung Steven F.
Contreras Marie
Exabyte Corporation
Nguyen Huy
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
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