Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-29
2002-12-03
Tran, Thai (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000, C386S349000, C360S048000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06490406
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of digital video tape recording and reproducing.
2. Description of the Related Art
The invention relates to a recording arrangement for recording an information signal in tracks on a record carrier, the recording arrangement including an input terminal for receiving the information signal and channel encoding apparatus for channel encoding the information signal to form a channel signal suitable for recording in a track on the record carrier. The recording arrangement also includes writing apparatus for writing the channel signal in the track. The channel signal includes multiple signal blocks which each include a first block section having a synchronization signal and a second block section which comprises a multitude of channel bytes. The invention also relates to a record carrier obtained with the recording arrangement, and to a reproducing arrangement for reproducing the video signal from the record carrier.
A recording arrangement as given in the opening paragraph is known from European Patent Application No. EP-A 492,704, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,483, reference (1).
The known recording arrangement is of the helical scan type and records an information signal, comprising a digital audio signal and a digital video signal, in audio signal recording sectors and video signal recording sectors, respectively, in multiple tracks. When recording a track, the video signal recording sector comes first and is followed by the audio signal recording sector. The order in which the sectors occur in a track can, however, also be in the reverse order. Furthermore, other sectors may be included in a track, such as, a clock run-in area, located at the beginning of a track, so as to enable a locking-in of the internal system clock on the signals read from the track, and preamble and postamble areas that are located between the various sectors and function as an edit gap. Reference is made in this respect to the earlier filed European Patent Application No. 93202950, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,878, reference (2) and European Patent Application No. 93201263, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,187, reference (3).
Reference is also made to: “Grand Alliance HDTV Specification”, draft document, Feb. 22, 1999, reference (4); and to U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,421, reference (5).
These documents relate to proposals for a new digital video cassette (DVC) recorder standard, which enables the recording and reproduction of digital video and digital audio signals on/from a longitudinal magnetic record carrier. This new digital video recorder standard will lead to new digital video recorders and reproducers of the so-called DVC type. The above citations are hereby incorporated in whole by reference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a object of the invention to provide a recording arrangement which is capable of recording other type of information signals in the known tape format as defined in the preamble. In the recording arrangement in accordance with a specific embodiment of the invention, the information signal is an MPEG information signal in accordance with an MPEG format, the MPEG information signal comprising multiple transport packets. Each time information is included in x transport packets of the MPEG information signal, the channel encoding apparatus stores the information included in the x transport packets of the MPEG information signal, into the second block sections of a group of y signal blocks of the channel signal. The second block section of at least the first signal block of the group of y signal blocks includes a third block section for storing identification information identifying the signal block as being the first signal block of the group of y signal blocks. Finally, x and y are integers such that x≧1 and y>1.
In a specific embodiment, the information signal is an MPEG information signal in accordance with an MPEG format, the MPEG information signal comprising multiple sequential transport packets. The channel encoding apparatus stores information included in x transport packets of the MPEG information signal into the second block sections of a group of y signal blocks of the channel signal. The second block sections of the signal blocks include a third block section for storing sequence number information relating to a sequence number of the signal blocks. Finally, x and y are integers such that x≧1 and y>1.
The invention is based on the following recognition. The draft Grand Alliance HDTV System Specification, dated Feb. 22, 1994, reference (4) above, more specifically, the chapters V and VI of this specification, includes a description of a transport system for transmitting an MPEG information signal. This signal includes a data compressed digital video signal and a corresponding data compressed digital audio signal, for broadcasting purposes or for transmission via a cable network. The MPEG information signal is in the form of transport packets having either an equal length or a variable length in time. In both cases, however, a transport packet comprises 188 bytes of information, the first byte being a synchronization byte.
A transmission of such an MPEG information signal, in the form of a recording on or a reproduction from a record carrier, such as a magnetic record carrier, requires that special measures be taken in order to accomplish such a transmission via the known tape format. More specifically, the invention relates to storing the transport packets in the signal blocks of the known tape format.
Generally, it can be said that, when storing the information included in a number of x transport packets of the MPEG information signal into a number of y signal blocks, some unoccupied space remains available in the y signal blocks which can be used for the storage of additional information. The additional information stored according to the invention, relates to the specific application of recording and reproducing the MPEG information signal on/from the record carrier. In a specific example of the DVC format, the second block sections may include 77 bytes of information. In that situation, two transport packets, from each of which the sync byte has been deleted, can be stored in second block sections of five signal blocks. Now, 11 bytes (=5×77−2×187) remain available in the five signal blocks. These 11 bytes may be divided over the second block sections of the five signal blocks in various ways so as to obtain the third block sections. An example of one such way is that the first two bytes of all second block sections are made available as third block sections, and that the last of the 11 available bytes can be considered as a third block section for indicating the boundary between the information of the two transport packets as stored in the five signal blocks.
In the above example, identification information, identifying the signal block as being the first signal block of the group of y signal blocks, can be stored in a third block section of the first signal block in a group of y signal blocks. Alternatively, sequence number information (sequence numbers) relating to the sequence of the signal blocks may be stored in the third block sections. This sequence number may also be identified as a continuity counter. The measures proposed result in a number of advantages.
The advantage of storing identification information to identify a signal block as being the first signal block in a group of y signal blocks, is that the beginning of a group can be detected, which simplifies the read out of the data during reproduction.
One advantage of storing sequence numbers is that, when reproducing the signal blocks, it can be decided, upon retrieval of the sequence numbers, whether a signal block has been missed because of reproduction errors, so that an error correction or concealment can be carried out. Another advantage of storing sequence numbers is that one may shuffle the information to be stored into the signal blocks upon recording. Upon
Saeijs Ronald W. J. J.
Shah Imran A.
Van Gestel Wilhelmus J.
Goodman Edward W.
Koninklijke Philips Electronics , N.V.
Tran Thai
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