Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-14
2001-07-10
Nguyen, Huy (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06259859
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, a recording/reproducing apparatus and a recording medium capable of recording video-signal data and audio-signal data into a recording medium of a predetermined type, being well applicable to equipment such as a video camera.
At the present time, a video camera of a portable type, wherein an image shooting apparatus such as a camera and a video deck capable of recording and playing back video and audio data are integrated into a single body, is becoming widely popular.
In general, such a video camera employs a removable recording medium represented mainly by a videotape cassette. Normally, when the storage area of a recording medium mounted on the main body of such a video camera is almost all used up in the course of recording carried out by the user by utilizing the video camera, the recording is suspended temporarily, the recording medium mounted on the video camera is taken out, a new recording medium prepared in advance is mounted in place of the removed recording medium and the recording is resumed.
By the way, for example, during a period of time to replace a recording medium mounted on the video camera with another one in the course of the image shooting as described above, data can not be recorded into the recording medium. That is to say, when recording is carried out over a long period of time using a plurality of recording media, information that would be recorded into a recording medium during a period of time to replace the recording medium mounted on the video camera with another one is lost. As a result, continuity of recorded data along the time axis between 2 recording media can not be obtained in a strict sense.
Particularly, in recent years, promotion of efforts to increase the recording density of the disc recording medium is under way. With such promotion serving as a background, a video deck capable of recording and playing back video and audio data can be possibly employed in a video camera for a disc recording medium. If a disc recording medium is employed as a recording medium, operations such as random accesses can be carried out, so that, during playback processing for example, operations such as a scan, forward and rewind can be implemented at a higher speed.
In the present state of the art, however, a disc recording medium generally has a small storage capacity in comparison with a tape recording medium as before. In the case of a video camera in particular, the amount of video data of a moving picture is extremely large in comparison with information to be recorded such as audio data. Thus, in a video camera system employing a disc as a recording medium, the recording time per disc is expected to be relatively short. As a result, there are raised problems that, in the course of recording over a long period of time, the disc recording medium must be replaced more frequently and a ratio of time of losing data caused by replacement of the disc recording medium to the total recording time increases accordingly.
In addition, as is generally known, a recording/playback apparatus for driving a disc recording medium is generally more sensitive to vibration and shocks than a driver for driving a tape recording medium.
For this reason, when a variety of servo of a driver employed in a video camera for driving a disc used in the camera as a recording medium is out of control due to a cause such as vibration of the main body of the camera or a shock given to the main body during a recording operation using the camera for example, recording of data is interrupted. In such a circumstance, it is more certainly within the bounds of probability that continuity of recorded data along the time axis can not be obtained any more.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is thus an object of the present invention addressing the problems described above to provide more convenience to the user of a video camera by sustaining as much continuity of recorded data between recording media along the time axis as possible even for a circumstance wherein recording of data into a recording medium employed in the camera can not be carried out physically due to, for example, replacement of the recording medium by another one in the course of recording using the camera.
In order to solve the problems described above, the present invention provides a recording apparatus characterized in that the apparatus comprises: a video compressing means for compressing input video data; an audio compressing means for compressing input audio data; a storage means for storing compressed video data generated by the video compressing means and compressed audio data generated by the audio compressing means; a recording means for reading out compressed video data and audio data temporarily stored in the storage means back from the storage means with predetermined timing and then recording the compressed video and audio data read out from the storage means into a recording medium; a storage-size detecting means for finding a storage-size of the storage means; and a storage-means control means for writing compressed audio data generated by the audio compressing means to be supplied to the storage means into the storage means at a priority higher than compressed video data generated by the video compressing means to be supplied to the storage means in accordance with a storage-size of the storage means found by the storage-size detecting means.
In addition, the present invention also provides a recording/reproducing apparatus characterized in that the apparatus comprises: a video compressing means for compressing input video data; an audio compressing means for compressing input audio data; a storage means for storing compressed video data generated by the video compressing means and compressed audio data generated by the audio compressing means; a storage-size detecting means for finding a storage-size of the storage means; a control means for controlling the video compressing means to thin compressed video data generated by the video compressing means in accordance with a storage-size of the storage means found by the storage-size detecting means so as to reserve an area in the storage means large enough for storing compressed audio data produced by the audio compressing means to be supplied to the storage means; an identifier generating means for generating an identifier used for identifying a control state of the control means; a recording means for reading out compressed video data, compressed audio data and the identifier generated by the identifier generating means to identify a control state of the control means temporarily stored in the storage means back from the storage means with predetermined timing and then recording the compressed video data, the compressed audio data and the identifier read out from the storage means into a recording medium; a reproducing means for reproducing compressed video data, compressed audio data and the identifier identifying a control state of the control means from the recording medium; a video decompressing means for decompressing compressed video data reproduced by the reproducing means; an audio decompressing means for decompressing compressed audio data reproduced by the reproducing means; and a video-decompressing-means control means for controlling decompression carried out by the video decompressing means in accordance with the identifier reproduced by the reproducing means.
Furthermore, the present invention also provides a recording method characterized in that the method comprises the steps of: compressing input video data; compressing input audio data; storing compressed video data and compressed audio data in a memory; finding a storage-size of the memory; writing compressed audio data supplied to the memory at a priority higher than compressed video data supplied to the memory in accordance with the storage-size of the memory; and reading out compressed video data and compressed audio data temporarily stored in the memory back from the memory with predetermined timing and then
Katsuki Shinji
Kawakami Takashi
Nguyen Huy
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Sony Corporation
LandOfFree
Recording apparatus, recording/reproducing apparatus and... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Recording apparatus, recording/reproducing apparatus and..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Recording apparatus, recording/reproducing apparatus and... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2451356