Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-25
2004-03-09
Boccio, Vincent (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000, C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06704489
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for managing hardware and software resources (simply referred to as the “resources”) used by an application program that a computer executes, and also relates to a digital video reproducing/recording apparatus that reproduces and records digitized video data.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
There are various application programs that are executed by a computer. During the execution of an application program, data is inputted, outputted, and transferred using resources, such as a hard disk drive, bus, and memory.
Each resource has a use tolerance limit. For example, a hard disk drive and a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus have respective limits to a speed at which data is transferred through them. To be more specific, each of them has a limit to a data transfer bandwidth. When an application program performs synchronous processes in which data needs to be transferred at certain timings, a predetermined data transfer bandwidth should be secured for the associated resources so that the application program can normally work.
For a system under which application programs simultaneously run, if an application program ignores the other application programs and uses resources without limitation, an application program performing synchronous processes may fail to work normally.
There have been techniques suggested in order to prevent such a fail from occurring during the execution of the program. As one example of such techniques, for a system under which application programs run according to the control of a multitask OS (Operating System), each application program is programmed beforehand so that two tasks that execute synchronous processes using the same resources will not be executed in parallel and that each application program can be exclusively executed.
An explanation is given below for a case of a conventional non-linear editing system that is composed of a CPU, a memory, a hard disk drive, a bus, a monitor, and a VTR, and performs video editing. According to, for example, a control program for receiving instructions from a user, this conventional non-linear editing system is controlled so as not to allow the user to simultaneously execute a recording process and an editing process. In the recording process, video inputted by means of a VTR or the like serving as an inputting device is recorded onto a hard disk at a constant transfer speed. In the editing process, meanwhile, the video that has been recorded onto the hard disk is edited while being reproduced at a constant speed. The conventional non-linear editing system is controlled with the aim of guaranteeing a data transfer bandwidth for each of the recording and editing processes. However, there may be a case where the data transfer bandwidth is adequately broad as the limit for a resource. In this case, the system cannot make effective use of the resource.
In order to effectively use the resources on the system that executes a plurality of application programs, each application program needs to be specially programmed beforehand so as to work in cooperation with the other application programs in terms of the uses of the resources. The application programs also need to be programmed in consideration of a case where a task performing synchronous processes and a task performing asynchronous processes are simultaneously executed. To be more specific, the application program associated with the asynchronous processes needs to be programmed so that the data transfer band to be used is reduced in width. With the reduced transfer bandwidth, this application program will not interfere with the execution of the synchronous processes.
It is difficult, however, to specially program the application programs so that they will work in cooperation with each other. This is because the special programming depends on the respective limits of the resources, and in addition to this, there may be a case where the combination of the application programs to be simultaneously executed is unknown. Also, the special programming is not desirable in view of effects caused by variations in the resource environment and the program organization for the system. Such variations are ascribable to changes and additions of resources and additions of application programs.
The following is a description of a conventional digital video reproducing/recording apparatus that is used as a non-linear editing system.
FIG. 1
is a schematic block diagram of the conventional digital video reproducing/recording apparatus. The digital video reproducing/recording apparatus is composed of a hard disk
1801
, CODECs
1802
and
1803
, a switch
1804
, a MIX circuit
1805
, a D/A converter
1806
, and an A/D converter
1807
. The hard disk
1801
records video data that is encoded in the digital format while the CODECS
1802
and
1803
encode and decode the video data. The switch
1804
switches the direction in which signals are transferred, depending on whether the video data is currently encoded or decoded. The MIX circuit
1805
mixes two sets of video data that are respectively decoded by the CODECs
1802
and
1803
. The D/A converter
1806
converts the video data mixed by the MIX circuit
1805
into analog video data and outputs the analog video data to an external television monitor or the like so that the video images are reproduced. The A/D converter
1807
converts the analog video data that is inputted by an external VTR or the like into digital video data.
FIG. 2
shows a flow of video signals (i.e., video data) in a video reproducing process performed by the conventional digital video reproducing/recording apparatus. The direction of the data flow is set by the switch
1804
so that the data is transferred from the CODEC
1802
to the MIX circuit
1805
. This video reproducing process executes two-channel reproduction whereby a spatial composition is performed on two sets of video data.
FIG. 3
shows a data flow in a video recording process performed by the conventional digital video reproducing/recording apparatus. The direction of the data flow is set by the switch
1804
so that the data is transferred from the A/D converter
1807
to the CODEC
1802
. Specifically, the data flows in the following order: the external VTR or the like→the A/D converter
1807
→the switch
1804
→the CODEC
1802
→the hard disk
1801
.
It should be noted here that the details of a conventional digital video reproducing/recording apparatus used as a non-linear editing system is described in the Journal of the Institute of Television Engineers (renamed the Journal of the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers), August issue, 1996, pages 26-29.
In such conventional digital video reproducing/recording apparatus, each of the video reproducing and recording processes is exclusively executed.
The video reproducing process does not always have to perform the two-channel reproduction. Specifically, when reproduction is performed for editing news video, one-channel reproduction, whereby the video data is cut and paste regardless of the course of time, is often executed. For this case, the setting may be made beforehand so that the decoded video data received by the MIX circuit
1805
will be only from the CODEC
1803
. Thus, the video data flows in the following order: the hard disk
1801
→the CODEC
1803
the MIX circuit
1805
→the D/A converter
1806
. Therefore, there is no video data flow in the following order: the hard disk
1801
→the CODEC
1802
→the switch
1804
→the MIX circuit
1805
. This is to say, it does not matter how the CODEC
1802
and the switch
1804
are used during the one-channel reproduction.
However, the two-channel reproduction and the one-channel reproduction are not distinguished in the video reproducing process. For this reason, when using the conventional digital video reproducing/recording apparatus, the video recording process cannot be executed while the video reproducing process is
Ageishi Narutoshi
Kajimoto Kazuo
Kurauchi Nobukazu
Suzuki Motoshi
Boccio Vincent
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
LandOfFree
Resource management system and digital video... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Resource management system and digital video..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Resource management system and digital video... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3232775