JP2009060506A - Recording / reproducing apparatus and system - Google Patents

Abstract

A recording / playback apparatus for recording and playing back a digital broadcast controlled by an external control device separate from the digital broadcast receiver, and program information such as a program title of the digital broadcast being recorded in the system is not recorded in the recording / playback apparatus. Solve the problem.
In a system in which a recording / playback control device (4), which is an external control device different from the digital broadcast receiver (1), controls the operation of the recording / playback device (2), a program included in the digital stream being recorded by the recording / playback device (2). By having a program information acquisition unit 24 that analyzes and acquires information and a program information transmission unit 25 that transmits the obtained program information to the recording / playback control device 4, the recording / playback control device 4 receives the program information from the recording / playback device 2. Can be recorded.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording / playback apparatus and system for recording and playing back a digital broadcast via a digital interface. More specifically, the present invention acquires program information included in a digital broadcast stream to be recorded, and transmits the acquired program information to an external device. The present invention relates to a recording / playback apparatus capable of performing the above.

  FIG. 5 shows a first conventional example in which a program received by a digital broadcast receiver is recorded via a digital interface.

  In FIG. 5, 1 is a digital broadcast receiver, 2 is a recording / playback apparatus, and 31 is a digital interface for connecting them. Here, the digital interface 31 is, for example, an IEEE1394 interface.

  Next, each component will be described in detail. 11 is a digital tuner that receives and demodulates a digital broadcast wave input to the digital receiver 1 and outputs all transport streams (hereinafter referred to as TS). A DEMUX section for extracting audio streams and program information data, 13 is a program information decoding section for decoding program information data from the DEMUX section 12 and extracting and outputting each program information (title, program start date, etc.), 14 is DEMUX A digital stream generation / separation unit for generating a partial TS from the video / audio stream from the unit 12 and the output of the program information decoding unit 13, 15 a controller for controlling devices connected via the digital interface 31, and 16 a user operation Is a program selection unit for selecting a program to be recorded. For example, see Non-Patent Document 1.

  Further, 21 is a digital stream recording / playback control unit that receives a digital stream transmitted via the digital interface 31, 22 is a digital stream recording unit that records the received digital stream, and 23 is program information corresponding to the recorded digital stream. It is a program information storage unit for writing and saving.

  The operation when recording a program will be described below with reference to FIG. The digital broadcast receiver 1 demodulates the digital broadcast wave received by the digital tuner 11 and outputs all TS included in the digital broadcast wave. Normally, all of these TSs include TSs of a plurality of programs (each consisting of one or a plurality of TSs). Next, all TSs including the plurality of programs are input to the DEMUX 12, and the DEMUX unit 12 extracts and outputs the video stream, audio stream, and program information data related to the specific program selected by the user by the program selection unit 16. To do. Of these, the program information data is input to the program information decoding unit 13, and the program information such as the program title and the program start date is extracted. The digital stream generation / separation unit 14 generates each extracted program information as a digital stream (partial TS) in addition to the video and audio streams from the DEMUX unit 12. The digital stream generated in this way is output via the digital interface 31. When the digital interface 31 is an IEEE1394 interface, the digital stream is transmitted by synchronous transfer (isochronous transfer). In the following description, it is assumed that the digital interface 31 is IEEE1394.

  The digital broadcast receiver 1 also includes a controller 15 that controls the operation of a device (in this example, the recording / playback apparatus 2) connected via the digital interface 31. For example, in order to cause the recording / playback apparatus 2 to record a digital stream from the digital broadcast receiver 1, the controller unit 15 asynchronously transfers a command (command) such as recording start which is one of the AV / C commands standardized by IEEE1394. Transfer with (Asynchronous transfer). As a result, the recording / playback apparatus 2 receives the input digital stream and starts recording in the internal digital stream recording unit 22. Further, the controller 15 writes the program information extracted by the program information decoding unit 13 in the program information storage unit 23 of the recording / playback apparatus 2.

Next, the operation when reproducing the recorded program will be described. First, the controller 15 extracts the program information recorded in the program information storage unit 23 of the recording / reproducing apparatus 2 using an AV / C command or the like standardized by IEEE1394. Using this information, the user displays a list of recorded programs and causes the user to select a program to be reproduced. In general, program information included in a digital stream is distributed and included in a video / audio stream, and it takes time to extract program information from the digital stream itself. Also, when a large number of programs are recorded, it is necessary to play back all the digital streams one by one and retrieve the program information, and it takes a very long time to display the list of recorded programs. I can't say there is. Therefore, information such as the title and program start date / time is recorded in advance in the program information storage unit 23 when each program is recorded, and the list can be quickly displayed by reading out the information when the list is displayed. . When the user selects a program that the user wants to reproduce from the displayed program list, the controller 15 transmits a command for reproducing the corresponding digital stream to the recording / reproducing apparatus 2 via the digital interface 31 using an AV / C command. Receiving this, the digital stream recording / playback control unit 21 reads the corresponding digital stream from the digital stream recording unit 22 and transmits the digital stream to the digital receiver 1 through the digital interface 31 by isochronous transfer. The digital receiver 1 converts the received digital stream into a video / audio signal and displays it.
Digital broadcasting receiver standard ARIB STD-B21 The Japan Radio Industry Association

  However, the following problems occur in the conventional techniques as described above.

  That is, when the controller 15 for controlling the recording / reproducing apparatus 2 is provided in the digital broadcast receiver 1 as in the conventional example, the controller 15 records the program information acquired from the broadcast wave while sending the digital stream. However, if the digital broadcast receiver 1 does not have such a controller function or has a controller function, the connected recording / playback apparatus 2 cannot be used conveniently.

  In order to solve this problem, a configuration as shown in FIG. 6 can be considered. In FIG. 6, components having the same name and number are the same as those described in FIG. 5, and therefore only new components will be described here.

  In FIG. 6, reference numeral 4 denotes a recording / playback control device for controlling the recording / playback operation of the recording / playback device 2, which is connected via a digital interface 32 (IEEE1394). Here, reference numeral 41 denotes a controller, which can issue an AV / C command to perform recording / playback operation, writing program information, and the like.

  The operation will be described below with reference to FIG. The operation of the constituent elements having the same numbers as in FIG. The difference is that the controller 41 performs operation control such as recording and reproduction of the recording / reproducing apparatus 2. That is, the controller 41 can instruct by a command to record a digital stream received by the digital broadcast receiver 1 and transmitted via the digital interface 31.

  This is an effective configuration when there is no function to control the recording / playback apparatus 2 to which the digital broadcast receiver 1 is connected, or when the function is insufficient even if the function is provided. As an example of a case where the function is insufficient, for example, the digital broadcast receiver 1 has a function (EPG reservation recording function) for displaying a program guide on a screen from information scheduled to be broadcast and recording it on the screen. However, there are cases where there is no function for recording a program that is currently being viewed, or even if the operation is complicated even if it exists. In any of the above cases, since the recording / playback control device 4 can perform operations such as recording and playback of the recording / playback device 2, the convenience of the user is improved.

  In this configuration example, the recording start command is transmitted to the digital stream recording / playback control unit 21 as an AV / C command by asynchronous transfer via the digital interface 32. When receiving the recording start command, the digital stream recording / playback control unit 21 records the digital stream input from the digital broadcast receiver 1 through the digital interface 31 by isochronous transmission in the digital stream recording unit 22. That is, the recording / playback apparatus 2 realizes a program recording operation by receiving a digital stream from the digital broadcast receiver 1 and an operation control command such as recording start from the recording / playback control apparatus 4. Specifically, the recording / playback control device 4 can be configured by, for example, a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC).

  However, in such a configuration, although the recording / playback apparatus 2 can be used more conveniently than the conventional example, the recording / playback control apparatus 4 cannot acquire the digital stream program information recorded by the recording / playback apparatus 2. There is a problem that the program information storage unit 23 in the recording / playback apparatus 2 cannot be written. In other words, in this configuration example, information such as the title of the recorded program is not written in the program information storage unit 23, so even if the recorded program list is displayed during playback, there is no information such as a title, which is very understandable for the user. There is a problem that the screen becomes difficult.

  In the conventional example, the program end time is known from the program information included in the digital broadcast wave, and the operation control such as automatically stopping recording by the controller 15 at the end of the program is possible. However, the configuration shown in FIG. In the example, since the recording / playback control device 4 does not know the program end time, there is a problem that it cannot perform operation control such as automatically stopping recording when the program being recorded ends.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording / playback apparatus and system capable of displaying a title or the like in a recorded program list display during playback.

  It is another object of the present invention to provide a system that enables operation control for obtaining a program end time from the obtained program information and automatically stopping recording when the program ends.

  In order to solve this problem, a recording / playback apparatus according to the present invention is a recording / playback apparatus controlled by a recording / playback control apparatus different from a digital stream output device, and the digital stream output is controlled by the recording / playback control apparatus. First recording means for recording a digital stream transmitted via a digital interface from a computer, program information acquisition means for acquiring program information included in the digital stream, and recording / playback control of the acquired program information A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: program information transmitting means for transmitting to the apparatus; and second recording means for storing the acquired program information according to an instruction from the recording / reproducing control apparatus.

The system of the present invention is a system including a digital stream output device, a recording / playback control device, and a recording / playback device controlled by the recording / playback control device, wherein the recording / playback device is the recording / playback control device. First recording means for recording a digital stream transmitted from the digital stream output device via a digital interface in accordance with a recording command from the digital stream, and program information acquisition means for acquiring program information included in the digital stream at the time of recording Second recording means for storing the program information, and program information transmission means for transmitting the acquired program information to the recording / playback control apparatus in response to a request from the external device,
The recording / playback control apparatus is a system that instructs the second recording means of the recording / playback apparatus to record the program information based on the transmitted program information.

  Further, the recording / playback control apparatus calculates Tr = Ts as an estimated value Tr from the recording start time to the program end time from the information of the recording start time (Tc), the program start time (Ts), and the program length (Td). The recording operation may be stopped by transmitting a recording stop command to the recording / playback apparatus after the estimated recording time Tr from the start of recording, using the estimated recording time Tr calculated by the formula + Td−Tc.

Further, the recording / playback control apparatus calculates Tr = Ts as an estimated value Tr from the recording start time to the program end time from the information of the recording start time (Tc), the program start time (Ts), and the program length (Td). If the estimated recording time Tr is smaller than a predetermined value, the message may be instructed to be displayed as to whether or not to record the next program.

  The program information acquisition means may acquire the program information in a plurality of times during the recording operation.

  As a result, even when a recording / playback control device other than the digital stream output device controls the recording / playback device, program information can be received from the recording / playback device, so that a program is stored in the program information storage unit of the recording / playback device. It becomes possible to write information, and this makes it possible to display titles and the like in the recorded program list display at the time of reproduction, so that convenience for the user can be remarkably enhanced.

  Further, it is possible to control the operation by obtaining the program end time from the obtained program information and automatically stopping the recording at the end of the program, thereby improving the convenience for the user.

(Embodiment 1)
Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the system of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, 1 is a digital broadcast receiver, 2 is a recording / playback apparatus, and 31 is a digital interface for connecting them. Reference numeral 4 denotes a recording / playback control device for controlling the recording / playback device, and reference numeral 32 denotes a digital interface for connecting the recording / playback control device 4 to the recording / playback device 2. Here, the digital interfaces 31 and 32 are, for example, IEEE1394 interfaces. In the following description, these digital interfaces will be described as IEEE1394. For example, an Ethernet (registered trademark) interface using a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) protocol is used. This is the same even when the digital interface is used.

  Next, each component will be described in detail. 11 is a digital tuner that receives and demodulates a digital broadcast wave input to the digital receiver 1 and outputs all TSs. 12 is a DEMUX that receives all TSs and inputs selected video / audio streams and program information data. And 13 is a program information decoding unit that decodes the program information data from the DEMUX unit 12 to extract and output each program information (title, program start date and time), and 14 is a video / audio stream from the DEMUX unit 12. A digital stream generation / separation unit that generates a partial TS from the output of the program information decoding unit 13 and extracts a video / audio stream from the partial TS, 16 is a program selection unit that selects a program by a user operation, and 17 is a digital stream. A stream decoding unit for decoding the video / audio stream extracted by the generation / separation unit 14; 8 is a display unit for displaying the video information that decoded.

  Next, 21 is a digital stream recording / playback control unit that receives a digital stream transmitted via the digital interface 31, 24 is a program information acquisition unit that acquires program information included in the stream from the received digital stream, and 22 is A digital stream recording unit for recording the received digital stream, and a program information storage unit for writing and saving program information corresponding to the recorded digital stream. Reference numeral 25 denotes a program information transmission unit that transmits program information acquired by the program information acquisition unit 24 to an external device via the digital interface 32.

  Reference numeral 41 denotes a controller that performs operation control such as recording start / stop of the recording / playback apparatus 2 and writes program information corresponding to the program being recorded.

  The operation will be described below with reference to FIG. The digital broadcast receiver 1 demodulates the digital broadcast wave received by the digital tuner 11 and outputs all TS included in the digital broadcast wave. Normally, all of these TSs include TSs of a plurality of programs (each consisting of one or a plurality of TSs). Next, all TSs including the plurality of programs are input to the DEMUX 12, and the DEMUX unit 12 extracts and outputs the video stream, audio stream, and program information data related to the specific program selected by the user by the program selection unit 16. To do. Among these, the program information data is input to the program information decoding unit 13 and the program information such as the program title and the program start date is extracted. The digital stream generation / separation unit 14 generates each extracted program information as a digital stream (partial TS) in addition to the video and audio streams from the DEMUX unit 12. The digital stream generated in this way is output via the digital interface 31 by IEEE1394 synchronous transfer (isochronous transfer).

  The controller 41 of the recording / playback control device 4 performs operation control for causing the recording / playback device 2 to record the digital stream from the digital broadcast receiver 1. The controller 41 transmits a recording command in the IEEE1394 AV / C command to the recording / playback apparatus 2 to the digital stream recording / playback control unit 21 through the digital interface 32 by asynchronous transfer. When receiving the recording start command, the digital stream recording / playback control unit 21 starts receiving a digital stream that is input from the digital broadcast receiver 1 through the digital interface 31 by isochronous transmission. And the program information acquisition part 24 analyzes the digital stream, acquires the program information contained in it, and preserve | saves it. The analyzed digital stream is transmitted to the digital stream recording unit 22 as it is and recorded. That is, the recording / playback apparatus 2 realizes a program recording operation by receiving a digital stream from the digital broadcast receiver 1 and an operation control command such as recording start from the recording / playback control apparatus 4.

  Specifically, the recording / playback control device 4 can be configured by, for example, a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC), but is not limited thereto.

  Here, since the recording / playback control apparatus 4 cannot receive the digital stream transmitted from the digital broadcast receiver 1 to the recording / playback apparatus 2, it cannot acquire the program information of the transmitted digital stream. One of the reasons why the digital stream cannot be received is that if the digital stream from the digital broadcast receiver 1 is a copyright-protected stream, mutual authentication and DTCP (Digital Transmission Contents Protection) mechanism defined by IEEE1394 Encryption key exchange (AKE) needs to be performed, but the recording / playback control device 4 may not have the function. In general, in the case of digital broadcasting, most of the programs are copyright-protected, and at present, most PCs do not have an AKE function. In addition, the digital broadcast receiver 1 internally holds program information and outputs it by including it in a digital stream, but at present, most of them do not have means for transmitting the program information to an external device.

  Therefore, the controller 41 of the recording / reproducing apparatus 4 transmits an AV / C command for inquiring about the program information included in the digital stream being received to the recording / reproducing apparatus 2. This AV / C command is not defined in the standard (such as the 1394TA defined AV / C command standard), but may be newly defined as a vendor unique command according to the mechanism of the AV / C command frame.

  When receiving the program information inquiry command, the program information transmission unit 25 of the recording / playback apparatus 2 inquires the program information acquisition unit 24 about the analysis status of the program information, and if the analysis is not completed, returns a response indicating that the analysis is in progress to the controller 41. If completed, the acquired program information is returned to the controller 41. When the controller 41 receives the response being analyzed, the controller 41 inquires again after a certain period (for example, after 10 seconds) and repeats this until the program information can be acquired.

  After the controller 41 acquires the program information in this way, the controller 41 then writes the program information obtained via the digital stream recording / playback control unit 21 into the program information storage unit 23 by asynchronous transfer.

  As described above, the recording / playback apparatus 2 can perform both recording of the digital stream itself and corresponding program information. As a result, the recorded program list can be displayed together with the program title and the like when the program recorded in the recording / reproducing apparatus 2 is reproduced.

  Here, the detailed timing of analyzing the digital stream of the program information acquisition unit 24 and acquiring the program information will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows the exchange of commands and responses between the recording / playback apparatus 2 and the recording / playback control apparatus 4 and the operation contents of the recording / playback apparatus 2. Broken lines in the figure indicate commands and responses.

  In FIG. 2, first, a recording start command is transmitted from the recording / playback control device 4. In response to this, the recording / reproducing apparatus 2 starts the recording operation, but at the same time, the program information acquisition unit 24 starts the digital stream analysis and acquires the program information. Normally, program information contained in a digital stream is embedded in a plurality of fragment data (packets) between video and audio data, so all the packets related to the program information are received and all the program information is acquired. It takes a certain amount of time. Depending on the situation, this time is specifically about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

  Thereafter, the recording / playback control device 4 inquires about program information after a certain time interval after the recording start command is transmitted (the time may be about 1 minute) ((1) in FIG. 2). At this time, the recording / reproducing apparatus 2 has not yet acquired all the program information, and returns a response indicating that the program information has not been acquired (incomplete) at this point. The recording / reproducing apparatus 4 then retries the inquiry about program information by sending a program information acquisition command again after a certain time ((2) in FIG. 2). At this time, since the recording / playback apparatus 2 has already acquired the program information, the recording / playback apparatus 2 returns the obtained program information to the recording / playback control apparatus 4 as a response. In this way, the recording / playback control device 4 can obtain program information of a digital stream being recorded by the recording / playback device 2. The time interval from (1) to (2) may be an interval of, for example, about 10 seconds in consideration of the time required for program information acquisition (about 30 seconds to about 1 minute). In this embodiment, the program information is obtained by the second inquiry ((2) in FIG. 2). However, in some cases, it takes time to acquire the program information, and the program information is finally obtained by repeating the retry several times. You may be able to get

  The recording / playback control apparatus 4 writes necessary information in the program information storage unit 23 of the recording / playback apparatus 2 for the program information thus obtained. Here, the program information stored in the program information storage unit 23 will be described with reference to FIG. The substance of the recorded program (digital stream including video / audio recorded in the digital stream recording unit) is called an object (Object), and the object is numbered at the time of recording. This is the Object Position and Object ID in FIG. The Object Position is a number assigned in order from the oldest recording. For example, when one program is deleted, the Object Position of the program recorded thereafter is incremented by one. That is, the program recorded after the erased program is changed by reassigning the Object Position at that time. On the other hand, the Object ID is an unused number assigned at the time of recording and does not change until the object is deleted. In other words, it can be said that Object ID is a unique number of the object. In the program information storage unit 23, for each Object Position, Object ID, recording start time, recording time, program start time, program length, program title, channel information, HD / SD (HD = high definition video / SD = standard) An area for writing a distinction (definition video) is secured. Of these, the Object Position and Object ID are written by the recording / playback apparatus 2 at the start of recording, and the recording time is written at the end. The recording / playback control device 4 writes other program information as described above. When the recorded program is played back, the recording / playback apparatus 2 receives the playback command designating the Object Position or Object ID, and the actual video / audio data according to the information in the internal management table in the recording / playback apparatus 2. Will be played back.

  The program information can be written by the recording / playback control device 4 while the recording / playback device 2 is recording as shown in FIG. 2, or after the recording is stopped. However, when writing after the recording is stopped, care must be taken because the program information that can be recorded immediately after the stop may be erased. Therefore, the recording / playback apparatus 2 of the present invention transmits the acquired program information including the Object ID of the program being recorded corresponding to the program information when returning the acquired program information as a response.

  As a result, the recording / playback control device 4 checks the Object ID at the start of recording, and determines whether the program information corresponds to the program currently being recorded by checking the Object ID included in the returned data. It becomes possible. Since the Object ID is a unique number for each object as described above, if the Object ID is different, the program information of the program different from the program recorded by the recording command is obtained and the data is discarded. By doing so, it becomes possible to prevent writing wrong program information.

  Further, the program information obtained as described above includes a recording start time (Tc), a program start time (Ts), and a program length (Td). From these information, the controller 41 starts from the recording start time. The estimated value Tr of the length until the program end time (that is, the recording time) is calculated by the following equation.

Tr = Ts + Td-Tc
Using the estimated recording time Tr thus obtained, the controller 41 can stop the recording operation by transmitting a recording stop command to the recording / playback apparatus 2 after the estimated recording time Tr from the start of recording. That is, the recording can be automatically stopped regardless of the user operation at the end of the program broadcast at the start of the recording. Since the recording time information in FIG. 3 is written by the recording / playback apparatus 2 itself when the recording is stopped as described above, it is not necessary to write by the recording / playback control apparatus 4.

  In the present embodiment, the digital broadcast receiver 1 may or may not have a controller function. That is, even when the digital broadcast receiver 1 has the controller function of the recording / playback apparatus 2, the same operation is performed when the recording / playback operation control of the recording / playback apparatus 2 is performed by the controller 41 of the recording / playback control apparatus 4 without using the controller function. It is clear that it has operation contents and effects.

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, a digital stream from a digital receiver 1 that does not have a control function of the recording / playback device 2 is recorded by a recording command from the recording / playback control device 4 that is another control device. Even in such a case, the program information can be correctly written in the recording / reproducing apparatus 2, and this makes it possible to display the recorded program list at the time of reproduction and enhance the convenience for the user. Further, there is an advantage that the recording operation can be automatically stopped at the end of the program being recorded.
(Embodiment 2)
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, each component is the same as in the first embodiment, but the operation of the program information acquisition unit 24 and the operations of the recording / playback control device 4 and the controller 41 are different. Hereinafter, the difference will be mainly described.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the timing at which the program information acquisition unit 24 acquires program information in the present embodiment. The program information acquisition unit 24 in the present embodiment is different in that the program information is acquired again when the program is switched during recording. The broken lines in the figure represent commands and responses.

  Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to FIGS. 1 and 4. The recording / playback control device 4 transmits a recording start command to the recording / playback device 2 via the digital interface 32 in FIG. 1, and the recording / playback device 2 starts a recording operation. Analysis of the input digital stream is started and program information is acquired. The acquisition of program information takes a certain amount of time as described in the first embodiment. Similar to the method described in the first embodiment, the recording / playback control device 4 makes an inquiry about program information ((1) in FIG. 4) after an appropriate time (for example, 1 minute) has elapsed, and the program information is acquired. If not, a retry ((2) in FIG. 4) is performed to finally obtain program information. From the recording start time (Tc), program start time (Ts), and program length (Td) obtained at that time, the controller 41 calculates an estimated value Tr of the length from the recording start time to the program end time (that is, the recording time). Calculate with Tr = Ts + Td-Tc. When the estimated recording time Tr is smaller than a certain value (for example, 5 minutes or less), the recording / playback control device 41 uses the display unit 18 as a message as to whether or not to record the next program. The user selects an operation by displaying a message such as “The program currently being recorded will end in 3 minutes. Do you want to continue recording the next program?”. When the user selects to stop recording, the recording / playback control device 4 writes the obtained program information in the program information storage unit 23 of the recording / playback device 2 and stops recording after Tr time. When the user selects to continue recording, recording of the next program is continued (program 2 recording in FIG. 4).

  Since the recording / playback apparatus 2 has switched the program, it starts analyzing the digital stream again and acquires the program information. As a result, the program information acquisition means 24 achieves acquisition of program information in a plurality of times during the recording operation.

  Whether the program has been switched may be determined, for example, by calculating the program end time using information (current time, program start time, program length) acquired at the time of recording the program 1 or actually. The determination may be made by a method of analyzing a digital stream periodically (or constantly) and monitoring a part of program information related packets included therein.

  After switching to the program 2, the recording / playback control device 4 makes inquiries (3) and (4) for program information after a predetermined time has elapsed, and finally obtains information on the program 2. At this time, the vendor unique command response including the program information returned from the recording / playback apparatus 2 may include information on both the program 1 and the program 2. If a variable-length response is defined when defining a vendor-unique command, it can be used in various cases, such as when one set of program information is included in the response or when two or more sets of program information are included.

  The controller 41 of the recording / playback control device 4 causes the user to select which program information is to be stored by the display unit 18, and finally the program information selected by the user is stored in the program information storage unit 23 of the recording / playback device 2. Write.

  In the first and second embodiments, the digital broadcast receiver 1 includes the digital tuner 11, but the configuration is not necessarily limited to this. For example, it may be a digital tape recorder (D-VHS) capable of outputting a digital stream or a device incorporating a hard disk or an optical disk without having a digital tuner 11. If so, the same operation is possible.

  Furthermore, the digital stream is not limited to digital broadcasting, and any digital stream may be used as long as it includes stream attributes (title, date and time information) in accordance with certain regulations in the digital stream. Similar operations and effects can be obtained for the output stream and the like.

  As described above, the recording / playback apparatus of the present invention and the digital broadcast receiver that does not have the control function of the recording / playback apparatus connected by the digital interface or lacks the function even if it is provided are different from the above. In the system in which the recording / playback control apparatus controls the recording / playback apparatus, the recording / playback apparatus of the present invention analyzes the digital stream from the digital broadcast receiver to obtain program information and responds to an inquiry from the recording / playback control apparatus. By transmitting the information, the program information being recorded can be stored in the recording / playback apparatus. This is useful because the user can confirm the recorded program list list including program information such as each program title at the time of reproduction, and the convenience is remarkably improved.

  In addition, the recording / playback device acquires and transmits program information, so that the recording / playback control device can automatically control recording when the program being recorded ends, improving user convenience. It also has the effect of making it.

  Further, when the recording / playback apparatus continuously records a plurality of programs, the recording / playback control apparatus has a function of re-acquiring program information according to program switching and transmitting the result, so that the recording / playback control apparatus can Functions such as selecting information can be realized, and a program list display more reflecting the user's intention can be realized, thereby improving convenience.

System explanatory drawing in Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2 of this invention Program information acquisition timing chart in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Schematic explanatory drawing of the program information storage part 23 in Embodiment 1 of this invention Program information acquisition timing chart in Embodiment 2 of the present invention System explanatory diagram in the prior art Explanatory diagram of the system that improved the conventional technology

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Digital broadcast receiver 11 Digital tuner 12 DEMUX part 13 Program information decoding part 14 Digital stream production | generation / separation part 15 Controller 16 Program selection part 2 Recording / reproducing apparatus 21 Digital stream recording / playback control part 22 Digital stream recording part 23 Program information storage part 24 Program information acquisition unit 25 Program information transmission unit 31, 32 Digital interface 4 Recording / playback control device 41 Controller

Claims (6)

A recording / playback device controlled by a recording / playback control device separate from the digital stream output device, which records a digital stream transmitted from the digital stream output device via a digital interface under the control of the recording / playback control device. First recording means, program information acquisition means for acquiring program information included in the digital stream, program information transmission means for transmitting the acquired program information to the recording / playback control apparatus, and the recording / playback control apparatus And a second recording means for storing the acquired program information in accordance with an instruction from. A system including a digital stream output device, a recording / playback control device, and a recording / playback device controlled by the recording / playback control device,
The recording / playback apparatus comprises: a first recording means for recording a digital stream transmitted from the digital stream output device via a digital interface according to a recording command from the recording / playback control apparatus; and a program included in the digital stream. Program information acquisition means for acquiring information at the time of recording, second recording means for storing the program information, and a program for transmitting the acquired program information to the recording / playback control apparatus in response to a request from the external device Information transmission means,
The recording / playback control apparatus instructs the second recording means of the recording / playback apparatus to record the program information based on the transmitted program information. The recording / playback control device calculates an estimated value Tr from the recording start time to the program end time from the information of the recording start time (Tc), the program start time (Ts), and the program length (Td), Tr = Ts + 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the recording stop command is transmitted to the recording / reproducing apparatus after the estimated recording time Tr from the start of recording, using the estimated recording time Tr calculated by the formula of Td-Tc. The recording / playback control device calculates an estimated value Tr from the recording start time to the program end time from the information of the recording start time (Tc), the program start time (Ts), and the program length (Td), Tr = Ts + The system according to claim 2, wherein the system calculates according to a formula of Td−Tc, and instructs to display a message as to whether or not to record the next program when the estimated recording time Tr is smaller than a predetermined value. The system according to claim 2, wherein the program information acquisition unit acquires program information in a plurality of times during a recording operation. The system according to claim 2, wherein the digital stream output device is a digital broadcast receiver.

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