JP2009032363A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

【Task】
Enables thumbnail images to be switched and displayed at high speed.
[Solution]
The CPU (42) reserves a continuous area having a capacity corresponding to the maximum number of thumbnail images that can be stored in the disk medium (20) in advance for the thumbnail data file. A moving image stream file and a clip information file are stored in another area. At the time of finalization, the calculation device (38) calculates the number of thumbnail images that can be accommodated in the empty space of the continuous area for thumbnail data files. The CPU (42) generates thumbnail images from the moving images recorded on the disk medium (20) by the number of thumbnail images calculated by the calculation device (38), and stores them in the thumbnail data file.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus such as a video camera that records a moving image on a recording medium.

  In recent years, video recording / reproducing apparatuses such as video cameras for recording / reproducing images on / from a randomly accessible recording medium such as an optical disk, a hard disk, and a flash memory have appeared. Some of such video recording / playback apparatuses have a function of displaying a list of recorded contents as thumbnail (representative) images taking advantage of the fact that the recording medium can be randomly accessed. Further, by recording thumbnail images for the recorded moving images on the same recording medium, it is possible to display a list of recording contents of the recording medium as thumbnail images.

However, if the recording positions of the thumbnail images are dispersed on the disk medium, a list display may be delayed because a seek operation of the reproducing head occurs in order to read them. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 14, a configuration has been proposed in which an additional area for recording attribute information such as recording time and title and thumbnail information is prepared in advance separately from the video data area ( Patent Document 1).
JP 2001-189915 A

  In the technique described in Patent Document 1, since an additional area that can record attribute information and thumbnail information for the maximum number of moving images that can be recorded on a recording medium is secured in advance, the additional area is wasted when the number of moving images is small. become.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and makes it possible to effectively use a free area of a continuous area and prepare a high-speed list display using thumbnail images without preparing an additional area of a certain capacity in advance. The purpose is to present the device.

  A recording apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus for recording moving image data and thumbnail image data of the moving image data on a recording medium, wherein a plurality of moving images are provided by providing a moving image recording area on the recording medium. Means for recording the thumbnail image data by recording a thumbnail area consisting of continuous areas capable of recording a plurality of the thumbnail image data separately from the moving image recording area on the recording medium; A number of thumbnail image data that can be recorded in an empty area of the thumbnail area in response to the operation of, and the number of thumbnail image data recorded in the recording medium in accordance with the predetermined operation Thumbnail supplementary recording means for generating thumbnail image data from recorded moving image data and recording the thumbnail image data in an empty portion of the thumbnail area. The features.

  According to the present invention, a seek operation for reading can be minimized by recording at least one thumbnail image for each moving image in a continuous area for thumbnails. In addition, a moving image list display of thumbnail images can be easily realized, and the contents of moving images can be easily grasped.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a video camera 10 which is an embodiment of a video recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

  The moving image recording operation of the video camera 10 of this embodiment will be described. The camera unit 12 has an imaging device that converts an optical image into an electrical image signal, and camera signal processing that converts an image signal output from the imaging device into video data in a predetermined video signal format (for example, NTSC or HDTV). Circuit. When the user instructs the CPU 42 to start video recording through the operation unit 48, the control program of the CPU 42 causes the output video data of the camera unit 12 to be taken into the encoder 14. The encoder 14 compresses and encodes the video data from the camera unit 12 by the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) method, and stores the compressed video data in the buffer memory 16 in a format according to the recording format.

  The CPU 42 controls the disk access control unit 18 to sequentially read the compressed video data in the buffer memory 16 and write it to the disk medium 20. The disk medium 20 is a writable optical disk conforming to a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), such as a DVD-R, a DVD-RW, a DVD-RAM, or a hard disk.

  In this way, the video camera 10 compresses and encodes a moving image showing the subject and records it on the disk medium 20.

  A stream of compressed video data of a moving image recorded on the disk medium 20 is read by the disk access control unit 18 during reproduction and supplied to the decoder 22 via the buffer memory 16. The decoder 22 decodes the compressed video data from the buffer memory 16 and restores the video data. The LCD controller 24 drives a liquid crystal display panel (LCD) 26 according to the reproduced video data from the decoder 22. Thereby, the reproduced video is displayed on the screen of the LCD 26.

  In addition, a resize device 28 and an encoder 30 are provided to generate a thumbnail image from a moving image recorded on the disk medium 20. The resizing device 28 reduces the frame image selected from the recorded moving image to the size of the thumbnail image. The encoder 30 compresses and encodes the thumbnail image from the resizing device 28.

  A decoder 32, a resizing device 34, and a buffer memory 36 are provided for displaying thumbnail images. The decoder 32 decompresses the compressed thumbnail image read from the disk medium 20. The resizing device 34 changes (reduces) the size of the thumbnail image from the decoder 32. The buffer memory 36 temporarily stores the resized thumbnail image from the resizing device 34 and supplies it to the LCD controller 24.

  Further, a calculation device 38 that calculates the number of recorded additional thumbnails and a display control device 40 that controls thumbnail display are provided.

  The CPU 42 controls the entire video camera 10. The ROM 44 stores an operation program for the CPU 42 and fixed constants. The RAM 46 is used as a program area and a work area for the CPU 42. The CPU 42 controls the above units via the CPU bus 50. An operation unit 48 is connected to the CPU bus 50. The operation unit 48 includes various operation keys and knobs operated by the user, and is used to input user instructions to the CPU 42. CPU42 performs various processes according to the instruction | indication from a user.

  In this embodiment, a series of moving images recorded on the disk medium 20 from a recording start instruction to a recording end (interruption) instruction is managed as one clip. A clip is composed of two types of data: a stream that is moving image data and clip information that is management information of the moving image. Stream and clip information exist as independent files. That is, two files (stream file and clip information file) are recorded on the disk medium 20 for one clip. By assigning the same clip number to the stream file and the clip information file, the correspondence between them can be understood. When recording a moving image in real time, one clip information file is recorded every time one moving image stream file is recorded.

  In this embodiment, it is possible to create a playlist that defines the playback order of desired portions of one or a plurality of moving images. The playlist is composed of an array of play items including IN points and OUT points representing a certain range on the clip. For example, one playlist file is generated by designating one clip recorded from the start of recording to the end of recording by one playlist. Unless otherwise specified, the IN point indicates the first frame of the moving image, and the OUT point indicates the last frame.

  A thumbnail image generation / recording operation according to this embodiment will be described. In this embodiment, a list of clips pointed to by each play item is displayed before reproduction of the play list. For this purpose, a thumbnail image for the IN point of the clip is generated in advance. In order to create a thumbnail image, the target stream file is read from the disk medium 20. The read stream file is supplied to the decoder 22 via the buffer memory 16. The decoder 22 decodes the stream file stream from the buffer memory 16 and supplies an IN-point frame image to the resizing device 28 in accordance with an instruction from the CPU 42.

  The resizing device 28 resizes the frame image from the decoder 22 to the size of the thumbnail image and supplies it to the encoder 30. The encoder 30 compresses and encodes the thumbnail image from the resizing device 30 as JPEG data of 16 Kbytes or less. The compression-encoded thumbnail image data is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 16, read out at an appropriate timing, and recorded in a continuous area of the disk medium 20 as a block of 16 Kbytes of the thumbnail data file. The thumbnail data file stores all thumbnail images recorded on the disk medium 20. The resizing device 28, the encoder 30, the disk access control unit 18 and the CPU 42 involved in this operation correspond to the thumbnail recording means in the claims.

  The CPU 42 also records a thumbnail index file for managing the recording position of the thumbnail image in the thumbnail data file on the disk medium 20. The play item of the playlist includes identification information indicating a thumbnail index file. When displaying a list of thumbnail images, a thumbnail index file is obtained from this identification information, and the recording position of the thumbnail image can be obtained.

  A thumbnail image list display operation will be described. The CPU 42 controls the display control device 40 to read the thumbnail data file from the disk medium 20. The read thumbnail data file is supplied to the decoder 32 via the buffer memory 16. The decoder 32 sequentially decodes blocks in which thumbnail images to be displayed are recorded. The resizing device 34 resizes the decrypted thumbnail image to the display size. The plurality of resized thumbnail images are stored in the display frame memory secured in the buffer memory 36, and the LCD controller 24 displays the plurality of thumbnail images on the screen of the LCD 26 with reference to the display frame memory in the buffer memory 36. To do.

  FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a recording operation example of the present embodiment. A user operation example will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the user presses the recording start button of the operation unit 48, recording of the first clip, that is, clip 1 is started (S1). When the user presses the recording end button of the operation unit 48, the recording of the clip 1 is interrupted (S2). The disk medium 20 is ejected once (S3), and the same disk medium 20 is set again (S4). The user presses the recording start button of the operation unit 48, and recording of the second clip, that is, clip 2 is started (S5). The user presses the recording end button of the operation unit 48, and the recording of the clip 2 is interrupted (S6). The user presses the recording start button of the operation unit 48, and recording of the third clip, that is, clip 3 is started (S7). The user presses the recording end button of the operation unit 48, and the recording of the clip 3 is interrupted (S8). The user presses the finalize button on the operation unit 48 to finalize the disc medium 20 (S9).

  FIG. 3 shows a logical image of the contents recorded on the disk medium 20 by the operation shown in FIG. Clip 1 is recorded as a clip information file 60 and a stream file 62. Clip 2 is recorded as a clip information file 64 and a stream file 66. Clip 3 is recorded as a clip information file 68 and a stream file 70.

  On the disk medium 20, an index file 72 and a moving image object file 73 are recorded for managing recorded data. The index file 72 stores the recording positions of all the recording data. The moving image object file 73 contains recording management data of moving image data. In addition, a playlist file 74 is recorded on the disk medium 20. The play list file 74 contains play items indicating the reproduction ranges of the recorded moving images (in this example, three clips 1, 2, 3). The thumbnail data file 76 stores thumbnail images corresponding to the above three play items. In the thumbnail index file 78, the correspondence between the thumbnail image recording position and the thumbnail image identification information is recorded.

  With respect to the operation example shown in FIG. 2, the transition of the usage status of the disk medium 20 will be described. Here, for easy understanding, it is assumed that the disk medium 20 is a write-once disk medium such as a DVD-R. FIG. 4 shows a physical image of the disk medium 20 after the clip 1 is recorded. FIG. 5 shows a physical image of the disk medium 20 when the disk medium 20 is ejected in step S3. FIG. 6 shows a physical image of the disk medium 20 after the clip 3 is recorded. FIG. 7 shows a physical image of the disc medium 20 after finalization. In the case of using a single-recording disc medium, the upper end of FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 indicates the innermost periphery, and the lower end indicates the outermost periphery. In the innermost area, an RMD (Recording Management Data) 80 indicating where the recorded area is, that is, where the next writing starts is arranged.

  Following the RMD 80, the CPU 42 reserves a reserved area 82 for writing UDF (Universal Disc Format) at the time of finalization. A capacity corresponding to the maximum number of thumbnail images that can be stored in the disk medium 20, here a continuous area 84 of 2000 × 16 Kbytes, is reserved in advance for the thumbnail data file 76 on the outer periphery side of the reserved area 82. Then, as shown in FIG. 5, following the continuous area 84 reserved for the thumbnail data file 76, the clip information file 60 of the first clip 1 is recorded, and the stream file 62 is recorded. In FIG. 4, the shaded area is a reserved area or a blank area. A thumbnail image of the first frame of the stream file 62 is recorded in the first block of the thumbnail data file 76.

  UDF (Universal Disc Format) is file system information for managing files recorded on a disc medium, and is defined in the UDF standard. UDF is a general file system used in DVDs, BD-ROMs, and the like. Since the contents of these management information, playlist file, and thumbnail information file need to be updated every time a clip is recorded, they are not physically written to the disk medium at this stage, and are stored in the RAM 46 as intermediate data. Retained.

  In response to the ejection operation in step S3, the CPU 42 writes an intermediate data file including intermediate data to be saved in the RAM 46 in the temporary area 86 on the outer periphery side of the stream file 62 of the disk medium 20, as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the CPU 42 ejects the disk medium 20 or permits the user to take it out. When the disk medium 20 is loaded again, the CPU 42 uses the RMD 80 to specify the position of the temporary area 86 where the intermediate data file is recorded, and reads the intermediate data of the intermediate data file into the RAM 46. As a result, the video camera 10 returns to the state before the ejection.

  FIG. 6 shows a state after the clip 3 is recorded. The clip information file 64 and the stream file 66 of the clip 2 are recorded on the outer peripheral side of the temporary area 86 for storing the intermediate data file. The thumbnail image of the first frame of the stream file 66 is recorded in the second block of the thumbnail data file 76. Since the intermediate data such as the UDF and the playlist file are different from the contents of the intermediate data file in the temporary area 86 due to the recording of the clip 2, the intermediate data file in the temporary area 86 is changed to an invalid file for UDF management. change.

  On the outer peripheral side of the stream file 66, the clip information file 68 and the stream file 70 of the clip 3 are recorded. The thumbnail image of the first frame of the stream file 70 is recorded in the third block of the thumbnail data file 76.

  In the finalizing process of step S9, the thumbnail image can be supplemented to the empty block of the thumbnail data file 76. FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of the operation.

  The CPU 42 confirms whether or not there is an empty block in the thumbnail data file 76 in response to the finalization instruction from the user (S11). If there is no empty block (S11), the process is terminated as it is. When there is an empty block (S11), the CPU 42 causes the calculation device 38 to calculate the number of thumbnail images that can be added to each stream file (S12). For example, the calculation device 38 sets the result of dividing the number of streams that can be added to the empty area of the thumbnail area by the number of stream files as the number of clips that can be added.

  In this example, when the number of thumbnails that can be recorded in the thumbnail data file 76 is 2000, only 3 clips are recorded on the disk medium 20. Therefore, the number of sheets that can be added to each clip is 665 (= (2000-3 sheets) / 3 stream files). Until the addable number is reached (S15), additional thumbnails are created (S13) and stored in the thumbnail data file 76 (S14).

  Specifically, for each clip, the CPU 42 generates and compresses a thumbnail image from the frame of the stream file at a frame interval corresponding to the number of images that can be added for each clip (S13), and stores it in the thumbnail data file 76 (S14). . This is executed for all clips (S15). In this way, thumbnail images are supplementally recorded in the thumbnail data file 76. The resizing device 28, the encoder 30, the disk access control unit 18 and the CPU 42 involved in this operation correspond to thumbnail supplement recording means in the claims.

  In FIG. 7, reference numeral 90 indicates a thumbnail image added to the stream file 62. Reference numeral 92 denotes a thumbnail image added to the stream file 66. Reference numeral 94 denotes a thumbnail image added to the stream file 70.

  Next, the CPU 42 adds the recording position of each thumbnail additionally recorded in the thumbnail data file 76 to the private data area in the playlist, and records the playlist on the disk medium 20 (S16).

  Finally, the CPU 42 writes in the UDF that correctly represents the whole in the reserved area 82. 7 is recorded on the disk medium 20 as a physical image.

  A thumbnail image list display operation will be described. FIG. 9 shows the display order of thumbnail images or the reading order from the thumbnail data file 76. The CPU 42 controls the display control device 40 to read the thumbnail images 100-0, 110-0, 120-0 of the first frame of each clip from the disk medium 20. The compressed data of the thumbnail image read out by the decoder 32 is decoded, and the resizing device 34 resizes to the display size and stores it in the display frame memory of the buffer memory 36. The LCD controller 24 reads the thumbnail image data in the display frame memory of the buffer memory 36 and displays it on the screen of the LCD 26 as shown in FIG.

  Subsequently, the CPU 42 controls the display control device 40 to read the additional thumbnail images 100-1, 110-1, and 120-1 of each clip from the disk medium 20. These additional thumbnail images are similarly processed and displayed on the screen of the LCD 26 as shown in FIG.

  In this way, the thumbnail images stored in the thumbnail data file 76 are read in order, and reproduced and displayed at the same position on the screen for each clip. FIG. 12 shows a display example of the last thumbnail images 100-n, 110-n, and 120-n of each clip.

  FIG. 13 shows a correspondence example between thumbnail images 100-0, 100-1, 100-2, to 100-n generated from the stream file 62 and the original frames.

  By setting the display period of each thumbnail image to, for example, one to several frame periods, it is possible to display a plurality of thumbnail images for the same moving image in time order, and to make it appear as if each clip has been fast-forwarded. it can. By displaying such thumbnail images, the user can easily recognize the outline of each clip. After displaying the last thumbnail images 100-n, 110-n, and 120-n, the CPU 42 controls the display control device 40 to display the thumbnail images 100-0, 110-0, and 120-0 of the first frame on the LCD 26. Is displayed on the screen.

  In this embodiment, the thumbnail images are recorded in order from the top of the thumbnail data file or the thumbnail storage area. However, the present invention is not limited to this as long as the thumbnail images are continuously recorded.

  In this embodiment, the thumbnail image is additionally recorded at the time of finalization. However, the thumbnail image may be additionally recorded in accordance with a user's explicit instruction from the operation unit 48. That is, the operation that triggers the process of additionally recording the thumbnail image in the thumbnail data file is not limited to a user instruction or user operation for finalization.

  The additional thumbnail image created in step S13 is not limited every fixed period. For example, a thumbnail image may be created from a frame immediately after a scene change.

  The period for displaying thumbnail images may be appropriately determined according to the number of thumbnail images to be continuously played back. For example, when the number of thumbnail images is extremely small, the display period of each thumbnail image may be extended.

  As described above, in this embodiment, at least one thumbnail image for each moving image is recorded in the continuous area for thumbnails, thereby minimizing the seek operation and displaying a list of moving image thumbnail images. It can be done at high speed.

1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. The flowchart of the example of recording operation of a present Example is shown. The logical image of the content recorded on the disk medium 20 by the operation shown in FIG. 2 is shown. The physical image of the disk medium 20 after the clip 1 is recorded is shown. A physical image of the disk medium 20 when the disk medium 20 is ejected is shown. The physical image of the disk medium 20 after recording the clip 3 is shown. The physical image of the disc medium 20 after finalization is shown. 14 is a flowchart of an operation for supplementing a thumbnail image to an empty block of a thumbnail data file 74 by finalizing processing. It is a figure which shows the display order of the thumbnail image, or the reading order from the thumbnail data file 76. FIG. It is a display example of thumbnail images 100-0, 110-0, 120-0. It is a display example of thumbnail images 100-1, 110-1, and 120-1. It is a display example of thumbnail images 100-n, 110-n, and 120-n. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a correspondence example between thumbnail images 100-0, 100-1, 100-2, to 100-n generated from a stream file 62 and original frames. This is an example of data arrangement in which an additional area for recording attribute information such as recording time and title and thumbnail information is continuously prepared separately from the conventional video data area.

Explanation of symbols

10: video camera 12: camera unit 14: encoder 16: buffer memory 18: disk access control unit 20: disk medium 22: decoder 24: LCD controller 26: liquid crystal display panel (LCD)
28: Resizing device 30: Encoder 32: Decoder 34: Resizing device 36: Buffer memory 38: Calculation device 40: Display control device 42: CPU
44: ROM
46: RAM
48: Operation unit 50: CPU bus 60: Clip information file 62 of clip 1: Stream file of clip 1 64: Clip information file of clip 2 66: Stream file of clip 2 68: Clip information file of clip 3 70: Clip 3 Stream file 72: Index file 73: Movie object file 74: Playlist file 76: Thumbnail data file 78: Thumbnail index file 80: RMD (Recording Management Data)
82: UDF (Universal Disc Format) reserved area 84: Temporary area in which the intermediate data file is recorded 90: Thumbnail image added to the stream file 62 92: Thumbnail image 94 added to the stream file 66: Thumbnail image added to stream file 70

Claims (5)

An apparatus for recording moving image data and thumbnail image data of the moving image data on a recording medium,
A continuous area in which a plurality of moving image data is recorded by providing a moving image recording area on the recording medium, and a plurality of the thumbnail image data can be recorded separately from the moving image recording area on the recording medium Means for recording the thumbnail image data by providing a thumbnail area consisting of:
Calculating means for calculating the number of thumbnail image data that can be recorded in the empty area of the thumbnail area in accordance with a predetermined operation;
In accordance with the predetermined operation, thumbnail supplementary recording means for generating thumbnail image data from moving image data recorded on the recording medium by the number calculated by the calculating means and recording the thumbnail image data in an empty part of the thumbnail area A recording apparatus.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined operation is an operation for instructing finalization of the recording medium.   The thumbnail recording unit according to claim 1, further comprising: a thumbnail recording unit configured to generate a thumbnail image from the moving image according to recording of the moving image on the recording medium and record the thumbnail image in the thumbnail area. Recording device.   4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying a plurality of thumbnail images for the same moving image recorded in the thumbnail area in time order. The thumbnail supplement recording means generates a thumbnail image generated from one moving image data recorded on the recording medium, based on the number of moving image data recorded on the recording medium and the number calculated by the calculating means. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number of data is determined.

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