JP2012160245A - Information recording and reproducing device and information recording and reproducing method - Google Patents

Abstract

[PROBLEMS] To achieve a new function of dubbing the same content onto a plurality of optical discs easily while satisfying the conventional use, and to realize content recording across a plurality of optical discs for consumer use. An information recording / reproducing apparatus such as an AV recorder is provided.
An optical disk changer is used to provide a temporary storage area held by a conventional hard disk by a plurality of optical disks, and two means (a tray part and a disk magazine part) are provided as optical disk mounting means. In addition, it has a flash memory drive unit with a very high transfer rate that serves as a cache, etc., and covers inaccessible time such as startup (load) time due to optical disk replacement, without interrupting recording and playback Realize.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an audio / visual (hereinafter abbreviated as AV) recorder apparatus for recording and reproducing a television program of terrestrial digital broadcasting, and in particular, an information recording / reproducing apparatus using a plurality of optical disks as information recording media. It is about.

  Conventionally, as a consumer-use recording / playback apparatus for AV contents centered on a TV program, a video deck (video tape recorder) centered on VHS has been the center. However, in recent years, the recording medium has been changed from a video tape typified by VHS to an optical disc typified by DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) or Blu-ray Disc (hereinafter referred to as BD). Recording / reproducing apparatuses called optical disk recorders that record and reproduce television programs have become widespread, taking advantage of the fact that optical disks are portable media and can be stored for a long time and can be randomly accessed. More recently, the increase in the amount of data of television program content itself due to the spread of high-definition digital broadcasting such as terrestrial digital broadcasting has also affected, and not only optical disks but also large-capacity hard disk drives (hereinafter referred to as HDDs) as recording media. An HDD-mounted optical disk recorder equipped with such a magnetic disk is preferred by users.

  This HDD-mounted optical disk recorder is generally used for temporary recording of programs that are erased once viewed, such as time-shift recording (that is, without taking care of the contents and importance, etc.) For the recording of programs that are often deleted once viewed), large capacity and fast access hard disks are used. On the other hand, it can be stored for a long time and is suitable for backup and archiving for dubbing programs that the user likes or wants to keep for a long time, or for backup (archive) of personal contents shot with a digital video camera or digital camera. Used optical discs.

  Furthermore, recently, taking advantage of the characteristics of HDDs that have a large capacity and high access speed compared to optical disks, for example, a function that can simultaneously record a plurality of programs or a function that records and plays back while dubbing has been realized (for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).

  Patent Document 1 describes a method of recording and playing back other programs while performing high-speed dubbing by adding a high-speed encoder and decoder in a recording / playback apparatus equipped with, for example, an HDD and an optical disk drive. Yes. Here, the encoder is a digital AV signal compression means, and the decoder is a digital AV signal restoration means.

  Patent Document 2 describes a recording / reproducing apparatus capable of simultaneous recording of two programs provided with a double tuner. Also described is means for enabling recording for a longer time by recording digital AV signals while compressing data using a compression technique such as MPEG2.

  FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a typical configuration of an information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 of an HDD-mounted optical disk recorder, which is a conventional recorder, described in Patent Document 2. The information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 16 can record a program on both the optical disk 1 such as a BD and a DVD and a hard disk (not shown).

  The information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 includes two types of disk drive units, an optical disk drive unit 212 and a hard disk drive unit 214.

  The optical disc drive unit 212 rotates and drives the optical disc 1 to read / write information. The optical disk drive unit 212 includes a rotation control system, a laser drive system, an optical system, and the like for the optical disk 1. The optical disk drive unit 212 can mount and record / play back only one optical disk 1. In order to mount a different optical disk 1, it is necessary to replace the optical disk 1 through the user's hand.

  The hard disk drive unit 214 drives the hard disk and executes reading and writing of information.

  In addition, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 includes a data control unit 216. The data control unit 216 supplies recording data to the optical disk drive unit 212 and the hard disk drive unit 214, and receives reproduction data read by the optical disk drive unit 212 and hard disk drive unit 214. The data control unit 216 is mounted in the form of an integrated circuit (LSI), for example.

  The information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 includes an encoder unit 30, a decoder unit 50, and a microcomputer unit 70.

  An external analog video signal and an external analog audio signal from the AV input unit 18a are input to the encoder unit 30 via the selection circuit 20. Further, the encoder unit 30 is selectively input with received signals from the terrestrial analog tuner 18 c and the terrestrial digital tuner 18 b through the selection circuit 20. For example, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 records the program received by the terrestrial digital tuner 18b by the hard disk drive unit 214, and simultaneously records the program received by the terrestrial analog tuner 18c by the hard disk drive unit 214. The recorded program can be read out by the hard disk drive unit 214 and reproduced by the decoder unit 50. Further, for example, the terrestrial digital tuner 18b is a so-called double tuner capable of simultaneously receiving and outputting two-channel programs, and the selection circuit 20 can simultaneously select two programs as required.

  The encoder unit 30 includes a transport stream processing unit and a plurality of encoders, and each encoder includes an analog-digital converter, a video encoder (a main video encoder and a sub video encoder), and an audio encoder. The analog-digital converter digitizes an input analog video signal or analog audio signal. The main video encoder encodes the main video signal of the digital video signal, the audio encoder encodes the digital audio signal, and the sub video encoder encodes the sub video signal of the digital video signal. More specifically, the video encoder compresses the digital video signal at a variable bit rate based on the MPEG2 standard or the like. The audio encoder compresses a digital audio signal at a fixed bit rate based on the MPEG or AC-3 standard.

  Here, for example, a DVD will be described as an example. When a sub video signal (for example, a signal from a DVD video player with an independent output terminal of a sub video signal) is input to the encoder unit 30 from the AV input unit 18a, or When a DVD video signal including a sub video signal is received by the TV tuner unit, the sub video signal in the DVD video signal is encoded (run-length encoded) by the sub video encoder to become a sub video bitmap. .

  The encode output signal from the encoder unit 30 is converted into a predetermined data format (for example, a DVD data format) by a formatter 32 provided in the data control unit 216. Note that a buffer memory 234 is connected to the formatter 32, and an encoded output signal is temporarily buffered when the formatter 32 converts the data format. Specifically, for example, the encoded digital video signal, digital audio signal, and sub-picture data are packed by the formatter 32 to become a video pack, an audio pack, and a sub-picture pack. Further, these packed data are collected and converted into a format defined by the DVD-video standard (DVD Video format) or a format defined by the DVD-recording standard (DVD VR format). Further, the buffer memory 234 also serves as a buffer for data flow between the optical disk drive unit 212 and the hard disk drive unit 214 during recording and reproduction. Further, the buffer memory 234 may be used as a work area for confirming the contents of data read from the optical disk drive unit 212 or the hard disk drive unit 214 and for shaping data.

  Note that the packet elementary stream extracted from the transport stream may be recorded directly on the hard disk of the hard disk drive unit 214 from the encoder unit 30.

  The encoder unit 30 can also supply the compressed digital video signal or digital audio signal directly to the formatter 32 when a compressed digital video signal or digital audio signal is directly input.

  The format data (packets of video, audio, sub-picture data, etc.) converted by the data control unit 216 (formatter 32) and the created management information are supplied to the hard disk drive unit 214 or the optical disk drive unit 212, and the hard disk or optical disk 1 is recorded. The format data and management information recorded on the hard disk or the optical disk 1 can also be recorded on the optical disk 1 or the hard disk via the data control unit 216 and the optical disk drive unit 212 (hard disk → optical disk 1 / optical disk 1 → hard disk).

  In addition, the data control unit 216 deletes a part of the video object constituting the program data recorded on the hard disk or the optical disc 1 or edits the part of the video object constituting a plurality of different programs. Processing can also be performed.

  The microcomputer unit 70 includes an MPU (micro processing unit) or a CPU (central processing unit), a ROM in which a control program and the like are written, and a RAM for providing a work area necessary for program execution. .

  Among the execution results of the MPU, contents to be notified to the user are displayed on the display unit 74 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus, or displayed on the monitor display connected to the information recording / reproducing apparatus. . The display unit 74 includes an FL tube or an LED, and can display various information even when the main power of the information recording / reproducing apparatus is off.

  The microcomputer unit 70 controls the optical disk drive unit 212, the hard disk drive unit 214, the data control unit 216, the encoder unit 30, the decoder unit 50, and the like based on time data based on the system time clock.

  Further, an operation input signal from the key input unit 76 is input to the microcomputer unit 70. The key input unit 76 is, for example, operation switches provided on the main body of the information recording / reproducing apparatus and a remote controller independent of the main body. Alternatively, the key input unit 76 may be a personal computer connected to the information recording / reproducing apparatus by wired communication or wireless communication. The key input unit 76 includes, for example, a program guide display key, a calendar display key, a scheduled recording program list display key, a playback program list display key, a delete key, an enter key, and a cross key. And left and right keys. In addition, blue, red, green, and yellow keys that can be appropriately assigned functions are provided. Based on the operation input (selection operation) via the key input unit 76, the information recording / reproducing apparatus performs program recording reservation, program recording based on the program recording reservation, playback of the recorded program, stop of playback, editing of the recorded program ( Delete etc.).

  The decoder unit 50 converts a digital video signal into an analog video signal via a digital / analog converter (not shown) and outputs the analog video signal to the outside (for example, a monitor).

  In addition, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 has information units that must be continuous at least in order to continue the reproduction of the recorded program so as not to be interrupted while accessing (seeking) data constituting the recorded program. I have decided. This information unit recording area is called a CDA (Contiguous Data Area). Information of a multiple of an ECC (error correction code) block (for example, 16 sectors in the case of a DVD, 1 sector is 2 Kbytes, and 1 ECC is 32 Kbytes) is recorded in the CDA.

  The data control unit 216 receives data in units of video objects (hereinafter referred to as VOBU) from the encoder unit 30, generates data in units of CDA from data in units of VOBU, and converts the data in units of CDA into the optical disk drive unit 212 or the hard disk drive unit. 214. Then, it is recorded on the hard disk or the optical disk 1. Also, the MPU of the microcomputer unit 70 creates management information necessary for reproducing the recorded data, and when the MPU recognizes a data recording end command, sends the created management information to the data control unit 216. As a result, the management information is recorded on the hard disk or the optical disk 1.

  As another recording / reproducing apparatus, for example, a so-called disk changer type optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus is also known as an apparatus that efficiently performs recording / reproducing on an optical disk without bothering the user (for example, Patent Documents). 3 and Patent Document 4). This apparatus has a changer unit in which a plurality of optical disks can be mounted and a disk to be recorded and reproduced can be exchanged. The apparatus is mounted on the changer unit and records and reproduces information on a specified optical disc.

  Patent Document 3 describes a dubbing apparatus for automatically dubbing from an HDD to a plurality of optical disks and a control method therefor.

  Patent Document 4 describes a method for recording a program such as one television program on a plurality of optical disks. For example, it describes a method for realizing continuous reproduction by recording the beginning of a program in a memory in the apparatus and recording the rest on an optical disk. Alternatively, when there is no more free space on the optical disk being recorded, the optical disk is automatically replaced. During replacement, the program data is temporarily stored in the buffer memory, and the rest of the program is recorded on the replaced optical disk for continuous recording. It describes how to achieve it.

  As another recording / reproducing apparatus, there is a disk publisher or a duplicator apparatus that records (duplicates) the same data on a plurality of optical disks (see, for example, Patent Document 5).

  Patent Document 5 describes a dubbing device including an optical disk drive device such as a reproduction drive or a recording drive.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-224813 JP 2010-206292 A JP 2004-127470 A JP 2000-48468 A JP 2001-126369 A

  However, as a dubbing method in a conventional recorder apparatus, dubbing of data recorded on a recording / reproducing apparatus itself such as a recorder such as a television program or video data taken from an external input in the apparatus is fundamental. That is, in this case, contents such as program data to be dubbed are generally stored in a temporary recording medium such as a hard disk provided in the apparatus.

  However, since a drive (recording / reproducing device such as a pickup) and a disk (recording medium) are integrated in the HDD, there is a high risk that data in the disk cannot be read due to a failure of drive hardware such as a disk motor. Furthermore, in order to increase the data recording density, the HDD has a very narrow gap between the pickup for reading data and the disk, and a failure such as a crash is likely to occur. Once a crash occurs, there is a problem that the disk is physically destroyed and data cannot be read. As a result of some investigation, there is a result that the HDD may not be able to read data suddenly regardless of the frequency of use. As described above, HDDs are generally worried about the reliability of data storage. As a mechanism for maintaining the reliability, migration such as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) in HDD or mirroring is performed to increase redundancy, or HDD is periodically replaced and data is transferred. Such a method is often used. However, these methods all lead to an increase in the scale of the apparatus and increase the cost, so there are great demerits for the user. In addition, increasing the scale of the apparatus consumes a lot of resources and power, which is not preferable for the global environment.

  However, on the other hand, it is meaningless if dubbing is performed unless the dubbing source data (data to be dubbed) can be read. In the worst case, the dubbing source data may not be read before dubbing from the HDD to the optical disc 1. Even for temporary storage, data may not be read before viewing recorded content. Therefore, reliability is required for the recording medium in which the dubbing source data is stored.

  On the other hand, if the function such as the two-program simultaneous high-speed recording function realized by the current recorder apparatus equipped with the HDD cannot be used, the merit for the user is halved.

  Further, a duplicator device dedicated for optical disk duplication includes a drive for reading data from a duplication source disk and a plurality of optical disc drives (recording / reproducing devices) for data recording onto a duplication destination disc, and further an arm for carrying the disc Etc. Therefore, it leads to an increase in cost and the size of the apparatus, which is inconvenient for general users to use.

  An object of the present invention is to solve these problems and to realize an information recording / reproducing apparatus such as an AV recorder apparatus and an information recording / reproducing method in which an optical disk also has a role as a temporary recording medium. It is.

  An information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention is an information recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing information on a portable information recording medium, and the information recording / reproducing apparatus is a changer type capable of mounting a plurality of portable information recording media. A drive unit, and the drive unit includes a tray unit, a magazine unit, and a traverse unit, and the tray unit can directly mount only one portable information recording medium, and from the outside of the housing of the drive unit, or The magazine is loaded from the inside to the outside in a slidable manner, and the magazine portion can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at once, and is directly attached to and detached from the drive unit by external power, and the traverse portion is The portable information recording medium mounted on the tray section, and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine section. Recorded and reproduced with respect to both the medium, thereby achieving the above object.

  In order to ensure that the portable information recording medium storing the dubbing source data stays in the housing of the drive unit at the time of tabbing, the portable type between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit Delivery of information recording media may be restricted.

  In order to ensure that the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit remains in the magazine unit, the portable information recording medium between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit In a state where the delivery is restricted and the magazine part is detached from the drive unit, the removal of the portable information recording medium attached to the magazine part is restricted, so that a plurality of the magazine parts attached to the magazine part are restricted. It is possible to record and reproduce one content across a portable information recording medium.

  The drive unit includes two mechanisms, the tray unit and the magazine unit, to which the portable information recording medium can be attached and detached. The predetermined portable information recording medium is mounted on both the tray unit and the magazine unit. It is possible to enhance security by enabling reading of all or a part of the data stored in the portable information recording medium only when the data is stored.

  The information recording / reproducing apparatus further includes a memory drive capable of high-speed data transfer. The memory drive temporarily stores a buffer area that can be used as a buffer or a cache in recording / reproducing data on the drive unit, and content. A temporary recording area that can be recorded may be provided together.

  The data capacity that can be stored in the buffer area is smaller than the data capacity that can be stored in the portable information recording medium, the data stored in any of the portable information recording medium as dubbing source data, When dubbing recording is performed on another m pieces (m is a positive number of 1 or more) of the portable information recording medium, (a) a part of the dubbing source data is read once into the buffer area, and the buffer A first control unit that sequentially records from the area to the other m portable information recording media, and (b) the process described in (a) is repeated until all the dubbing source data is dubbed and recorded. And a second control unit that performs the above.

  The information recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention is an information recording / reproducing apparatus for recording AV data or the like, and the information recording / reproducing apparatus is an AV input unit for inputting the AV data into the information recording / reproducing apparatus. An AV output unit for outputting the AV data to the outside of the information recording / reproducing apparatus, a format conversion unit for converting the AV data into a data format suitable for recording / reproducing, and the portable information recording medium. A changer-type drive unit that can be mounted in plural and that records and reproduces data to and from the portable information recording medium, and a buffer that temporarily stores input / output data for recording and reproducing the AV data Information exchange between a unit, a control unit for controlling the entire information recording / reproducing apparatus represented by recording / reproducing, and a user The drive unit includes a tray unit, a magazine unit, and a traverse unit, and the tray unit can directly mount only one portable information recording medium, and the drive unit includes a housing of the drive unit. The magazine section is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside or from the inside to the outside, the plurality of portable information recording media can be mounted at once, and is directly attached to and detached from the drive unit by external power, The traverse section records and reproduces both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray section and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine section, thereby achieving the above object. .

  The information recording / reproducing method of the present invention is an information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on / from a portable information recording medium by the information recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein the information recording / reproducing apparatus is equipped with a plurality of the portable information recording media. A changer-type drive unit, and the drive unit includes a tray unit, a magazine unit, and a traverse unit. The tray unit can directly mount only one portable information recording medium. The magazine section is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside or from the inside to the outside, the plurality of portable information recording media can be mounted at once, and is directly attached to and detached from the drive unit by external power, The traverse unit is mounted on the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the magazine unit. The information recording / reproducing method is such that the portable information recording medium storing the dubbing source data stays in the housing of the drive unit at the time of tabbing. In order to guarantee the above, the above object is achieved by restricting the delivery of the portable information recording medium between the tray portion and the magazine portion in the drive unit.

  The information recording / reproducing method of the present invention is an information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on / from a portable information recording medium by the information recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein the information recording / reproducing apparatus is equipped with a plurality of the portable information recording media. A changer-type drive unit, and the drive unit includes a tray unit, a magazine unit, and a traverse unit. The tray unit can directly mount only one portable information recording medium. The magazine section is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside or from the inside to the outside, the plurality of portable information recording media can be mounted at once, and is directly attached to and detached from the drive unit by external power, The traverse unit is mounted on the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the magazine unit. In order to perform recording / reproduction on both of the portable information recording media that have been recorded, and to ensure that the portable information recording medium mounted in the magazine unit remains in the magazine unit, the tray in the drive unit The portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit is restricted when the portable information recording medium is transferred between the magazine unit and the magazine unit, and the magazine unit is detached from the drive unit. The information recording / reproducing method achieves the purpose of recording and reproducing one content across a plurality of the portable information recording media loaded in the magazine section.

  The information recording / reproducing method of the present invention is an information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on / from a portable information recording medium by the information recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein the information recording / reproducing apparatus is equipped with a plurality of the portable information recording media. A changer-type drive unit, and the drive unit includes two mechanisms, a tray unit and a magazine unit, to which the portable information recording medium can be attached and detached, and a traverse unit, and the tray unit has the portable information recording unit Only one medium can be directly mounted, and it is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit or from the inside to the outside, and the magazine section can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at a time. It is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power, and the traverse part is attached to the tray part. The portable information recording medium and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine section are recorded and reproduced, and the information recording / reproducing method includes both the tray section and the magazine section. Only when a predetermined portable information recording medium is attached to the portable information recording medium, all or a part of the data stored in the portable information recording medium can be read, thereby enhancing security.

  The information recording / reproducing method of the present invention is an information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on / from a portable information recording medium by the information recording / reproducing apparatus, wherein the information recording / reproducing apparatus is equipped with a plurality of the portable information recording media. A changer-type drive unit, and the drive unit includes two mechanisms, a tray unit and a magazine unit, to which the portable information recording medium can be attached and detached, and a traverse unit, and the tray unit has the portable information recording unit Only one medium can be directly mounted, and it is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit or from the inside to the outside, and the magazine section can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at a time. It is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power, and the traverse part is attached to the tray part. The capacity of data that can be recorded and reproduced in both the portable information recording medium and the portable information recording medium mounted in the magazine unit and stored in the buffer area is the portable information recording medium. The information recording / reproducing method is characterized in that the data stored in the portable information recording medium is another m pieces of data (m is 1 or more). (A) a part of the original dubbing data once in the buffer area is read out, and the other m pieces of data can be copied from the buffer area. A step of sequentially recording on a portable information recording medium; and (b) a step of repeatedly performing the processing described in (a) until all dubbing source data is dubbed and recorded. In the above-described object is achieved.

  According to the information recording / reproducing apparatus and the information recording / reproducing method of the present invention, a plurality of information recording / reproducing apparatuses centering on an optical disk, which also uses the optical disk as a temporary storage area, without impairing the operability of the user. In addition, it is possible to realize an information recording / reproducing apparatus that can realize new functions such as simple dubbing to an optical disc and that has improved long-term storage and data reliability.

Explanatory drawing of the sectional view format seen from the side which shows the structure of the optical disk changer drive part in embodiment of this invention The figure which shows the structure of the information recording / reproducing apparatus in embodiment of this invention Explanatory drawing which shows the state which mounted | wore the optical disk 1 of the optical disk changer drive part in embodiment of this invention. The flowchart which shows the whole flow of the dubbing process procedure in Embodiment 2 of this invention. Dubbing source disk read processing flowchart during dubbing processing in the second embodiment of the present invention and the third embodiment of the present invention Dubbing destination disk recording processing flowchart during dubbing processing in Embodiment 2 of the present invention and Embodiment 3 of the present invention The figure which shows the list | wrist which shows the motion of the optical disk changer drive part at the time of dubbing at the time of using the method of Embodiment 2 of this invention, and the conventional method. The flowchart which shows the whole flow of the dubbing process procedure in Embodiment 3 of this invention in case the number of dubbing destination discs is two (even number). The flowchart which shows the whole flow of the dubbing process procedure in Embodiment 3 of this invention in case the number of dubbing destination discs is three (odd number). The conceptual diagram which looked at the optical disk changer drive part 12 provided with two traverse units in Embodiment 3 of this invention from the front. The figure which shows the motion of the optical disk changer drive part at the time of dubbing at the time of using the method of Embodiment 3 of this invention, and the conventional method The image figure which showed the mode of the information acquisition from IC tag of the shelf management magazine in Embodiment 1 of this invention The image figure which showed an example of dubbing which aggregates and divides | segments a content to a different disc in embodiment of this invention The figure which described an example of the display of the operation screen provided through the display part 74 with respect to a user at the time of dubbing in embodiment of this invention with the operation procedure. The figure which shows the data storage amount transition of the buffer area | region 91 in Embodiment 4 of this invention. The figure which shows the structure of the conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
In the first embodiment of the present invention, the configuration of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 in the embodiment of the present invention. Many of the configurations of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 are substantially the same as those of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 described with reference to FIG. 16 except for the following three points.

  A flash memory drive unit 14 which is a semiconductor memory having a relatively small capacity (for example, less than 120 GB) is provided instead of a hard disk drive (HDD) having a large capacity (for example, 250 GB or more).

  The main role of the data flow buffer between the data control unit 16 and the optical disc changer drive unit 12 is not the buffer memory 234 provided in the data control unit 16, but the buffer in the flash memory drive unit 14. A point that is an area 91.

  A recording / reproducing apparatus for the optical disc 1 is provided with an optical disc changer drive unit 12 on which a plurality of optical discs 1 can be mounted instead of the optical disc drive unit 212 on which only one optical disc 1 can be mounted.

  In FIG. 2, components having the same functions as those in FIG. 16 are given the same names and numbers as those in FIG. 16, and detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

  The information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 2 can record on a part of the optical disk 1 such as a DVD or a BD and the flash memory drive unit 14.

  The information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 includes two types of optical disc changer drive unit 12 including an optical disc drive that performs recording / reproduction on an optical disc 1 such as a DVD or a BD, and a flash memory drive unit 14 that performs recording / reproduction on a flash memory. A drive unit is provided.

  The flash memory drive unit 14 is, for example, an SSD (Solid State Drive), and for example, the data transfer speed is several Gbps (Giga bits per second), and data transfer can be performed at a very high speed compared to an HDD. There is a feature. On the other hand, the unit price per capacity (bit unit price) is very expensive compared to optical disks and HDDs. Specifically, as of 2010, optical disk (BD) media and HDDs are about 5 yen per 1 GByte (gigabyte) at a commercial price, whereas MLC (Multiple Level Cell) type is relatively inexpensive in SSD. Even an SSD is very expensive, about several hundred yen. The price of SSD is expected to drop in the future, but it is still expected that the bit unit price will not be lower than that of the optical disc 1 or HDD for the time being. For this reason, in a consumer recording / reproducing apparatus such as an AV recorder apparatus, it is not realistic in terms of cost to install an SSD having a capacity as large as an HDD. Specifically, for example, at present, the capacity of the HDD mounted on the consumer recording / reproducing apparatus is 500 GBytes to several TBytes (terabytes), whereas the size of the flash memory drive unit 14 is from several tens of GBytes. A reasonable capacity is around 100 GB.

  The flash memory drive unit 14 includes a buffer area 91, a temporary storage area 92, and a recording data management area 93.

  The buffer area 91 is an area used as a cache for digital data to be recorded / reproduced and a buffer for data transfer. That is, the buffer area 91 is a data flow between the optical disk drive unit 212 and the hard disk drive unit 214 at the time of recording / reproduction, which the buffer memory 234 provided in the data control unit 216 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 200 which is a conventional apparatus is responsible for. This is a region that serves as a buffer. Since a part of the flash memory drive unit 14 that uses a flash memory having a lower cost per bit as compared to a DRAM is used as a memory element, it is possible to allocate a larger buffer / cache area than the buffer memory 34 ( For example, while the size of the buffer memory 34 is about several tens of megabytes to several hundreds of megabytes, the size that can be secured as the buffer area 91 of the flash memory drive unit 14 is about ten and several gigabytes, for example. A size of about 1000 times can be secured). However, this size is smaller than the maximum recording capacity that the optical disk 1 can have (for example, the maximum recording capacity of an optical disk currently on the market is about 100 GB of BDXL having three recording layers). Therefore, for example, considering a case where data recorded on the optical disc 1 is dubbed to another optical disc 1, the buffer area 91 does not have a sufficient recording capacity to cache all the dubbing data. . Therefore, a device is required for the dubbing process. This dubbing process will be described in detail in the second and third embodiments described later.

  The temporary storage area 92 is an area that partially plays a role of the hard disk drive unit 214 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 200, which is a conventional apparatus, and is frequently played back by time-shift recording, a program that is deleted once viewed, or favorite. This is an area for storing data intended for temporary recording such as programs to be played. Since the flash memory drive unit 14 has a very high data transfer rate, it is suitable for high-speed recording and high-speed reproduction. However, as described above, it is difficult to mount a large-capacity SSD in terms of cost. For this reason, it is difficult to increase the capacity of the temporary storage area 92 as much as that of a hard disk. Therefore, data such as programs that can be stored therein is limited to a part of the data. That is, most of the other program data for temporary recording that has been recorded on the hard disk in the past is recorded on the optical disc 1 that has been mainly used for archiving or backup.

  The recording data management area 93 is an area for the purpose of speeding up reproduction processing of data recorded in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. In the recording data management area 93, not only the temporary storage area 92 but also management information such as a program title recorded (recorded) on the optical disk 1 in the optical disk changer drive unit 12 is stored. Furthermore, the video data of the head part of each content recorded in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 and information on the recording medium on which the program is recorded (in the case of the flash memory, the optical disk 1, or the optical disk 1, Information such as whether it is a disk (cartridge / magazine). That is, this is an area for storing management information for the purpose of speeding up the program start (video output) in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. As a result, for example, a list of recorded contents can be displayed at a very high speed.

  The recorded data management area 93 holds at least information related to the content recorded in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 at the present time, but may include other information. Specifically, for example, information regarding contents stored in a disk magazine 120 (described later in detail) that has been used before but is now replaced and managed by shelves may be held.

  The optical disk changer drive unit 12 can be loaded with a plurality of optical disks 1 and can automatically record and play back a plurality of optical disks 1 without exchanging the disks one by one through the user's hand. Have. Therefore, the size of the recording capacity, which is one of the weak points of the optical disk 1 compared with the HDD, can be overcome by making it possible to mount a plurality of optical disks 1. Therefore, as described above, not only the data to be archived or backed up, but also a role as a recording medium for temporary recording that the conventional hard disk drive unit 214 (HDD) is responsible for.

  In addition, the flash memory drive is another weakness of the optical disk 1 compared to the HDD, and the length (slowness) of the start-up (load) time of the optical disk 1 until the recording / playback or the like becomes accessible. This can be overcome by covering with the buffer area 91 and the recording data management area 93 provided in the unit 14.

  In addition, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 includes a data control unit 16. The data control unit 16 supplies recording data to the optical disc changer drive unit 12 and the flash memory drive unit 14, and receives reproduction data read from the optical disc changer drive unit 12 and the flash memory drive unit 14. The data control unit 16 is mounted in the form of an integrated circuit (LSI), for example.

  The information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 includes an encoder unit 30, a decoder unit 50, and a microcomputer unit 70. An external analog video signal and an external analog audio signal from the AV input unit 18a are input to the encoder unit 30 via the selection circuit 20. Further, the encoder unit 30 is selectively input with received signals from the terrestrial analog tuner 18 c and the terrestrial digital tuner 18 b through the selection circuit 20. For example, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 records the program received by the terrestrial digital tuner 18 b by the flash memory drive unit 14, while simultaneously recording the program received by the terrestrial analog tuner 18 c on the optical disc 1 of the optical disc changer drive unit 12. Or data read from the optical disc 1 of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 can be reproduced by the decoder unit 50. Further, for example, the terrestrial digital tuner 18b is a so-called double tuner capable of simultaneously receiving and outputting two-channel programs, and the selection circuit 20 can simultaneously select two programs as required.

  The encoder unit 30 includes a transport stream processing unit and a plurality of encoders, and each encoder includes an analog-digital converter, a video encoder (a main video encoder and a sub video encoder), and an audio encoder.

  The encode output signal from the encoder unit 30 is converted into a predetermined data format (for example, a DVD data format) by a formatter 32 provided in the data control unit 16. Note that a buffer memory 34 is connected to the formatter 32, and the encoded output signal is temporarily buffered when the formatter 32 converts the data format. Specifically, for example, the encoded digital video signal, digital audio signal, and sub-picture data are packed by the formatter 32 to become a video pack, an audio pack, and a sub-picture pack. Further, these packed data are collected and converted into a format defined by the DVD-video standard (DVD Video format) or a format defined by the DVD-recording standard (DVD VR format). Further, the buffer memory 34 may be used as a work area for confirming the contents of data read from the optical disk drive unit 212 and the hard disk drive unit 214, and for data shaping. However, the buffer memory 34 hardly plays a role as a buffer for the flow of data between the optical disc changer drive unit 12 and the flash memory drive unit 14 at the time of recording / reproducing, unlike the buffer memory 234 in the conventional apparatus. As described above, the buffer area 91 in the flash memory drive unit 14 mainly plays the role of the buffer.

  Note that the packet elementary stream extracted from the transport stream may be recorded in the temporary storage area 92 of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 or the flash memory drive unit 14 from the encoder unit 30.

  The format data (packets of video, audio, sub-picture data, etc.) converted by the formatter 32 in the data control unit 16 and the created management information are supplied to the flash memory drive unit 14 or the optical disc changer drive unit 12 to be flash memory. Alternatively, it is recorded on the optical disc 1. The format data and management information recorded on the flash memory or the optical disk 1 can also be recorded on the optical disk 1 or the flash memory via the data control unit 16 and the optical disk changer drive unit 12 (flash memory → optical disk 1 or Optical disc 1 → flash memory).

  Further, the data control unit 16 deletes a part of the video object constituting the program data recorded on the flash memory or the optical disc 1, or connects a part of the video objects constituting a plurality of different programs. Editing processing can also be performed.

  The microcomputer unit 70 includes an MPU (microprocessing unit), a ROM in which a control program and the like are written, and a RAM for providing a work area necessary for program execution.

  Among the execution results of the microcomputer unit 70, contents to be notified to the user are displayed on the display unit 74 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 or a monitor display (not shown) connected to the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. OSD (on-screen display) is displayed. The display unit 74 includes an FL tube or an LED, and can display various information even when the main power of the information recording / reproducing apparatus is off.

  The microcomputer unit 70 controls the optical disk changer drive unit 12, the flash memory drive unit 14, the data control unit 16, the encoder unit 30, the decoder unit 50, and the like based on time data based on the system time clock.

  Further, an operation input signal from the key input unit 76 is input to the microcomputer unit 70. The key input unit 76 is, for example, operation switches provided on the main body of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 and a remote controller independent of the main body. Alternatively, the key input unit 76 may be a personal computer connected to the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 by wired communication or wireless communication.

  The decoder unit 50 converts a digital video signal into an analog video signal via a digital / analog converter (not shown) and outputs the analog video signal to the outside (for example, a monitor). Alternatively, the digital video signal is output to the outside via HDMI which is an interface for digital home appliances.

  In addition, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 determines a minimum information unit that must be continuous in order to continue reproducing the recorded program without interruption while accessing (seeking) data constituting the recorded program. ing. This information unit recording area is called a CDA (Contiguous Data Area). Information of a multiple of an ECC (error correction code) block (for example, 16 sectors in the case of a DVD, 1 sector is 2 Kbytes, and 1 ECC is 32 Kbytes) is recorded in the CDA.

  The data control unit 16 receives VOBU unit data from the encoder unit 30, generates CDA unit data from the VOBU unit data, and stores the CDA unit data in the flash memory drive unit 14 or the buffer area of the flash memory drive unit 14 The data is supplied to the optical disk changer drive unit 12 via 91 and recorded on the flash memory or the optical disk 1. In addition, the MPU of the microcomputer unit 70 creates management information necessary for reproducing the recorded data, and sends the created management information to the data control unit 16 when recognizing a data recording end command. Thereby, the management information is recorded on the flash memory or the optical disc 1, for example.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 viewed from the side, and FIG. 1B shows the external appearance of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 from an oblique front side. FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, the optical disc changer drive unit 12 includes a disc tray 110, a disc magazine 120, a traverse unit 130, and a circuit board 140.

  The disc tray 110 corresponds to a tray in a normal optical disc drive. In other words, the disc tray 110 is a mechanism of a tray loading method (tray type) in which only one optical disc can be mounted, inserted into the housing of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 and ejected to the outside in response to a user request. Slide in the depth direction shown in FIG. Specifically, when the optical disk 1 is ejected from the optical disk changer drive unit 12, it is slid and ejected in the outer direction of the housing (the direction away from the traverse unit 130 in FIG. 1A). On the contrary, when the optical disc 1 is inserted into the optical disc changer drive unit 12, the optical disc 1 is provided at the position shown in FIG. 1A (this position is referred to as the standby position of the disc tray 110). The disc tray 110 is slid in and stored. Further, when data is recorded / reproduced (accessed) to the inserted optical disc 1, as shown in FIG. 3A, the disc tray 110 is in the rear side of the housing (in FIG. 1A). The traverse unit 130 is slid into a position where the traverse unit 130 can be accessed in a direction approaching the traverse unit 130 and accessed by the traverse unit 130. Thereafter, when access is completed, or when access to another optical disk 1 loaded in the disk magazine 120 occurs, the disk tray 110 is returned to the position shown in FIG.

  The disc tray 110 has a hole at least at a position corresponding to the center of the mounted optical disc 1 and in a radial direction corresponding to the traverse so that the traverse unit 130 can access the mounted optical disc 1 ( (Open) shape.

  The disk magazine 120 is a cartridge-type magazine in which a plurality of optical disks 1 can be mounted (stored). The disk magazine 120 is directly set (mounted) on the optical disk changer drive unit 12 by a user's hand or external power such as an external mechanism such as a robot arm. That is, it is different from a mechanism such as the disc tray 110 that is freely inserted and ejected into and out of the housing.

  The disk magazine 120 can include one or more magazine trays 121 on which one optical disk 1 can be mounted. As a result, the disk magazine 120 can include a plurality of optical disks 1. In other words, it can be treated as if it were a single recording medium having a data recording capacity that is the sum of the number of optical disks 1 loaded in the disk magazine 120. That is, the disk magazine 120 can be said to replace the hard disk drive unit 214 in the conventional information recording / reproducing apparatus 200. In addition, the disc magazine 120 is not detachable like a hard disk in a conventional AV recorder apparatus, and can be freely attached and detached by a user's hand. Therefore, for example, when the recording capacities of the plurality of optical disks 1 provided in the disk magazine 120 are used up, it is possible to replace the disk magazine 120 with a new optical disk 1 mounted. By doing so, the user can replace the disc magazine 120 with a new one while keeping the data recorded on the optical disc 1 in the disc magazine 120 in the past. That is, it is possible to handle the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 as if the recording capacity has been increased during use. Also, when the user purchased a conventional AV recorder device, it was difficult to move the contents in the hard disk. However, with this information recording / reproducing device 100, the user only has to replace (replace) the disk magazine 120. .

  As with the disc tray 110, the magazine tray 121 has at least a position corresponding to the center of the mounted optical disc 1 and a radius corresponding to the traverse so that the traverse unit 130 can access the mounted optical disc 1. It has a shape with a hole (open) in the direction.

  In the example shown in FIG. 1, the disk magazine 120 is described as having five magazine trays 121, that is, five optical disks 1 can be mounted. However, the number of optical disks 1 that can be mounted in the disk magazine 120 is described. The number of magazine trays 121 provided in the disk magazine 120 is arbitrary as long as it is one or more. In extreme terms, a configuration in which 100 optical disks 1 can be mounted at a time may be adopted. However, the more magazine trays 121 are provided in the disk magazine 120, the larger the recordable capacity of the entire magazine is. However, on the contrary, the disk magazine 120 becomes thicker (larger), and the information recording / reproducing apparatus. 100 leads to an increase in size. In other words, it is sufficient that the number of information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 is designed to be appropriate for the usage pattern.

  A state in which the disk magazine 120 is set in the optical disk changer drive unit 12 by the user (or an external mechanism) is a state shown in FIG. The magazine tray 121 in the disk magazine 120 also slides when accessing the loaded optical disk 1, as with the disk tray 120. Specifically, when accessing the optical disc 1 mounted on a certain magazine tray 121, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the direction toward the back of the casing is reached until the traverse unit 130 can be accessed. The magazine tray 121 is pulled in, and the optical disc 1 is accessed by the traverse unit 130. Thereafter, when the access is completed or when another optical disk 1 is accessed, the magazine tray 121 is again referred to as the position shown in FIG. 1A (this position is referred to as the standby position of the magazine tray 121). ).

  Further, the disk magazine 120 includes an IC tag 122. The IC tag 122 is, for example, an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag that exchanges information through short-range wireless communication using an electromagnetic field, radio waves, or the like. For example, title information of program content recorded on the optical disc 1 mounted in the disc magazine 120 is recorded in the IC tag 122. As a result, even when the disk magazine 120 is removed from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 and managed as a shelf, information can be acquired from the IC tag 122 without setting the disk magazine 120 in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. Become. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 12, for example, in the state where shelf management is performed by a reader device 160 (which may also serve as a remote controller of the information recording / reproducing device 100) capable of reading IC tag information, Since it is possible to recognize program information and the like recorded on the optical disc 1 in 120, it is possible to increase the search efficiency of the user.

  Although the title information is recorded on the IC tag 122, shelf management is possible even if only the identification number of the IC tag 122 is recorded. For example, the title information of the disc magazine 120 is stored in the recording data management area 93 together with the identification number of the IC tag 122. When the disc magazine 120 is mounted on the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 or when the reader device 160 is held over the disc magazine 120, the identification number of the IC tag 122 is read. The read identification number is sent from the reader device 160 to the information recording / reproducing device 100 by infrared rays or wireless, and collated with the data held in the recording data management area 93. The corresponding title information is returned from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 to the reader apparatus 160. Finally, the title information is displayed on the reader device 160, and the user can recognize the title in the magazine 120. In this case, since only the identification information is required, the IC tag 122 may be other than an IC such as a barcode.

  Note that the form of the reader device 160 described in FIG. 12 is merely an example, and this is good as long as the information of the IC tag 122 can be acquired and can be displayed through some means.

  Here, the disc magazine 120 is characterized by its configuration. That is, there is a restriction on the removal of the optical disk 1 loaded in the disk magazine 120. Specifically, the disc magazine 120 can be easily inserted (set) by the user, but the loaded optical disc 1 cannot be taken out of the disc magazine 120 or is very easy to take out. It is a difficult structure.

  The reason why the insertion is easy is that the optical disc 1 can be set as much as the data recording capacity required by the user. When the user needs more recording capacity, the optical disc 1 can be increased as necessary. With such a configuration, when the user starts using the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100, the user can use the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 from the state in which the optical disc 1 is mounted on the disc magazine 120 as many times as necessary. In general, the unit price of the optical disc 1 is reduced as the date passes. In other words, in addition to being able to start small, it will ultimately lead to cost reduction. Further, when the remaining recordable capacity of the optical disk 1 mounted on the optical disk changer drive unit 12 used for temporary recording is reduced, the recording capacity can be increased simply by mounting a new optical disk 1 in the disk magazine 120. (Expansion) becomes possible. Alternatively, the same effect can be obtained even when the disk magazine 120 is replaced with a new one. That is, the user can easily increase (add) the recording capacity as much as he / she needs even during use, so that it becomes easy to cope with the convenience of each user.

  On the other hand, the optical disk 1 mounted in the disk magazine 120 cannot be taken out by the user's hand or has a difficult configuration. For example, the disk magazine 120 is provided with one or more lock mechanisms, and the optical disk 1 once mounted cannot be removed unless all the lock mechanisms are removed at the same time. The reason for adopting this configuration is to prevent the user from feeling uncomfortable. For example, consider a case where one program is recorded across a plurality of optical discs 1 in the disc magazine 120. In this case, the optical disk 1 on which a part of the program is recorded is ejected, and only the remaining part of the program can be reproduced, so that the user who has watched accumulates stress. A user who wants to watch the entire program will search for the optical disk 1 that has been removed, but once the optical disk 1 is removed from the magazine, the other optical disks 1 held by the user and the extracted optical disk 1 are mixed. Accordingly, it becomes a situation where it becomes impossible to know which optical disk 1 has been inserted in the disk magazine 120, and the user feels more stressed. As described above, the configuration in which the optical disk 1 once mounted on the disk magazine 120 cannot be taken out (or difficult to take out) is for the purpose of preventing such user discomfort. However, as a matter of course, in the optical disc changer drive unit 12 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100, the optical disc 1 is taken out from the disc magazine 120 and recorded and reproduced by a traverse unit 130 described later. In other words, the optical disk 1 can be easily taken out from the disk magazine 120 only by a mechanism for simultaneously removing all the locking mechanisms described above by combining a special mechanism provided in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 and control information.

  From the viewpoint of recording data on the optical disc 1, it is preferable to control so that content recording across a plurality of optical discs 1 is not performed as much as possible. Although it is difficult, there is a possibility that the optical disc 1 may be extracted from the disc magazine 120, so the first reason is to avoid the above-described user discomfort. The other reason is that, for example, disk replacement is required during playback of the same content due to straddling the disks, which causes performance degradation and control complexity. For this reason, for example, when the time (size) of a program to be recorded such as scheduled recording is known, the most appropriate form is determined from the free capacity of each of the plurality of optical disks 1 provided in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. Control such as selecting an optical disk 1 that can be recorded may be performed. Alternatively, even when the size of the recorded program is unknown, control may be performed such that recording is performed on a disk having the largest free space among the plurality of optical disks 1. Alternatively, when the free area is subdivided and the file arrangement becomes discontinuous, it is also effective to create a continuous free area by defragmenting using free time or night. From a different point of view, it is also effective to adjust the compression rate of the content to be recorded in accordance with the size of the free area of the optical disc 1 selected as the recording destination, and perform recording so that all the contents fall within the free area. is there.

  However, since it is not possible to completely prevent recording across a plurality of optical discs 1 such as when the content to be recorded does not fit on one optical disc 1, as described above, the design considering the cross-over recording is adopted. I need it.

  The configuration in which the optical disk 1 cannot be taken out from the disk magazine 120 by the user's hand or is difficult may differ depending on the type of the optical disk 1 to be mounted. Specifically, the optical disc 1 is roughly divided into three types of discs. A read-only medium (ROM), a write-once medium (R) that can be recorded only once, and a rewritable medium (RE, RAM, or RW) that can be rewritten. A dedicated disk magazine 120 may be prepared for each of these types, and the characteristics and configuration of the disk magazine 120 may be changed according to each.

  For example, in the case of a rewritable medium that can be rewritten, it is preferable that the optical disk 1 cannot be taken out by the user as described above or is difficult. On the other hand, in the case of a read-only ROM medium, in addition to the fact that the event of program recording over a plurality of optical disks 1 as described above does not occur, the user can freely replace the optical disk 1 that the user wants to play back However, it is convenient for users. For this reason, it is preferable that the disk magazine 120 dedicated to the ROM medium is configured so that the user can easily insert and remove the optical disk 1. Similarly, the write-once medium basically has the same configuration as the rewritable medium because the same phenomenon as that of the rewritable medium occurs. However, on the other hand, considering backup and archive dubbing (details will be described in the second and subsequent embodiments), which are forms in which write-once media are mainly used, the write-once media that have been dubbed are not Generally, it is distributed or stored as a backup disk by the user. Therefore, in the case of a write-once medium, it is preferable that the user can easily remove it from the disk magazine 120. Therefore, it is basically considered that the same configuration as that of the disk magazine 120 dedicated to the ROM medium is good. From the above, the disc magazine 120 dedicated to write-once media may be configured differently for, for example, dubbing and other uses.

  Note that, for example, the above-described characteristics may be realized by providing the IC tag 122 with information such as ROM-only or write-once medium-only information and controlling the mechanism of the disk magazine 120 according to the information of the IC tag 122. Specifically, for example, the configuration of the disk magazine 120 is the same device configuration for any of ROM-only, write-once-only, and rewritable-only. For example, when the rewritable type is set for the IC tag 122, one or more lock mechanisms provided in the disk magazine 120 may be automatically set. Thereby, it becomes possible to restrict the removal of the optical disk 1 from the disk magazine 120 by the user. By adopting such a configuration, the disk magazine 120 can be made common regardless of the media type, which leads to a reduction in the price of the disk magazine 120 itself and also to user merit. Alternatively, from the information in the IC tag 122, the user may be able to identify which medium is dedicated to the disk magazine 120.

  Due to the above features, for example, even when the disk magazine 120 is removed from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 and shelves are managed, the user handles the disk in units of magazines, thus preventing loss and preventing the optical disk 1 from being soiled. The effect of preventing breakage can be obtained. Further, by providing the IC tag 122, the reader device 160 capable of reading the IC tag information recognizes the program information recorded on the optical disc 1 in the disc magazine 120 in the state of shelf management. Is possible.

  The traverse unit 130 includes a pickup 131 that records / reads data on / from the optical disc 1, a spindle motor 132 that drives (rotates) / stops the optical disc 1, and a traverse 133 that moves the pickup 131 in the radial direction of the optical disc 1. Consists of

  The circuit board 140 includes a tray of the optical disc changer drive unit 12, a drive control unit 141 for performing mechanical control, recording / reproduction signal control, and the like.

  Here, characteristics of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 provided in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described. The optical disk changer drive unit 12 has two main characteristics.

  The first feature is that, as is apparent from FIG. 1 (b), the optical disc changer drive unit 12 is largely provided with two mechanisms as the mounting opening (mounting mechanism) of the optical disc 1. One is a disk tray 110 and the other is a disk magazine 120.

  If the optical disk changer drive unit 12 includes only the disk tray 110, only one optical disk 1 can be stored in the information recording / reproducing apparatus as in the conventional apparatus. Therefore, if the AV recorder apparatus does not include a large-capacity temporary recording medium such as an HDD, it can be said that the recording capacity for temporary recording of programs is insufficient. On the other hand, if the optical disk changer drive unit 12 includes only the disk magazine 120, for example, when reproducing a read-only ROM medium in which movie content is stored, the user's effort is increased. Specifically, each time playback is performed, it is necessary to remove the disk magazine 120 and insert the ROM medium, and then set it again in the optical disk changer drive unit 12 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. The operability will deteriorate.

  However, as the first feature, these problems can be solved by adopting a configuration including two mounting mechanisms for the optical disc 1, that is, the disc tray 110 and the disc magazine 120. In other words, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 is provided which has a sufficient recording capacity to be used for temporary recording without causing deterioration in user operability as compared with the conventional apparatus and without having a large capacity HDD. The effect that it can be done is obtained. As a result, it is possible to use an optical disc that is excellent in long-term data storage for temporary recording. Therefore, it is possible to solve the problems of the conventional HDD-equipped optical disc recorder that the recorded content before dubbing cannot be read suddenly or the recorded content before viewing cannot be read. Further, it is possible to solve the problem that the movement of the recorded content is troublesome when the device is replaced.

  There is another effect obtained by the feature of the first point. The effect is that it is possible to prevent user mistakes that may occur when dubbing from one optical disc 1 to another new optical disc 1. Specifically, the optical disk 1 may store personal content data shot with a digital video camera, a digital camera, or the like. For example, consider a case in which it is desired to distribute a video of a sports day recorded on the optical disc 1 to friends. In this case, the dubbing source optical disc 1 on which the video of the athletic meet is recorded is dubbed (copied) to another optical disc 1, but at this time, it is expected that the dubbing source optical disc 1 will be accidentally taken out. The

  More specifically, as described above, the recording capacity of the buffer area 91 in the flash memory drive unit 14 that can be used as a cache is less than the maximum recording capacity of the optical disc 1. Therefore, when the content recorded on the optical disc 1 is dubbed to another optical disc 1, the dubbing source optical disc 1 (that is, the optical disc 1 on which the content to be dubbed is stored. Hereinafter, referred to as a dubbing source disc). ) And a dubbing destination optical disc 1 (that is, an optical disc 1 on which content is newly dubbed and recorded from now on, hereinafter referred to as a dubbing destination disc) are basically provided in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. There is a need.

  If the optical disk changer drive unit 12 includes only the disk tray 110, automatic dubbing cannot be performed under the condition that the recording capacity of the buffer area 91 is less than the recording capacity of the optical disk 1. That is, in order to perform dubbing, it is necessary for a user or the like to manually exchange the dubbing source disk and the dubbing destination disk in units of the recording capacity of the buffer area 91.

  On the contrary, if the optical disk changer drive unit 12 includes only the disk magazine 120, dubbing can be realized. In this case, both the dubbing source disk and the dubbing destination disk need to be set in the disk magazine 120. Here, let us consider a case where all the magazine trays 121 of the disk magazine 120 have the optical disk 1 mounted thereon, and a new unused optical disk 1 needs to be mounted on the disk magazine 120 in order to perform dubbing. In this case, it is necessary to take out at least one of the optical disks 1 already mounted in the disk magazine 120 and replace it with a new optical disk 1 for dubbing. In this case, there is a possibility that the user accidentally takes out the optical disc 1 as the dubbing source disc, that is, causes a user's operation mistake.

  On the other hand, by adopting the configuration as described in the first feature, an effect of preventing a user's operation mistake in dubbing can also be obtained. Specifically, for example, a dubbing source disk can be mounted on the disk tray 110, and a dubbing destination disk can be mounted on the disk magazine 120. As a result, it is possible to prevent a mistake that the dubbing source disk is accidentally taken out and replaced with another optical disk 1. Further, in this case, it becomes possible to perform dubbing of the same content as many as the number of optical discs 1 that can be loaded in the disc magazine 120 at the maximum.

  Note that the method of using the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 during dubbing is not limited to this. For example, a dubbing destination disc may be mounted on the disc tray 110 and content stored on the optical disc 1 in the disc magazine 120 may be dubbed onto the dubbing destination disc. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 13, one BD disc on which five contents are recorded as a dubbing source disc is attached to the disc tray 110, and five DVD discs are further attached to the disc magazine 120 as a dubbing destination disc. In addition, it is possible to use such a method that each content is dubbed (divided) into separate DVDs.

  Or, conversely, it is also possible to use a method of dubbing (consolidating) data recorded on a plurality of DVDs collectively on a BD having a large capacity. Specifically, a plurality of DVDs in which the same series program is recorded is loaded in the disc magazine 120, and the program data is collected and dubbed onto a BD that is a dubbing destination disc loaded on the disc tray 110. Is possible.

  Furthermore, there is another effect obtained by the feature of the first point. The effect is an effect that security can be strengthened.

  Specifically, the optical disk 1 mounted on the disk tray 110 and the disk magazine 120 mounted on the disk magazine 120 are managed in association with each other. More specifically, for example, an optical disc 1 having special information necessary for accessing one or more optical discs 1 mounted in the disc magazine 120 is prepared. If both the optical disc 1 having this special information and the disc magazine 120 are not prepared, it is possible to perform control such that the disc magazine 120 cannot be accessed for recording and reproduction. More specifically, for example, a special optical disc having encryption key information for encrypting data to be recorded on the optical disc 1 mounted in the disc magazine 120 as special information is prepared. When recording on the optical disk 1 mounted on the disk magazine 120, a special optical disk is mounted on the disk tray 110 for recording. In this way, when reproducing the data recorded in the disk magazine 120, the optical disk 1 having the encryption key information as special information is provided in the disk tray 110 for decrypting the recorded data. It is possible to control the reproduction so that it cannot be reproduced without it.

  Alternatively, it is also possible to record management information relating to the contents of the optical disc 1 loaded in the disc magazine 120 on the optical disc 1 provided in the disc tray 110. Here, the management information is, for example, file system information related to content recorded in the disc magazine 120, TOC information such as title information, and the like. As a result, when reproducing the content information of the optical disc 1 loaded in the disc magazine 120, it becomes possible to control such that the optical disc 1 on which the management information is recorded cannot be reproduced unless it is loaded on the disc tray 110.

  As described above, in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 (or the optical disc changer drive unit 12), recording / reproducing is performed unless the optical disc 1 on which special information and management information are recorded and the disc magazine 120 corresponding to the optical disc 1 are not aligned. It is also possible to control so that it cannot be performed. Therefore, for example, even if the disk magazine 120 is stolen or lost for some reason, it is possible to prevent a situation in which content or data recorded in the disk magazine 120 is seen by another person. That is, the security level for data recorded in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 can be enhanced.

  Note that such a usage that enhances the security level is effective not only for consumer AV recorder devices. Specifically, for example, the mechanism described in the first embodiment of the present invention can be applied to a business data archive device such as NAS (Network Attached Storage). Such devices include, for example, medical recording devices (such as medical records and medical examination results), and recording devices for highly confidential data management such as recording devices for local governments (such as personal data such as resident card data). The same effect can be expected even if it is used.

  In the above description, a case has been described in which all contents cannot be reproduced unless the optical disk 1 mounted on the disk tray 110 and the corresponding disk magazine 120 are aligned. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Specifically, for example, most of the data recorded in the disk magazine 120 can be reproduced even if the predetermined optical disk 1 is not mounted on the disk tray 110. However, some data may be used in such a way that it cannot be read unless a predetermined optical disk 1 is mounted on the disk tray 110. You can imagine this advantage as an industrial espionage. It is unnatural that all contents of the disc magazine 120 cannot be reproduced. Therefore, it is felt that important information is hidden there and there is a key somewhere. On the other hand, if the content displayed with the title can be reproduced, it looks natural at first glance, so it is difficult to perceive that other content not displayed with the title is hidden. It is more secure to show general content and hide only certain content.

  Furthermore, there is another effect obtained by the feature of the first point. The effect is an effect that the size (size) of the optical disc changer drive unit 12, that is, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 can be made compact.

  Specifically, in the optical disc changer drive unit 12, there is no need to perform replacement such as from the tray on which the optical disc 1 is mounted to another tray. In other words, in the optical disc changer drive unit 12, there is a restriction on the delivery of the optical disc 1 between the disc tray 110 and the disc magazine 120. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1B, the width: X and the depth: Z (corresponding to the horizontal size in FIG. It can be made shorter than the size of the two optical disks 1 in diameter. More specifically, the maximum diameter size of a normal CD, DVD, or BD that can be controlled by the optical disc changer drive unit 12 is 12 cm. That is, the width size and depth size of the housing of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 can be less than 24 cm.

  The installation space of the AV recorder device or the like is strong in the user's need to keep it compact without taking up space, such as in a TV stand or in a shelf, so the size of the information recording / reproducing device 100 can be reduced. This also leads to user benefits.

  The height Y of the optical disk changer drive unit 12 is usually shorter than the size of two diameters of the optical disk 1 as with the width and depth, but may be designed to an arbitrary size. Specifically, as described above, the height varies depending on the number of optical disks 1 that can be mounted in the disk magazine 120. That is, in the case of the consumer-use information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 such as an AV recorder apparatus, it is preferable for the user that the height (thickness) is not so high (thick) in consideration of the installation space. However, on the contrary, there is a need for a user who desires a recording capacity rather than a space to mount more optical discs 1 even if the height (thickness) is increased (thick).

  The second feature is that the same traverse unit 130 is connected to the optical disc changer drive with respect to the optical disc 1 mounted on the disc tray 110 and the disc magazine 120 which are the mounting mechanisms of the two optical discs 1 provided in the optical disc changer drive unit 12. The point is that access is performed by moving up and down in the section 12. The optical disc changer drive unit 12 includes a mechanism (not shown) for moving the traverse unit 130 up and down (corresponding to the up and down direction in FIG. 1A) in the housing of the optical disc changer drive unit 12. As a result, the disk changer drive unit 12 uses the same traverse unit 130 for all the optical disks 1 including the optical disk 1 mounted by the disk tray 110 and the plurality of optical disks 1 mounted by the magazine tray 121 of the disk magazine 120. Data recording / reproduction can be performed. For this reason, the optical disc changer drive unit 12, that is, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 can be reduced in size and weight, the apparatus configuration can be simplified, and the cost can be reduced.

  The optical disk changer drive unit 12 includes a disk tray 110 which is a mounting mechanism for two optical disks 1 and a magazine tray 121 of the disk magazine 120. As long as the feature of being accessible is satisfied, the number (number) of traverse units 130 provided in the optical disc changer drive unit 12 is arbitrary. As described above, by using one traverse unit 130, advantages such as downsizing and cost reduction of the apparatus can be obtained. However, if the number of traverse units 130 is increased, a plurality of optical discs 1 can be simultaneously accessed. Advantages such as improved processing performance such as recording / playback can be obtained. The size of the traverse unit 130 does not affect the characteristics of the present invention, and therefore, it may be designed to an arbitrary number depending on which merit is given priority. In addition, about the structure provided with two traverse units 130, since it demonstrates using FIG. 10 etc. in Embodiment 3 of this invention mentioned later, the further description here is abbreviate | omitted.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, the disc tray 110 is described as a tray loading type mechanism, but the present invention is not limited to this mode. Specifically, the same effect can be obtained if the mechanism allows the user to directly insert and eject the optical discs one by one, such as a slot-in method in which the disc is pushed into the insertion slot as it is.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, the number of disk magazines 120 that can be mounted on the optical disk changer drive unit 12 has been described as one. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Specifically, as long as the configuration including the two optical disk 1 mounting openings (mounting mechanisms), that is, the disk tray 110 and the disk magazine 120 is satisfied, the number of the disk magazines 120 that can be mounted in the optical disk changer drive unit 12 is as follows. Is optional. The optical disk changer drive unit 12 may be capable of mounting two disk magazines 120, for example.

  Although the IC tag 122 has been described as being provided in the disk magazine 120, it is not limited to this shape. Specifically, for example, each optical disk 1 may be provided.

  Although the disk magazine 120 has been described as being able to be handled like a hard disk in a conventional apparatus, it can be used in a manner that could not be realized with a recording medium such as a conventional HDD (hard disk).

  Specifically, since the HDD has a drive (recording / reproducing device such as a pickup) and a disk (recording medium) integrated, for example, if an HDD having a recording capacity of 500 GB fails, this 500 GB All data is basically corrupted and cannot be read. On the other hand, for example, in the case of a disc magazine 120 with a total recording capacity of 500 Gbytes equipped with five 100 Gbyte rewritable BDXL-REs, in addition to the drives and discs being separate, each disc is completely independent. Can be treated as That is, even if one optical disk 1 is broken for some reason and data cannot be read, the remaining four optical disks 1 are not affected at all. That is, 400 GByte data out of 500 GByte can be read without any problem.

  Therefore, for example, assuming that 10 optical discs 1 can be mounted in the disc magazine 120, the 10 optical discs 1 are divided into 5 sets and 5 sets, and the recordable capacity has a capacity equivalent to 5 optical discs. Treat as a recording medium. For example, RAID 1 can be used in which one set is used as a main and the other set is used as a mirror of the main set. In other words, the data magazine can be used in a recording medium (disk magazine 120) that is used for temporary recording, such as mirroring. Is also possible. In this mirroring, a configuration having two traverse units 130 is desirable. However, the number of traverse units 130 may be one as long as a copy is made to the other set using a time when the device is not used such as at midnight.

  Although it has been described that the optical discs 1 provided in the disc magazine 120 are collectively regarded as one recording medium, it is treated as such from the viewpoint of the entire recording capacity, but its usage is limited to this form. Not. For example, in a disk magazine 120 on which a plurality of optical disks 1 can be mounted, it is also possible to use them by multiple persons. Specifically, it is also possible to use a disc magazine 120 on which five optical discs 1 can be mounted, for different use by five families, that is, to record a program on one optical disc 1 in individual units. Alternatively, it is possible to use five optical disks 1 for three families, three for the father who records the most, and one for the mother and the child. As described above, when the optical disk 1 is assigned to individual units, it can be arbitrarily assigned according to the usage. In this way, for example, there is an advantage that the above-described security strength can be used properly for each individual. Furthermore, even when considering the above-mentioned business use such as medical use, dividing the data to be recorded on the optical disc 1 in individual units has an effect of enabling risk dispersion in the unlikely event. In addition, although the case where it uses properly by individual unit was demonstrated here, the same effect can be acquired also by the method of using properly according to the broadcasting station of a program, a genre, or a recording frequency, for example.

  It is described that the recording data management area 93 includes content data at the head of each program recorded (recorded) on the optical disc 1 in the optical disc changer drive unit 12. This is for the purpose of performing cache processing of the reproduction processing of the inaccessible time to the optical disc 1, such as the start (load) time of the optical disc 1, for example. If the start (load) time of the optical disk 1 is 30 seconds, for example, the flash memory drive unit stores the data of about 30 seconds at the beginning of each program recorded on the optical disk 1 stored in the optical disk changer drive unit 12. 14 recording data management area 93. In this way, continuous playback of content can be realized even while the optical disc 1 is being loaded. That is, the data stored in the recording data management area 93 is reproduced until the loading of the optical disc 1 is completed, and the data is reproduced from the optical disc 1 after the loading is completed. By controlling in this way, it becomes possible to make the playback content appear seamless to the user without interruption of the image.

  It should be noted that the data stored in the recording data management area 93 is not limited to the top data of the program, but it is effective to provide data when inaccessible time such as replacement of the optical disk 1 is required to be long to some extent. is there. For example, when one content is recorded across two optical discs 1 in the disc magazine 120, the data of the content portion immediately after the stride is stored in both the optical disc 1 and the recording data management area 93. The same effect can be obtained also in the case of (doubled).

  As mentioned above, a program recorded in a distributed manner on a plurality of optical discs 1 mounted on the disc magazine 120, a program recorded across the entire program, etc. are recorded together on another optical disc 1 and recorded again. Usage is also effective. For example, in a state where defragmentation for creating continuous free areas is not performed, or in a transitional state of use, usable free areas are scattered and scattered in the optical disc 1 loaded in the disk magazine 120. The case may occur. In such a situation, if a series of programs such as dramas is recorded continuously, those programs may be recorded on the same optical disc 1 as a single program, but from the viewpoint of the whole series There is a high possibility that the data is recorded in a distributed manner on a plurality of optical disks 1. Therefore, it is also effective to use a method in which programs recorded in a distributed manner are collectively recorded on one optical disc 1. Specifically, for example, the image is the same as when dubbing from a plurality of DVDs to one BD described in FIG. 13. For example, the optical disk 1 mounted on the disk magazine 120 is also mounted on the disk tray 110. The optical disk 1 may be considered to be the same BD medium. The optical disc 1 as a dubbing destination disc is mounted on the disc tray 110. It is also effective to record the program data distributed and recorded on the plurality of optical discs 1 in the disc magazine 120 onto the optical disc 1 mounted on the disc tray 110. In this case, the data in the disc magazine 120 serving as dubbing source data may be deleted when dubbing is completed.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, the optical disk changer drive unit 12 is described as being incorporated in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. In other words, as long as the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 includes the disk tray 110 and the disk magazine 120, the configuration of the apparatus is arbitrary. Specifically, for example, the optical disc changer drive unit 12 may be connected to the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 via an interface such as a USB, for example, as an external storage. With such an external device configuration, for example, the optical disk changer drive unit 12 can be diverted to an external storage device for PC.

  Further, as the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the configuration in which the disc tray 110 is provided on the upper side of the disc magazine 120 has been described, but the same effect can be obtained even if these arrangements are reversed, for example. It goes without saying that we can do it.

  As described above, as mainly described in the first embodiment, the information recording / reproducing apparatus has the following configuration.

  That is, the information recording / reproducing apparatus is an information recording / reproducing apparatus that records and reproduces information on a portable information recording medium (for example, the optical disc 1). The information recording / reproducing apparatus includes a changer type drive unit (for example, an optical disc changer drive unit 12) in which a plurality of portable information recording media can be mounted. The drive unit includes a tray unit (for example, disk tray 110), a magazine unit (for example, disk magazine 120), and a traverse unit (traverse unit 130). At this time, the tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium and may be slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit or from the inside to the outside. Further, the magazine section may be capable of mounting a plurality of portable information recording media at a time, and may be directly attached to / detached from the drive unit by external power. At this time, the traverse unit records and reproduces both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit.

  With the above configuration, the above-described effects can be obtained. That is, with the above configuration, user operability is not deteriorated. In addition, a sufficient recording capacity for use for temporary recording can be ensured. Further, when performing dubbing, it is possible to prevent user operation errors. Further, the information recording / reproducing apparatus can be reduced in size and weight, the apparatus configuration can be simplified, and the cost can be reduced.

  Further, in the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the first embodiment, delivery of the portable information recording medium between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit may be restricted. This may ensure that the portable information recording medium storing the dubbing source data stays in the housing of the drive unit at the time of tapping.

  With the above configuration, the size (size) of the information recording / reproducing apparatus can be made compact.

  Further, in the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the first embodiment, delivery of the portable information recording medium between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit may be restricted. Thereby, it may be guaranteed that the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit remains in the magazine unit. At this time, in a state where the magazine portion is further removed from the drive unit, the removal of the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine portion may be restricted. Thereby, it is possible to record and reproduce one content across a plurality of portable information recording media loaded in the magazine section.

  With the above configuration, user discomfort can be prevented.

  In the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the first embodiment, the drive unit may be provided with two mechanisms, a tray unit and a magazine unit, to which a portable information recording medium can be attached and detached. At this time, the information recording / reproducing apparatus reads all or part of the data stored in the portable information recording medium only when a predetermined portable information recording medium is mounted on both the tray section and the magazine section. It may be possible.

  With the above configuration, it is possible to enhance the security level for the data recorded in the information recording / reproducing apparatus.

  In addition, the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the first embodiment may include a memory drive (for example, the flash memory drive unit 14) capable of high-speed data transfer. The memory drive has a buffer area (for example, a buffer area 91) that can be used as a buffer or a cache in recording / reproducing data to / from the drive unit, and a temporary recording area (for example, a temporary area) in which content can be temporarily recorded. And a storage area 92).

  Further, the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the first embodiment may be an information recording / reproducing apparatus that records AV data or the like. At this time, the information recording / reproducing apparatus outputs the AV data to the outside of the information recording / reproducing apparatus and the AV input unit (for example, AV input unit 18a) for inputting the AV data into the information recording / reproducing apparatus. AV output unit (for example, decoder unit 50), a format conversion unit (for example, formatter 32) for converting AV data into a data format suitable for recording and reproduction, and input / output data for recording and reproduction of AV data A buffer unit (for example, the buffer memory 34) that serves as a buffer for temporarily storing data, a control unit (for example, the microcomputer unit 70) that controls the entire information recording / reproducing apparatus represented by recording and reproduction, A user interface unit for exchanging information with the user (for example, the display unit 74 or key input) 76) and it may be provided with further.

  Further, as mainly described in the first embodiment, the information recording / reproducing method has the following configuration. Here, the information recording / reproducing method is an information recording / reproducing method in which information is recorded / reproduced on / from a portable information recording medium by an information recording / reproducing apparatus.

  The information recording / reproducing method according to the first embodiment uses all or part of the data stored in the portable information recording medium only when a predetermined portable information recording medium is mounted on both the tray unit and the magazine unit. Can be read out.

  With the above configuration, it is possible to enhance the security level for the data recorded in the information recording / reproducing apparatus.

  Further, the information recording / reproducing method of the first embodiment may limit the delivery of the portable information recording medium between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit. This may ensure that the portable information recording medium storing the dubbing source data stays in the housing of the drive unit at the time of tapping.

  With the above configuration, the size (size) of the information recording / reproducing apparatus can be made compact.

  Further, in the information recording / reproducing apparatus, in order to ensure that the portable information recording medium mounted in the magazine unit remains in the magazine unit, the portable information recording medium between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit is used. In the state where the delivery of the portable information recording medium is restricted and the magazine unit is removed from the drive unit, the removal of the portable information recording medium attached to the magazine unit is restricted. One content may be recorded / reproduced across a plurality of portable information recording media loaded in the magazine section.

  With the above configuration, user discomfort can be prevented.

(Embodiment 2)
In the second embodiment of the present invention, an example in which dubbing from one optical disk 1 to another optical disk 1 is performed using the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 described in the first embodiment of the present invention will be described. Here, a dubbing processing procedure will be described by taking as an example a case where the same content is dubbed to a plurality of optical discs 1 such as duplicating a child's athletic meet video for home and grandparents' homes.

  In the following, the optical disc 1 having content information to be dubbed is called a dubbing source disc, and the optical disc 1 on which the content is newly dubbed and recorded is called a dubbing destination disc.

  Conventionally, when dubbing is performed, the dubbing source data is recorded on a storage medium having a large capacity such as an HDD. In other words, it is as if all the dubbed content has been read into the large-capacity buffer. Therefore, the optical disc 1 is dubbed one by one, and this is repeated as many times as desired.

  On the other hand, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 shown in the embodiment of the present invention does not include a large-capacity buffer that reads all dubbing source data and temporarily stores it. The recording capacity of the buffer area 91 that can be used as a buffer is smaller than the maximum recording capacity of the optical disc 1. That is, the method of storing all the dubbing contents in the buffer cannot be adopted, and therefore it is necessary to devise a processing procedure.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure when dubbing the same content to a plurality of optical discs 1 using the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. Here, a case will be described as an example where a dubbing source disc is mounted on the disc tray 110, a plurality of dubbing destination discs are mounted on the disc magazine 120, and the same content is dubbed on a plurality of dubbing destination discs. Further, it is assumed that the dubbing source disc and the dubbing destination disc are already set for the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 by the user, the dubbing content has already been selected by the user, and the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 has already been recognized. .

  Step 401: Read processing from the dubbing source disk to the buffer area 91 is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 performs processing according to the flow procedure shown in FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a dubbing data reading process procedure from the dubbing source disc by the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100.

  Step 501: Start the dubbing source disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 controls the drive control unit 141 on the circuit board 140 so that the dubbing source disk mounted on the disk tray 110 of the optical disk changer drive unit 12 is loaded into the traverse unit 130 and started. Give instructions. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 activates the dubbing source disk.

  Step 502: Read dubbing data to be dubbed next from the dubbing source disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 instructs the drive control unit 141 to read out the designated data from the activated optical disc 1. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 reads the designated data using the pickup 131 of the traverse unit 130 or the like. The read data is stored in the buffer area 91 which is a buffer by the microcomputer unit 70. The dubbing data to be dubbed next is data subsequent to the content data dubbed last time. When dubbing is started, the next dubbing data is the first data of the content data to be dubbed. It is.

  Step 503: It is determined whether or not data reading for a necessary size has been completed from the dubbing source disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 has entered either the state that “the buffer area 91 is in a full state where no more data can be stored” or “data reading of all dubbing contents has been completed”. Judging. If it is determined that either state has been reached, the process proceeds to the next step 504. On the other hand, if it is determined that neither state is present, that is, if there is still data to be read out from the buffer area 91, step 502 is repeated.

  Step 504: Stop and eject the dubbing source disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 instructs the drive control unit 141 to stop starting the dubbing source disk loaded in the traverse unit 130 and return the disk tray 110 to the standby position. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 stops the dubbing source disk and returns the disk tray 110 to the standby position.

  Thus, the dubbing data reading process from the dubbing source disk in step 401 is completed.

  Step 402: Steps 403 to 405 described later are repeated for the number of dubbing destination disks to be dubbed.

  Step 403: The next dubbing destination disk is activated. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 instructs the drive control unit 141 to load the optical disk 1 to be dubbed next among the dubbing destination disks loaded in the disk magazine 120 into the traverse unit 130 and start up. I do. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 activates the next dubbing destination disk. Here, the next dubbing destination disc is the optical disc 1 on which the content data of the dubbing source disc read to the buffer area 91 is recorded next among the plurality of dubbing destination discs.

  Step 404: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disk is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 performs processing according to the flow procedure shown in FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the recording processing procedure of the dubbing data to the dubbing destination disk by the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100.

  Step 601: Dubbing data is recorded on a dubbing destination disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 drives the drive control unit 141 so as to record the designated data among the dubbing data stored in the buffer area 91 read from the dubbing source disk in step 402 on the active dubbing destination disc. Is instructed. Data to be recorded is transferred from the buffer area 91 to the optical disc changer drive unit 12 as recording data by the microcomputer unit 70. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 records designated data using the pickup 131 of the traverse unit 130 or the like.

  Step 602: It is determined whether or not data recording for a required size has been completed on the dubbing destination disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 determines whether or not the recording of all the dubbing data read to the buffer area 91 has been completed. If it is determined that all data has been recorded, the process is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined that recording of all data has not been completed, step 601 is repeated.

  Thus, the dubbing data recording process on the dubbing destination disk in step 404 is completed.

  Note that the recording process flow to the dubbing destination disk shown in FIG. 6 does not include the recording process or the stop process of the activated optical disk 1 as shown in FIG. 5, but this is described separately for convenience of explanation. Just doing. Separately, the start is performed in step 403, and the stop is performed in a later-described step (step 405 in this case).

  Step 405: Stop and eject the dubbing destination disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 instructs the drive control unit 141 to stop activation of the dubbing destination disk loaded in the traverse unit 130 and return the magazine tray 121 to the standby position. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 stops the dubbing destination disk and returns the magazine tray 121 to the standby position.

  The processing from step 403 to step 405 is repeated for the number of dubbing destination disks to be dubbed.

  Step 406: It is determined whether dubbing of all data is completed. Specifically, when the microcomputer unit 70 determines in step 503 in step 401 that “data reading of all dubbing contents has been completed”, that is, if it is determined that all dubbing of dubbing contents has been completed. The dubbing process is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined that “data reading of all dubbing contents has not been completed”, the processing is repeated from step 401.

  The dubbing process is completed by the above procedure.

  This process is characterized by minimizing the number of times content is read from the dubbing source disk in order to improve the performance of the dubbing process. For this reason, for each reading of dubbing source data from the dubbing source disk to the buffer area 91, recording is sequentially performed from the buffer area to m (d is a positive number of 1 or more) dubbing destination disks. Is adopted.

  FIG. 7 shows a case where the method of Embodiment 2 of the present invention is used when dubbing the same content to two optical discs 1 and a case where a normal method of dubbing one by one is used. , “Disc start / stop”, “Record”, “Read” processing times. Here, the normal processing procedure for performing dubbing one by one and the processing procedure in the procedure described in Embodiment 2 of the present invention are compared. In this table, for the sake of simplicity of explanation, it is assumed that the capacity of the dubbing source content is 100 GB and the capacity of the buffer area 91 used as a buffer is 50 GB. That is, all the dubbing source content data is Part. A and Part. The description will be made on the assumption that the data is read into the buffer area 91 in two steps of B.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the number of “start / stop” times and the number of “reads” are reduced by the method shown in the second embodiment of the present invention compared to the normal method of dubbing one by one. It can be seen that the performance is improved.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display of an operation screen provided to the user during dubbing together with an operation procedure.

  First, the content to be dubbed is selected by the user (Step 1). Here, it is assumed that the “Athletic meet” content is selected by the user.

  Next, the dubbing destination disk is selected by the user (Step 2). At this time, if the same content is to be dubbed on a plurality of optical disks 1, a plurality of optical disks 1 can be selected. In the example of FIG. 14, it is assumed that the user has designated dubbing of the same “athletic meet” content to two discs 1 and 2.

  Next, the content selected in Step 1 is dubbed and recorded on the optical disc 1 selected in Step 2 (Step 3).

  Note that the display example shown in FIG. 14 is merely an example, and is not limited to this example. As shown here, if a plurality of optical discs 1 can be selected as dubbing destinations for the same content, the display is the same. It goes without saying that the effect of can be obtained.

  Here, the description has been made assuming that the dubbing is performed on a plurality of optical discs 1. However, even when there is one dubbing destination disc, the same procedure can be performed, and even in this case, the processing compared with the conventional dubbing procedure is possible. Dubbing can be performed without speed reduction. That is, the method described in the second embodiment of the present invention is a widely applicable method regardless of the number of dubbing destination disks.

  As described above mainly in the second embodiment, the information recording / reproducing apparatus has the following configuration.

  That is, the information recording / reproducing apparatus is an information recording / reproducing apparatus that records and reproduces information on a portable information recording medium (for example, the optical disc 1). The information recording / reproducing apparatus includes a changer type drive unit (for example, an optical disc changer drive unit 12) in which a plurality of portable information recording media can be mounted. The drive unit includes a tray unit (for example, disk tray 110), a magazine unit (for example, disk magazine 120), and a traverse unit (traverse unit 130). At this time, the tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium and may be slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit or from the inside to the outside. Further, the magazine section may be capable of mounting a plurality of portable information recording media at a time, and may be directly attached to / detached from the drive unit by external power. At this time, the traverse unit records and reproduces both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit.

  Furthermore, the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the second embodiment includes a memory drive (for example, flash memory drive unit 14) capable of high-speed data transfer. The memory drive has a buffer area (for example, a buffer area 91) that can be used as a buffer or a cache in recording / reproducing data to / from the drive unit, and a temporary recording area (for example, a temporary area) in which content can be temporarily recorded. Storage area 92).

  Furthermore, in the information recording / reproducing apparatus of the second embodiment, the data capacity that can be stored in the buffer area is smaller than the data capacity that can be stored in the portable information recording medium. At this time, when dubbing recording is performed on another m number of portable information recording media (m is a positive number of 1 or more) using data stored in an arbitrary portable information recording medium as dubbing source data, (a) A first control unit that reads a part of the original dubbing source data to the buffer area and sequentially records from the buffer area to another m pieces of portable information recording media; and (b) described in (a) above And a second control unit that repeats the process until all the dubbing source data is dubbed and recorded.

  With the above configuration, as shown in FIG. 7, the number of “start / stop” times and the number of “read” times can be reduced as compared with the method of performing dubbing one by one. That is, performance can be improved.

  Further, as mainly described in the second embodiment, the information recording / reproducing method has the following configuration.

  That is, the information recording / reproducing method is an information recording / reproducing method in which information is recorded / reproduced on / from a portable information recording medium by an information recording / reproducing apparatus. The data capacity that can be stored in the buffer area is smaller than the data capacity that can be stored in the portable information recording medium. At this time, in the information recording / reproducing method, the data stored in any portable information recording medium is dubbed and recorded on another m (m is a positive number of 1) portable information recording media as dubbing source data. (A) reading a part of dubbing source data once into the buffer area, and sequentially recording from the buffer area to another m pieces of portable information recording media; and (b) said (a And the step of repeating the process described in (4) until all the dubbing source data is dubbed and recorded.

  With the above configuration, as shown in FIG. 7, the number of “start / stop” times and the number of “read” times can be reduced as compared with the method of performing dubbing one by one. That is, performance can be improved.

(Embodiment 3)
Embodiment 3 of the present invention shows an example of dubbing processing when the optical disc changer drive unit 12 includes a plurality of traverse units 130 in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 described in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In this case as well, the dubbing process procedure will be described by taking as an example the case where the same content is dubbed to a plurality of optical disks 1. Specifically, the case where two traverse units 130 are provided and two discs (dubbing destination disc (A) and dubbing destination disc (B)) are used as dubbing destination discs will be described as an example.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration of the optical disk changer drive unit 12 including two traverse units. FIG. 10A is a top view of the optical disk changer drive unit 12 as viewed from above, and FIG. It is the side view which looked at the changer drive part 12 from the side.

  The optical disc changer drive unit 12 includes a first traverse unit 150 and a second traverse unit 151. Both the first traverse unit 150 and the second traverse unit 151 have the same configuration and function as the traverse unit 130, but in order to clarify the following explanation, explicitly different numbers are assigned. Give an explanation. The optical disk changer drive unit 12 has the same configuration as that of the optical disk changer drive unit 12 shown in FIG. 1 except for the traverse unit.

  As shown in FIG. 10A, the optical disc changer drive unit 12 includes two traverse units (a first traverse unit 150 and a second traverse unit 151) at positions that do not overlap (different) in the width direction. The traverse unit moves in the vertical (height) direction of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 as shown in FIG. 10B at a position that does not overlap (different) in the width direction. As in the first embodiment of the present invention, the optical disk 1 mounted on the disk tray 110 and the disk magazine 120, which are the mounting mechanisms of the two optical disks 1 provided in the optical disk changer drive unit 12, are attached to the optical disk 1. One traverse unit accesses the optical disk changer drive unit 12 by moving up and down. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10A, the disc magazine portion 120 including the optical disc 1 has a feature that it moves in the width direction of the optical disc changer drive portion 12. That is, in the case of FIG. 10A, when the optical disc 1 is mounted on the traverse unit 151, the disc magazine 120 approaches the traverse unit 151 along the width direction of the housing until the traverse unit 151 is accessible. It moves to an appropriate position, and further, the magazine tray 121 is pulled in the rear side direction of the housing, and the optical disc 1 is accessed.

  The disc tray 110 may also be configured to move in the width direction of the disc changer drive unit 12, similarly to the disc magazine 120. However, in this case, since the disc tray 110 is a mechanism that is loaded by sliding from the inside of the housing of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 to the outside, it is more complicated than realizing a configuration in which the disc magazine 120 is moved in the width direction. Requires control and mechanisms.

  For convenience of explanation, as shown in FIG. 10A, when the optical disc changer drive unit 12 is viewed from the upper side, the disc magazine 120 can be seen ahead of the disc tray 110, that is, the disc magazine 120 is better. The disk tray 110 is described as being disposed above the height direction.

  Note that the arrangement of the two traverse units shown in FIG. 10 is merely an example, and is not limited to this. Specifically, for example, in FIG. 10B, the first traverse unit 150 and the second traverse unit 151 are arranged at different positions in the height direction, but are arranged at the same height position. It doesn't matter. Even in this case, since the traverse unit does not move in the vertical direction with the optical disc 1 mounted, two optical discs 1 are not mounted at the same height. Even if compared with the case where it arrange | positions in, the size of a housing | casing can be equivalent.

  In FIG. 10A, the same traverse unit 130 is connected to the optical disk changer for the optical disk 1 mounted on the disk tray 110 and the disk magazine 120, which are the mounting mechanisms of the two optical disks 1 provided in the optical disk changer drive unit 12. Although it has been described that the access is performed by operating the drive unit 12 up and down, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it is assumed that the disk magazine 120 moves in the width direction with respect to the housing of the optical disk changer drive unit 12, while the disk tray 110 does not move in the width direction. This is because, as described above, the disc tray 110 is a mechanism that is loaded by sliding from the inside of the housing to the outside, and therefore it is difficult to move in the width direction as compared with the disc magazine 120. In this case, a specific traverse unit always accesses the optical disc 1 mounted on the disc tray 110 that does not move in the width direction with respect to the casing (for convenience of explanation, the traverse unit 150 is the disc 1). The optical disk 1 mounted on the tray 110 is accessed). That is, with respect to the other traverse unit (in this case, the traverse unit 151) that does not access at least the optical disc 1 mounted on the disc tray 110, all the optical discs 1 mounted on the optical disc changer drive unit 12 are used. There is no need to provide a mechanism for moving up and down to perform access. In other words, the optical disc 1 accessible by each traverse unit may be shared. By doing in this way, the effect that the mechanism for moving the disk tray 110 to the width direction can be made unnecessary compared with the case where both traverse units access all the optical disks 1.

  Alternatively, the traverse units 150 and 151 may be moved in the width direction and the depth direction, and the disk tray 110 and the disk magazine 120 may be configured not to move in the width direction as in the first embodiment. As a result, the width of the casing of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 is widened, but both the traverse units 150 and 151 can mount all the optical disks 1 without a mechanism for moving the disk tray 110 and the disk magazine 120 in the width direction. .

  As an example of dubbing with two traverse units (or two optical disk drives in a broad sense), for example, the method described in Patent Document 5 as a conventional example is common. Specifically, the two drives are divided into two methods, “for reproduction from a dubbing source disk” and “for recording on a dubbing destination disk”.

  However, if a large-capacity buffer is not provided, this method is inefficient in terms of processing speed and performance.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a procedure when dubbing the same content on two optical disks 1 using the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 having two traverse units shown in FIG. In the flow of FIG. 8, the left column (excluding step 804, steps 801 to 807) shows the processing in the first traverse unit 150, and the right column (steps 811 to 817) is the second traverse unit 151. Shows the processing. Step 804 and step 808 are processes common to both traverse units. In addition, although a part of these processes will be described later, the processes are performed in synchronization with each other.

  Here, a case will be described as an example where a dubbing source disc is mounted on the disc tray 110, a plurality of dubbing destination discs are mounted on the disc magazine 120, and the same content is dubbed on a plurality of dubbing destination discs. Further, it is assumed that the dubbing source disc and the dubbing destination disc are already set for the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 by the user, the dubbing content has already been selected by the user, and the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 has already been recognized. .

  First, the process on the first traverse unit 150 side will be described.

  Step 801: Read processing from the dubbing source disk to the buffer area 91 is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 uses the first traverse unit 150 to perform the reading process according to the flow procedure shown in FIG. The processing content of FIG. 5 is the same as the content described in the second embodiment of the present invention, and thus the description thereof is omitted here. Note that when all the steps 801 are completed, the dubbing data has already been read into the buffer area 91.

  Step 802: Start the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (B)). Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 loads the dubbing destination disc (B) among the plurality of dubbing destination discs mounted on the disc magazine 120 of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 in the first traverse unit 150 and starts it up. The drive control unit 141 is instructed. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 loads the dubbing destination disk (B) into the first traverse unit 150 and activates it.

  Step 803: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disc (dubbing destination disc (B)) is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 uses the first traverse unit 150 to perform recording processing on the dubbing destination disc (B) according to the flow procedure shown in FIG. The processing content of FIG. 6 is the same as the content described in the second embodiment of the present invention, and thus the description thereof is omitted here.

  Step 804: It is determined whether dubbing of all data is completed. Specifically, when the microcomputer unit 70 determines in step 503 in step 801 that “data reading of all dubbing contents has been completed”, that is, if it determines that all dubbing of dubbing contents has been completed. The dubbing process is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined that “data reading of all dubbing contents has not been completed”, the next processing step (step 805 if processing on the first traverse unit 150 side, if processing on the second traverse unit side) Go to step 815).

  Step 805: It is determined whether or not a predetermined amount of data necessary for recording has been accumulated in the buffer area 91. Specifically, in step 815, which will be described later, which is processing on the second traverse unit 151 side, the microcomputer unit 70 has read and accumulated dubbing data from the dubbing source disk in a buffer area 91 exceeding a predetermined amount. Judge whether. Here, the minimum value of the predetermined amount is an error correction unit, which is 1 ECC unit which is a recording / reproduction unit, and the maximum value is the size of the buffer area 91, and any value between them may be used. Specific examples of the predetermined value include a size that allows continuous recording to some extent (for example, 16 ECC (1 Mbyte (megabyte) for BD) or 48 Mbyte that is a CDA size)). However, in the example shown in this figure, the dubbing data is read out by the second traverse unit 151 different from the first traverse unit 150 that performs recording. Therefore, even if recording is performed if the recordable data amount is accumulated. good.

  If the microcomputer unit 70 determines that data has been accumulated beyond the predetermined amount, the process proceeds to step 806, which is the next process. When the microcomputer unit 70 determines that the amount of accumulated data does not exceed the predetermined amount, the processing in step 805 is repeated (specifically, a polling is performed with a predetermined time-out). While waiting for a predetermined amount of data to be accumulated).

  Step 806: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disc (dubbing destination disc (B)) is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 uses the first traverse unit 150 to perform recording processing on the dubbing destination disc (B) according to the flow procedure shown in FIG. The processing content of FIG. 6 is basically the same as the content described in the second embodiment of the present invention, but only the determination processing in step 602 needs attention. Specifically, when described in the second embodiment of the present invention, it can be guaranteed that the data read processing for the necessary size in the buffer area 91 has been completed. However, in the third embodiment of the present invention, the reading process is performed in parallel by a traverse unit (here, the second traverse unit 151) different from the recording. For this reason, it is assumed that the reading process is temporarily stopped for some reason even though the reading process for the necessary size is in progress, and there is no apparent recordable data amount. In this case, it is necessary to take care of the state on the read processing side so as not to erroneously determine that recording for the necessary size has been completed. Based on this, the processing content of step 602 in FIG. 6 in this case will be briefly described.

  Step 602: It is determined whether or not data recording for a required size has been completed on the dubbing destination disk. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 has finished reading data from the dubbing source disk (that is, reading data of a necessary size from the buffer area 91 has been completed) and has read data into the buffer area 91. It is determined whether or not all the recorded dubbing data has been recorded. If it is determined that all data has been recorded, the recording process is completed, and the process proceeds to the subsequent steps. On the other hand, if it is determined that recording of all data has not been completed, step 601 is repeated.

  Step 807: Stop and eject the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (B)). Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 instructs the drive control unit 141 to stop activation of the dubbing destination disk (B) loaded in the first traverse unit 150 and return the magazine tray 121 to the standby position. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 stops the dubbing destination disk (B) mounted on the first traverse unit 150 and returns the magazine tray 121 to the standby position.

  Step 808: It is determined whether dubbing of all data is completed. Specifically, when the microcomputer unit 70 determines in step 503 in step 815, which will be described later, that "data reading of all dubbing contents has been completed", that is, if it has determined that all dubbing contents have been dubbed. The dubbing process is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined that “data reading of all dubbing contents has not been completed”, a predetermined step (step 801 if the process is on the first traverse unit 150 side; if the process is on the second traverse unit 151 side) Returning to step 812), the process is repeated.

  The above is the process on the first traverse unit 150 side.

  Next, processing on the second traverse unit 151 side will be described.

  Step 811: Start the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (A)). Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 sets the dubbing destination disc (A) among the plurality of dubbing destination discs mounted in the disc magazine 120 to the second traverse unit 151 and instructs the drive control unit 141 to start up. To give instructions. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 loads the dubbing destination disk (A) into the second traverse unit 151 and starts it.

  Step 812: It is determined whether or not a predetermined amount of data necessary for recording has been accumulated in the buffer area 91. Specifically, in step 801, which is processing on the first traverse unit 150 side, the microcomputer unit 70 determines whether or not the dubbing data from the dubbing source disk has been read and accumulated in the buffer area 91 exceeding a predetermined amount. to decide. Here, the predetermined amount is the same as that in step 805 described above, and a description thereof is omitted here.

  If the microcomputer unit 70 determines that data has been accumulated beyond the predetermined amount, the process proceeds to step 813 which is the next process. If the microcomputer unit 70 determines that the amount of accumulated data does not exceed the predetermined amount, the processing of this step 812 is repeated (specifically, a predetermined time-out is provided for polling). While waiting for a predetermined amount of data to be accumulated).

  Step 813: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disc (dubbing destination disc (A)) is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 uses the second traverse unit 151 to perform recording processing on the dubbing destination disc (B) according to the flow procedure shown in FIG. Note that the processing content in FIG. 6 is the same as that in step 806 described above, and a description thereof is omitted here.

  Step 814: The dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (A)) is stopped and ejected. Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 instructs the drive control unit 141 to stop starting the dubbing destination disk (A) loaded in the second traverse unit 151 and return the magazine tray 121 to the standby position. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 stops the dubbing destination disk (A) mounted on the second traverse unit 130 and returns the magazine tray 121 to the standby position. Subsequently, the process of step 804 described above is performed.

  Step 815: Read processing from the dubbing source disk to the buffer area 91 is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 uses the second traverse unit 151 to perform a reading process according to the flow procedure shown in FIG. Note that the processing content in FIG. 5 is the same as that in step 801 described above, and a description thereof is omitted here.

  Step 816: Start the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (A)). Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 sets the dubbing destination disc (A) among the plurality of dubbing destination discs mounted in the disc magazine 120 to the second traverse unit 151 and instructs the drive control unit 141 to start up. To give instructions. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 loads the dubbing destination disk (A) into the second traverse unit 151 and starts it.

  Step 817: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disc (dubbing destination disc (A)) is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 uses the second traverse unit 151 to perform recording processing on the dubbing destination disc (A) according to the flow procedure shown in FIG. Note that the processing content in FIG. 6 is the same as that in step 803 described above, and a description thereof is omitted here. Subsequently, the process of step 808 described above is performed.

  The above is the process on the second traverse unit 151 side. With the above procedure, the dubbing process to two dubbing destination disks using two traverse units is completed.

  Note that this method is not limited to the case where the two traversing units described with reference to FIG. 8 have two dubbing destination disks, but the same applies even when the number of dubbing destination disks is three or four. An effect can be obtained. However, in the case of two traverse units, for example, when dubbing to three (odd number) dubbing destination disks, the traverse unit 130 on which the reading process is performed is performed by only one of the traverse units. . This will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a procedure for performing dubbing of the same content on three optical discs 1 using the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 having two traverse units shown in FIG. In the flow of FIG. 9 as well, the left column (excluding step 905, step 901 to step 904) shows the processing in the first traverse unit 150, and the right column (step 911 to step 916) is the same as the flow of FIG. ) Shows processing in the second traverse unit 151. Step 905 is a process common to both traverse units. In addition, although a part of these processes will be described later, the processes are performed in synchronization with each other.

  Most of the steps are the same as the steps described in FIG. In the description of FIG. 9, detailed description of steps equivalent to those of FIG. 8 is omitted.

  Step 901: Read processing from the dubbing source disk to the buffer area 91 is performed. The processing content of step 901 is the same as that of step 801 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Step 902: Start the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (B)). The processing content of step 902 is the same as that of step 802 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Step 903: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disc (dubbing destination disc (B)) is performed. The processing content of step 903 is the same as that of step 803 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Step 904: Stop and eject the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (B)). The processing content of step 904 is the same as that of step 807 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Step 905: It is determined whether dubbing of all data is completed. Specifically, when the microcomputer unit 70 determines in step 503 in the above-described step 901 that “data reading of all dubbing contents has been completed”, that is, if it has determined that all dubbing contents have been dubbed. The dubbing process is completed. On the other hand, if it is determined that “data reading of all dubbing contents has not been completed”, a predetermined step (step 901 if the process is on the first traverse unit 150 side; if the process is on the second traverse unit 151 side) Returning to step 912), the process is repeated.

  The above is the process on the first traverse unit 150 side.

  Next, processing on the second traverse unit 151 side will be described.

  Step 911: Start the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (A or C)). The processing content of step 911 is the same as that of step 811 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Step 912: It is determined whether or not a predetermined amount of data necessary for recording has been accumulated in the buffer area 91. The processing content of step 912 is the same as that of step 812 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted. When data exceeds a predetermined amount, the process proceeds to the next step 913.

  Step 913: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disc (dubbing destination disc (A or C)) is performed. The processing content of step 913 is the same as that of step 813 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  Step 914: Stop and eject the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (A or C)). The processing content of step 914 is the same as that of the above-mentioned step 814, and detailed description is abbreviate | omitted. When this step is completed, the process proceeds to step 915.

  Step 915: Start the dubbing destination disk (dubbing destination disk (C or A)). Specifically, the microcomputer unit 70 loads a dubbing destination disk (C or A) among the plurality of dubbing destination disks mounted on the disk magazine 120 into the second traverse unit 151 and starts the drive control unit. 141 is instructed. In response to this, the drive control unit 141 loads the dubbing destination disk (C or A) into the second traverse unit 151 and starts it.

  Step 916: Recording processing from the buffer area 91 to the dubbing destination disc (dubbing destination disc (C or A)) is performed. Specifically, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 uses the second traverse unit 151 to perform recording processing on the dubbing destination disc (C or A) according to the flow procedure shown in FIG. The processing content of FIG. 6 is the same as the content described in the second embodiment of the present invention, and thus the description thereof is omitted here.

  Subsequently, the process of step 905 described above is performed.

  The second traverse unit 151 handles the dubbing destination disk A and the dubbing destination disk C. Here, in step 905, it is determined that “data reading of all dubbing contents has not been completed”, and when it is repeatedly performed from step 911, in step 911 to step 914, recording is performed in the immediately preceding step 916. Processing is performed on the new disk. Specifically, for example, when recording is performed on the dubbing destination disk C in step 916, processing is performed on the dubbing destination disk C in steps 911 to 914 that are performed following the next step 905. In subsequent steps 915 and 916, the dubbing destination disk A is processed. This is apparent from the fact that the disk stop processing is not performed immediately after step 916, and is to prevent unnecessary start / stop / discharge processing of the disk. By not performing useless processing, in addition to improving the performance of the dubbing processing, it is possible to delay the consumption of the optical disc changer drive unit 12 including the traverse unit.

  The above is the process on the second traverse unit 151 side. With the above procedure, the dubbing process to three dubbing destination disks using two traverse units is completed.

  As can be seen from FIG. 9, when the number of dubbing destination discs is an odd number such as three, the dubbing source data is read from either one of the traverse units.

  Here, the reason why the two traverse units are not allocated and used in the form of recording only / reproducing only as in the conventional example, and recording and reproduction are performed by both traverse units will be described.

  The first reason is because the performance improvement of the dubbing process was considered. If the number of dubbing destination discs is larger than the dubbing source disc, the number of recording processes is greater than the reproducing process. It is efficient to perform the recording process with a large number of processes by sharing the two traverse units. This will be specifically described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 shows a case where the method of Embodiment 3 of the present invention shown in the flow of FIG. 9 is used when dubbing the same content to three optical disks 1, and a traverse unit for reproduction and recording. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a sequence of “recording” and “reading” processing performed by a traverse unit when a conventional method of dividing the image is used. The hatched portion in the figure indicates the timing when the traverse unit is not performing the recording / reproducing process. In order to simplify the description, the description of the disk replacement process for mounting and ejecting the optical disk 1 to / from the traverse unit is omitted here. Furthermore, in order to simplify the description, the description will be made on the assumption that the capacity of the dubbing source content is 100 GB and the capacity of the buffer area 91 used as a buffer is 50 GB. That is, all the dubbing source content data is Part. A and Part. B is read into the buffer area 91 in two steps.

  As can be seen from FIG. 11, compared to the case where dubbing is performed by the conventional method in which the traverse unit is separately used for reproduction and recording, the dubbing is performed by the method described in the third embodiment of the present invention. However, it can be seen that the dubbing process can be efficiently performed in a short time.

  Furthermore, in general, an optical disc drive that performs recording / reproduction of the optical disc 1 has a reproduction processing speed equal to or higher than a recording processing speed. This is because, in addition to the performance problem of the drive, a dedicated learning process for recording is performed to ensure recording quality, and furthermore, the same area called Write & Verify that confirms that recording was correctly performed at the time of recording is accessed twice. This is because, since the processing that occurs is performed, the processing time is approximately twice that of the case of only reproduction. The same applies to the optical disc changer drive unit 12 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 used in Embodiment 3 of the present invention. That is, when the traverse unit is divided into the read-only and the record-only, the time when the record-only traverse unit is accessing the optical disc 1 is longer than the time when the playback-only traverse unit is accessing the optical disc 1. Is longer. In other words, the read-only drive is inefficient because it takes more time to process nothing on the optical disc 1 than the record-only drive. This is because it is possible to perform processing more efficiently if the traverse units are not divided into a read-only / record-only form so that the time for doing nothing is minimized.

  The second reason is that the recording process is generally faster than the reproducing process because the semiconductor laser, which is one of the components of the pickup 131, is loaded, and the pickup 131 in the traverse unit is generally deteriorated. is there. Therefore, the recording process is averaged over all the traverse units. This is because the deterioration rate of the pickup 131 can be averaged in this way, so that an effect of extending the life of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 as a whole can be expected.

  Here, points when dubbing a plurality of optical disks 1 using two traverse units are listed below.

  Since the recording process has a larger number of processes than the reproduction process, when the dubbing data reading process to the buffer area 91 is completed, the dubbing recording of the data is still performed at that time by using the traverse unit that has been performing the reading process. Recording to a dubbing destination disc that has not been performed.

  -When recording on the dubbing destination disk where the data accumulated in the buffer area 91 is finally dubbed starts, the traverse unit in which the previous recording ends first among the traverse units different from the traverse unit performing the recording Then, the next dubbing data is read from the dubbing source disk.

  As described above, this method is not limited to the case where there are two or three dubbing destination disks in the two traverse units described in the third embodiment of the present invention, but in many cases such as four or more dubbing destination disks. Even if applied, the same effect as described above with reference to FIGS. 8, 9 and 11 can be obtained. More specifically, for example, in the case of two traverse units, when dubbing to three (odd number) dubbing destination disks, the processing is performed according to the procedure shown in FIG. In this case, the traverse unit 130 on which the reading process is performed is performed by only one of the traverse units. On the other hand, when dubbing to four (even number) dubbing destination discs, processing is performed according to the procedure shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 8, the dubbing source disk activation process in step 501 in step 801 and the dubbing destination disk (A) activation process in step 811 may be performed in parallel (simultaneously). In FIG. 9, the dubbing source disk activation process in step 501 in step 901 and the dubbing destination disk (A) activation process in step 911 are processes performed by different traverse units. This is because it can be carried out simultaneously in parallel.

  However, since the power consumption required for rotating the spindle motor is large, there is a possibility that the maximum power consumption as the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 may be increased if the start-up process with two traverse units is performed simultaneously. It is preferable that the start-up process in the traverse unit is performed at different timings. In this case, if the readout (reproduction) activation processing time and the recording activation processing time are the same, step 801, which is the readout (reproduction) activation processing, is performed earlier than step 811. It is preferable to carry out. This is because at the beginning of the dubbing process, the dubbing recording process cannot be performed unless the reading process is performed, and therefore it is preferable that the reading process can be started as soon as possible. If the startup processing time for reading (playback) is different from the startup processing time for recording, the procedure is determined so that the processing time required for each is taken into consideration and the processing that takes a long time is prioritized. You may do it. For example, it is possible to predict the time required for recording / reproduction based on various learning processes performed at the time of activation or after activation, and determine the procedure in consideration of the time.

  In FIG. 8, the processing in steps 802 and 803 on the first traverse unit 150 side is more timely than the processing in step 813 in which recording is performed on the dubbing destination disk (A) on the second traverse unit 151 side. Will be implemented late. In addition, the processing in steps 816 and 817 on the second traverse unit 151 side is later (delayed) in timing than the processing in step 806 in which recording is performed on the dubbing destination disc (B) on the first traverse unit 150 side. ) Will be implemented. Similarly, in FIG. 9, the processing from step 902 to step 904 on the first traverse unit 150 side is more than the processing of step 913 that records on the dubbing destination disc (A or C) on the second traverse unit 151 side. The timing is late (delayed). This is due to the difference in processing steps performed before the start of recording. Specifically, for example, in the case of FIG. 8, the processing in step 813 and step 806 can be performed immediately while dubbing data is being read into the buffer area 91 or immediately after the reading is completed. On the other hand, the processing of Steps 802 and 803 and Steps 816 and 817 is performed immediately before the dubbing source data is read. For this reason, after the dubbing source data reading process is completed, the optical disc 1 to be mounted on the traverse unit is replaced with the dubbing destination disc and started again.

  As described above, by using the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 described in the second embodiment or the third embodiment of the present invention, the same dubbing can be performed without changing the dubbing destination disk each time through the user's hand as in the past. Content can be dubbed to a plurality of optical discs 1. Specifically, a dubbing source disk is mounted on the disk tray 110, and a dubbing process is performed in a form in which a plurality of optical disks 1 that are dubbing destination disks are provided in the disk magazine 120, whereby simultaneous dubbing to a plurality of optical disks 1 is possible. It can be realized. Thereby, when dubbing personal contents or the like, dubbing to a plurality of optical discs 1 can be easily realized without the user's trouble. Specifically, personal content such as pictures and videos taken when a child's elementary school athletic meet is distributed to relatives, friends, acquaintances, etc. It is effective when handing out to the friend.

(Embodiment 4)
In the fourth embodiment of the present invention, a multiple program simultaneous recording function performed by using the optical disc changer drive unit 12 and the flash memory drive unit 14 in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

  As described above, the optical disc 1 has a slower data transfer rate / access speed such as recording / reproduction than a hard disk or flash memory. Furthermore, since the optical disk 1 is a portable medium, recording / reproduction is performed while the optical disk changer drive unit 12 replaces the optical disk 1. That is, every time the optical disk 1 is replaced, the optical disk 1 is frequently started (loaded) for several seconds to several tens of seconds. Therefore, the optical disc 1 has a weak point that the access performance is lowered as compared with a hard disk or a flash memory.

  Further, the optical disk 1 and the hard disk require a process of seeking to actually move the pickup 131 to a corresponding position on the disk in order to record and reproduce data. Therefore, the access performance is further reduced as compared with a flash memory that does not require seeking.

  On the other hand, a flash memory represented by an SSD has a very high data transfer speed, and can compensate for the weak points of the optical disk 1 such as no disk replacement.

  Hereinafter, two applications will be described as examples.

  Here, the numerical conditions that are the premise of the following description will be briefly described.

  First, the maximum transfer rate of recorded / reproduced contents will be described using BS Mbps broadcast 24 Mbps (mega bps: bit per second), which is the highest rate of current Japanese broadcast data. For reference, the data transfer rate of terrestrial digital broadcasting is a maximum of 17 Mbps.

  Next, with respect to the recording / reproducing speed on the optical disc, BD-RE that is a rewritable BD disc is taken as an example, and double-speed recording that is a general recording speed of the current optical disc drive is adopted as a representative value. Specifically, since the transfer rate at 1 × speed is 36 Mbps, it is 72 Mbps at 2 × speed recording. However, the optical disc has a time during which access to the optical disc 1 cannot be performed. Typical examples are the above-mentioned “startup (load) time and disk replacement time such as disk replacement” and “head seek time”. Here, the seek time includes not only the seek time of the pickup 131 itself but also the establishment time of the number of revolutions at the seek destination, the learning time required for recording and reproduction, and various set times. It shall be.

  The former disk exchange is a time required every time a disk is exchanged, and here it is uniformly 30 seconds. In addition to the viewpoint of one processing time, the frequency of the seek time becomes a problem. Here, the worst condition is assumed, and the frequency is generated every recording of a minimum of 48 Mbytes, which is the size of a recording area (CDA) of a minimum continuous information unit for guaranteeing continuous reproduction in BD. In the description, the processing time required for one seek process is 1.5 seconds. In other words, it takes about 5.3 seconds to record 48 MBytes at 72 Mbps, but since a seek of 1.5 seconds (that is, inaccessible time) occurs for each unit, the actual transfer rate (effective transfer rate) is Since data recording of 48 MByte is performed in 6.8 seconds (5.3 seconds + 1.5 seconds), the recording speed is about 56.2 Mbps.

1) When one program recording / one program playback is performed simultaneously As an assumed case, content (B) recorded on the optical disc (B) in parallel is recorded while recording the content (A) on the optical disc (A). It is a case that plays. For example, the optical disk (A) is mounted on the disk magazine 120 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100, and the optical disk (B) is mounted on the disk tray 110.

  FIG. 15A is a graph showing the state of the buffer area 91 when one program recording / one program reproduction is performed simultaneously under the above conditions. The horizontal axis is the elapsed time, and the vertical axis is the amount of data stored in the buffer area 91. When the buffer area 91 is used separately as a recording buffer and a reproduction buffer, the transition of the accumulated data amount of the reproduction buffer is shown by a solid line, and the transition of the accumulated data amount of the recording buffer is shown by a broken line. “Reading” and “disc exchange” described in the figure indicate the state of the traverse unit 130. When the traverse unit 130 is recording data on the optical disc 1, “recording”, “reading” when data is being read, and “exchanging” when the optical disc 1 to be accessed is exchanged is doing. Also, the description “+32.2 Mbps” described in the figure indicates the accumulation rate of data in the buffer. “+” Is the rate at which data is stored in the buffer, whereas “−” is the rate at which data is released from the buffer.

  In the playback buffer, the traverse unit 130 accumulates data at 32.2 Mbps (= 56.2 Mbps−24 Mbps) during reading (playback) processing, and releases data at 24.0 Mbps during disk replacement and recording processing. .

  In the recording buffer, the traverse unit 130 accumulates data at 24.0 Mbps during reading (reproducing) processing and disk exchange, and releases data at 32.2 Mbps during recording processing.

  As shown in FIG. 15A, it can be seen that if 2 GB (2000 Mbytes) can be secured for both the recording buffer and the playback buffer, that is, if a total size of 4 Gbytes can be secured as the buffer area 91, it can be realized sufficiently. That is, even when the optical disk changer drive unit 12 is used, it can be seen that one program recording / one program reproduction can be performed simultaneously.

2) When two-program recording / one-program playback is performed simultaneously As an assumption case, while recording the content (A) on the optical disc (A), the content (B) is recorded on another optical disc (B) at the same time. . In parallel, the content (C) recorded on the optical disc (C) is reproduced. For example, the optical disk (A) and the optical disk (B) are mounted on the disk magazine 120 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100, and the optical disk (C) is mounted on the disk tray 110.

  While the data accumulation speed in the reproduction buffer during reproduction is about 32 Mbps, the data accumulation speed in the recording buffer is 24 Mbps × 2 = 48 Mbps. That is, the storage speed on the recording buffer side is about 16 Mbps faster. On the other hand, the consumption speed of the playback buffer during recording is 24 Mbps, while the storage speed in the recording buffer is also 24 Mbps. That is, accumulating the reproduction data that can be continuously reproduced during recording on the optical disc 1 cannot be realized when assuming a content with a transfer rate of 24 Mbps.

  However, assuming that, for example, content recording / playback of 17 Mbps, which is the transfer rate of terrestrial digital broadcasting, the state of the buffer area 91 when two program recording / one program playback is performed simultaneously is shown in FIG. It becomes like this. Here, the buffer area 91 is an example when the reproduction buffer and the two recording buffers (recording buffer B and recording buffer C) are allocated with the same size. The transition of the accumulated data amount of the reproduction buffer is indicated by a solid line, the transition of the accumulated data amount of the recording buffer (A) is indicated by a broken line, and the transition of the accumulated data amount of the recording buffer (B) is indicated by a dotted line.

  In the reproduction buffer, the traverse unit 130 accumulates data at 39.2 Mbps (= 56.2 Mbps-17 Mbps) during the read (reproduction) process, and releases data at 17.0 Mbps during the disk exchange and the recording process. .

  In the recording buffer, in both the recording buffer B and the recording buffer C, the traverse unit 130 accumulates data at 17.0 Mbps during reading (playback) processing and disk exchange, and releases data at 39.2 Mbps during recording processing. The

  As shown in FIG. 15 (b), assuming a transfer rate of 17 Mbps, which is the maximum transfer rate of terrestrial digital broadcasting, two programs can be obtained if both the recording buffer and the reproduction buffer can secure about 2.7 GByte (2700 MByte). Simultaneous implementation of recording / program reproduction can be realized sufficiently. That is, it can be seen that simultaneous execution of two program recordings / one program reproduction can be sufficiently realized if a total size of 8 GBytes can be secured as the buffer area 91.

  Note that if two program recording / one program reproduction is to be performed at a transfer rate of 24 Mbps, it can be realized by using the temporary storage area 92 of the flash memory drive unit 14. As described above, the flash memory drive unit 14 has a very high transfer rate. For example, if the size of the temporary storage area 92 in the flash memory drive unit 14 is 24 GB, contents with a transfer rate of 24 Mbps can be stored for about 2 hours. Therefore, recording is performed in the temporary storage area while it can be stored in the temporary storage area 92. After the size that can be stored in the temporary storage area 92 is exceeded, the content data is not raw data, but is recorded on the optical disc 1 while being compressed at a compression rate of 17 Mbps or less as described above, for example. By adapting, it is possible to maximize the recording of two programs / reproduction of one program at a high transfer rate of 24 Mbps.

  From the above, even when the optical disk changer drive unit 12 is used, two programs can be recorded and one program can be played back simultaneously assuming a maximum transfer rate of 17 Mbps for digital terrestrial broadcasting. Further, if one of the programs is recorded and reproduced in the temporary storage area 92 of the flash memory drive unit 14, two programs can be recorded and one program can be reproduced at the same time even for 24 Mbps content. From the above, it can be said that there is no problem when the actual usage state of the user is assumed.

  In the fourth embodiment of the present invention, the BD-RE which is a rewritable BD disc has been described as an example of the recording speed being double speed. However, when this recording speed is increased, processing can be performed in parallel at the same time. The number of programs will increase. For example, when the recording speed is triple-speed recording, the number of programs that can be simultaneously recorded and reproduced as described above can be theoretically recorded and reproduced at 1.5 times the number of programs. Alternatively, for example, it is possible to increase the number of programs that can be processed in parallel by increasing the compression rate of the recorded data.

(Embodiment 5)
In the fifth embodiment of the present invention, an example of other functions that can be realized when the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 includes the flash memory drive unit 14 such as an SSD having a very high data transfer speed will be briefly described. To do.

(1) Multi-program simultaneous recording / simultaneous reproduction As described in the fourth embodiment of the present invention, when data recording to the optical disc changer drive unit 12 is considered, two-program recording / one program reproduction can be performed simultaneously. It is.

  However, if it is considered to record and reproduce all of the temporary storage area 92 of the flash memory drive unit 14, more content can be simultaneously recorded and reproduced.

  If the temporary storage area 92 has a data capacity of 24 GB and a content with a transfer rate of 24 Mbps can be recorded for about 2 hours (120 minutes), for example, simultaneous recording and reproduction of 12 10-minute programs is also possible.

(2) Conditional recording of only specific programs As described in (1) of the fifth embodiment of the present invention, simultaneous recording of multiple programs is possible if recording and playback to the flash memory drive unit 14 are performed. It is. In recent years, the technology level of face recognition technology capable of recognizing and identifying a specific person has also improved.

  Therefore, it is possible to realize a function of recording only a program or scene in which a specific person appears using these functions.

  More specifically, for example, face data of a favorite actor is registered in, for example, the flash memory drive unit 14 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 that is an AV recorder apparatus. Then, using this face data, characters are recognized using a face recognition technique for a program that is temporarily recorded in the buffer area 91 or the temporary storage area 92, and a favorite actor appears. It is also possible to realize a function of recording only the program or scene determined to be recorded on the optical disc 1 using the optical disc changer drive unit 12 having a large recording capacity and capable of being stored for a long period of time.

  In recent data broadcasting such as terrestrial digital broadcasting, data on characters such as names of actors appearing in the program are added, and the characters can be grasped from there. Therefore, in the case of a drama or a movie, a function of recording a program in which a specific person appears can be realized by using the information.

  However, the usage of extracting and recording only the scene in which the person appears cannot be realized even if additional information is used. Or, additional information can be used to record programs that cannot be judged from additional information, such as news programs, special programs, or start-up actors whose names are not registered as additional information, or extras. Absent. By applying face recognition technology there, more detailed and accurate program recording becomes possible.

(3) Person Data Replacement Reproduction As described in (2) of the fifth embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to limit a person by face recognition of the characters. Therefore, considering that the same function is applied at the time of reproduction, it is possible to realize a reproduction by replacing a character with a specific person as a new function.

  Specifically, for example, in addition to a certain actor's face data, his / her face data is also registered in, for example, the flash memory drive unit 14 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 which is an AV recorder apparatus. An actor from the program data read out for playback in the buffer area 91 or the temporary storage area 92 of the flash memory drive unit 14 such as during playback of a program recorded in the optical disk 1 or the temporary storage area 92. It is possible to identify the appearance scene and output the reproduced video to the monitor via the decoder unit 50 in the form of replacing the actor's face data with his / her face data.

  By doing so, it is possible to reproduce the program as if it appeared in the program.

  Note that this usage may be such that the recorded face data of a certain actor is replaced with the face data of an actor and recorded.

  Alternatively, the idea is reversed, and arbitrary data such as costume data and landscape data is placed in the flash memory drive unit 14 of the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 and recorded on the optical disc 1 or the temporary storage area 92. It is also possible to replace the costumes of the characters and the scenery in the video with the registered data during playback. In other words, if face recognition technology is applied to perform costume recognition and landscape recognition, the same processing as face data replacement can be realized. For example, when playing back personal content shot with a video camera, the costume or landscape worn by the characters is replaced with foreign data for video shot in Japan, or summer It is also possible to change the season and change the scenery and costumes according to the season as a winter version.

  The object of the present invention is not intended to completely exclude the HDD from the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100. Specifically, for example, in the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 2 shown in the embodiment of the present invention, at least the flash memory drive unit 14 is an HDD having a capacity smaller than the recording capacity of the optical disk 1. The same effects as those described in the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention can be obtained. In the fifth embodiment of the present invention, although the HDD transfer rate is not as fast as SSD, almost the same processing can be realized. Alternatively, the information recording / reproducing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 2 may further include an HDD in addition to the optical disc changer drive unit 12 and the flash memory drive unit 14. In such a case, for example, the HDD plays the role of the temporary storage area 92 of the flash memory drive unit 14, so that it is the same as that described in the first to fifth embodiments of the present invention. It goes without saying that the effect of can be obtained.

  In the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention, the consumer AV recorder apparatus has been described as an example. However, these uses are not limited to the consumer AV recorder apparatus. Specifically, the present invention may be applied to an apparatus that stores data such as a PC.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the example in which the disk magazine 120 is divided according to the media type (reproduction-only medium, write-once medium, etc.) has been described, but the others are not particularly mentioned. However, for example, an optical disc 1 having a different format such as CD / DVD / BD may be inserted. For example, in the case of the example of the disk magazine 120 corresponding to the media type, the disk magazine 120 for write-once medium may be mounted in a mixed form of BD-R and DVD-R. Since it is possible to select any of the above, it is possible to increase the degree of freedom of the user.

  While specific embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many other variations, modifications, and other uses are encompassed by the present invention. Thus, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments herein, but only by the claims.

  According to the present invention, an optical disk changer is used to provide a temporary storage area held by a conventional hard disk by a plurality of optical disks, and two means (a tray part and a disk magazine part) are provided as optical disk mounting means. In addition, it has a flash memory drive unit with a very high transfer rate that serves as a cache, etc., and covers inaccessible time such as startup (load) time due to optical disk replacement, without interrupting recording and playback Realize. As a result, the optical disk can be used not only for archive / backup purposes, but also for temporary storage that has been performed by conventional hard disks. As a result, it is possible to improve the operability for the user, for example, the same content can be simultaneously dubbed on a plurality of optical disks. The present invention can be applied to, for example, an optical disc recorder device which is a consumer program recording device.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Optical disk 100,200 Information recording / reproducing apparatus 12 Optical disk changer drive part 14 Flash memory drive part 16,216 Data control part 18a AV input 18b Terrestrial digital tuner 18c Terrestrial analog tuner 20 Selection circuit 30 Encoder part 32 Formatter 34,234 Buffer Memory 50 Decoder unit 70 Microcomputer unit 74 Display unit 76 Key input unit 91 Buffer area 92 Temporary storage area 93 Recording data management area 110 Disc tray 120 Disc magazine 121 Magazine tray 122 IC tag 130, 150, 151 Traverse unit 131 Pickup 132 Spindle Motor 133 Traverse 140 Circuit board 160 Reader device 141 Drive controller 212 Optical disc Hard disk drive 214 hard disk drive

Claims (11)

An information recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing information on a portable information recording medium,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus includes a changer type drive unit in which a plurality of the portable information recording media can be mounted.
The drive unit includes a tray portion, a magazine portion, and a traverse portion,
The tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium, and is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit, or from the inside to the outside,
The magazine unit can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at once, and is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power,
The traverse unit records and reproduces information on both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit. apparatus. In order to ensure that the portable information recording medium storing the dubbing source data stays in the housing of the drive unit at the time of tabbing, the portable type between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit The delivery of information recording media is limited,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1. In order to ensure that the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit remains in the magazine unit, the portable information recording medium between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit Limit delivery,
Further, in a state where the magazine unit is removed from the drive unit, by restricting the removal of the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit,
One content can be recorded and reproduced across a plurality of the portable information recording media mounted on the magazine unit.
The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1. The drive unit includes two mechanisms, the tray unit and the magazine unit, to which the portable information recording medium can be attached and detached.
Only when a predetermined portable information recording medium is mounted on both the tray part and the magazine part, all or a part of the data stored in the portable information recording medium can be read. Enabled security enhancement,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1. The information recording / reproducing apparatus further includes a memory drive capable of high-speed data transfer,
The memory drive has a buffer area that can be used as a buffer or a cache in recording / reproducing data to / from the drive unit;
The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a temporary recording area in which content can be temporarily recorded. The data capacity that can be stored in the buffer area is smaller than the data capacity that can be stored in the portable information recording medium,
When dubbing and recording on another m sheets (m is a positive number of 1 or more) of the portable information recording medium using data stored in any of the portable information recording media as dubbing source data,
(A) a first controller that reads a portion of the original dubbing data once into the buffer area and sequentially records from the buffer area to the other m portable information recording media;
6. The information recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising: a second control unit that repeatedly performs the process according to (a) until all the dubbing source data is dubbed and recorded. An information recording / reproducing apparatus for recording AV data or the like,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus comprises:
An AV input unit for inputting the AV data into the information recording / reproducing apparatus;
An AV output unit for outputting the AV data to the outside of the information recording / reproducing apparatus;
A format conversion unit for converting the AV data into a data format suitable for recording and reproduction;
A changer-type drive unit capable of mounting a plurality of the portable information recording media and recording / reproducing data on the portable information recording medium;
A buffer unit serving as a buffer for temporarily storing input / output data for recording / playback of the AV data;
A control unit for controlling the entire information recording / reproducing apparatus represented by recording / reproducing;
A user interface unit for exchanging information with the user,
The drive unit includes a tray portion, a magazine portion, and a traverse portion,
The tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium, and is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit, or from the inside to the outside,
The magazine unit can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at once, and is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power,
The traverse unit records and reproduces information on both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit. apparatus. An information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on a portable information recording medium by an information recording / reproducing apparatus,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus includes a changer type drive unit in which a plurality of the portable information recording media can be mounted.
The drive unit includes a tray portion, a magazine portion, and a traverse portion,
The tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium, and is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit, or from the inside to the outside,
The magazine unit can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at once, and is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power,
The traverse unit performs recording / reproduction on both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit,
The information recording / reproducing method includes:
In order to ensure that the portable information recording medium storing the dubbing source data stays in the housing of the drive unit at the time of tabbing, the portable type between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit The delivery of information recording media is limited,
Information recording and playback method. An information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on a portable information recording medium by an information recording / reproducing apparatus,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus includes a changer type drive unit in which a plurality of the portable information recording media can be mounted.
The drive unit includes a tray portion, a magazine portion, and a traverse portion,
The tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium, and is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit, or from the inside to the outside,
The magazine unit can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at once, and is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power,
The traverse unit performs recording / reproduction on both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit,
In order to ensure that the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit remains in the magazine unit, the portable information recording medium between the tray unit and the magazine unit in the drive unit Delivery is restricted,
Furthermore, in the state where the magazine unit is removed from the drive unit, the removal of the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit is restricted,
The information recording / reproducing method includes:
An information recording / reproducing method, wherein one content is recorded / reproduced across a plurality of the portable information recording media mounted on the magazine unit. An information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on a portable information recording medium by an information recording / reproducing apparatus,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus includes a changer type drive unit in which a plurality of the portable information recording media can be mounted.
The drive unit includes two mechanisms, a tray unit and a magazine unit, to which the portable information recording medium can be attached and detached, and a traverse unit.
The tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium, and is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit, or from the inside to the outside,
The magazine unit can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at once, and is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power,
The traverse unit performs recording / reproduction on both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit,
The information recording / reproducing method includes:
Only when a predetermined portable information recording medium is mounted on both the tray part and the magazine part, all or a part of the data stored in the portable information recording medium can be read. , Security enhancement is possible,
Information recording and playback method. An information recording / reproducing method for recording / reproducing information on a portable information recording medium by an information recording / reproducing apparatus,
The information recording / reproducing apparatus includes a changer type drive unit in which a plurality of the portable information recording media can be mounted.
The drive unit includes two mechanisms, a tray unit and a magazine unit, to which the portable information recording medium can be attached and detached, and a traverse unit.
The tray unit can be directly mounted with only one portable information recording medium, and is slidably loaded from the outside to the inside of the housing of the drive unit, or from the inside to the outside,
The magazine unit can be loaded with a plurality of the portable information recording media at once, and is directly attached to and removed from the drive unit by external power,
The traverse unit performs recording / reproduction on both the portable information recording medium mounted on the tray unit and the portable information recording medium mounted on the magazine unit,
The data capacity that can be stored in the buffer area is smaller than the data capacity that can be stored in the portable information recording medium,
The information recording / reproducing method includes:
When dubbing and recording on another m sheets (m is a positive number of 1 or more) of the portable information recording medium using data stored in any of the portable information recording media as dubbing source data,
(A) reading a part of the dubbing source data once into the buffer area and sequentially recording from the buffer area to the other m portable information recording media;
(B) A step of repeatedly performing the processing described in (a) until all dubbing source data is dubbed and recorded.

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