Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Saori Akimoto

Kenichi Shiraishi

Hiroaki Nogami

Hironobu Katayama

Kazuya Aoki

Koichi Kawaguchi

A digital VTR which is able to record a band-compressed signal having a bit-rate of 17 to 60 Mbps of a program while creating a low-bit-rate signal (1.5 to 5 Mbps) having the same program content as well as utilizing the low-bit-rate signal as a signal for the special playback. Variable speed playback data for a certain speed, which is recorded in the limited recording areas for variable-speed playback mode, is adapted to be used for playback at another speed in the variable-speed playback mode. The data structure of variable-speed playback data is adapted to change depending on the image areas on the image frame. Either of these embodiments or the combination of them, improves the quality of a reproduced picture during variable-speed playback mode in which a less amount of data is available than that of data read out at the time of a normal playback mode.

Growing community of inventors

Narashino, Japan

Saori Akimoto