Sony Corporation

Tetsuo Kani

Takao Inoue

Yoshihiro Murakami

Fumiaki Henmi

Makoto Toyoshima

Minoru Kawahara

Shoji Kosuge

Yasuo Seki

Yoshiaki Tanaka

Toru Suzuki

Shinichi Morishima

Mitsutoshi Shinkai

Tadaaki Yoshinaka

Kenji Yamasaki

Takashi Sasaya

Kenji Uehara

Fumitoshi Ishida

Masamichi Takayama

Takeo Ooba

Based on a digital recorder/player taken as a basic apparatus and which accommodates a field frequency of 60 fields/sec or a frame frequency of 30 frames/sec, an apparatus is implemented to record or reproduce source video and audio signal originated from the basic apparatus and whose frequency is different from the field or frame frequency. The apparatus includes an input unit, a processor, and a converter provided between the input unit and the processor. The input unit accepts audio data having a specific field frequency and arranged in a specific format, and make baseband processing of the audio data. The processor is designed to process audio data having a basic field frequency (60 fields/sec) and arranged in a basic format. It operates with a clock corresponding to the sampling frequency to make error-corrective encoding of the audio data adapted to the basic format.

Digital recording/reproducing apparatus

A program length extending or shortening device for extending or shortening the program length in a digital video tape recorder of the image information compression recording method. The device comprises storage means for storing an image of a material video program reproduced and supplied from a predetermined recording medium by a reproducing device, and extending or shortening control means for extending or shortening the program length of the material video program to produce a target video program by skipping or reading duplicately the image of the material video program from the storage means in accordance with a program length extending or shortening ratio N based on the program lengths of the material video program and the target video program. According to the present invention, the program length can be freely extended or shortened using storage means of a small capacity while the recording device is being operated at a normal rate.

Program length extending or shortening device and method, and program length adjusting system

Input terminals to which two types of serial data with similar formats are sent are disposed. Video data sent to the normal dubbing input terminal is data that has not been compressed/encoded. Data sent to the straight dubbing input terminal is data that has been compressed and encoded. Data received from the input terminal includes a sync error flag (error flag for each sync block) that is OR output data of data added by a reproducing VTR and transmission error information. The sync error flag is sent to an ECC encoder through a format converter not through an BRR encoder. An output signal of an ECC encoder is recorded to a magnetic tape by recording heads through a recording driver.

DIGITAL INFORMATION SIGNAL RECORDING APPARATUS FOR RECORDING A DIGITAL INFORMATION SIGNAL TO A RECORD MEDIUM AND DIGITAL INFORMATION SIGNAL REPRODUCING APPARATUS FOR REPRODUCING A DIGITAL INFORMATION SIGNAL FROM A RECORD MEDIUM

A line number LN is extracted from serial data corresponding to BTA S-004 standard. The line number LN is placed as LN and LN to each of a luminance signal Y and color difference signals Pr/Pb of a 4:2:2 signal. The 4:2:2 signal is converted into a 3:1:1 signal by a bandwidth-compressing means. In addition, the 3:1:1 signal is re-arranged to two-channel signals Ch and Ch with the same format at a transmission rate of 46.40625 MHz. Thereafter, the, signals are processed at the transmission rate of 46.40625. The line number LN is placed as LN and LN at the beginning of one horizontal interval.

Recording/reproducing apparatus and method for including line numbers

Reproducing heads reproduce signals from a tape in advance of recording heads for a time period equivalent to a system delay. An ECC decoder corrects an error of a signal received from each reproducing head. A BRR decoder decompresses and decodes the signal received from the ECC decoder. A concealing circuit interpolates the signal received from the BRR decoder. An output signal of the concealing circuit is sent back to a selector of the recording system. The selector switches between a signal received from an input terminal and the reproduced signal at the end of each field. An intra-field encoding process or an intra-frame encoding process can be selected as an compressing and encoding process. Information that represents the selected encoding process is recorded on the tape.

Digital video signal recording/reproducing apparatus and method thereof

A digital audio and video signal recording system and method wherein erasure of a channel has no major effect on adjoining audio signals in the case of high density recording. The same channel of audio signals are recorded arranged in blocks in a direction orthogonal to the helical track of the magnetic tape. There is a possibility of the occurrence of error at the two outside tracks due to narrowing of the tracks at the time of editing of a channel, but preferably an outer code is added to enable erasure correction.

System and method for recording digital audio signal and digital video

In a method for recording and/or reproducing digital data, such as digital audio signals recorded simultaneously with video signals, dividing sampling data composed of a plurality of bits into higher order bits and lower order bits, constituting error correction coding blocks by only the higher and lower order bits of the sampling data of a plurality of samples respectively, thereby making it possible to easily realize adaptive error checking in the course of the block-by-block error checking in association with, for example, data criticality. A sync word and a block address are affixed to the error correction coding block constituted in that manner. Since one block address is formed using the address data of two or more blocks, a broader address space can be obtained even when the bit number of the address area of each block is few. At least one flag bit(s) are provided in each sync word to use said flag bits in the blocks bearing specified block addresses as edit flags to set the edit flags in association with each edit point of digital signals, thereby facilitating discrimination of the editing points to reduce the rate of data discarding.

Method for transmitting digital data

In a high definition television system (HDTV), a video signal is recorded on and reproduced from oblique and successive parallel tracks on a magnetic tape, and an audio signal is recorded on and reproduced from a plurality of parallel tracks extending in a longitudinal direction of the tape. The tape is transported in its longitudinal direction during recording and reproduction. A tape position adjuster adjusts the position of the magnetic tape in its transport direction, and first and second transducing heads located at positions separated by a predetermined distance which may vary slightly because of manufacturing tolerances are employed for respectively reproducing and recording the audio signal. When the tape is edited, a processor connected to the first transducing head processes a reproduced audio signal and supplies it to the second transducing head, which records it accordingly. A controller responsive to an output signal of the adjuster controls the processor so as to shift the recording timing of the second transducing head as may be necessary to prevent the accumulation of recording timing errors during successive edits of the tape.

Videotape recorder

In the transmission of digital video data signals, for example, in a digital video tape recorder, a luminance signal and first and second chrominance signals, such as R-Y and B-Y, are individually sampled to provide respective digital luminance data signals and first and second digital chrominance data signals for forming a high-definition video picture. Time code data signals representing the corresponding frame including the sampled signals are provided as individual sets of identical signals. The digital luminance data signals and the first and second digital chrominance data signals are divided into respective sets thereof which each consist of two successive data signals. The sets of time code data signals, digital luminance and first and second digital chrominance data signals are distributed into a plurality of transmission channels in such a manner that each set of digital luminance data signals is interleaved between sets of the first and second digital chrominance data signals, respectively, in each of the transmission channels and that each of the sets of time code data signals is likewise distributed into each of the channels. Further, one of the two successive data signals in each of the sets of digital luminance data signals, first and second digital chrominance data signals and time code data signals is inverted for obtaining the complement of the one of the two successive data signals in each set which has been inverted, thereby substantially minimizing any DC or low-frequency component in each of the transmission channels.

System for transmitting a digital video signal including time code

A slow motion reproducing apparatus in which a dynamic tracking head dynamically traces slant recording tracks sequentially formed on a tape in its longitudinal direction while the tape is transported at variable tape speed to thereby reproduce a video signal from the recording tracks is disclosed, which includes head displacement amount specifying means for specifying a head displacement amount so as to make the dynamic tracking head trace the specified track on the basis of a tracking track information for specifying a track that the dynamic tracking head should trace and a head position information indicative of the position of the dynamic tracking head. In this case, the slow motion reproducing apparatus further includes video signal data storing means and address control means for storing in the video signal data storing means at its memory area corresponding to a corresponding track a video signal which can be reproduced from the corresponding track and which is recorded in the track that the dynamic tracking head traces.

Slow Motion reproducing apparatus

In a time base corrector incorporated in a VTR, if a time during which a vertical synchronizing signal is written in a memory unit exceeds one horizontal period segment, the video signal stored at the first address of the memory unit is dropped out during data reading operation. To overcome the above problem, a write address designation signal is initially latched in response to a vertical synchronizing signal; a predetermined number is subtracted from the latched address number; the subtracted address number is loaded in a counter in response to a reference vertical synchronizing signal and is incremented in response to a reference horizontal synchronizing signal in order to shift the read start address, thus preventing video signals stored in the memory unit from being dropped off.

Time base corrector

Apparatus for controlling the speed of advancement of tape extending between supply and take-up reels in a VTR during changes in the speed of advancement of the tape includes for each reel a tape radius detector which detects the radius of the tape on the respective reel from the center of the reel hub to the outer loop of tape; acceleration detector which detects the acceleration or deceleration of the tape during such changes in speed; a tape tension detector which detects the tension of the tape adjacent the respective reel; a torque detector which detects the torque imparted to the respective reel by a respective drive motor at the start of the speed change; a circuit which produces a total moment of inertia signal corresponding to the total moment of inertia of the respective reel with the tape wound thereabout, in response to the detected radius, acceleration, tape tension, and torque; a torque calculating circuit which produces a torque signal corresponding to a desired torque necessary to maintain the acceleration or deceleration of the tape at a substantially constant value, in response to the detected radius, acceleration, and tape tension and the total moment of inertia signal; and a current control circuit which controls the current supplied to the respective drive motor in response to the torque signal so that the drive motor imparts a torque to the respective reel to maintain the acceleration or deceleration substantially constant.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Tetsuo Kani