Hitachi, Ltd.

Yikitoshi Tsuboi

Masuo Oku

Hideo Arai

Takashi Nishimura

Eiichi Tanaka

Akira Motosu

The present invention makes possible recording motion pictures accurately starting at a point where a start recording event is received. The recording includes those pictures prior to the start recording event using a picture compressing method that compresses pictures both before and after the starting event, typically using the MPEG2 compression system. To make the above recording method possible, the present invention provides a signal processor and a photographic device that can search a motion vector for changing the object searching range properly, set an compression amount allocation for each picture type, and allow optimized parameters to be set when a start recording event is generated. The pictures processed before the start recording event is generated are stored in a memory buffer and on a recording medium so as to be used for recording or reproduction data entered after the recording starting time.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Yikitoshi Tsuboi