Apparatus and method for recording and reproducing digital video signal data by dividing the data and encoding it on multiple coding paths

• US 5,557,479 A
• Filed: 12/15/1995
• Issued: 09/17/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yanagihara, Naofumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, W. Chris
• Application Number:
  US08/568,403
• Time in Patent Office: 277 Days
• Field of Search: 360/32, 360/48, 358/310, 358/335
• US Class Current: 360/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/7973 by dividing the luminance or colour component signal samples or frequency bands among a plurality of recording channels H04N9/804, H04N9/825 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding

Abstract

An input video signal composed of a luminance signal Y, and color difference signals PR and PB. The video signal is converted into digital signals. A plurality of coding paths are provided. The digital video signals are processed in shuffling circuit, DCT circuit, quantizing circuit, variable length code encoding circuit, and frame segmenting circuit on the coding paths. The signals encoded on the coding paths are converted into data with two channels. The data with two channels are recorded on a recording medium. The data are allocated to a predetermined region of a magnetic tape so that a block of data is reproduced as bursts on a screen in a variable speed reproduction mode.

Claims

1. A digital video signal recording apparatus, comprising:

an analog-to-digital converting circuit for converting an analog luminance signal and color difference signals into respective digital signals; and

a dividing circuit for dividing the digital luminance signal and the digital color difference signals into a plurality of coding paths, the coding paths being adapted to perform an encoding process so as to compress and encode the digital luminance signal and the digital color difference signals, each of said coding paths including;

a block segmenting and shuffling circuit for block segmenting and shuffling signals output from said analog-to-digital converting circuit;

a DCT circuit for performing a two-dimensional discrete cosine transform on signals output from said block segmenting and shuffling circuit;

a buffer circuit having a storage capacity for buffering signals output from said DCT circuit;

an estimator for estimating a data amount of a predetermined buffer amount to be output;

a quantizing circuit for setting a quantizing scale corresponding to an output of said estimator and for quantizing signals output from said buffer circuit;

a variable length code encoding circuit for encoding an output of said quantizing circuit into variable length code;

a frame segmenting circuit for framing signals and placing a predetermined sync pattern in signals output from said variable length code encoding circuit so as to perform error correction encoding; and

a deshuffling circuit for deshuffling signals output from said frame segmenting circuit;

a channel converting circuit for converting signals received from said coding paths to signals with a predetermined number of channels; and

a recording circuit for recording signals output from said channel converting circuit on a predetermined recording medium.

2. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the number of said coding paths is three.

3. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein the number of the predetermined channels is two, said channel converting circuit being adapted to allocate data to a predetermined region of a magnetic tape so that a block of data is reproduced as bursts on a screen in a variable speed reproduction mode.

4. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the number of the predetermined channels is two, said channel converting circuit being adapted to allocate data to a predetermined region of a magnetic tape so that a block of data is reproduced as bursts on a screen in a variable speed reproduction mode.

5. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein said frame segmenting circuit is adapted to perform frame segmentation with a fixed length of five sync blocks.

6. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein said recording circuit is adapted to record one frame of the video signal on 20 tracks.

7. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, wherein said recording circuit is adapted to record one frame of the video signal on 20 tracks.

8. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein said recording circuit is adapted to record 135 sync blocks of the video signal on one track.

9. The digital video signal recording apparatus as set forth in claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein said recording circuit is adapted to record 135 sync blocks of the video signal on one track.

10. A digital video signal recording apparatus, comprising;

dividing means for dividing one screen of a HDTV signal into a plurality of sub screens;

a plurality of coding paths, one for each sub screen, each coding path including;

means for forming macro-blocks from said sub screen, each macro-block being formed of an array of luminance blocks arranged as a multiple of three luminance blocks in the horizontal direction by a multiple of two luminance blocks in the vertical direction;

means for shuffling the macro-blocks in said sub screen, and

wherein a number of valid samples per line for each said screen of the HDTV signal is substantially the same as a multiple of three and a number of lines of the HDTV signal for each said screen is substantially the same as a multiple of two; and

means for compressing the shuffled macro-blocks; and

means for recording the shuffled and compressed signals with a predetermined number of channels on a recording medium.

11. A digital video signal reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a reproducing circuit for reproducing signals with a predetermined number of channels from a recording medium; and

a channel converting circuit for converting signals output from said reproducing circuit into a plurality of decoding paths, wherein each decoding path includes;

a shuffling circuit for shuffling the reproduced signals;

a deframing circuit for decompressing signals and performing error correction processing on signals output from said shuffling circuit;

a variable length code decoding circuit for decoding signals output from said deframing circuit;

an inverse-quantizing circuit for inverse-quantizing signals output from said variable length code decoding circuit;

an inverse-DCT circuit for performing an inverse-DCT operation on the signals output from said inverse-quantizing circuit; and

a deshuffling circuit for deshuffling signals outout from said inverse-DCT circuit.

12. A digital video signal recording method, comprising the steps of:

converting an analog luminance signal and color difference signals into respective digital signals;

dividing the digital luminance signal and the digital color difference signals into a plurality of coding paths, the coding paths being adapted to perform a coding process so as to compress and encode the digital luminance signal and the color difference signals, the coding process including the steps of;

block segmenting and shuffling the converted digital signals;

performing a two-dimensional discrete cosine transform on the block segmented and shuffled signals;

buffering the two-dimensional discrete cosine transformed signals

estimating a data amount of a predetermined amount of buffered signals;

setting a quantizing scale corresponding to the estimated data amount;

quantizing the buffered signals based on the quantization scale

encoding the quantized signals into a variable length code;

placing a predetermined sync pattern in the encoded quantized signals so as to perform error correction encoding; and

deshuffling the encoded signals which contain the predetermined sync pattern;

converting output signals received from said coding paths to signals with a predetermined number of channels; and

recording said signals with a predetermined number of channels on a predetermined recording medium.

13. A digital video signal recording method comprising the steps of:

dividing one screen of a HDTV signal into a plurality of sub screens,

performing an encoding process for each sub screen on one of a plurality of coding paths, including the steps of;

forming macro-blocks from each sub screen, each macro-block being formed of an array of luminance blocks arranged as a multiple of three luminance blocks in the horizontal direction by a multiple of two luminance blocks in the vertical direction;

shuffling the macro-blocks in said sub screen, and

wherein a number of valid samples per line for each said screen of the HDTV signal is substantially the same as a multiple of three, and a number of lines of the HDTV signal for each said screen is substantially the same as a multiple of two, and

compressing the shuffled macro-blocks; and

recording the shuffled and compressed signals with a predetermined number of channels on a recording medium.