Method of maintaining display continuity from a CD with slow-motion or freeze capability

• US 5,740,310 A
• Filed: 06/28/1994
• Issued: 04/14/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: US Philips Corporation (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: De Haan, Wiebe, Van Der Meer, Jan
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, THAI Q
• Application Number:
  US08/269,941
• Time in Patent Office: 1,386 Days
• Field of Search: 358/335, 358/342, 358/310, 358/322, 360/14.3, 360/48, 360/49, 348/473, 348/474, 348/423
• US Class Current: 386/328
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1217 on discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1251 for continuous data, e.g. digitised analog information signals, pulse code modulated [PCM] data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10537 Audio or video recording
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2525 Magneto-optical [MO] discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2545 CDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/255 CD-I, i.e. CD-interactive
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/30 on the same track as the main recording
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3027 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3036 Time code signal
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9205 the additional signal being at least another television signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9261 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9267 : using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/937 : by assembling picture element blocks in an intermediate store
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/52 : Systems for transmission of a pulse code modulated video signal with one or more other pulse code modulated signals, e.g. an audio signal or a synchronizing signal assembling of a multiplex stream by combining a video stream with other content or additional data, remultiplexing of multiplex streams, insertion of stuffing bits into the multiplex stream, assembling of a packetised elementary stream at server side H04N21/236; disassembling of a multiplex stream, remultiplexing of multiplex streams, extraction or processing of Service Information, disassembling of packetised elementary stream at client side H04N21/434
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/804 : involving pulse code modulation of the colour picture signal components
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8063 : using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals

Abstract

A compact disc-like display device is adapted to display a sequence of pictures which jointly represent a full-motion video scene, which picture sequence is digitized by means of some suitably chosen encoding algorithm. The digitized picture sequence comprises a series of video blocks. Since the disc continues to rotate at the normal speed when the picture sequence is displayed in slow motion, or in the case of a freeze, discontinuities in the display of the picture sequence are produced. To inhibit this, a header referring to a predetermined video block, preferably the next block, is associated with each video block so that the display device has information about that picture which is to be displayed next. The display device searches, reads and processes the associated video block on the disc.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a sequence of pictures of a full-motion video scene, which picture sequence is converted into a series of video blocks having unpredictably differing respective lengths, each block including the entire encoded picture information for at least one picture of said sequence, by means of an encoding algorithm,

wherein said method comprises the further step of adding a header to each video block, said header comprising reference information referring to the location of a predetermined video block in the series of video blocks.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reference information comprises the ordinal number (n) of the relevant video block in the series.

3. A method of transmitting a sequence of pictures of a full-motion video scene, which picture sequence is converted into a series of video blocks having unpredictably differing respective lengths, each block including the entire encoded picture information for at least one picture of said sequence, by means of an encoding algorithm,

wherein said method comprises the further step of adding a header to each video block, said header comprising reference information referring to the location of a predetermined video block in the series of video blocks, and

wherein said reference information comprises a time code which, with reference to a reference instant, is indicative of the instant when the picture characterized by the relevant video block is displayed in the case of normal display of the picture sequence.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein said time code comprises a time indication in hours, minutes and seconds, and an auxiliary ordinal number indicating the ordinal number of a video block in a series of video blocks whose corresponding pictures must be displayed at a frame frequency within the period of a predetermined second.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3, in which the series of video blocks is divided into sectors each having a sector number, wherein the reference information further comprises a pointer code (PC) comprising a sector offset code which, together with the time code, points at the sector number indicating the beginning of the relevant video block.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the pointer code further comprises a word offset code indicating the ordinal number of the word in the relevant sector where the video block begins.

7. A method of improving or maintaining the continuity of display of a picture sequence of a full-motion video scene stored on a CD after a user has activated a slow-motion or freeze feature and the normal display is resumed, comprising the steps of:

converting said picture sequence into a series of video blocks having differing respective lengths, each block including the entire encoded picture information for at least one picture of said sequence,

adding to each video block a respective header containing reference information referring to a predetermined video block in the series of video blocks,

storing said video blocks and headers as a succession of respective sectors on a CD, each of said sectors having a same length,

reading and storing the header reference information when the user activates the slow-motion or freeze feature, and

when the user deactivates the slow-motion or freeze feature, using the stored reference information to choose the next video block to display.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said predetermined video block is the video block currently being displayed when the slow-motion or freeze feature is activated.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein each video block has an ordinal number, and the reference information comprises the ordinal number of the video block currently being displayed or of the next video block in sequence when the slow-motion or freeze feature is activated.

10. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said predetermined video block is the video block next in sequence after the video block currently being displayed when the slow-motion or freeze feature is activated.

11. A method of improving or maintaining the continuity of display of a picture sequence of a full-motion video scene stored on a CD after a user has activated a slow-motion or freeze feature and the normal display is resumed, comprising the steps of:

converting said picture sequence into a series of video blocks having differing respective lengths, each block including the entire encoded picture information for at least one picture of said sequence,

adding to each video block a respective header containing reference information referring to a predetermined video block in the series of video blocks,

storing said video blocks and headers as a succession of respective sectors on a CD, each of said sectors having a same length,

reading and storing the header reference information when the user activates the slow-motion or freeze feature, and

when the user deactivates the slow-motion or freeze feature, using the stored reference information to choose the next video block to display, and

wherein said reference information comprises a time code which, with reference to a reference instant, represents the instant when the predetermined video block is displayed in the case of normal display of the picture sequence.

12. A device for displaying a full-motion video scene whose composite pictures are converted into a series of video blocks having unpredictably differing respective lengths, each of said video blocks having a header containing reference information referring to the location of a predetermined video block in the series of video blocks, and each of said video blocks including the entire encoded picture information for at least one picture of said full motion video scene, comprising:

(a) means for storing the reference information, and

(b) means for retrieving the stored reference information and for displaying the predetermined video block referred to therein.