Method and apparatus for recording a TV signal, method and apparatus for reproducing a TV signal, apparatus for recording and reproducing a TV signal, and recording medium

• US 6,343,179 B1
• Filed: 01/27/1998
• Issued: 01/29/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Arai, Naohisa, Murabayashi, Noboru, Tomita, Masami, Ohta, Masashi, Suito, Taro, Takahashi, Takao, Akiba, Toshiya
• Primary Examiner(s): Garber, Wendy R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ONUAKU, CHRISTOPHER O
• Application Number:
  US09/014,280
• Time in Patent Office: 1,463 Days
• Field of Search: 386/46, 386/80, 386/81, 386/52, 358/908, 360/69, 360/71, 360/74.5, 369/3, 369/7, 369/47, 348/4, 348/10, 348/907, 348/460, 348/473, 348/474, 348/553, 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/36
• US Class Current: 386/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9206 the additional signal being a character code signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/93 Regeneration of the television signal or of selected parts thereof

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for recording and reproducing a TV broadcasting signal includes a CM detecting unit, a write data processing circuit, a recording system control circuit, and a recording medium. The CM detecting unit operates to detect if a TV broadcasting signal composed of a RF signal inputted through an antenna is now a CM. The write data processing circuit operates to generate CM information accompanied with the CM detected by the CM detecting unit. The recording system control circuit operates to record on the recording medium the CM information generated by the write data processing circuit together with a video signal and an audio signal.

Claims

1. An apparatus for receiving a broadcasting program composed of video data and audio data and recording said broadcasting program, comprising:

means for detecting a commercial message from said broadcasting program;

means for obtaining commercial message information including position information indicative of a position of the commercial message and genre information indicative of the genre of the commercial message; and

means for recording on a recording medium said commercial message information together with said broadcasting program,

wherein the number of reproductions of a respective commercial message recorded on the recording medium is controlled according to a number of attributes including the genre information.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for detecting a commercial message is executed to detect said commercial message when a pilot signal of a sound multiplex mode extracted from said TV broadcasting signal is switched.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said commercial message information contains commercial message identifying information for determining if the received content of said TV broadcasting signal is detected by said means for detecting the commercial message.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for generating the commercial message information operates to operate a correlation value between the video signal and the audio signal stored and held at regular intervals after said means for detecting a commercial message detects said commercial message and the video signal and the audio signal obtained at regular intervals after said means for detecting a commercial message newly detects the commercial message and compare both with each other and count a number of times the same commercial message appears.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein said commercial message information further includes appearance information about the number of times the same commercial message appears.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said means for generating commercial message information operates to compare a uniform image signal area cut out of an image with pre-stored character information for comparison and determine the content of a character contained in said uniform image signal area for generating said genre information.

7. A method for receiving a broadcasting program composed of video data and audio data and recording said broadcasting program, comprising the steps of:

detecting a commercial message from said broadcasting program;

obtaining commercial message information including position information indicative of a position of the commercial message and genre information indicative of the genre of the commercial message; and

recording on a recording medium said commercial message information together with said broadcasting program,

wherein the number of reproductions of a respective commercial message recorded on the recording medium is controlled according to a number of attributes including the genre information.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said commercial message is detected when a pilot signal of a sound multiplex mode extracted from said TV broadcasting signal is switched.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said commercial message information contains information for identifying a commercial message for determining if the commercial message is detected from the received content of said TV broadcasting signal.

10. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising the steps of operating a correlation value between the video and the audio signals stored and held at regular intervals after detecting said commercial message and the video and the audio signals obtained at regular intervals after detecting a new commercial message and comparing both with each other and counting a number of times the same commercial message appears.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein said commercial message information further includes appearance information about the number of times the same commercial message appears.

12. The method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said genre information is generated by comparing a uniform image signal area cut out of an image with pre-stored character information for comparison and determining a content of a character contained in said uniform image signal area.

13. An apparatus for reproducing a broadcasting program composed of video data and audio data recorded on a recording medium, comprising:

means for reproducing the broadcasting program from said recording medium along with commercial message information including position information indicative of a position of the commercial message and a number of attributes of the commercial message including genre information indicative of the genre of the commercial message; and

means for controlling the number of reproductions of a respective commercial message according to the number of attributes including the genre information.

14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein said controlling means operates to skip the reproduction to a commercial message identifying signal for indicating the program when the commercial message information separated by said means for separating a signal contains a commercial message identifying signal for indicating a commercial message interval.

15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the commercial message information further includes appearance if information about the number of times the commercial message appears and wherein if said appearance information is larger than a given value, said controlling means operates to stop the reproduction of that interval and skip the reproduction to a closer one of the location where said commercial message identifying signal indicates the program and the location where the number of times are smaller than a given value.

16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein said controlling means operates to reproduce only the commercial message whose genre information recorded on said recording medium is matched to that specified by a user.

17. A method for reproducing a broadcasting program composed of video data and audio data recorded on a recording medium, comprising the steps of:

reproducing the broadcasting program from said recording medium along with commercial message information including position information indicative of a position of the commercial message and a number of attributes of the commercial message including genre information indicative of the genre of the commercial message; and

controlling the number of reproductions of a respective commercial message according to the number of attributes including the genre information.

18. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein when said separated commercial message information contains a commercial message identifying signal for indicating a commercial message interval, the reproduction is skipped to the location of the commercial message identifying signal for indicating the program.

19. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the commercial message information further includes appearance information indicative of the number of times the commercial message appears and wherein if said appearance information is larger than a given value, the reproduction is not done in that interval and is skipped to a closer one of the location where a commercial message identifying signal indicates the program and the location where the number of times are smaller than the given value.

20. The method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the commercial message is reproduced only if the genre information of the commercial message recorded on said recording medium is matched to that specified by a user.

21. An apparatus for receiving a broadcasting program composed of video data and audio data and recording said broadcasting program on a recording medium and reproducing said broadcasting program from said recording medium, comprising:

means for detecting a commercial message from said broadcasting program;

means for obtaining commercial message information including position information indicative of a position of the commercial message and genre information indicative of the genre of the commercial message;

means for recording on said recording medium said commercial message information together with said broadcasting program;

means for separately extracting said commercial message information recorded on said recording medium; and

means for controlling the number of reproductions of a respective commercial message recorded on the recording medium according to the number of attributes including the genre information.

22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for detecting a commercial message operates to detect said commercial message when a pilot signal of a sound multiplex mode extracted from said TV broadcasting signal is switched.

23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein said commercial message information contains commercial message identifying information for determining the commercial message is detected from the received content of said TV broadcasting signal by said means for detecting a commercial message.

24. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for generating commercial message information operates to derive a correlation value between the video signal and the audio signal stored and held at given intervals after said means for detecting a commercial message detects said commercial message and the video signal and the audio signal obtained at given intervals after said means for detecting a commercial message newly detects said commercial message and compare both with each other and count a number of times the same commercial message appears.

25. The apparatus as claimed in claim 24, wherein said commercial message information further includes appearance information about the number of times the same commercial message appears.

26. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for generating commercial message information operates to compare a uniform image signal area cut out of an image with pre-stored character information for comparison and determine a content of a character contained in said uniform image signal area for detecting said genre information.

27. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for controlling the reproduction operates to skip the reproduction to the location of the commercial message identifying signal for indicating the program when the commercial message information separated by said means for separating a signal contains a commercial message identifying signal for indicating a commercial message interval.

28. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein the commercial message information further includes appearance information indicative of the number of times the commercial message appears and wherein if said appearance information is larger than a given value, said means for controlling the reproduction operates to stop the reproduction of that interval and skip to a closer one of the location where a commercial message identifying signal indicates the program and the location where the the number of times are smaller than the given value.

29. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein said means for controlling the reproduction operates to reproduce a commercial message only if the genre information is matched to that specified by a user.

30. A recording medium having recorded thereon a program and a commercial message composed of video data and audio data, and commercial message information including position information indicative of a position of the commercial message and genre information indicative of the genre of the commercial message, in which the number of reproductions of a respective commercial message recorded on the recording medium is controlled according to a number of attributes including the genre information.

31. The recording medium as claimed in claim 30, wherein said commercial message information contains information for identifying a commercial message for determining if the recorded content is a commercial message.

32. The recording medium as claimed in claim 30, wherein said commercial message information further includes appearance information about the number of times the same commercial message appears.