Multimedia recording apparatus and method

• US 8,948,574 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2008
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
• Original Assignee: MediaTek, Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Kun-Bin
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HUY THANH
• Application Number:
  US12/276,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20100129051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,262 Days
• Field of Search: 386/200, 386/291, 386/294, 386/298
• US Class Current: 386/298
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42661 for reading from or writing on a magnetic storage medium, e.g. hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44029 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/7921 for more than one processing mode
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

A multimedia recording apparatus includes a receiving unit, a normal recording unit, a pre-recording unit and a combining unit. The receiving unit receives ongoing multimedia information. The normal recording unit generates first multimedia data under a normal recording mode. The pre-recording unit automatically records the ongoing multimedia information to generate a second multimedia data when the normal recording mode is not active. The combining unit adds content of the second multimedia data to the first multimedia data.

Claims

1. A multimedia recording apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit for receiving ongoing multimedia information;

a normal recording unit for starting and stopping recording the ongoing multimedia information to generate a first multimedia data under a normal recording mode in response to a first user instruction;

a pre-recording unit for automatically recording the ongoing multimedia information to generate a second multimedia data when the normal recording mode is not active; and

a combining unit for adding at least part of content of the second multimedia data to the first multimedia data in response to a second user instruction, wherein at least one non-I frame of the second multimedia data is removed.

2. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the combining unit shows the second multimedia data to a user for the user to determine the second user instruction.

3. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 2, when the combining unit shows the second multimedia data to the user, the pre-recoding unit still records the ongoing multimedia information.

4. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second multimedia data include content appeared before the first multimedia data in the ongoing multimedia information in time domain.

5. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second multimedia data include content appeared after the first multimedia data in the ongoing multimedia information in time domain.

6. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pre-recording unit only keeps a most current period of the ongoing multimedia information in the second multimedia data.

7. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 6, wherein the length of the most current period of the ongoing multimedia information to be kept is determined by considering hardware condition.

8. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 6, wherein the length of the most current period of the ongoing multimedia information to be kept is determined by user setting.

9. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pre-recording unit keeps only partial information of the ongoing multimedia information that is out of a predetermined range of time domain in the second multimedia data.

10. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second data contain halfway encoded data that need further processing.

11. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first multimedia data are of a first data format, the second multimedia data are of a second data format, and the first data format is not the same as the second data format.

12. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first multimedia data are of a first data format, the second multimedia data are of a second data format, and the first data format is the same as the second data format.

13. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pre-recoding unit starts recording when one or more than one activating pre-recording conditions are met.

14. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first multimedia data are stored in a first storage and the second multimedia data are stored in a second storage, and when the first storage is removed temporarily, the pre-recording unit keeps recording the ongoing multimedia information.

15. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receiving unit contains a decoder for obtaining a broadcasting program.

16. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the receiving unit contains a camera unit for capturing ongoing events into the ongoing multimedia information.

17. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pre-recording unit records audio data and the normal recording unit records both audio data and video data.

18. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein a most current time period of the ongoing multimedia information is updated in a buffer by the pre-recording unit, and the length of the most current time period is determined by the size of the buffer.

19. The multimedia recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein the pre-recording unit continues to record the ongoing multimedia information when the normal recording unit is stopped in response to the first user instruction.

20. A multimedia recording method, comprising:

receiving ongoing multimedia information;

starting and stopping recording the ongoing multimedia information to generate a first multimedia data under a normal recording mode in response to a first user instruction;

automatically recording the ongoing multimedia information to generate a second multimedia data when the normal recording mode is not active; and

adding at least part of content of the second multimedia data to the first multimedia data in response to a second user instruction, wherein at least one non-I frame of the second multimedia data is removed.

21. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, further comprising:

showing the second multimedia data to a user for the user to determine the second user instruction.

22. The multimedia recording method of claim 21, wherein when the second multimedia data is shown to the user, the ongoing multimedia information is still recorded to generate the second multimedia data.

23. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the second multimedia data include content before the first multimedia data in the ongoing multimedia information.

24. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the second multimedia data include content after the first multimedia data in the ongoing multimedia information.

25. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein only a most current period of the ongoing multimedia information is kept in the second multimedia data.

26. The multimedia recording method of claim 25, wherein the length of the most current period of the ongoing multimedia information to be kept is determined by considering hardware condition.

27. The multimedia recording method of claim 25, wherein the length of the most current period of the ongoing multimedia information to be kept is determined by user setting.

28. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein only partial information of the ongoing multimedia information that is out of a predetermined range of time domain is kept in the second multimedia data.

29. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the second data contain halfway encoded data that need further processing.

30. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the first multimedia data are of a first data format, the second multimedia data are of a second data format, and the first data format is not the same as the second data format.

31. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the first multimedia data are of a first data format, the second multimedia data are of a second data format, and the first data format is the same as the second data format.

32. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the pre-recoding unit starts recording when one or more than one activating pre-recording conditions are met.

33. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the first multimedia data are stored in a first storage and the second multimedia data are stored in a second storage, and when the first storage is removed temporarily, the ongoing multimedia information is still recorded into the second multimedia data.

34. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein a most current time period of the ongoing multimedia information to be stored in the second multimedia data is updated in a buffer, and the length of the most current time period is determined by the size of the buffer.

35. The multimedia recording method of claim 20, wherein the second multimedia data continues to be generated by recording the ongoing multimedia information when the first multimedia data is stopped in response to the first user instruction.