Recording apparatus, recording program, and recording method

• US 7,254,318 B2
• Filed: 11/27/2002
• Issued: 08/07/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kawasaki, Masahiro, Imada, Masayuki, Horie, Masahiro, Suetomo, Toru, Hori, Ryuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Thai Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DUNN, MISHAWN N
• Application Number:
  US10/304,755
• Publication Number:
  US 20030099460A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,714 Days
• Field of Search: 386/27, 386/33, 386/40, 386/45, 386/46, 386/52, 386/105, 386/106, 386/111, 386/112, 386/124, 386/125, 360/32, 725/91, 725/92, 725/114, 725/115, 725/120, 725/134, 382234-239, 348/397.1, 348/426, 348/399.1, 348/444, 348/425.1, 348/425.3, 345/725
• US Class Current: 386/329
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/213 Read-only discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/216 Rewritable discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/218 Write-once discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2516 Hard disks
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2525 Magneto-optical [MO] discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2545 CDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2575 DVD-RAMs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/455 said record carriers being in one device and being used as primary and secondary/backup media, e.g. HDD-DVD combo device, or as source and target media, e.g. PC and portable player
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• 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 19/115 Selection of the code volume for a coding unit prior to coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/149 by estimating the code amount by means of a model, e.g. mathematical model or statistical model
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/15 by monitoring actual compressed data size at the memory before deciding storage at the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/152 by measuring the fullness of the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/42 characterised by implementation details or hardware specially adapted for video compression or decompression, e.g. dedicated software implementation H04N19/635 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 : in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/625 : using discrete cosine transform [DCT]
• 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 21/42646 : for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• 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 21/4402 : involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440209 : for formatting on an optical medium, e.g. DVD
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8045 : using predictive coding

Abstract

Disclosed is a recording apparatus for recording a plurality of audio-visual contents stored in a HD to a writable DVD. A drive controller copies at least one of the contents stored in the HD to the DVD. If the available capacity of the DVD left after the copying falls short to copy a remaining content, the remaining content is re-encoded prior to being recorded in the DVD. The bit rate to be allocated to the remaining content upon re-encoding is calculated from the available capacity of the DVD and the reproduction time of the remaining content to be re-encoded.

Claims

1. A recording apparatus for copying a plurality of contents stored in a first recording medium to a second recording medium, the recording apparatus comprising:

a selecting unit operable to select, in accordance with a user operation, one or more contents to be copied from the first recording medium to the second recording medium;

a receiving unit operable to receive a user instruction designating one or more contents, out of the selected contents, to be copied without changing a current bit rate;

a first duplicating unit operable to copy, to the second recording medium, each designated content without changing the current bit rate; and

a second duplicating unit operable to copy, to the second recording medium, one or more contents remaining non-designated, by re-encoding to reduce a size thereof, wherein

a bit rate allocated to each content by re-encoding is calculated using a total reproduction time of the non-designated contents and a residual free capacity remaining after subtracting, from an effective free capacity of the second recording medium, a total size of the contents to be copied by the first duplicating unit.

2. The recording apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a content size calculating unit operable to calculate a total size of the non-designated contents by subtracting, from a total size of the selected contents, the total size of the contents to be copied by the first duplicating unit;

a residual capacity calculating unit operable to calculate the residual free capacity remaining after subtracting, from the free capacity of the second recording medium, the total size of the contents to be copied by the first duplicating unit;

a bit rate calculating unit operable to calculate a reference bit rate, using (i) the total size of the non-designated contents, (ii) a reproduction time of each non-designated content, and (iii) a current bit rate of each non-designated content; and

a judging unit operable to judge whether each non-designated content needs to be re-encoded, by comparing the reference bit rate and the current bit rate of the non-designated content, wherein

each non-designated content is re-encoded if a current bit rate of the non-designated content is lower than the reference bit rate.

3. The recording apparatus of claim 2, wherein

the plurality of contents selected by the selecting unit are written in the following order:

(1) contents to be copied without changing the current bit rate, (2) contents of which current bit rate is lower than the reference bit rate, and (3) contents of which current bit rate is higher than the reference bit rate.

4. The recording apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a content size calculating unit operable to calculate a total size of the non-designated contents by subtracting, from a total size of the selected contents, the total size of the contents to be copied by the first duplicating unit;

a residual capacity calculating unit operable to calculate the residual free capacity remaining after subtracting, from the effective free capacity of the second recording medium, the total size of the contents to be copied by the first duplicating unit; and

a size reduction ratio calculating unit operable to calculate a size reduction ratio using the total size of the non-designated contents and the residual free capacity of the second recording medium, wherein

the bit rate allocated to each content by re-encoding is calculated by multiplying the current bit rate by the size reduction ratio.

5. The recording apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a detecting unit operable to detect a bit rate allocated to each content stored in the first recording medium; and

a display unit operable to display, for each non-designated content, a degradation ratio between the detected bit rate and the bit rate to be allocated by re-encoding, wherein

the receiving unit is further operable to receive, after the display is presented, a user instruction instructing whether to perform re-encoding of each non-designated content, and

the second duplicating unit is operable to re-encode the content of which re-encoding is instructed.

6. The recording apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit operable to display, for each non-designated content, a reproduction time of the content as a time required for re-encoding the content, wherein

the receiving unit is further operable to receive, after the display is presented, a user instruction instructing whether to perform re-encoding of each non-designated content, and

the second duplicating unit re-encodes the content of which re-encoding is instructed.

7. The recording apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the receiving unit is further operable to receive a user input designating a space size to be reserved in the second recording medium, and

the free capacity of the second recording medium is calculated by subtracting the designated space size in advance.

8. A computer-readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to copy a plurality of contents stored in a first recording medium to a second recording medium, said program comprising code causing the computer to perform a method comprising:

a selecting step of selecting, in accordance with a user operation, one or more contents to be copied from the first recording medium to the second recording medium;

a receiving step of receiving a user instruction designating one or more contents, out of the selected contents, to be copied without changing a current bit rate;

a first duplicating step of copying, to the second recording medium, each designated content without changing the current bit rate; and

a second duplicating step of copying, to the second recording medium, one or more contents remaining non-designated, by re-encoding to reduce a size thereof, wherein

a bit rate allocated to each content by re-encoding is calculated using a total reproduction time of the non-designated contents and a residual free capacity remaining after subtracting, from an effective free capacity of the second recording medium, a total size of the contents to be copied in the first duplicating step.

9. The computer-readable medium storing the program of claim 8, said program further comprising code operable to cause the computer to perform:

a content size calculating step of calculating a total size of the non-designated contents by subtracting, from a total size of the selected contents, the total size of the contents to be copied in the first duplicating step;

a residual capacity calculating step of calculating the residual free capacity remaining after subtracting, from the free capacity of the second recording medium, the total size of the contents to be copied in the first duplicating step;

a bit rate calculating step of calculating a reference bit rate, using (i) the total size of the non-designated contents, (ii) a reproduction time of each non-designated content, and (iii) a current bit rate of each non-designated content; and

a judging step of judging whether each non-designated content needs to be re-encoded, by comparing the reference bit rate and the current bit rate of the non-designated content, wherein

each non-designated content is re-encoded if a current bit rate of the non-designated content is lower than the reference bit rate.

10. The computer-readable medium storing the program of claim 9, wherein

the plurality of contents selected in the selecting step are written in the following order:

(1) contents to be copied without changing the current bit rate, (2) contents of which current bit rate is lower than the reference bit rate, and (3) contents of which current bit rate is higher than the reference bit rate.

11. The computer-readable medium storing the program of claim 8, said program further comprising code operable to cause the computer to perform:

a content size calculating step of calculating a total size of the non-designated contents by subtracting, from a total size of the selected contents, the total size of the contents to be copied in the first duplicating step;

a residual capacity calculating step of calculating the residual free capacity remaining after subtracting, from the effective free capacity of the second recording medium, the total size of the contents to be copied in the first duplicating step; and

a size reduction ratio calculating step of calculating a size reduction ratio using the total size of the non-designated contents and the residual free capacity of the second recording medium, wherein

the bit rate allocated to each content by re-encoding is calculated by multiplying the current bit rate by the size reduction ratio.

12. The computer-readable medium storing the program of claim 8, said program further comprising code operable to cause the computer to perform:

a detecting step of detecting a bit rate allocated to each content stored in the first recording medium; and

a display step of displaying, for each non-designated content, a degradation ratio between the detected bit rate and the bit rate to be allocated at the time of re-encoding, wherein

in the receiving step, a user instruction instructing whether to perform re-encoding of each non-designated content is further received after the display is presented, and

in the second duplicating step, the content of which re-encoding is instructed is re-encoded.

13. The computer-readable medium storing the program of claim 8, said program further comprising code operable to cause the computer to perform:

a display step of displaying, for each non-designated content, a reproduction time of the content as a rime required for re-encoding the content, wherein

in the receiving step, a user instruction instructing whether to perform re-encoding of each non-designated content is further received after the display is presented, and

in the second duplicating step, the content of which re-encoding is instructed is re-encoded.

14. The computer-readable medium storing the program of claim 8, wherein

in the receiving step, a user input designating a space size to be reserved in the second recording medium is further received, and

the free capacity of the second recording medium is calculated by subtracting the designated space size in advance.