JPH0969275A - Recording/reproducing method and recording/reproducing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording/reproducing method and a recording/ reproducing apparatus whereby data of a large amount can be recorded inexpensively with good accessibility, by combining a recording apparatus using a recording medium of superior accessibility and a recording apparatus using a large-capacity and inexpensive recording medium. SOLUTION: An address comparator(AD-COM) 12 compares a data address(Add-a) of a magnetic tape apparatus(MT) 11A with a data address(Add-b) of a magnetic disc apparatus(DISK) 11B. When the addresses agree with each other, the magnetic tape apparatus(MT) 11A is brought, to a normal reproduction state, and the magnetic disc apparatus(DISK) 11B is turned to an idle state (standby state). Moreover, a data selector (DT-SEL) 13 is controlled and switched, so that read data of the magnetic tape apparatus(MT) 11A are output as reproduction data(P-DATA) afterwards instead of read data of the magnetic disc apparatus(DISK) 11B.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing method and a recording / reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing various kinds of information using a plurality of recording devices having different access speeds.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing information uses a magnetic tape as a recording medium, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory element, etc. , There are various things. Specifically, a VTR having a magnetic tape as a recording medium, an HDD having a magnetic disk as a recording medium, an ODD having an optical disc as a recording medium, and a RAM disk having a semiconductor storage element as a recording medium can be exemplified.

Each of these various types of recording media has major characteristics, and a recording / reproducing apparatus to be used is selected according to the purpose or cost. For example, a magnetic tape used in a VTR is a low-cost, large-capacity data (video,
It is suitable for recording and reproducing continuous image data such as a movie. However, due to the physical limitation of the tape, when reproducing an arbitrary tape position, it is necessary to perform an operation such as fast-forwarding or rewinding the tape to that position, and thus the accessibility is not good.

Specifically, as a specific example, in the case where information is continuously recorded on a VTR tape as shown in FIG. 5, such as program [1], program [2] ,. When the tape is rewound and the playback start position is at the beginning position, the program [1] and program [2] are sent by fast-forwarding the tape when viewing the third program [3]. After that, since the program [3] is to be played back, it takes time to operate the tape, and it is not possible to start viewing instantly. That is, a large access time is required for random data access.

On the other hand, in a magnetic disk represented by an HDD, the head is moved on a rotating disk,
Since the head can be positioned at an arbitrary position at high speed, data at an arbitrary position can be accessed at an extremely high speed, which is orders of magnitude higher than that of the magnetic tape medium.

Since the semiconductor memory device has no mechanical motion, it can be accessed at higher speed. However, contrary to the advantage of access speed, the recording capacity is extremely smaller than that of the tape medium. In addition, a large capacity causes a significant increase in cost, which is problematic in terms of practicality.

Therefore, in order to record a large amount of video data (especially moving image data) or the like on a recording medium such as a disk or a semiconductor memory device, it is necessary to record the data by compressing the data. . If data compression is performed, the deterioration of the reproduced image cannot be avoided, and the application is limited to a narrow range.

For these reasons, an inexpensive recording / reproducing apparatus having high-speed accessibility and capable of recording a large capacity has not been realized. However, it is necessary to access an arbitrary video position when editing a television image, and a large recording capacity is required to handle the image.

As described above, since there has been nothing satisfying both the accessibility and the recording capacity, the accessibility is sacrificed, and the editing work is performed by using the magnetic tape for a long time, or A complicated operation such as copying a small amount of a partial image to be edited from a tape to a disk device once, performing an editing work on the disk device with good accessibility, and then copying it to the tape again has been performed. In either case, the workability of video editing is poor, and a large-capacity inexpensive recording / reproducing apparatus having excellent accessibility has been desired.

For the purpose of facilitating the explanation, the case of handling video has been described above. However, in the case of handling digital data of a computer, for example, a file is saved or read between the computer and the recording / reproducing apparatus. In the case of, also, the above-mentioned common problems of accessibility and recording capacity occur.

[0011]

As described above, in the existing recording / reproducing apparatus, an apparatus having excellent data accessibility has a small data recording capacity, and an attempt to increase the recording capacity results in a huge cost increase. The problem of inviting
In addition, a device having a large recording capacity has a problem of poor accessibility. As described above, conventionally, there is no inexpensive recording / reproducing apparatus satisfying the accessibility and recording capacity, and there has been a demand for an inexpensive, large-capacity recording / reproducing apparatus having good accessibility.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation,
An object of the present invention is to provide a recording / reproducing method, which uses a plurality of recording devices having different access speeds, is inexpensive, has good accessibility, and can record a large amount of information.

[0013]

According to the present invention, a recording device using a recording medium having excellent accessibility and a recording device using a large-capacity and inexpensive recording medium are combined to provide a high-accessibility and large-capacity recording medium. It is characterized by realizing an inexpensive recording / reproducing system capable of recording information.

That is, the present invention is a recording / reproducing method and a recording / reproducing apparatus using a plurality of recording devices having different access speeds, and includes a head portion of each unit information recorded in the recording device A having a slow access speed. Part of the information is recorded in the recording device B having a high access speed, and at the time of reproduction, the unit information reproduced by the recording device B is output at least until the recording device A completes the access. It is characterized by accelerating the apparent access speed.

As described above, by combining the recording apparatus using the recording medium having excellent accessibility and the recording apparatus using the large-capacity and inexpensive recording medium, the accessibility is good and the large-capacity information is recorded. An inexpensive recording / reproducing system can be easily realized.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, a recording / reproducing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

Here, for ease of explanation, a magnetic tape device is taken as an example of a recording device having a low access speed, and a magnetic disk device is taken as an example of a recording device having a high access speed.
A magnetic tape device (recording device having a slow access speed) will be described as a recording device A, and a magnetic disk device (recording device having a high access speed) will be described as a recording device B.

FIG. 1 shows the data arrangement of a recording / reproducing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the recording device A, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of programs (for example, video / audio of movies, sports, entertainment programs, etc. in the case of a VTR as a magnetic tape device) [1], [2], ... It is recorded continuously. The time required to access an arbitrary position in the recording device A is t.

On the other hand, in the recording device B, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), the time T at the beginning of each of the programs [1], [2], ... Is recorded. At this time, [t <T]
Have a relationship. That is, although the access speed is slow, a large amount of data can be recorded / reproduced, and the recording medium is inexpensive, so that all data to be reproduced is recorded in the recording apparatus A, while high-speed access is possible. In the recording device B, which has a small recording capacity and is relatively expensive, only the leading portions [a], [b], ... Of each program are recorded.

The reproduction process of the arbitrary program in the recording devices A and B having different access speeds will be described with reference to FIG. Reproduction of an arbitrary program in the recording devices A and B is first performed by the recording device B as shown in FIG. At this time, since the recording apparatus B has a high access speed, the recording apparatus B can immediately start reproduction.

While the recording device B is reproducing the data, the recording device A accesses the medium (tape) based on a tape operation such as rewinding or fast-forwarding. However, the position on the program being reproduced by the recording device B is transmitted to the recording device A side at any time so that the reproduction position on the recording device B and the access position on the recording device A in the program are determined. After the coincidence time (however, within the time T), the recording device B
The reproduction which has been performed from the recording apparatus A is switched to the reproduction.

Since the time T of each program recorded in the recording device B is longer than the time t required to access the recording device A, the access in the recording device A can be ensured during the reproduction in the recording device B. finish.

As a result, a system that allows quick access to an arbitrary program and reproduces a large amount of data such as a movie can be constructed at low cost. Up to this point, the reproduction process of the recorded signal has been described, but in order to realize the reproduction, it is necessary to record the signal as shown in FIG. Therefore, the case of recording a signal will be described next.

Even in the case of recording the above signal, access by the recording devices A and B is required. That is, it must be positioned at the position to be recorded. As described above, since the recording apparatus B has a high access speed, it can be accessed in a very short time, but the recording apparatus A requires rewinding or fast-forwarding of the medium (tape).

Therefore, in the recording apparatus A, as shown in FIG. 3, via a delay buffer (D-BUF) having a recording capacity corresponding to a reproduction time longer than the time t required for access,
The signal (data) to be recorded is delayed in time, and after the access is completed, the delayed data is continuously recorded on the recording medium (magnetic tape) via the delay buffer (D-BUF). In this recording, the recording apparatus A records all the data, and the recording apparatus B records a part of the data corresponding to the time T (T> t) as described above of the head portion of the data. At this time, in the recording apparatus B, as shown in FIG. 3A, the signal (data) to be recorded is delayed by the delay buffer (DB).
It may be recorded directly without going through the UF).
As shown in (b), recording may be performed via a delay buffer (D-BUF).

With such a recording method, desired signals (data) can be recorded in both recording device B and recording device A in the recording format as shown in FIG. As described above, in order to facilitate the description here, a magnetic tape device is taken as an example of the recording device A that can record a large amount of data but has a slow access speed. The magnetic disk device has been described as an example of the device B, but the device B is not limited to this. For example, a semiconductor memory device and a magnetic disk device, a magnetic disk device and an optical disk device, or magnetic disk devices having different access speeds can be accessed. Combinations of various devices with different speeds are possible.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the system is configured by using two types of recording devices having different data access speeds has been described, but optimization is achieved by using three or more types of devices, or more user side. It is also possible to satisfy the detailed requirements of. Further, here, it is explained that the system is configured by using a plurality of recording devices with a focus on accessibility, but it is also possible to combine a plurality of recording / reproducing devices depending on the size, reliability, cost, etc. of the device. it can.

Next, the structure of a recording / reproducing system according to an embodiment to which the above-mentioned recording / reproducing method is applied will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, 11A and 11B are recording devices having different access speeds, 11A is a magnetic tape device (MT), and 11B is a magnetic disk device (DISK).
It is.

In the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A, all the data to be reproduced is recorded in data block units with addresses (Add-a) in each, and in the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B, the magnetic tape device. (MT) 11
Part of the data from the beginning of each data block recorded in A is recorded in data block units with an address (Add-b) in each.

Reference numeral 12 is an address (Add-in) of each data block (DATA-A) recorded in the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A.
a) and the address (Add-b) of each data block (DATA-B) recorded in the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B.
It is an address comparator (AD-COM) for comparing with.

Reference numeral 13 is a magnetic disk device (DIS) until the address comparator (AD-COM) 12 finds that the addresses match.
K) When the read data of 11B is selected and the above addresses are found to match, a data selector (DT-) that selects the read data of the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A instead of the read data of the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B. SEL).

Reference numeral 14 is a data buffer (DT-BUF) for controlling the output of the data selected by the data selector (DT-SEL) 13. Here, the operation of the recording / reproducing system according to the above embodiment will be described.

An output can be obtained from the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B at a normal reproduction speed. The data read from this magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B is passed through a data selector (DT-SEL) 13 to a data buffer (DT-B).
After being stored in the UF) 14, it is output as reproduction data (P-DATA) according to a predetermined processing procedure.

At this time, the data selector (DT-SEL) 1
3 is a magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B until the address comparator (AD-COM) 12 receives an address coincidence signal.
The read data of is selected as the reproduction data.

On the other hand, the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11
Magnetic tape device (MT) 11 with slower access speed than B
A is in the high-speed reproduction state or the search state and tries to catch up with the reproduction output of the magnetic disk device 11B. At this time, it is not necessary for the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A to read all the data without fail, and the data address (Ad
da) should be able to play.

The address comparator (AD-COM) 12 receives the data address (Ad_Ad) obtained from the respective devices 11A and 11B.
da, Add-b) are compared, and the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A performs high-speed reproduction or until the addresses match, that is, until the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A catches up with the reproduction output of the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B. Continue searching.

The address comparator (AD-COM) 12 compares the data address (Add-a) of the magnetic tape unit (MT) 11A with the data address (Add-b) of the magnetic disk unit (DISK) 11B, and , The matching signal is sent to the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A and the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B to put the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A in the normal reproduction state, and the magnetic disk device (DISK). 11B is placed in an idle state (standby state), and the data selector (DT-SEL) 13 is switched and controlled.

When the data selector (DT-SEL) 13 receives the coincidence signal from the address comparator (AD-COM) 12, thereafter,
The read data of the magnetic tape device (MT) 11A is selected instead of the read data of the magnetic disk device (DISK) 11B and is output to the data buffer (DT-BUF) 14. The data stored in the data buffer (DT-BUF) 14 is output as reproduction data (P-DATA) according to a predetermined processing procedure.

As described above, the magnetic disk unit (DISK) 11B having excellent accessibility and the magnetic tape unit (MT) 11A using a large-capacity and inexpensive recording medium are combined to form a recording / reproducing system. In addition, an inexpensive recording / reproducing system that has high accessibility and can record a large amount of information can be easily realized.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By adopting a system configuration in which a device using a recording medium with excellent accessibility and a device using a large-capacity and inexpensive recording medium are combined, the cost is low, the accessibility is good, and a large amount of information can be recorded. A recording / reproducing method and a recording / reproducing apparatus can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a data arrangement example for explaining a recording / reproducing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram showing a reproduction process of each device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining a recording method of each device in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a recording / reproducing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a recording format of a program on a tape of a VTR.

[Explanation of symbols]

11A ... Magnetic tape device (MT), 11B ... Magnetic disk device (DISK), 12 ... Address comparator (AD-CO)
M), 13 ... Data selector (DT-SEL), 14 ... Data buffer (DT-BUF), D-BUF ... Delay buffer.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A recording / reproducing method using a plurality of recording devices having different access speeds, wherein a recording device having a high access speed includes a head portion of each unit information recorded in the recording device having a low access speed. Record the information of the department,
At the time of reproduction, at least until the recording device with the slow access speed finishes accessing, the unit information reproduced by the recording device with the fast access speed is output to increase the apparent access speed of the recording device with the slow access speed. A recording / reproducing method characterized by. 2. A recording / reproducing method using a plurality of recording devices having different access speeds, wherein the first recording device having a low access speed records continuous information consisting of a group of address searchable unit information, In the second recording device having a high access speed, in the continuous information recorded in the first recording device, the reproduction corresponding to at least the access required time of the first recording device from the beginning of the position where reproduction can be designated. By recording a part of information consisting of a unit information group for which address search is possible for time, at the time of reproduction, the information reproduced by the second recording device is output until the unit information addresses of the respective recording devices match, A recording / reproducing method characterized in that when the addresses match, the information reproduced by the first recording device instead of the second recording device is output. 3. A plurality of recording devices having different access speeds, wherein a continuous recording information is recorded in a recording device having a slow access speed among the plurality of recording devices, and the continuous information is recorded in a recording device having a high access speed. The recording / reproducing apparatus is characterized in that at least a part of information corresponding to a reproduction time corresponding to an access required time of the recording apparatus having the slow access speed is recorded. 4. A plurality of recording devices having different access speeds, and a recording device having a slower access speed among the recording devices,
By recording continuous information consisting of a group of address-searchable unit information, it is possible to search the recording device with a high access speed for at least the reproduction time corresponding to the required access time of the recording device with a slow access speed. Means for recording a part of information consisting of a unit information group, a means for comparing the address of the unit information output from each recording device at the time of reproduction, and an access speed until the addresses are matched by comparing the addresses. When the information reproduced by a fast recording device is output and the addresses match, the second
And a means for outputting information reproduced by the first recording device in place of the recording device. 5. At the time of reproduction, a recording device having a slow access speed and a recording device having a high access speed are simultaneously reproduced and activated,
5. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the recording apparatus having a slow access speed is reproduced and driven at a speed higher than a steady speed until the reproduction information contents of the respective recording apparatuses match. 6. During reproduction, a recording device with a slow access speed is in a state in which data can be read for address search until it reaches a takeover possible state in which information following the reproduction output of the recording device with a high access speed can be reproduced. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, which is driven by.