This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-284098, filed Oct. 31, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a moving image and audio reproduction device, which, in the reproduction of an arbitrary stream compressed by a plurality of CODECs (compression method), can output the best composition and setting of the CODEC to a connected receiving device, and a method for audio reproduction.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many cases, moving image (video) information and sound (music/audio) information held (recorded) in a recording medium are compressed by various methods (CODEC) for the purpose of reducing the recording capacity and expanded (decoded) when being reproduced.
The content accommodated on an optical disc as a recording medium is formed of a plurality of streams and may be compressed by a different CODEC in each stream.
As an optical disc widely used as a recording medium, there are widespread use of an optical disc with a CD format, which is used mainly for recording music data, and an optical disc with a DVD format which has a recoding capacity exceeding 6 times that of the optical disc with a CD format and is used mainly for recording video (moving image) and sound (audio).
Incidentally, an optical disc with a High-Definition (HD) DVD format which is provided by developing the DVD format and has a recording capacity of about 5 times that of the optical disc with a DVD format has already been put to practical use.
Meanwhile, as a reproduction device for reproducing information recorded on an optical disc, that is, as a player device, there has been practically applied a reproduction device which includes a bidirectional communication interface typified by, for example, a High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) and, when reproducing video (moving image) information and sound (audio) information from content (including programs and playlist) accommodated on an optical disc, can detect the presence or absence of connection of a receiving device connected to the player device, such as an AV controller (and a speaker connected to the AV controller) and a television receiver (monitor device), and the reproduction performance of the connected receiving device.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) No. 2007-180612 discloses a moving image reproduction device which extracts the composition of a plurality of audio CODECs applied to a plurality of audio streams included in content and the setting of each audio CODEC and video-outputs a display signal used for displaying a list of the extracted compositions of the audio CODECs for the audio streams and the extracted setting of each audio CODEC.
However, the moving image reproduction device disclosed in the Publication only displays a list of the result of the extraction of the composition of audio CODECs to be applied to the audio streams included in the content and the setting of each audio CODEC, that is, displays a list of the extracted compositions of the audio CODECs and the extracted setting of each audio CODEC. Therefore, it is required that, after confirming the reproduction performance of a receiving device connected to the reproduction device, that is, an AV controller and a television receiver, the audio CODEC is set in accordance with the reproduction performance displayed as a list.
Accordingly, depending on the CODEC being set, there are the following problems that:
A general architecture that implements the various feature of the invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention.
Various embodiments according to the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. In general, according to one embodiment of the invention, a video and audio reproduction device comprising: extraction means for extracting a composition of an Elementary Stream in an Audio Stream included in content and a setting of the Elementary Stream; and reproduction means for reproducing the Audio Stream in accordance with the composition of the Elementary Stream in the Audio Stream and the setting of the Elementary Stream, extracted by the extraction means.
Embodiments of this invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
A video and audio reproduction device (moving image and audio reproduction device) 1 shown in
It goes without saying that the disc drive unit 3 can reproduce not only information (content) recorded on a disc of HD DVD format but also information (content) recorded on an optical disc of DVD format and an optical disc of CD format, which are widely used at present. In addition, it goes without saying that the disc drive unit 3 may be a recording and reproducing type disc drive unit which can record information (content) on an optical disc of an arbitrary format.
The disc drive unit 3 is connected to the control block 9 through a digital signal processing part (DSP) 11, which detects the data (a prepit [emboss pit] or a recording mark string) recorded in an optical disc as the difference in the brightness and darkness of a light or the reflectance to encode (binarize) the data, and to reproduce the data as the content recorded on the optical disc. If the disc drive unit 3 is a recording and reproducing type disc drive unit which can write data in an optical disc set therein, a write signal binarized based on the data to be recorded is supplied to the disc drive unit 3, whereby the disc drive unit 3 can record (write) information on the optical disc.
The signal processing part (DSP) 11 is connected to the HDMI Tx 7 through a video decoder part 13, an audio decoder part 15, and an HBR audio processing part 17 complying with, for example, HDMI 1.3 and IEC 61937. A selector (switch) 19 is provided between the audio decoder part 15 and the HDMI Tx 7, in other words, between the HBR audio processing part 17 and the HDMI Tx 7. At least one of the audio decoder part 15 and the HBR audio processing part 17 is connected to the HDMI Tx 7 by the switching performed by the switch 19 (two audio decoder parts are not simultaneously connected to the HDMI Tx 7). In
Although not described in detail, the control block 9 includes a CPU or MPU (main control unit) and includes at least an Audio Stream selection processing part 9-1, an Audio Stream setting extraction processing part 9-3, an Elementary Stream setting extraction processing part 9-5, an audio format switching processing part 9-7, which are controlled by the CPU or the MPU, and a comparison processing part 9-9 for comparing the setting of the Audio Stream and the setting of the Elementary Stream. The control block 9 is connected with a main memory (SDRAM) 21 operating as a work memory and an HDD (not shown) for storing an arbitrary program and a content group of a terrestrial or satellite digital broadcasting input through a tuner part or an external input (not shown) and a data group (an arbitrary number of scenes and stream groups associated with content, that is, playlists) supplied from an external network through a network controller (not shown).
The DSP (signal processing part) 11 can process video and audio data of the well-known packetized stream (PS) data format and digital broadcast video and audio data of the transport stream (TS) format.
Video, audio, and other control data are time-division multiplexed with the PS. Further, the video and audio are respectively transmitted in a compressed format for the purpose of reducing each data amount to be transmitted. Many data are video data and compressed in a format called, for example, H. 264, VC-1, MPEG2, MPEG4 AVC (often simply called AVC).
As an audio signal, in addition to the above data format, there is high-bitrate (HBR) audio which is not decoded and is supplied from the HDMI Tx 7 to a receiving device such as a television receiving device and an AV amplifier.
In the video and audio reproduction device 1, a video signal, that is, a video image passes through the HDMI Tx 7 to be output to an audio-video (AV) receiver, a general television (TV) device (with a speaker), or a monitor device typified by a liquid crystal display and CRT.
Meanwhile, there are two types of the audio signals, one of which is an HBR audio signal which is no decoded and has passed through the HBR audio conversion processing part 17 and the other of which is an audio signal decoded in the audio decoder part 15. At least one of the audio signals is supplied to the HDMI Tx 7 by the switch 19. Incidentally, the Audio Stream, which passes through the HBR audio conversion processing part 17 to be output directly to the HDMI Tx 7, is a stream typified by “Dolby Digital plus (DD+)” and “Dolby True HD” recommended by Dolby, “DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio (DTS-HD HI RES)” and “DTS-HD Master Audio (DTS-HD MSTR)” recommended by DTS, and the like, in other words, the Audio Stream is a bitstream output.
Each audio output format of the above bitstream outputs (HBR audio) upon transmission of the HBR audio to the HDMI Tx7 is specified; however, as the outline shown in
“Dolby Digital (DD)” and “Dolby Digital plus (DD+)” are described as “DD+”, and
“DTS core”, “DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio”, and “DTS-HD MSTR” are descried as “DTS-HD”.
Therefore, with respect to the Audio Stream described as “DD+” or “DTS-HD”, the output format of the HBR audio sometimes cannot be properly switched.
For example, as the outline shown in
In that case, when a display region in which the name of the Audio Stream can be displayed or markers such as LED is provided in a receiving device connected to the HDMI Tx 7, for example, in an AV receiver, the name of the Audio Stream sometimes cannot be correctly displayed.
In order to solve the above problem, the format of the Audio Stream is judged from the header information in the Elementary Stream, whereby it can be reliably switched, as will be described using
As shown in
As shown in
The Elementary Stream shown in
Namely, as shown in
When the obtained numeric value (size) of bsid is “more than “01010” (=10) and less than “10000” (=16)” representing “Dolby Digital Plus” (see,
Meanwhile, when the bsi is “less than “01000” (=8)” representing “Dolby Digital” (see,
As described above, the description of the Elementary Stream in the Audio Stream attribute table in the VTSI_MAT within the data region in the HD DVD disc is referred, whereby it is possible to prevent the audio format in the Audio Stream from being transmitted (output) to the HDMI Tx 7 with a format different from the original format.
As shown in
First, Core Extension Mask (see
When the “XLL” exists in the Core Extension Mask (BLOCK 21—YES), the audio format in the Audio Stream is “DTS-HD Master Audio (DTS-HD MSTR)”, and therefore, the audio format to be output to the HDMI Tx 7 is set to “DTS-HD MSTR (DTS-HD Master Audio)” (BLOCK 22).
When “XLL” does not exist in the Core Extension Mask (BLOCK 21—NO), it is determined whether there is “XXCH”, “X96”, or “XBR (Resolution enhancement extension)” in the Core Extension Mask (BLOCK 23). “XXCH” represents that the surround exceeds 6.1 channels. “X96” represents that a sampling rate fs is 48 kHz×2. In “XBR”, a numeric value represented by X represents a bit rate, and “XBR” represents that it is High-Bitrate Audio (HBR).
In BLOCK 23, when any of “XXCH”, “X96”, and “XBR” exist in the Core Extension Mask (BLOCK 23—YES), the audio format in the Audio Stream is “DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio (DTS-HD HI RES)”, and therefore, the audio format to be output to the HDMI Tx 7 is set to “DTS-HD HI RES (DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio” (BLOCK 24).
In BLOCK 23, when there are no “XXCH”, “X96”, and “XBR” in the Core Extension Mask (BLOCK 23—NO), the audio format in the Audio Stream is (normal) “DTS core”, and therefore, the audio format to be output to the HDMI Tx 7 is set to “DTS core” (BLOCK 25).
As described above, the header information in the actual Elementary Stream in the header information in the data structure in the HD DVD disc is referred, whereby the audio format in the Audio Stream is prevented from being transmitted (output) to the HDMI Tx 7 with an audio format different from the original audio format.
An HD DVD disc is set in the video and audio reproduction device, and when the reproduction of content is instructed (by a user) through a remote terminal (not shown), it is checked whether the audio coding sub-mode exists in the Audio Stream Attribute in Video Title Set Information (VTSI [see,
When the audio coding sub-mode exists (BLOCK 31—YES), even if the description in the Audio Coding Mode in the Audio Stream Attribute is only “Dolby Digital Plus (DD+)”, as shown in
In addition, also with regard to “DTS” recommended by DTS, as shown in
For details, the audio coding sub-mode is specified as a description showing that “Audio data (DD+)”, that is, the audio format is “Dolby Digital Plus” or “Dolby Digital” (see
Accordingly, when there is no audio coding sub-mode (BLOCK 31—NO), immediately after starting the reproduction, the audio format, obtained by the method described in
Meanwhile, when there is the audio coding sub-mode (BLOCK 31—YES), an audio signal is first output (transmitted) to the HDMI Tx 7 with the audio format described in the audio coding sub-mode (BLOCK 33).
Subsequently, the audio format described in the audio coding sub-mode and the audio format which is set based on the Elementary Stream and is being transmitted to the HDMI Tx 7 are compared with each other (BLOCK 34). When those audio formats do not coincide with each other (BLOCK 34—NO), the audio signal is output by the method described in
The data described in the audio coding sub-mode includes data shown in
According to the reproduction method shown in
As described above, according to one embodiment of the invention, in a moving image reproduction device which reproduces the content from a recording medium such as an HD DVD disc (or a recorder device which can record the content), when a high-bitrate (HBR) audio output as a bitstream output is supplied (output) to a receiving device, such as a television device and an audio amplifier, by using an HDMI interface, an HBR audio output format typified by “Dolby Digital plus (DD+)” recommended by Dolby, “DTS-HD High-Resolution Audio (DTS-HD HI RES)”/“DTS-HD Master Audio (DTS-HD MSTR)” recommended by DTS, and so on can be properly reproduced based on the original format. Namely, the Audio Stream information is obtained from the Elementary stream or the Header information in the Elementary stream, and the audio format to be transmitted/output to a receiving device can be reproduced in accordance with the stream, using the obtained information. The audio format can be arbitrarily changed (a specified audio format can be designated) by a user.
In addition, when a display region in which the name of the Audio Stream can be displayed or markers such as LED is provided in, for example, the AV receiver (audio amplifier), the accurate name of the Audio Stream can be displayed.
Furthermore, the audio format is not required to be set in accordance with the audio reproduction performance of the connected device, and the best audio output included in content can be reproduced.
Namely, the highest CODEC for a receiving device is selected from a plurality of audio CODECs applied to the content including the Audio Stream in the audio format capable of being reproduced by a receiving device to allow the output to the receiving device. According to this constitution, a user can obtain the best audio output, which can be reproduced by each receiving device, only by connecting all the receiving devices to a moving image and audio reproduction device.
While certain embodiments of the inventions have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the inventions.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and can be modified in various manners without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
For example, the present invention can provide a method for moving image and audio reproduction in a video and audio reproduction device, comprising: extracting an audio coding sub-mode in an Audio Stream Attribute in a Video Title Set Information included in content; and distinguishing the Audio Stream from the extracted setting of the Audio Coding mode in the audio coding sub-mode and switching the audio format in the Audio Stream in the content to be output to a transmission device.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-284098 | Oct 2007 | JP | national |