Method of and apparatus for recording and/or reproducing a picture signal and an associated audio signal in/from a record carrier and record carrier obtained by means of the method

Claim 1

A method of recording and/or reproducing a picture signal and an associated audio signal in/from a record carrier, in which during recording the picture signal and the audio signal are encoded to form a first and a second information signal respectively comprising information words arranged in frames, each frame comprising a frame header and a data field, a data field of a frame comprising a plurality of information words of the picture signal or an audio signal, the header indicating the information signal to which the information words in the data field belongs, after which the frames are recorded on the record carrier; and in which during reproduction the frames are read from the record carrier and are decoded to obtain the picture signal and the associated audio signal, characterized in that for recording at least a second audio signal associated with the picture signal the second audio signal is encoded to form a third information signal comprising information words arranged in frames, in that the frame headers of those frames which comprise an encoded audio signal moreover indicates to which of the two or more audio signals the information words in a data field of a frame belong, in that in addition reference signals and additional frames are recorded on the record carrier, which additional frames for each of the two or more audio signals associated with a picture signal contain time information pertaining to the time interval between the instant at which a reference signal is detected after read-out and the instant at which a read-out picture signal is to be displayed on a picture screen, and during reproduction the reference signals and the additional frames are read from the record carrier, the time information associated with one of the audio signals is derived from an additional frame under the influence of a first control signal and subsequently a second control signal is derived from the time information thus derived and from a detected reference signal for displaying a read-out picture signal on a picture screen, and in that only said one audio signal is reproduced under the influence of the first control signal.

Claim 2

A method of recording and/or reproducing a picture signal and an associated audio signal in/from a record carrier, in which during recording the picture signal and the audio signal are encoded to form a first and a second information signal respectively comprising information words arranged in frames, each frame comprising a frame header and a data field, a data field of a frame comprising a plurality of information words of the picture signal or an audio signal, the header indicating the information signal to which the information words in the data field belongs, after which the frames are recorded on the record carrier; and in which during reproduction the frames are read from the record carrier and are decoded to obtain the picture signal and the associated audio signal, characterized in that for recording at least a second audio signal associated with the picture signal the second audio signal is encoded to form a third information signal comprising information words arranged in frames, in that the frame headers of those frames which comprise an encoded audio signal moreover indicates to which of the two or more audio signals the information words in a data field of a frame belong, in that in addition reference signals and additional frames are recorded on the record carrier, which additional frames for each of the two or more audio signals associated with a picture signal contain time information pertaining to the time interval between the instant at which a reference signal is detected after read-out and the instant at which a read-out picture signal is to be displayed on a picture screen, and during reproduction the reference signals and the additional frames are read from the record carrier, the time information associated with one of the audio signals is derived from an additional frame under the influence of a first control signal and subsequently a second control signal is derived from the time information thus derived and from a detected reference signal for displaying a read-out picture signal on a picture screen, and in that only said one audio signal is reproduced under the influence of the first control signal.

Claim 5

A method as claimed in any one of the preceding Claims, characterized in that time information is included in the data fi.eld of an additional frame.

Claim 6

An apparatus for recording a picture signal and an associated audio signal in the record carrier, for carrying out the method as claimed in any one of the Claims 1 to 4, comprising - a first input terminal for receiving the picture signal, - a second input terminal for receiving the audio signal, - an encoding unit having a first input and a second input coupled to the first input terminal and the second input terminal respectively, and having an output terminal, which encoding unit is constructed to encode the picture signal and the audio signal to obtain the first information signal and the second information signal respectively in the form of successive information words, which is constructed to arrange the information words in frames, which is constructed to insert a signal code into the frame header to indicate the information signal to which the information words in the data field of the associated frame belong, and which is constructed to produce a sequence of frames on its output, - a recording unit, having an input coupled to the output of the encoding unit, which recording unit is constructed to record the successive frames in the record carrier, is characterized in that the encoding unit is adapted to encode at least a second audio signal associated with the picture signal to form a third information signal in the form of successive information words, which is adapted to arrange said information words in frames, which is adapted to insert a signal code into the frame header of frames containing an encoded audio signal to indicate to which of the two or more audio signals the information words in the data fields of these frames belong, in that the encoding unit comprises a reference-signal generator for supplying reference signals, in that the unit is further adapted to generate additional frames, which additional frames contain said time information for each of the two or more audio signals associated with a picture signal, and which is adapted to produce these additional frames on its output terminal.

Claim 11

An apparatus for reproducing a picture signal and an associated audio signal from a record carrier, for carrying out the method as claimed in any one of the Claims 1 to 4 comprising - a read unit for reading successive frames from the record carrier and for supplying said frames to an output, - a decoding unit having an input coupled to the output of the read unit and having a first output and a second output, which decoding unit is constructed to separate frames containing information words of the first information signal and of frames containing information words of the second information signal, which is constructed to decode the first information signal and the second information signal to form the picture signal and the audio signal respectively, and which is constructed to supply these signals to a first output terminal and a second output terminal respectively, characterized in that the decoding unit has a control input for receiving the first control signal and in that the decoding unit is adapted to derive, under the influence of the first control signal, one of the two or more audio signals and to supply this audio signal to its second output terminal, in that the decoding unit is further adapted to extract the reference signals and the additional frames from the information read from the record carrier, to derive the time information associated with the relevant audio signal under the influence of the first control signal, to derive the second control signal, and to supply the picture signal to its first output terminal under the influence of said second control signal.