US 2002/0054441 A1 · Recording/reproducing apparatus and control method thereof

Abstract

A recording/reproducing apparatus and control method thereof capable of easily recording and reproducing all kinds of information obtained from broadcasts, communications and recording mediums of all types, and further capable of applying suitable restrictions on use of digital information. A hard disk drive and a video recorder/player can both record information reproduced by a DVD player and information received by a satellite tuner. When restrictions on recording such as billing conditions or limits on the number of recordings were placed in the control data, such restrictions are recorded as the discriminator ID. When the videotape cassette is then extracted from the video recorder/player, the discriminator ID is decoded and, all or a portion of the recorded contents of the hard disk identical to the information recorded on the videotape are deleted as needed. The unlimited distribution or unlimited retention of the contents recorded on the hard disk is in this way prevented, and problems such as involving copyrights are eliminated.

Claims22

Dependent claims

A recording/reproducing apparatus, comprising:

reproducing means for reproducing information recorded on a freely insertable and removable first recording medium containing the specified information and inserted in said reproducing means;
first recording/reproducing means for recording information reproduced from said first recording medium by said reproducing means onto a freely insertable and removable second recording medium inserted in said first recording/reproducing means;
second recording/reproducing means for recording information reproduced from said first recording medium by said reproducing means onto a fixed third recording medium installed in said second reproducing means and control means for deleting all or a portion of information matching the same information recorded onto said second recording medium from said third recording medium by said second recording/reproducing means, when said second recording medium has been removed from said first recording/reproducing means.

A recording/reproducing apparatus comprising:

receiving means for receiving specified information from a broadcast or communications;
first recording/reproducing means for recording information received by said receiving means onto a freely insertable and removable second recording medium inserted in said first recording/reproducing means;
second recording/reproducing means for recording information received by said receiving means onto a fixed third recording medium installed in said second reproducing means;
and
control means for deleting all or a portion of information matching the same information recorded on said second recording medium from said third recording medium by said second recording/reproducing means, when said second recording medium is removed from said first recording/reproducing means.

2 more elements

A recording/reproducing apparatus comprising an input means for inputting specified information from an external device;

first recording/reproducing means for recording information input from said input means onto a freely insertable and removable second recording medium inserted in said first recording/reproducing means;
second recording/reproducing means for recording information input from said input means onto a fixed third recording medium installed in said second reproducing means and;
control means for erasing all or a portion of information matching the same information recorded in said second recording medium from said third recording medium of said second recording/reproducing means, when said second recording medium has been removed from said first recording/reproducing means.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Recording/reproducing apparatus and control method thereof

Life of this patent

Recording/reproducing apparatus and control method thereof

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims22