Recording and reproducing method and apparatus utilizing a signal format for simplifying special operations and assisting efficient signal processing

A method of processing a signal, comprising the steps of:

• forming a 3-byte digital word of N-parallel-bits consisting of an image byte in which a digitized video data is allocated, an audio byte in which a digitized audio data is allocated and a control byte in which a control data is allocated;
• digitizing a video signal and corresponding audio signal for producing digital video samples and corresponding digital audio samples respectively;
• compressing said digital video samples and audio samples for producing digitized video data and digitized audio data;
• accumulating the digitized video data and digitized audio data for multiple screens of the video signal over a compression reference period;
• allocating the digitized video and audio data associated with said compression reference period within the respective video and audio bytes of a serial succession of said 3-byte digital words;
• allocating in sequence a reference compressed image data for one screen first, then difference compressed image data of subsequent screens as the digitized video data to be allocated in said video bytes of the succession of said 3-byte digital words in each compression reference period;
• producing a scene change code when a difference between two of said multiple screens exceeds a predetermined threshold;
• resetting sample compression and data accumulation to start a new compression reference period upon receiving said scene change code;
• allocating, upon receiving said scene change code, scene change data indicating the presence of the scene change code in said control byte of that compression reference period which occurs immediately before said screen producing said scene change code;
• recording said 3-byte words in a storage medium, whereby said 3-byte words may be subsequently reproduced by a reproduction means.