Video cassette recorder for and method of performing high-speed searching of important information, such as desired time or alarm data

A video cassette recorder (VCR) for performing high-speed searching of important information, such as desired time and alarm data, comprising:

• encoder means for encoding channel information and time information relating to a video signal to compose a signal, and for adding the encoded information to a vertical blanking interval of the video signal;
• recording/reproducing means for performing at least one of recording the signal composed by the encoder means and reproducing a recorded video signal;
• decoder means for extracting the channel information and the time information encoded by the encoder means from video signals outputted from the recording/reproducing means, and for decoding the extracted information;
• controller means for inverting a control pulse at predetermined time intervals when a video signal is recorded so as to record a point in time within the predetermined time intervals, for searching the recorded point in time within the predetermined time intervals in a high-speed mode based on the channel information and the time information extracted and decoded by the decoder means when automatic searching is performed during reproduction, for converting a mode of the VCR into a standard mode, starting from the searched point in time, when a desired point in time has been searched, to allow the video signal to be reproduced in the standard mode, and for controlling operations of the VCR;
• and
• video signal output means for externally outputting a video signal from the recording/reproducing means.

A method for high-speed searching of important information, such as desired time and alarm data, comprising the steps of:

• encoding channel information and time information relating to a video signal to compose a signal, and adding the encoded information to a vertical blanking interval of the video signal;
• performing at least one of recording the signal composed by the encoder and reproducing a recorded video signal;
• extracting the channel information and the time information from video signals produced by the performing step and decoding the extracted information;
• inverting a control pulse at predetermined time intervals when a video signal is recorded so as to record a point in time within the predetermined time intervals;
• searching the recorded point in time within the predetermined time intervals in a high-speed mode based on the channel information and the extracted and decoded time information when automatic searching is performed during reproduction;
• converting to a standard mode, starting from the searched point in time, when a desired point in time has been searched, to allow the video signal to be reproduced in the standard mode;
• and
• externally outputting a video signal from the performing step.