Video signal processing apparatus

DETAILED DESCRIPTION As described, when a configuration in which both analog and digital recording/reproducing operations are enabled on a same video tape recorder (VTR) is considered, it is required to automatically discriminate at reproduction the recording format of a signal recorded on the recording medium.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to realize a recording format discriminating apparatus for use on VTRs that discriminates comparatively easily and reliably the recording format of a signal recorded on recording medium.
In carrying out the invention and according to one aspect thereof, there is provided a recording format discriminating apparatus for use on a video tape recorder capable of reproducing a signal recorded on a recording medium in a digital recording format or an analog recording format by one and same head rotary system or a plurality of head rotary systems dedicated to analog recording and digital recording respectively.
The apparatus comprises: an amplifier, having a capability of automatically controlling a gain of a signal reproduced by one of the head rotary systems, for amplifying the signal to a predetermined level; a first band extracting circuit for extracting a particular narrow frequency band from the amplified signal; a first comparator and detector for detecting by amplification an output of the first band extracting circuit and comparing the detected output with a first reference value; a second comparator and detector for integrating and holding the comparison result output of the first comparator and detector and then comparing the integrated output with a second reference value; and a recording format discriminating circuit for discriminating the recording format of the signal recorded on the recording medium from the comparison result output of the second comparator and detector.
As described above, if, for the purpose of reproducing signals having different required band characteristics in electromagnetic conversion, a plurality of reproduction heads dedicated to these signals or multi-channel rotary transformers are disposed, the material and design costs increases and the scale of the circuit configuration grows