Video signal recording apparatus

Claim 1

A video signal recording apparatus comprising: image pickup means for outputting an image pickup signal, said image pickup means having a plurality of pixels arranged two-dimensionally at a predetermined interval in horizontal and vertical directions, the pixels being arranged so that each group of pixels forming a horizontal line is offset in the horizontal direction from each group of pixels forming an adjacent horizontal line; recording means for recording a signal output from said image pickup means; a memory; instructing means for outputting an instruction indicating which one of a moving image signal and a still image signal is to be generated from the image pickup signal and; controlling means for controlling generation of one of the moving image signal and the still image signal in accordance with the instruction from said instructing means, said controlling means controls signal generation so that (i) when said instructing means instructs generation of the moving image signal, pixel signals on a first pair of adjacent horizontal lines of said image pickup means are read in a zigzag manner as first field signals and pixel signals on a second pair of adjacent horizontal lines, the second pair including one line from the first pair of lines, are read in the zigzag manner as second field signals, the first and second field signals being recorded by said recording means, and (ii) when said instructing means instructs generation of the still image signal, the first field signals are read and recorded by said recording means and are temporarily stored in said memory, and after recording the first field signals, the first field signals stored in the memory are read out of the memory, in a manner that is different from the manner used to read the pixel signals to generate the first field signals, as said second field signals and are recorded by said recording means.