Patent ID: 7292769

Claim:
A recording and reproducing apparatus comprising: an input element supplied with video signals; a recording element for recording said video signals input through said input element onto a storage medium; a reproducing element for reproducing said video signals from said storage medium; a processing element for generating display-ready video signals on the basis of video monitor image signals supplied by said input element and/or on the basis of the reproduced video signals furnished by said reproducing element; and a controlling element for selectively activating, by a single operation of a user, any one of a recording monitor image, a dual-screen display image made of a recording monitor image and a playback image, and a playback image alone, wherein said recording and reproducing to and from the storage medium occurs substantially simultaneously, wherein, when the dual-screen display image is activated, the controlling element causes the processing element to select one of the recording monitor image and the playback image, wherein, when the dual-screen display image is activated and the recording monitor image is selected, the controlling element enables only user operations affecting the recording monitor image and disables user operations affecting the playback image, and wherein, when the dual-screen display image is activated and the playback image is selected, the controlling element enables only user operations affecting the playback image and disables user operations affecting the recording monitor image.