JP2001167517A - Optical disk reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical disk reproducing device capable of intentionally setting an appropriate player viewing limit lever for every optical disk by a user. SOLUTION: In the optical disk reproducing device, a CPU 4 reads viewing limit information recorded on the optical disk at an initial reproducing time of the optical disk, and judges whether or not the viewing limit is set in the optical disk, and when the viewing limit is set in the optical disk, the CPU 4 urges the user to input the viewing limit level. Then, the CPU 4 fetches the inputted viewing limit level, and sets it as the player viewing limit level to store it in a memory 5. Thereafter, the CPU 4 compares the player viewing limit level stored in the memory 5 with the viewing limit information of respective AV information blocks recorded on the optical disk, and applies the viewing limit at every AV information block.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical disk reproducing apparatus such as a DVD player.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, information as shown in FIG. 2 is recorded as a bit stream (20) on an optical disk (DVD) as a signal recording medium of a DVD player. The bit stream (20) includes A including video information and / or audio information.
P, which is a plurality of blocks of V information (hereinafter referred to as PGC)
GC1 (22), PGC2 (23), PGC3 (24), PGC4 (2
And parental control information (21) on these PGCs. Here, one PGC corresponds to, for example, one program or one part in the program.
Note that some optical discs do not have the viewing restriction information (21) added thereto.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the parental control information (21). For each PGC, a number (31) representing a reproduction order is shown.
, The PGC identifier (32), and the P to be viewed
A GC viewing restriction level (33) is set.

In a conventional DVD player, a user can display an initial setting screen and input a player viewing restriction level on the screen. The DVD player compares the input player viewing restriction level with each of the PGC viewing restriction levels (33) recorded on the optical disc, and determines that the PGC having a PGC viewing restriction level value equal to or greater than the player viewing restriction level value is determined. , Viewing is prohibited, and viewing is permitted only for other PGCs. For example, if the player viewing restriction level is set to "5", viewing of PGC1 and PGC4 is prohibited for an optical disk having viewing restriction information (21) shown in FIG. Since the optical disc may include programs having contents that may adversely affect children, setting of the player viewing restriction level can prevent children from viewing such programs.

[0005]

However, in the conventional DVD player, the user cannot determine whether the optical disk to be reproduced has the viewing restriction information, and the optical disk has the viewing restriction information. In this case, for example, if the player viewing restriction level is set to a low level, the user is watching the program with the restricted contents without knowing it. Conversely, if the player viewing restriction level is set to a high level, the child will watch the program without restriction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an optical disk reproducing apparatus which allows a user to set an appropriate value for a player viewing restriction level for each optical disk, and to solve the above problems.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An optical disk reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is directed to an optical disk in which one or a plurality of AV information blocks and viewing restriction information for each AV information block are recorded as a bit stream. The optical disc drive reproduces the recorded information, demodulates the reproduced information into a video signal and an audio signal, and outputs the demodulated information. At the initial reproduction of the optical disc, it reads the parental control information recorded on the optical disc, and Means for determining whether a parental level is set for the optical disc, means for prompting the user to enter a parental level when a parental level is set for the optical disc, and capturing the input parental level. Means for setting the player viewing restriction level, the set player viewing restriction level, and each AV recorded on the optical disc. It compares the viewing restriction information distribution blocks, and and means for applying the viewing restriction each AV information block.

In the optical disk reproducing apparatus of the present invention, when the optical disk is loaded or when the power is turned on, it is determined whether or not the viewing restriction information is set for each disk. Is prompted to input a parental level. Therefore, the user can know that the viewing restriction information is set on the optical disc. Therefore, if an appropriate viewing restriction level is input to the optical disc, the input value is set as the player viewing restriction level, and the reproduction of each AV information block is restricted based on the set value. .

[0009] The optical disk reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, in a specific configuration, further includes means for prompting the user to input a password when parental control is set on the optical disk;
Means for determining whether the entered password is correct, and setting the entered viewing restriction level as the player viewing restriction level only when the entered password is correct, Means for setting the player viewing restriction level to the most restrictive value.

[0010] According to this specific configuration, it is possible to set the player viewing restriction level only when the user inputs a correct password. Therefore, for example, it is possible to prevent the setting of the player viewing restriction level due to a child's mischief.

[0011]

According to the optical disk reproducing apparatus of the present invention, the user can consciously set an appropriate value for the parental level of the player for each optical disk. It is possible to avoid a situation in which the user is watching a program with the contents described above, or a situation in which a child views the program without restriction.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a DVD player will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 2, the viewing restriction information (21) and a plurality of PGCs (22) (23) (24) (25)... Are recorded on the optical disc (DVD) as a bit stream (20). Parental Control Information (2
1) is a reproduction order number (3) for each PGC as shown in FIG.
1), PGC identifier (32), and PGC viewing restriction level (33)
Contains.

As shown in FIG. 1, a DVD player according to the present invention is obtained from a drive device (1) for driving an optical disk (DVD) to reproduce information recorded on the optical disk, and a drive device (1). AV decoder (2) that separates viewing restriction information and PGC from the bit stream, and decodes and outputs the PGC to a video signal and an audio signal.
And a user interface (3) for inputting a signal corresponding to a user operation to the CPU (4), and operations of the drive device (1) and the AV decoder (2) according to an input signal from the user interface (3). (4) controlling the CPU and the CP
A memory (5) in which data can be written and read by U (4) is provided.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the C of the DVD player according to the present invention.
It shows the viewing restriction setting operation executed by the PU (4).
When an optical disk is loaded in the DVD player or the power is turned on, first, in step S1, the viewing restriction information recorded on the optical disk is read, and it is determined whether the viewing restriction is set on the optical disk. Is done.

When it is determined that the parental level is not set, reproduction of the optical disk is started. On the other hand, if it is determined that the parental level has been set, step S2
Then, a player viewing restriction level setting screen as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed. The player parental level setting screen displays that parental level information has been set on the optical disc, a password entry field, and a parental level entry field.

When the user inputs a password and a parental level in response to these displays and performs a decision operation, these input data are stored in the memory (5), and the player parental level setting screen is erased. You. Then, FIG.
In step S3, the entered password is compared with a password registered by the user in advance, and if it is determined that the entered password is correct, the process proceeds to step S4, where the input value of the parental level is set. (“8” in the example of FIG. 5) is set as the player viewing restriction level. On the other hand, if the password is incorrect, the process proceeds to step S5, and "1" is set to the player viewing restriction level. Thereafter, the reproduction of the optical disk is started.

In reproducing the optical disk, the set PGC viewing restriction level is compared with the set PGC viewing restriction level recorded on the optical disk, and the PGC having the PGC viewing restriction level value equal to or larger than the player viewing restriction level value is compared. For, viewing is prohibited and other PGCs
Viewing is allowed only for. In the examples shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, viewing of all PGC1 to PGC4 is permitted,
Reproduction will proceed in the order of the number (31).
When the input password is incorrect, the viewing restriction level of the player is set to "1", so that viewing of all PGCs shown in FIG. 3 is prohibited.

According to the DVD player of the present invention, the user can recognize that the viewing restriction is set on the optical disc by the player viewing restriction level setting screen shown in FIG. As a result, it is possible to consciously set a player viewing restriction level of an appropriate value. Therefore, it is possible to reliably avoid a situation in which the user is viewing the program with the restricted contents without knowing the information as before, and a situation in which the child views the program without restriction.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an optical disk reproducing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a format of a bit stream recorded on an optical disc.

FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of viewing prohibition information.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a viewing restriction setting process.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a player viewing restriction level setting screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

 (1) Drive unit (2) AV decoder (3) User interface (4) CPU (5) Memory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. One or more AV information blocks and each AV information block
The parental control information for the information block is recorded as a bit stream, and each AV information block is used to optically reproduce recorded information from an optical disc composed of video information and / or audio information, and reproduce the reproduced information as a video. An optical disc reproducing apparatus that demodulates the signal into an audio signal and outputs the signal; a means for judging whether or not a viewing restriction is set on the optical disc during initial reproduction of the optical disc; and a case where the viewing restriction is set on the optical disc. Means for prompting the user to input a parental level, means for taking in the inputted parental level, and setting it as a player parental level, a set parental level, and recorded on the optical disc. A method of comparing the viewing restriction information of each AV information block and adding a viewing restriction for each AV information block An optical disk reproducing apparatus comprising a step. And a means for prompting the user to enter a password when the viewing restriction is set on the optical disc, a means for judging whether or not the entered password is correct, and a means for determining whether the entered password is correct. Only when is it possible to set the input parental control level as the player parental control level, and to set the player parental control level to the most restrictive value when the entered password is incorrect. The optical disk reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: