JP4199131B2 - Portable recording medium, recording medium reproducing apparatus, and recording medium reproducing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a portable recording medium such as various DVDs or semiconductor memories including a DVD-R (Digital Versatile Disk Recordable) and a DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable), and a recording medium recorded on the portable recording medium. The present invention relates to a recording medium reproducing apparatus and a recording medium reproducing method for selecting and reproducing a plurality of programs (programs) non-sequentially.

  One of the playback methods for portable recording media (discs) on which digital data is recorded, such as DVDs and CDs, is a sequential playback that sequentially plays back programs in a certain order based on the content index information held on the discs. There is a rebirth. However, if the programs on the disc are always played back in the same order, the user (viewer) can expect the next program content, so that the playback content is quickly bored. Therefore, in general, a recording medium playback device has a function of performing non-sequential playback (for example, random playback) and repeat playback that changes the playback order of programs in addition to sequential playback (for example, Patent Document 1). Here, the random reproduction function is a function for generating a random number in the recording medium reproduction apparatus and automatically selecting and reproducing a program corresponding to the acquired random number. There is also a random playback method in which the content usage status such as the number of times the user has played in the past and the recording time are held on the disc during random playback, and the program is selected with an appearance frequency corresponding to this usage status ( For example, see Patent Document 2). In the following description, “program (program)” includes “video” which is a moving image and “speech” and “caption” associated with the moving image in synchronization with each other as necessary. The “video” is composed of “frames” of a plurality of still images. Further, the “program (program)” includes a program of only “voice” data not including “video”.

WO97 / 07509 (page 10-11, FIG. 7B) Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-229552 (page 6, FIG. 1)

  When playing back a program held in a portable recording medium, there are time zones and regions where the user can be effectively appealed. For example, “Play a program broadcast only in the Kanto region in the Kyushu region”, “Play a late night program for adults in the daytime”, and “Play a limited time program after the target period has passed. "Doing" is not desirable for both the content supplier and the user because it has a low advertising effect and provides information unnecessary for the user.

  In addition, for example, when distributing a disc recording a television program created for a local region to users nationwide, the capacity of one disc is divided by the number of regions and the program for each region is maintained. It is necessary to keep it. Some programs can be shared by multiple regions, but it is difficult to share data in order to perform random playback, so it is necessary to keep multiple pieces of the same program data for each region on the disk. there were. For this reason, there was a problem that the recording time per program had to be shortened. In addition, this problem can be solved by manufacturing each disk in each region, but there is a problem that the disk manufacturing cost rises and the cost of the disk cannot be reduced due to the merit of scale. In addition, since it is necessary to manage distribution / sales routes separately for each region, management is expected to be complicated.

  In addition, if a limited-time program such as event information or advertisement information is played after the target period has elapsed, it may give the user incorrect information and may cause unnecessary confusion to the user. there were.

  Furthermore, for example, when the program recorded on the portable recording medium is commercial (CM) information, each program is reproduced when the program is reproduced a predetermined number of times by the recording medium reproducing apparatus. It is important to ensure that the number of times of playback is always a predetermined number. However, no portable recording medium is known in which non-sequential reproduction (for example, random reproduction) and a predetermined number of reproductions can be guaranteed.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and the object is to create a program based on program selection condition information from a plurality of programs recorded on a portable recording medium. , Portable recording medium capable of extracting several programs, non-sequentially selecting and reproducing the extracted programs, and recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium And a recording medium playback method.

  Another object of the present invention is to provide a portable recording medium that makes it possible not to reproduce a program whose reproduction time is out of the validity period of the content index information recorded on the portable recording medium, and the portable recording medium. To provide a recording medium reproducing apparatus and a recording medium reproducing method capable of reproducing a medium.

  Still another object of the present invention is to reproduce the number of reproductions based on the appearance frequency parameter information recorded on the portable recording medium when the program recorded on the portable recording medium is reproduced a predetermined number of times by the recording medium reproducing apparatus. By providing a portable recording medium that makes it possible to reproduce a program non-sequentially, and a recording medium reproducing apparatus and a recording medium reproducing method capable of reproducing the portable recording medium is there.

In the portable recording medium of the present invention, encoded and compressed content data information and content index information are recorded, and the content data information includes a plurality of programs which are units of reproduction, and the content index information includes a program A selection condition information table, and the program selection condition information table includes, for each program unit, a plurality of appearance frequency parameter information at the time of non-sequential playback, and according to the user-defined program selection condition information at the time of non-sequential playback. In addition, one of the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information is selected for each program unit and used as a reproduction frequency for each program unit .

In another portable recording medium of the present invention, encoded and compressed content data information, content index information, and menu screen content data information are recorded. The content data information is a program that is a unit of reproduction. The content index information includes a program selection condition information table, and the menu screen content data information is a menu that enables effective program selection condition information to be selected from the program selection condition information table on the menu screen. The program selection condition information table includes screen information, and includes, for each program unit, a plurality of appearance frequency parameter information at the time of non-sequential playback, and a button displayed based on the menu screen information at the time of non-sequential playback. Assigned user-defined program selection Depending on the matter information, for each program unit, is characterized in that said one of the plurality of frequency parameter information but is selected and used as the regeneration frequency of each program unit.

Still another portable recording medium of the present invention records encoded and compressed content data information and content index information, and the content data information includes a plurality of programs as playback units, and the content index information includes expiration date information table and the program selection condition information table, the expiration date information table saw including a viewing valid period information of each program unit, the program selection condition information table for each program unit, non-sequential A plurality of appearance frequency parameter information during reproduction, and during non-sequential reproduction, of the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information for each program unit according to user-defined program selection condition information on the recording medium reproduction device side one is selected and used as the reproduction frequency for each program unit And it is characterized in and.

Still another portable recording medium of the present invention records encoded and compressed content data information and content index information, and the content data information includes a plurality of programs as playback units, and the content index information includes turn set selection condition information table, the program selection condition information table includes a frequency parameter information for each program unit in the non-sequential playback, as one of the non-sequential playback type, the recording medium reproducing When the program is played back a predetermined number of times by the apparatus, the number-of-times guaranteed pseudo-random playback is included in which the program is played back non-sequentially so that the playback count based on the appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed. .

  According to the present invention, the recording medium playback apparatus extracts a plurality of programs from the portable recording medium based on the program selection condition information table recorded on the portable recording medium, and performs non-sequential playback using the extracted program. It can be carried out. Therefore, according to the present invention, content data can be categorized and data can be shared in the portable recording medium, and the use efficiency of the data in the portable recording medium can be dramatically improved. Is obtained.

  Further, in the present invention, when the portable recording medium includes menu screen content data information, the user can select a program in the recording medium playback apparatus by a simple operation such as selecting a button displayed on the screen while viewing the video. Since the condition information can be set, an effect that the setting operation becomes easy can be obtained.

  Further, in the present invention, when the portable recording medium includes an expiration date information table, when the limited-time program is played back in a non-sequential manner, the program whose expiration date has passed is not extracted, so that incorrect information is given to the user. The effect that it can prevent is acquired.

  Furthermore, in the present invention, when the portable recording medium includes the appearance frequency parameter information, the provider of the portable recording medium can freely and easily set the appearance rate of the program that the user wants to view even in non-sequential playback. The effect that it can be set to is obtained.

  First, preconditions in Embodiments 1 to 7 of the present invention described below will be specifically described. In the following description, a case where the portable recording medium is a DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disk Read Only Memory) disk will be described. In the following description, a case where a commercial (CM) program compressed by MPEG-2 is recorded on a DVD-ROM disc will be described. However, the portable recording medium to which the present invention can be applied is not limited to the above-mentioned disc, and the portable recording medium to which the present invention can be applied includes a DVD-RAM (Digital Versatile Disk Random Access Memory), a DVD-R, and Various recording media such as a semiconductor memory such as SmartMedia (registered trademark) are included. Further, the program (program) recorded in the portable recording medium is not limited to the CM program, and may be other types of programs such as music, movies, education, and the like.

  In the following description, region (region) identification information is described as a program selection condition information table recorded on a portable recording medium and user-defined program selection condition information held in a recording medium playback device. However, the program selection condition information recorded in the portable recording medium and the user-defined program selection condition information held in the recording medium playback apparatus are not limited to the area specifying information. For example, as the program selection condition information recorded in the portable recording medium and the user-defined program selection condition information held in the recording medium playback device, viewer age information, viewer gender information, playback time information, or A combination of these information, or a combination of these information and area specifying information can also be used.

  In the present specification and claims, “non-sequential playback” is different from sequential playback based on the content index information of the portable recording medium, and a playback method in which the playback order is changed. It is. “Non-sequential playback” includes “random playback”, “shuffle playback”, and “number-guaranteed pseudo-random playback” described later.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
Hereinafter, the portable recording medium 100A, the recording medium playback apparatus 101, and the recording medium playback method according to Embodiment 1 will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of a recording medium playback apparatus 101 according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the recording medium playback apparatus 101 plays back a program (program) recorded on a DVD-ROM disc 100A as a portable recording medium. The recording medium playback apparatus 101 includes a playback drive unit 110 that reads information from the DVD-ROM disc 100A, a program playback unit 111 that generates an analog video by expanding the encoded compressed signal read from the DVD-ROM disc 100A, A system control unit 112 that integrally manages the entire recording medium playback apparatus 101 and an operation unit 113 for a user to input to the system control unit 112 are provided. The operation unit 113 is, for example, a button input device provided on the front panel of the recording medium playback device 101, but may be a remote input device (external remote control) or the like. The recording medium playback apparatus 101 also includes an area selection information storage section 114 that stores apparatus playback area information input from the operation section 113 as user-defined program selection condition information, and an apparatus of the area selection information storage section 114 during non-sequential playback. A program extraction unit 115 that extracts a program to be selected in non-sequential reproduction based on the reproduction area information, and a random number generation unit 116 that generates a random number are included. The program extraction unit 115 selects a program to be reproduced next based on the random number generated by the random number generation unit 116 from among the plurality of extracted programs. In response to a command from the system control unit 112, the program reproduction unit 111 converts the selected program into an analog video signal and sends it to the display unit 120.

  FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an internal data structure of a DVD-ROM disc 100A as a portable recording medium in the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, data is recorded on the DVD-ROM disc 100 </ b> A from the disc inner peripheral side 201 to the disc outer peripheral side 202. The DVD-ROM disc 100A includes a lead-in area 210 in which start information, physical characteristics, etc. of the DVD-ROM disc 100A are described from the disc inner periphery 201 toward the disc outer periphery 202, and a file on the DVD-ROM disc 100A. A file management information area 211 that manages data address information, a data area 212 in which the content supplier can record information in advance, and a lead-out area 213 in which disk end information is described are arranged.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the data area 212 includes at least one or more playback blocks 230. The reproduction block 230 shows a series of contents, and is composed of two pieces of information, content index information 220 and content data information 221. The content data information 221 is composed of a plurality of programs (hereinafter also referred to as “PG”), which is the minimum unit of reproduction control. The content index information 220 includes information such as the playback order of a plurality of programs stored in the content data information 221, the presence / absence and type of non-sequential playback, and the number of repeats in non-sequential playback. That is, the content index information 220 describes a rule indicating in what order the programs included in the content data information 221 are reproduced.

  FIG. 2 shows an example in which the data area 212 includes N playback blocks 230 called playback block # 1, playback block # 2,..., Playback block #N. FIG. 2 exemplifies a case where the content index information 220 is described in the head part (inner side) of each playback block 230 and the content data information 221 is described in the rear part (outer side) of the content index information 220. However, the arrangement of the content index information 220 and the content data information 221 is not limited to the example of FIG. For example, the internal structure of the data area 212 may be another structure, for example, the content index information 220 of all the playback blocks 230 is collectively described at the beginning of the data area 212.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the internal structure of the playback block 230 of the DVD-ROM disc 100A according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 3, the content index information 220A indicates a non-sequential playback type flag 300 indicating whether random playback or shuffle playback during non-sequential playback and how many times non-sequential playback is executed. Non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 and program selection condition information that holds information indicating whether or not the program (program) 303 associated with each region selection information that is user-defined program selection condition information of the recording medium playback apparatus 101 can be selected. Table 302A.

  In the program selection condition information table 302A, one or more program selection condition fields 304A (for example, in FIG. 3, information indicated by “001, Tohoku, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1” constitutes one field. .)have. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the program selection condition information table 302A includes a plurality of programs (for example, FIG. 3) in which a plurality of program selection condition fields 304A are arranged in the vertical direction (column direction) to constitute the playback block 230. , PG # 1 to PG # 5) are two-dimensional table information arranged horizontally (in the row direction). In the first embodiment, the plurality of program selection condition fields 304A are classified with a region as a category. The classification code information used in the program selection condition field 304A is standardized so as to be recorded in a code system determined in advance on the DVD-ROM disc 100A and the recording medium playback apparatus 101 side. In FIG. 3, on the DVD-ROM disc 100A side, the whole country is divided into five regions, and in each region (for example, in FIG. 3, they are Tohoku, Kanto, Kansai, China, Kyushu). An example is shown in which whether or not a program can be extracted during sequential playback is held as 1-bit information. It should be noted that more strict regional management can be performed by making the unit of regional division even finer.

  On the other hand, the content data information 221 includes at least one program 303. The program (program) 303 is the minimum unit that can be controlled for reproduction during non-sequential reproduction. In the first embodiment, the content data information 221 includes five programs 303 (for example, PG # 1 to PG # 5 in FIG. 3). However, the number of programs included in the content data information 221 is not limited to five, and may be four or less or six or more.

  The DVD-ROM disc 100A according to the first embodiment is provided with a program selection condition information table 302A, so that the user-defined program selection condition information defined by the user in the recording medium playback apparatus 101 during non-sequential playback (implementation) In mode 1, it is possible to execute program extraction according to regional information), and to perform non-sequential playback using the extracted program.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a playback process of the DVD-ROM disc 100A by the recording medium playback apparatus 101 in the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process (step S410 in FIG. 4) in which the recording medium playback apparatus 101 in Embodiment 1 extracts a program that is a candidate for non-sequential playback. Furthermore, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure of program extraction from the DVD-ROM disc 100A in the first embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an example of the reproduction processing operation for the reproduction block 230 according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, a non-sequential playback type flag (hereinafter also referred to as “RT (Repeat Type)”) held as content index information 220A on the DVD-ROM disc 100A is set to 1 (that is, set to random playback). ), Processing when the non-sequential playback repeat count information (hereinafter also referred to as “RN (Repeat Number)”) is set to 3 will be described.

  When the recording medium playback apparatus 101 plays back the playback block 230 of the DVD-ROM disc 100A, first, the content index information 220 (reference numeral 220A in FIG. 3) is read from the playback block 230 (step S401 in FIG. 4).

  Next, the system control unit 112 reads the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 from the content index information 220. In the first embodiment, a 7-bit information area is provided as a recording area for the non-sequential reproduction repeat count information 301, and a settable value (repeat count) is in the range of 0 to 127. Depending on the read value, the following conditional branching is performed (step S402 in FIG. 4). When the value 0 is set in the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 (that is, when RN = 0), sequential playback which is a normal playback method is performed as a method of playing the playback block 230 (step S403 in FIG. 4). ). Sequential playback is an order based on the content index information 220 of the DVD-ROM disc 100A (in the first embodiment, it is also the order of recording of the program 303 recorded in the content data information 221; PG # 1, PG # 2 in the order of PG # 3, PG # 4, and PG # 5). On the other hand, when a value other than 0 is set in the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 (that is, when RN ≠ 0), the system control unit 112 determines that non-sequential playback is to be executed, and Sequential reproduction repeat count information 301 is stored, and the process proceeds to a device information acquisition process step (step S410 in FIG. 4).

  In the device information acquisition processing step (step S410 in FIG. 4) in the first embodiment, the processing shown in the flowchart in FIG. 5 is executed. The system control unit 112 acquires area selection information (user-defined program selection condition information) held in the area selection information storage unit 114 (step S501 in FIG. 5). The region selection information is set to a value within the range of the number of recordings in the program selection condition field 304A in the DVD-ROM disc 100A. For example, in FIG. 3, since the program selection condition field 304A is divided into five regions, the region selection information (hereinafter also referred to as “RI (Region Information)”) is “001”,. Takes one of the values' In the first embodiment, a case where a value of “003” (that is, Kansai region) is set as the region selection information RI will be described. Note that the user-defined program selection condition information such as the area selection information RI may be manually input by the user through the operation unit 113, or may be input in advance by the manufacturer according to the sales area of the recording medium playback apparatus 101. Alternatively, it may be configured to be automatically set in the recording medium playback apparatus 101 through a network connected by the user, and further set from a menu screen described in a fifth embodiment to be described later. You may comprise as follows.

  Next, the system control unit 112 acquires a program selection condition field 304A corresponding to the value of the region selection information stored in the recording medium playback apparatus 101 from the program selection condition information table 302A of the DVD-ROM disc 100A (FIG. 5 step S502). In the first embodiment, since the region selection information RI is set to '003', the program selection condition field 304A in the Kansai region (RI = 003) (ie, “003,” in the program selection condition information table 302A in FIG. 3). Kansai, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0 "). As shown in FIG. 3, information is recorded in binary values of 0 and 1 in the program selection condition field 304A. In the program selection condition field 304A, a value of 1 indicates that the program is a reproduction permitted program, and a value of 0 indicates that the program is a reproduction prohibited program. Next, it is determined whether or not the program in the program selection condition field 304A can be reproduced (step S503 in FIG. 5), and the reproduction-permitted program number is held in the program extraction unit 115 (step S504 in FIG. 5). In this way, it is possible to extract the program 303 to be played back during non-sequential playback. By performing such a reproducibility determination process for all the programs (step S505 in FIG. 5), all program number information for non-sequential reproduction within the reproduction block can be held in the program extraction unit 115. In the example shown in FIG. 3, when the region selection information RI = 003 is set, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 are extracted as target programs to be non-sequentially reproduced.

  Thereafter, the system control unit 112 acquires the non-sequential playback type flag 300 from the content index information 220 (reference numeral 220A in FIG. 3), and advances the processing to the non-sequential playback type selection step (step S404 in FIG. 4). . In the first embodiment, it is assumed that a 1-bit information area is provided as a recording area of the non-sequential playback type flag 300, and the range of the set value is either 0 or 1. If the non-sequential playback type flag 300 is set to 1, playback processing is performed in a random playback mode (step S405 in FIG. 4), and if it is set to 0, playback processing in a shuffle playback mode is performed. This is performed (step S406 in FIG. 4). Both the random playback method and the shuffle playback method belong to the non-sequential playback method in which the program (program) is read out and played back non-sequentially, but the only difference is whether or not duplicated reading of the program is permitted or not It is. In other words, the random playback method allows duplicate reading, and program selection in the order of PG # 3, PG # 1, PG # 3, that is, duplicate selection of program 303 (PG # 3 is duplicated). Can do. On the other hand, the shuffle playback method does not permit duplicate reading, and the program 303 selected once is not duplicated, and duplication of programs such as PG # 3, PG # 1, and PG # 4 is not performed. Playback is performed in the order without.

  Thereafter, the system control unit 112 selects a program non-sequentially for the number of repetitions RN set in the non-sequential playback repeat count information stored in step S402 (steps S405, S407, or S406 in FIG. 4). , S408).

  In the first embodiment, since the non-sequential playback type is set to 1 (that is, RT = 1), a case where playback by the random playback (step S405 in FIG. 4) method is executed will be described. In the random reproduction, first, in the device information acquisition process (step S410 in FIG. 4), the program selected at the time of non-sequential reproduction is extracted, and then the random number generation unit 116 extracts it with the program extraction unit 115. A random number is generated within the range of the sum of the values of the reproduction permission flags of the reproduced programs, thereby selecting a program at the time of random reproduction.

  In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the program extraction unit 115 stores information on the three programs 303 PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 (for example, program number (PG # number)). Is stored. That is, the reproduction permission flag of each program is regarded as a value 1, and this value 1 is divided by the sum of the values of the reproduction permission flags of PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 (ie, 1 + 1 + 1 = 3). The probability that each program is selected by random reproduction (selection probability) is obtained. As shown in FIG. 6, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 are selected with probabilities of 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3, respectively.

  Thereafter, the random number generator 116 generates a random number within a range of 1 to 3. If a value 1 is generated as a random number, PG # 2 is selected. If a value 2 is generated as a random number, PG # 3 is selected. If value 3 is generated as a random number, PG # 4 is selected. Through such processing, a program corresponding to the generated random number is selected. The case where PG # 3 is selected will be described below.

  The system control unit 112 instructs the playback drive unit 110 to read the PG # 3 program 303 from the DVD-ROM disc 100A. The read program 303 is encoded and decompressed by the program reproducing unit 111 and output to the display unit 120 as an analog video.

  When the reproduction of PG # 3 is completed, 1 is added to the reproduction number i in FIG. 4 to determine whether or not non-sequential reproduction has been performed by the number of times RN of the non-sequential reproduction repeat number information 301 (step S407 in FIG. 4). If the number of times RN of the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 has not yet been reached, random playback processing is performed again. Here, since it is a random reproduction system, a new random reproduction program is selected in the program 303 currently held in the program extraction unit 115.

  If the shuffle playback method is selected in step S404, the process proceeds to steps S406 and S408 in FIG. In step S406, the program selected once is excluded from the selection target by the program extraction unit 115.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, a plurality of programs are read from the DVD-ROM disc 100A based on the user-defined program selection condition information on the recording medium playback apparatus 101 side and the program selection condition information on the DVD-ROM disc 100A. Can be extracted and non-sequential reproduction can be performed by the extracted program. For this reason, it is possible to categorize content data and share data in the DVD-ROM disc 100A, and to dramatically improve the utilization efficiency of data in the DVD-ROM disc 100A.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
Hereinafter, the portable recording medium 100B, the recording medium reproducing apparatus 102, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the second embodiment will be described. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the internal structure of the playback block of the DVD-ROM disc 100B according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, in the second embodiment, the content index information 220B has a program selection condition information table 302B holding appearance frequency parameter information for each reproduction unit. Except for this point, the configuration of the DVD-ROM disc 100B in the second embodiment is the same as the configuration of the DVD-ROM disc 100A in the first embodiment. In the description of the second embodiment, reference is also made to FIGS. 1, 2, and 4 used in the description of the first embodiment.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing (step S410 in FIG. 4) in which the recording medium playback apparatus 102 in Embodiment 2 extracts programs that are candidates for non-sequential playback. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure (example of calculating reproduction probability) of program extraction from the DVD-ROM disc 100B during non-sequential reproduction according to the second embodiment.

  An example of the reproduction processing operation for the reproduction block 230 of the DVD-ROM disc 100B of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9. FIG. In the second embodiment, the non-sequential playback type flag RT held in the content index information 220B is set to 1 (that is, set to random playback), and the repeat count RN of the non-sequential playback repeat count information is set to 3. The process when set is described.

  When the recording medium playback apparatus 102 plays back the playback block 230 in the DVD-ROM disc 100B, first, the content index information 220 is read from the playback block 230 (step S401 in FIG. 4).

  Next, the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 is read from the content index information 220B. A 7-bit information area is provided as a recording area for the non-sequential reproduction repeat count information 301, and the range of values that can be set (repeat count) is in the range of 0-127. Depending on the read value, the following conditional branching is performed (step S402 in FIG. 4). When the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 is set to a value of 0 (that is, when RN = 0), sequential playback, which is a normal playback mode, is performed as a mode for playing back the playback block 230 (step S403 in FIG. 4). ). Sequential playback is an order based on the content index information 220 of the DVD-ROM disc 100B (in the first embodiment, it is also the order of recording of the program 303 recorded in the content data information 221; PG # 1, PG # 2 in the order of PG # 3, PG # 4, and PG # 5). On the other hand, when a value other than 0 is set in the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 (that is, when RN ≠ 0), the system control unit 112 determines that non-sequential playback is executed, and the non-sequential playback repeat number information 301 The reproduction repeat count information 301 is stored, and the process proceeds to the apparatus information acquisition process step (step S410 in FIG. 4).

  In the device information acquisition processing step (step S410 in FIG. 4) in the second embodiment, the processing shown in the flowchart in FIG. 8 is executed. The system control unit 112 acquires region selection information (user-defined program selection condition information) held in the region selection information storage unit 114 (step S601 in FIG. 8). The region selection information is set to a value within the range of the number of recordings in the program selection condition field 304B in the DVD-ROM disc 100B. For example, in FIG. 7, since the program selection condition field 304B is divided into five regions, the region selection information RI also takes a value within the range of “001” to “005”. In the second embodiment, a case where a value of “003” (that is, Kansai region) is set in the region selection information will be described. Note that user-defined program selection condition information such as region selection information may be manually input by the user through the operation unit 113, or may be input in advance by the manufacturer according to the sales region of the recording medium playback device 102. Alternatively, it may be configured to be automatically set in the recording medium playback apparatus 102 through a network or the like connected by the user, and further set from a menu screen described in a fifth embodiment to be described later. You may comprise.

  In the system control unit 112, the program selection condition field 304B corresponding to the value of the region selection information stored in the recording medium playback device 102 is acquired from the program selection condition information table 302B in the DVD-ROM disc 100B (FIG. 8). Step S602). In the second embodiment, since the region selection information RI is “003”, the program selection condition field 304B in the Kansai region (RI = 003) is acquired. As shown in FIG. 7, in the program selection condition field 304B, appearance frequency parameter information having a length of 8 bits is held for each reproduction unit. Appearance frequency parameter information can be set to a value in the range from 0 to 255, and if the value 255 is set, it means that the probability that the program is selected by random playback is the highest. When the value 0 is set, it indicates that no program is selected in random playback.

  Next, the system control unit 112 determines the appearance frequency parameter of the program in the program selection condition field 304B (step S603 in FIG. 8), and associates the appearance frequency parameter with a program number for which the value 0 is not set in the appearance frequency parameter. In the program extraction unit 115 (step S604 in FIG. 6), the selection target program at the time of random reproduction is extracted and weighting information of the reproduction program is held. Such determination processing is performed for all programs (step S605 in FIG. 8). Here, since RI = 003, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4, which are programs for which no value 0 is set in the appearance frequency parameter, are extracted.

  Thereafter, the system control unit 112 acquires the non-sequential playback type flag 300 from the content index information 220, and advances the process to a non-sequential playback type selection step (step S404 in FIG. 4). It is assumed that a 1-bit information area is provided as a recording area of the non-sequential reproduction type flag 300, and the set value range is either 0 or 1. If the non-sequential playback type flag 300 is set to 1, playback processing is performed in a random playback mode (step S405 in FIG. 4), and if it is set to 0, playback processing in a shuffle playback mode is performed. This is performed (step S406 in FIG. 4).

  Thereafter, the system control unit 112 selects a program non-sequentially for the number of repetitions RN set in the non-sequential playback repeat count information stored in step S402 (steps S405, S407, or S406 in FIG. 4). , S408).

  In the second embodiment, a case will be described in which the non-sequential playback type is set to 1 (that is, RT = 1 is set) and playback by the random playback (step S405 in FIG. 4) method is executed. In the second embodiment, first, in the apparatus information acquisition process (step S410 in FIG. 4), the program selected at the time of non-sequential playback is extracted, and then the random number generation unit 116 uses the program extraction unit 115. By selecting a random number within the range of the sum of the values of the appearance frequency parameters of the extracted programs, the program is selected during random reproduction.

  In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9, the program extraction unit 115 stores information on the three programs 303 PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 (for example, a program number (PG # number) and (Appearance frequency information) is stored. That is, the probability that each appearance frequency parameter of PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 is divided by the sum of the appearance frequency parameters of PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 is selected by each program at random playback. Selection probability. That is, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 are selected with probabilities of 20/100, 50/100, and 30/100, respectively.

  Thereafter, the random number generation unit 116 generates random numbers within the range of the sum of the appearance frequency parameters of the program selected by the program extraction unit 115. In the second embodiment, random numbers are generated within a range of 1 to 100, and PG # 2 is selected if a value within a range of 1 to 20 is generated as a random number, and within a range of 21 to 70 as a random number. PG # 3 is selected if the value of PG # 4 is generated, and PG # 4 is selected if a value within the range of 71 to 100 is generated as a random number. According to such a calculation example, a program corresponding to the generated random number is selected. In the second embodiment, a case where PG # 3 is selected will be described.

  The system control unit 112 instructs the playback drive unit 110 to read the PG # 3 program 303 from the DVD-ROM disc 100, and the program playback unit 111 encodes and decompresses the read program 303. Output to the display unit 120 as an analog video.

  When the reproduction of PG # 3 is completed, 1 is added to the reproduction number i in FIG. 4 to determine whether or not non-sequential reproduction has been performed by the number of times RN of the non-sequential reproduction repeat number information 301 (step S407 in FIG. 4). If the number of non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 has not yet been reached, random playback processing is performed again. Here, since it is a random reproduction system, a new random reproduction program is selected in the program 303 currently held in the program extraction unit 115. On the other hand, when the shuffle playback method is performed, the program selected once is excluded from the selection target of the program extraction unit 115.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, a plurality of programs are recorded from the DVD-ROM disc 100B based on the user-defined program selection condition information on the recording medium playback device 102 side and the program selection condition information on the DVD-ROM disc 100B. Can be extracted and non-sequential reproduction can be performed by the extracted program. For this reason, content data can be categorized and data can be shared in the DVD-ROM disc 100B, and the utilization efficiency of data in the DVD-ROM disc 100B can be dramatically improved. Further, according to the second embodiment, by using the program selection condition field 304B associated with the user-defined program selection condition information held in the recording medium playback apparatus 102, the content supply source can perform random playback. However, the appearance rate of the program that the user wants to watch can be set freely and simply. With this function, when a random playback disc dedicated to CM content is produced, it is possible to easily select a program at a rate corresponding to the sponsor fee.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
Hereinafter, the portable recording medium 100C, the recording medium reproducing apparatus 103, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the third embodiment will be described. In the DVD-ROM disc 100C of the third embodiment, the content index information includes a flag indicating the presence / absence and type of non-sequential playback of the program in the content data information, repeat count information of the program during non-sequential playback, and an expiration date This is different from the DVD-ROM disc 100A of the first embodiment in that the expiration date information table includes viewing validity period information for each program unit.

  FIG. 10 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the recording medium playback apparatus 103 in the third embodiment. 10, the same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding components as those in FIG. As shown in FIG. 10, the recording medium playback apparatus 103 plays back the program recorded on the DVD-ROM disk 100C. The recording medium playback apparatus 103 includes a playback drive unit 110 that reads information from the DVD-ROM disc 100C, a program playback unit 111 that generates an analog video by expanding the encoded compressed signal read from the DVD-ROM disc 100C, and A system control unit 112 that integrally manages the entire recording medium playback apparatus 103 and an operation unit 113 for a user to input to the system control unit 112 are provided. The recording medium playback device 103 also includes a region selection information storage unit 114 that stores device playback region information input from the operation unit 113, and non-sequential based on the device playback region information of the region selection information storage unit 114 during non-sequential playback. A program extraction unit 115 that extracts a program selected by reproduction and a random number generation unit 116 that generates a random number are included. The program extraction unit 115 selects a program for the next reproduction based on the random number generated by the random number generation unit 116 from the extracted program group. In response to a command from the system control unit 112, the program reproduction unit 111 converts the selected program into an analog video signal and sends it to the display unit 120. The recording medium playback apparatus 103 also has a time information acquisition unit 117 that holds current time information. The current time information held in the time information acquisition unit 117 may be manually input by the user from the operation unit 113 or may be obtained from the network. The current time information held in the time information acquisition unit 117 may be acquired by a clock function (date time management function) held by the time information acquisition unit 117.

  FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the internal structure of the playback block 230 of the DVD-ROM disc 100C according to the third embodiment. In FIG. 11, the same or corresponding components as those in FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, the content index information 220C has an expiration date information table 310C that holds expiration date information for each reproduction unit.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing processing (step S410 in FIG. 4) in which the recording medium playback apparatus 103 in Embodiment 3 extracts programs that are candidates for non-sequential playback. Further, FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure (example of calculation of reproduction frequency) of program extraction from the DVD-ROM disc 100C in the third embodiment.

  The reproduction processing operation for the reproduction block 230 according to the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 4, 10, 11, 12, and 13. In the third embodiment, the non-sequential playback type flag RT held in the content index information 220A is set to 1 (that is, set to random playback), and the repeat count RN based on the non-sequential playback repeat count information is set to 3. A process when set to “” will be described.

  When the recording medium playback apparatus 103 plays back the playback block 230 of the DVD-ROM disc 100C, the system control unit 112 first reads the content index information 220 from the playback block 230 (step S401 in FIG. 4).

  Next, the system control unit 112 reads the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 from the content index information 220. In the third embodiment, a 7-bit information area is provided as a recording area for the non-sequential reproduction repeat count information 301, and a settable value (repeat count) is in the range of 0 to 127. In accordance with the read value, the following conditional branch is performed (step S402 in FIG. 4). When the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 is set to a value 0 (RN = 0), sequential playback, which is a normal playback method, is performed as a method of playing back the playback block 230 (step S403 in FIG. 4). On the other hand, when the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 is set to a value other than 0, the system control unit 112 determines that non-sequential playback repeat count is executed, and stores the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301. Then, the process proceeds to a device information acquisition process step (step S410 in FIG. 4).

  In the device information acquisition processing step (step S410 in FIG. 4) in the third embodiment, the processing shown in the flowchart in FIG. 12 is executed. The system control unit 112 acquires current time information (step S701 in FIG. 12). The current time information is held as 6-digit numerical information. The numerical information of the current time information is held in the form of “YYMMDD”, the first two digits YY indicate “the last two digits of the year”, the next two digits MM indicate “the month”, and the last two digits The digit DD indicates “day”. Each numerical information is assumed to be recorded by the BCD method. However, more precise time management may be performed by making the unit of time information finer (for example, so as to include hours and minutes).

  Next, the system control unit 112 reads the expiration date information table 310C of the DVD-ROM disc 100C, and acquires the expiration date information for each program (step S702 in FIG. 12). The expiration date information that is permitted to be reproduced by each program is also held in the same format as the current time information held by the time information acquisition unit 117. That is, 6-digit numerical information in the same form is recorded for each program.

  The current time information and the expiration date information for each program are compared (step S703 in FIG. 12). If the current time information exceeds the expiration date information of the program, it is determined that this program is a reproduction prohibited program. On the contrary, when the current time information is within the expiration date information of the program, it is determined that the program is a reproduction-permitted program, and this reproduction-permitted program number is held in the program extraction unit 115 (step S704 in FIG. 12). The target program to be randomly played is extracted. Such a process for determining whether or not playback is possible is performed for all programs (step S705 in FIG. 12). In the third embodiment, since the current time information is “04/01/20”, that is, January 20, 2004, the program to be randomly reproduced is the current program of “04/01/20”. PG # 2, PG # 4, and PG # 5 are set with expiration date information beyond the time.

  Thereafter, the system control unit 112 acquires the non-sequential playback type flag 300 from the content index information 220, and advances the process to the non-sequential playback type selection step (step S404 in FIG. 4). It is assumed that a 1-bit information area is provided as a recording area of the non-sequential reproduction type flag 300, and a value of either 0 or 1 is recorded as a setting value range. If the non-sequential playback type flag 300 is set to 1, playback processing is performed in a random playback mode (step S405 in FIG. 4), and if it is set to 0, playback processing in a shuffle playback mode is performed. This is performed (step S406 in FIG. 4).

  Thereafter, a program is selected non-sequentially for the number of repetitions RN set in the non-sequential playback repeat count information stored in step S402 (steps S405 and S407 in FIG. 4 or steps S406 and S408).

  In the third embodiment, since the non-sequential playback type is set to 1 (that is, RT = 1), a case where playback by the random playback (step S405 in FIG. 4) method is executed will be described. In the third embodiment, first, in the apparatus information acquisition process (step S410 in FIG. 4), the program selected at the time of non-sequential playback is extracted, and then the random number generation unit 116 performs the program extraction unit 115. A random number is generated within the range of the sum of the values of the reproduction permission flags of the program extracted in step (b).

  In the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 13, the program extraction unit 115 stores information on three programs 303 PG # 2, PG # 4, and PG # 5 (for example, program number (PG # number)). Is stored. That is, the reproduction permission flag of each program is regarded as a value 1, and a value obtained by dividing by the sum of the reproduction permission flags of PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 (ie, 1 + 1 + 1 = 3) This is the probability that the program is selected (selection probability or appearance probability). As shown in FIG. 6, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 are selected with probabilities of 1/3, 1/3, and 1/3, respectively.

  Thereafter, the random number generator 116 generates a random number within a range of 1 to 3. If a value 1 is generated as a random number, PG # 2 is selected. If a value 2 is generated as a random number, PG # 3 is selected. If value 3 is generated as a random number, PG # 4 is selected. By such processing, a program corresponding to the generated random number is selected and reproduced. The case where PG # 4 is selected will be described below.

  The system control unit 112 instructs the playback drive unit 110 to read the PG # 4 program 303 from the DVD-ROM disc 100C, and the program playback unit 111 encodes and decompresses the read program 303. Output to the display unit 120 as an analog video.

  When the reproduction of PG # 4 is completed, 1 is added to the number of reproductions i in FIG. 4 to determine whether or not non-sequential reproduction has been performed by the number of times RN of the non-sequential reproduction repeat number information 301 (step S407 in FIG. 4). If the number of non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 has not yet been reached, random playback processing is performed again. Here, since it is a random reproduction system, a new random reproduction program is selected in the program 303 currently held in the program extraction unit 115. On the other hand, when the shuffle playback method is performed, the program selected once is removed from the program extraction unit 115.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment, by using the current time information held in the recording medium playback apparatus 103 and the program selection condition information of the DVD-ROM disc 100C, the event information and the advertisement information When such a limited-time program is played back at random, it is not automatically extracted after the target period has elapsed. As described above, since it is possible to prevent giving erroneous information to the user, it is possible to provide highly reliable content.

Embodiment 4 FIG.
Hereinafter, the portable recording medium 100D, the recording medium reproducing device 104, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the fourth embodiment will be described. The fourth embodiment is different from the third embodiment in that the portable recording medium has the appearance frequency parameter information of each program.

  FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the internal structure of the playback block 230 of the DVD-ROM disc 100D according to the fourth embodiment. In FIG. 14, the same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding components as those in FIG. As shown in FIG. 14, the playback block 230 includes two pieces of information, content index information 220 </ b> D and content data information 221. The content data information 221 is composed of a plurality of programs (PG) which are the minimum units for reproduction control. The content index information 220D includes information such as the playback order of a plurality of programs stored in the content data information 221, the presence and type of non-sequential playback, the number of repeats in non-sequential playback, and the like. Further, the content index information 220D includes a program selection condition information table 302D that holds appearance frequency parameter information for each playback unit, and an expiration date information table 310D that holds expiration date information that is permitted to be played back for each playback unit. .

  FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing processing (step S410 in FIG. 4) in which the recording medium playback apparatus 104 in Embodiment 4 extracts a program that is a candidate for non-sequential playback. FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure (example of calculation of reproduction frequency) of program extraction from the DVD-ROM disc 100D at the time of non-sequential reproduction according to the fourth embodiment.

  An example of the reproduction processing operation for the reproduction block 230 of the DVD-ROM disc 100D of Embodiment 4 will be described with reference to FIG. 2, FIG. 4, FIG. 10, FIG. 14, FIG. In the fourth embodiment, the non-sequential playback type flag RT held in the content index information 220D is set to 1 (that is, random playback), and the repeat count RN based on the non-sequential playback repeat count information is set to 3. The processing in the case will be described.

  When the recording medium playback apparatus 104 plays back the playback block 230 in the DVD-ROM disc 100D, first, the content index information 220 is read from the playback block 230 (step S401 in FIG. 4).

  Next, the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 is read from the content index information 220D. A 7-bit information area is provided as a recording area for the non-sequential reproduction repeat count information 301, and the range of values that can be set (repeat count) is in the range of 0-127. Depending on the read value, the following conditional branching is performed (step S402 in FIG. 4). When the value 0 is set in the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 (that is, when RN = 0), sequential playback which is a normal playback method is performed as a method of playing the playback block 230 (step S403 in FIG. 4). ). On the other hand, if the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 is set to a value other than 0, the system control unit 112 determines that non-sequential playback repeat is executed, stores the non-sequential playback repeat count information 301, and The process proceeds to a device information acquisition process step (step S410 in FIG. 4).

  In the device information acquisition processing step (step S410 in FIG. 4) in the fourth embodiment, the processing shown in the flowchart in FIG. 15 is executed. The system control unit 112 acquires region selection information (user-defined program selection condition information) held in the region selection information storage unit 114 (step S801 in FIG. 15). The region selection information is set to a value within the range of the number of recordings in the program selection condition field 304D in the DVD-ROM disc 100D. For example, in FIG. 14, since the program selection condition field 304D is divided into five regions, the region selection information RI also takes a value within the range of “001” to “005”. In the fourth embodiment, a case where a value of “003” (that is, Kansai region) is set in the region selection information RI will be described. Note that user-defined program selection condition information such as region selection information may be manually input by the user using the operation unit 113, or may be input in advance by the manufacturer according to the sales region of the recording medium playback device 104. Alternatively, it may be configured to be automatically set in the recording medium playback apparatus 104 through a network or the like connected by the user, and further set from a menu screen described in a fifth embodiment to be described later. You may comprise.

  In the system control unit 112, the program selection condition field 304D corresponding to the value of the area selection information stored in the recording medium playback device 104 is acquired from the program selection condition information table 302D of the DVD-ROM disc 100D (FIG. 15). Step S802). In the fourth embodiment, since the region selection information RI is “003”, the program selection condition field 304D in the Kansai region (RI = 003) is acquired. As shown in FIG. 14, in the program selection condition field 304D, appearance frequency parameter information having a length of 8 bits is held for each reproduction unit. Appearance frequency parameter information can be set to a value in the range from 0 to 255, and if the value 255 is set, it means that the probability that the program is selected by random playback is the highest. When the value 0 is set, it means that no program is selected in random playback.

  Next, the system control unit 112 acquires the current time information held in the time information acquisition unit 117 (step S803 in FIG. 15). The current time information is held, for example, as 6-digit numerical information. The numerical information of the current time information is held in the form of “YYMMDD”, for example, the first two digits indicate “the last two digits of the year”, the next two digits indicate “the month”, and the last two digits The digit indicates “day”. Each numerical information is recorded by the BCD method.

  Next, the system control unit 112 reads the expiration date information table 310D of the DVD-ROM disc 100D, and acquires the expiration date information for each program (step S804 in FIG. 15). The expiration date information that is permitted to be reproduced by each program is also held in the same format as the current time information held by the time information acquisition unit 117. That is, 6-digit numerical information is recorded in the same form for each program.

  Next, the system control unit 112 determines the appearance frequency parameter of the program in the program selection condition field 304D (step S805 in FIG. 15), and determines whether the program number has a value 0 that is not set in the appearance frequency parameter. . The current time information is compared with the expiration date information for each program from among programs whose appearance frequency parameter is set to a value other than 0 (step S806 in FIG. 15), and the current time information is within the expiration date information of the program. If there is a program, it is determined that the program is a reproduction-permitted program, and the reproduction-permitted program number and the appearance frequency parameter are associated with each other and stored in the program extraction unit 115 (step S807 in FIG. 15), thereby being a program to be randomly reproduced Perform extraction. Such reproducibility determination processing is performed for all programs (step S808 in FIG. 15).

  In the fourth embodiment, since RI = 003, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 are extracted. Thereafter, the expiration date information of each program is compared with the current time information for the extracted program. In the fourth embodiment, since the current time information is “03/12/10”, it is determined that all programs have time limit information valid for the current time, and PG # 2, PG # 3 and PG # 4 are extracted and stored in the program extraction unit 115 in association with the appearance frequency parameter of the program 303.

  Then, the system control unit 112 acquires the non-sequential playback type flag 300 from the content index information 220, and advances the process to the non-sequential playback type selection step (step S404 in FIG. 4). It is assumed that a 1-bit information area is provided as a recording area for the non-sequential reproduction type flag 300, and a value of either 0 or 1 is recorded as the setting value range. If the non-sequential playback type flag 300 is set to 1, playback processing is performed in a random playback mode (step S405 in FIG. 4), and if it is set to 0, playback processing in a shuffle playback mode is performed. This is performed (step S406 in FIG. 4).

  In the fourth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 16, the program extraction unit 115 stores information on the three programs 303 (eg, program number (PG # number)) of PG # 2, PG # 4, and PG # 5. (Appearance frequency information) is stored. The probability obtained by dividing the appearance frequency parameter of each program by the sum of the appearance frequency parameters of PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 is the probability of being selected for random reproduction in each program. That is, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 are selected with probabilities of 20/100, 50/100, and 30/100, respectively.

  Thereafter, the random number generation unit 116 generates a random number within a range of 1 to 100, and if a value within a range of 1 to 20 is generated as a random number, PG # 2 is selected, and a range of 21 to 70 as a random number is selected. PG # 3 is selected when a value within the range is generated, and PG # 4 is selected when a value within the range of 71 to 100 is generated as a random number. Through such processing, a program corresponding to the generated random number is selected. In the fourth embodiment, a case where PG # 3 is selected will be described.

  The system control unit 112 instructs the playback drive unit 110 to read the PG # 3 program 303 from the DVD-ROM disc 100, and the program playback unit 111 encodes and decompresses the read program 303. Output to the display unit 120 as an analog video.

  When the reproduction of PG # 3 is completed, 1 is added to the reproduction number i in FIG. 4 to determine whether or not non-sequential reproduction has been performed by the number of times RN of the non-sequential reproduction repeat number information 301 (step S407 in FIG. 4). If the number of non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 has not yet been reached, random playback processing is performed again. Here, since it is a random reproduction system, a new random reproduction program is selected in the program 303 currently held in the program extraction unit 115. On the other hand, when the shuffle playback method is performed, the program selected once is removed from the program extraction unit 115.

  Thereafter, a case where the same DVD-ROM disc 100D is reproduced after a certain period of time will be described. The same processing is performed until the step until the appearance frequency parameter of the program in the program selection condition field 304D is determined (step S805 in FIG. 15). Therefore, since the program extracted by the appearance frequency parameter is RI = 003 as in the previous time, PG # 2, PG # 3, and PG # 4 are extracted. Thereafter, the expiration date information of each program is compared with the current time information for the extracted program. In the fourth embodiment, since the current time information is “04/01/20”, PG # 2 and PG # 4, which are programs that hold valid time limit information for the current time, are extracted. Then, the program number and the appearance frequency parameter are associated with each other and held in the program extraction unit 115.

  In the fourth embodiment, an algorithm for selecting a program using random numbers is as shown in FIG. That is, the probability obtained by dividing the appearance frequency parameter of each program by the sum of the appearance frequency parameters of PG # 2 and PG # 4 is the probability (selection probability or appearance probability) of selection in random reproduction in each program. That is, the selection probabilities of PG # 2 and PG # 4 are recalculated, and are selected with probabilities of 20/50 and 30/50, respectively.

  As described above, a recording medium playback apparatus capable of recalculating the program appearance probability to be automatically assigned to the extracted program by not extracting the program for the random playback for the program whose expiration date has been reached. 104 and a recording medium can be provided.

  Thereafter, the random number generation unit 116 generates random numbers within the range of the sum of the appearance frequency parameters of the programs selected by the program extraction unit 115. In the fourth embodiment, random numbers are generated within a range of 1 to 50, and PG # 2 is selected if a value within a range of 1 to 20 is generated as a random number, and within a range of 21 to 50 as a random number. If the value of PG # 4 is generated, PG # 4 is selected. A program corresponding to the generated random number is selected. In the fourth embodiment, a case where PG # 4 is selected will be described.

  Thereafter, the system control unit 112 instructs the reproduction drive unit 110 to read the program 303 of PG # 3 from the DVD-ROM disc 100D, and the program reproduction unit 111 encodes and decompresses the read program 303. Then, it is output to the display unit 120 as an analog video.

  When the playback of PG # 4 is completed, it is determined whether or not non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 has been performed (step S407 in FIG. 4), and the number of non-sequential playback repeat count information 301 is not yet reached. In this case, the random reproduction process is performed again. Here, since it is a random reproduction system, a new random reproduction program is selected in the program 303 currently held in the program extraction unit 115. On the other hand, when the shuffle playback method is performed, the program selected once is removed from the next selection by being removed from the program extraction unit 115.

  As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, it is possible to freely and simply set the appearance rate of a program that the user wants to watch even in random playback, and non-sequential playback of limited-time programs. In this case, the content can be effectively used because it is not automatically extracted after the target period has elapsed.

Embodiment 5 FIG.
Hereinafter, the portable recording medium 100E, the recording medium reproducing apparatus 105, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the fifth embodiment will be described. In the first to fourth embodiments, the area number in the program selection condition information table stored in the disc is specified based on the user-defined program selection condition information stored in advance on the recording medium playback device side. In the fifth embodiment, the menu screen displayed based on the content data information for the menu screen in the disc is not stored in advance in the recording medium playback apparatus side in the fifth embodiment. A method for setting user-defined program selection condition information will be described. Although the following description is performed by a method according to the description of the first embodiment, the aspect of the fifth embodiment can be applied to the second to fourth embodiments.

  FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the internal data structure of the DVD-ROM disc 100E according to the fifth embodiment. The data area 212 includes menu screen content data information 250 and at least one playback block 230. The menu screen content data information 250 is configured by interleaving plural types of pack data such as a video pack (V_Pack) 251, an audio pack (A_Pack) 252, and a sub video pack (SP_Pack) 253. Each pack data size is the same, and pack data for each type is collected and reintegrated to become digital data information constituting video data information, audio data information, and sub-video data information, respectively. Although FIG. 17 shows an example of classification into three types of pack information such as video data information, audio data information, and sub-video data information, audio data may not exist. In addition to the three types of pack information shown in FIG. 17, the pack information may be described including pack information of different types such as still image data and control data. Regarding other configurations, the configuration of the DVD-ROM disc 100E is the same as the configuration of the DVD-ROM disc 100A described in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a menu screen displayed on the display unit 120 when the menu screen content data information 250 of the DVD-ROM disc 100E is played back by the recording medium playback apparatus 105 in the fifth embodiment. As shown in FIG. 18, the menu screen 901 is configured by combining and displaying video data information 902 and sub-video data information 903. The video data information 902 is background image information on the menu screen, and the sub video data information 903 indicates button information superimposed on the video data information 902.

  In FIG. 18, six button information is held as sub-picture data information 903, five buttons 911,..., 915 indicate buttons for setting region selection information, and button 916 is the main part ( Program) Indicates a button for starting playback. The menu screen 901 has only one highlight for the currently selected button. In FIG. 18, an area information selection button (Tohoku) 911 is highlighted. At this time, when the user presses the right arrow key, left arrow key, up arrow key, or down arrow key (not shown) of the operation unit 113, the highlighted button can be moved. Further, by pressing a determination key (not shown) of the operation unit 113, a command assigned to the highlighted button is executed.

  The above operation is a technique that is also used in DVD-Video discs. However, in the fifth embodiment, the command assigned to this button is expanded, and the area as user program selection condition information is added to the command. A command for setting selection condition information is provided.

  FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing a logical data structure of sub-picture data information in the fifth embodiment. In FIG. 19, sub-video data information 1000 is obtained by collecting and integrating sub-video packs 253 in the menu screen content data information 250. The sub-picture data information 1000 includes graphics control data 1001 and graphics image data 1002. The graphics image data 1002 is information of the sub-picture information (sub-picture picture) 903 itself in FIG. 18 and includes button data 1012 that is sub-picture information corresponding to the number of buttons existing in the menu. The graphics control data 1001 includes button information 1011 corresponding to the number of buttons existing in the menu. The button information 1011 and the button data 1012 are information corresponding 1: 1. In the fifth embodiment, since there are six buttons, it is assumed that six button information 1011 and button data 1012 exist.

  As shown in FIG. 19, each button information 1011 includes button position information 1021, adjacent button information 1022, and button commands 1023. The button position information 1021 indicates the coordinates and size assigned as buttons from the sub-picture video included in the graphics image data 1002. The adjacent button information 1022 indicates the button number of the highlight movement destination according to the information input from the operation unit 113. The button command 1023 stores command information that defines the behavior of the recording medium playback device 105 when the button selection is determined.

  As illustrated in FIG. 19, the button command 1023 includes a command type 1031 and a command argument 1032. A command type 1031 indicates a basic command type, and a command argument 1032 is treated as a qualifier of the command type 1031. A similar technique is used in the DVD-Video standard, and “jump commands”, “set commands”, and the like are generally used. For example, in the data structure in the case of “jump command”, a bit string indicating “jump command” is recorded in the command type 1031, and “title number” is held in the command argument 1032. When such a button command 1023 is executed, a transition is made to the playback block 230 of the title number held in the command argument 1032 and playback of this playback block 230 is started.

  In the fifth embodiment, a “region selection command” for specifying program selection condition information is held in the command type 1031 of the button command 1023, and a “region selection information number” is held in the command argument 1032.

  FIG. 19 shows an example of code implementation when the bit length of the button command 1023 is assumed to be 64 bits. For example, if the value “1” is all assigned to the 14-bit area from the 63rd bit to the 40th bit as the command type 1031, it is handled as the “region selection command”.

  In the command argument 1032, “area selection information number” is recorded in units of BCD. As an example of bit allocation, numerical information from the hundredth place to the first place of the area selection information number is held for the 40-bit area from the 39th bit to the 0th bit. In the fifth embodiment, it is assumed that a value in the range from “001” to “005” is set as shown in FIG.

  In the fifth embodiment, an example is shown in which the area selection information number is held as the command argument 1032 in the button command 1023. However, the area selection information number 1033 is held in a place independent of the data in the button command 1032. In this case, the same effect can be obtained.

  FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing setting processing of area selection condition information in the fifth embodiment. The region information setting processing operation in the fifth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 17, FIG. 18, FIG.

  When the DVD-ROM disc 100E is inserted into the reproduction drive unit 110 (step S1101 in FIG. 20) (or when a menu screen is called after the disc is inserted), the DVD-ROM disc 100E is loaded based on a request from the system control unit 112. The menu screen content data information 250 recorded in is reproduced. When the menu screen content data information 250 is reproduced, the menu screen 901 is displayed on the display unit 120 (step S1102 in FIG. 20). In the fifth embodiment, six buttons are prepared on the menu screen 901, and one of them is highlighted.

  The user (viewer) can press any of the arrow keys (up / down / left / right keys) in each direction of the operation unit 113 (step S1103 in FIG. 20) to move the highlight. Even after the highlight is moved, the menu screen 901 is continuously displayed on the display unit 120.

  Also, the viewer can make a selection decision on the highlighted button by pressing the enter key on the operation unit 113 (step S1104 in FIG. 20). When the button selection decision is made, the system control unit 112 acquires information on the button command 1023 in the button information 1011 corresponding to the pressed button, and performs data analysis on the button command 1023 (step S1105 in FIG. 20). ).

  Next, if a bit string specifying “region selection command” is assigned to the command type 1031 of the button command 1023, the system control unit 112 determines that the button command 1023 is the region selection information setting button, and the button A region selection information number (RI: Region Information) 1033 is acquired from the command argument 1032 of the command 1023 (step S1106 in FIG. 20). It is assumed that the area selection information number 1033 set in the command argument 1032 is a code number associated with the button. That is, the command argument 1032 of the area information selection button (Tohoku) 911 on the menu screen 901 is “001” indicating the Tohoku region, and the command argument 1032 of the area information selection button (Kanto) 912 is “Kanto region”. The command argument 1032 of the area information selection button (Kansai) 913 is set to a value such as “003” indicating the Kansai region.

  Here, the processing in the case where the area selection information number 1033 is held independently in a place different from the internal data of the button command 1032, for example, in the button information 1011 will be specifically described. When a button is determined by the operation unit 113, first, regardless of the command type 1031, the region selection information number 1033 in the button information 1011 is held in the region selection information storage unit 114 in the recording medium playback device 105. To do. Thereafter, the command described in the button command 1023 is executed. At this time, for example, if a jump command to the playback block 230 for which random playback is set is assigned to the button command 1023, playback of the playback block 230 is performed simultaneously with the setting of the region setting parameter. Similar effects can be obtained.

  In the fifth embodiment, a specific description will be given assuming that the area information selection button (Kansai) 913 on the menu screen 901 is selected and pressed. When the area information selection button (Kansai) 913 is pressed (step S1104 in FIG. 20), the system control unit 112 acquires “003”, which is the code number in the area selection information number 1033, from the command argument 1032. Thereafter, this code number is held in the area selection information storage unit 114 in the recording medium playback apparatus 105, and the screen returns to the menu screen 901. The area selection information storage unit 114 may be an internal memory in the recording medium playback apparatus 105 as shown in the figure, or may be a register of the system control unit 112.

  Thereafter, the main transition button 916 is pressed on the menu screen 901 (step S1104 in FIG. 20). A bit string indicating “jump command” is stored in the command type 1031 of the main transition button 916, the title number indicated in the command argument 1032 is acquired (step S1107 in FIG. 20), and the playback block 230 of the title number is played back. (Step S1108 in FIG. 20). By such an operation, the main part (program) which is the reproduction block 230 in which random reproduction is set is reproduced.

  Subsequent reproduction processing is the same as in the first embodiment. For example, the reproduction processing operation of the reproduction block 230 for which random reproduction is set is performed by random reproduction processing in a form according to the first embodiment. In the fifth embodiment, the same reproduction method as in the first embodiment is not necessarily employed. For example, the playback type may include one or more of normal sequential playback, shuffle playback, and random playback. Further, the reproduction type may include the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction shown in the sixth or seventh embodiment described later.

  As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, the user can set the area selection information number by a simple operation such as selecting a button while viewing the menu screen image, and can reproduce the recording medium in advance. Since there is no need to manually set the area selection information number in the device 105, the operability can be improved and the burden on the user can be reduced.

Embodiment 6 FIG.
Hereinafter, the portable recording medium 100F, the recording medium reproducing apparatus 106, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the sixth embodiment will be described. The sixth embodiment is different from the second embodiment in that, as the non-sequential reproduction type RT, in addition to the shuffle reproduction and the random reproduction, the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction is added. Here, the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction means that when the program is reproduced a predetermined number of times by the recording medium reproducing apparatus, the number of reproductions based on the appearance frequency parameter information recorded on the portable recording medium is guaranteed. This is a playback method for playing a program non-sequentially. The portable recording medium 100F, the recording medium playback apparatus 106, and the recording medium playback method according to the sixth embodiment are the portable recording medium according to the second embodiment, except that the number of times guaranteed pseudo-random playback function is provided. 100B, the recording medium playback apparatus 102, and the recording medium playback method are the same.

  FIG. 21 is a block diagram schematically showing the configuration of the recording medium playback apparatus 106 in the sixth embodiment. In FIG. 21, the same reference numerals are given to the same or corresponding components as those in FIG. As shown in FIG. 21, the recording medium reproducing device 106 reproduces program information recorded on a DVD-ROM disc 100F as a portable recording medium. The recording medium playback apparatus 106 includes a playback drive unit 110 that reads information from the DVD-ROM disc 100F, a program playback unit 111 that generates an analog video by expanding the encoded compressed signal read from the DVD-ROM disc 100F, A system control unit 112 that integrally manages the entire recording medium playback apparatus 106 and an operation unit 113 for a user to input to the system control unit 112 are provided. The recording medium playback device 106 also includes a region selection information storage unit 114 that stores device playback region information input from the operation unit 113, and non-sequential based on the device playback region information of the region selection information storage unit 114 during non-sequential playback. A program extraction unit 115 that extracts a program selected by reproduction and a random number generation unit 116 that generates a random number are included. The program extraction unit 115 selects a program for the next reproduction based on the random number generated by the random number generation unit 116 from the extracted program group. In response to a command from the system control unit 112, the program reproduction unit 111 converts the selected program into an analog video signal and sends it to the display unit 120. In addition, the recording medium playback device 106 includes a playback count recording unit (for example, DRAM) 118 for recording the playback count of each program and the remaining playback count and the like (the contents of FIG. A memory (for example, a non-volatile memory) 119 for storage. Note that the area for storing the number of reproductions of each program, the remaining number of reproductions, and the like is not limited to the illustrated configuration. In the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction, the program is reproduced non-sequentially so that the number of reproductions based on the appearance frequency parameter information is always guaranteed when the extracted program is reproduced a predetermined number of times.

  In the sixth embodiment, the content index information 220B recorded on the DVD-ROM disc 100F has a program selection condition information table 302B holding appearance frequency parameter information for each playback unit (see FIG. 7). In the description of the sixth embodiment, reference is also made to FIGS. 2 and 7 used in the description of the second embodiment.

  FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing the operation of the recording medium playback apparatus 106 in the sixth embodiment. FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation at the time of the guaranteed number of times pseudo-random reproduction. In the sixth embodiment, it is assumed that a 2-bit information area is provided as a recording area of the non-sequential reproduction type flag 300, and the set value range is 0, 1, or 2. If the non-sequential playback type flag 300 is set to 1, playback processing is performed in the random playback mode (step S405 in FIG. 22), and if it is set to 0, playback processing in the shuffle playback mode is performed. Is performed (step S406 in FIG. 22), and if it is set to 2, reproduction processing by the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction is performed (step S1200 in FIG. 22).

  In the following, as shown in FIG. 23, the target program for the guaranteed number of times of random playback (that is, the program extracted in step S410) is commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4. The appearance frequency parameters recorded on the DVD-ROM disc 100F are 30, 10, 50, 10 for each of the commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, A case where the repeat count RN is 1 will be described. In the sixth embodiment, for example, when 100 times (= 30 + 10 + 50 + 10) of program playback is executed, the number of playback times for each of the commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 is always 30 times, 10 times, 50 times and 10 times are guaranteed. Further, in the sixth embodiment, when selecting each of the commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, CM # 4, a fixed selection probability of 30/100, 10/100, 50/100, 10 / 100 is used.

  The random number generation unit 116 generates a random number within the range of the sum (ie, 100) of the appearance frequency parameters (ie, 30, 10, 50, 10) of the program extracted by the program extraction unit 115. In the sixth embodiment, if a random number is generated in the range of 1 to 100 and a value in the range of 1 to 30 is generated as the random number, CM # 1 is selected, and the random number is in the range of 31 to 40 CM # 2 is selected if a value in the range is generated, CM # 3 is selected if a value in the range of 41 to 90 is generated as a random number, and a value in the range of 91 to 100 is generated as a random number. CM # 4 is selected. By such a method, a program corresponding to the generated random number, that is, any of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 has a selection probability of 30/100, 10/100, 50/100, Selected at 10/100.

  Hereinafter, an example shown in FIG. 23 will be described. In the example shown in FIG. 23, when the extracted programs CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are reproduced 100 times during the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction, it is based on the appearance frequency parameter information. The program is reproduced non-sequentially so that the reproduction times of 30, 10, 50 and 10 are guaranteed.

  As shown in FIG. 23, before the start of playback (0 playback times), the remaining playback times of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are 30 times, 10 times, and 50 times, respectively. 10 times.

  Next, the first reproduction is performed. In the first reproduction, a program is first selected. The probability of selecting a program (selection probability) is 30/100, 10/100, 50/100, and 10/100 for CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, respectively (FIG. 22 step S1201). Here, CM # 1 is selected, and it is determined whether or not the remaining number of reproductions of CM # 1 is 1 or more (step S1202 in FIG. 22). Since the remaining number of playbacks of CM # 1 is 30 times, the playback of the selected CM # 1 is executed (step S1203 in FIG. 22), and the counter value indicating the remaining number of playbacks of the played CM # 1 is decremented by 1 30 times to 29 times. As a result, the remaining reproduction counts of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are 29 times, 10 times, 50 times, and 10 times, respectively.

  Next, the second reproduction is performed. In the second reproduction, first, a program is selected. The probability that the program is selected (selection probability) is not changed, and is 30/100, 10/100, 50/100, 10/100 for CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, respectively. Yes (step S1201 in FIG. 22). Here, CM # 2 is selected, and it is determined whether or not the remaining number of playback times of CM # 2 is 1 or more (step S1202 in FIG. 22). Since the remaining number of playback times of the selected CM # 2 is 10, the playback of the CM # 2 is executed (step S1203 in FIG. 22), and the counter value indicating the remaining number of playback times of the reproduced CM # 2 is decremented by 1 10 times to 9 times. As a result, the remaining reproduction counts of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are 29 times, 9 times, 50 times, and 10 times, respectively.

  Thereafter, the same program selection process and reproduction process are repeated. For example, the 95th reproduction will be described. In the 95th playback, first, a program is selected. The probability that the program is selected (selection probability) is not changed, and is 30/100, 10/100, 50/100, 10/100 for CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, respectively. Yes (step S1201 in FIG. 22). Here, if CM # 2 is selected, it is determined whether or not the remaining number of reproductions of CM # 2 is 1 or more (step S1202 in FIG. 22). Since the remaining number of reproductions of CM # 2 is 0, the reproduction of CM # 2 is not executed and the program is selected again (step S1201 in FIG. 22). Here, if CM # 3 is selected, it is determined whether or not the remaining number of reproductions of CM # 3 is 1 or more (step S1202 in FIG. 22). Since the remaining number of reproductions of CM # 3 is four times, CM # 3 is reproduced (step S1203 in FIG. 22), and the counter value indicating the remaining number of reproductions of the reproduced CM # 3 is decremented by 1 and the number of reproductions starts from four times. 3 times. As a result, the remaining number of reproductions of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 is 1, 0, 3, and 1 respectively.

  Thereafter, the same program selection process and playback process are repeated until the remaining playback counts of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 all become zero. Note that the disc 100F may be removed from the recording medium playback device 106 during playback, but the remaining playback count information shown in FIG. 23 together with the disc identification information, for example, the memory 119 of the recording medium playback device 106 or the disc itself ( (When the disc is a writable disc), it is possible to guarantee a predetermined number of times of reproduction even when the reproduction of the disc is resumed.

  As described above, according to the sixth embodiment, a plurality of programs are read from the DVD-ROM disc 100F based on the user-defined program selection condition information on the recording medium playback device 106 side and the program selection condition information on the DVD-ROM disc 100F. Can be extracted and non-sequential reproduction can be performed by the extracted program. For this reason, it is possible to categorize content data and share data in the DVD-ROM disc 100F, and to dramatically improve the utilization efficiency of the data in the DVD-ROM disc 100F. Further, according to the sixth embodiment, by using the program selection condition field 304B associated with the user-defined program selection condition information held in the recording medium reproduction apparatus 106, the content supply source can perform random reproduction. However, the appearance rate of the program that the user wants to watch can be set freely and simply. With this function, when a random playback disc dedicated to CM content is produced, it is possible to easily select a program at a rate corresponding to the sponsor fee.

  The configurations of the third, fourth, and fifth embodiments may be combined with the portable recording medium 100F, the recording medium reproducing device 106, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the sixth embodiment.

  In the above description, the case where the number of non-sequential playback types is three has been described. However, the number of non-sequential playback types may be two or less including the number-guaranteed pseudo-random playback of the sixth embodiment. Further, four or more types may be added to which other types are added.

Embodiment 7 FIG.
Hereinafter, the portable recording medium 100G, the recording medium reproducing apparatus 107, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the seventh embodiment will be described. The seventh embodiment is different from the portable recording medium 100F, the recording medium reproducing device 106, and the recording medium reproducing method according to the sixth embodiment in that the selection probability used for the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction is changed. Except for this point, the seventh embodiment is the same as the sixth embodiment.

  FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing the operation of the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction (when the selection probability is changed) in the seventh embodiment. FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram of the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction (when the selection probability is changed) in the seventh embodiment. In the DVD-ROM disc 100G of the seventh embodiment, it is assumed that a 2-bit information area is provided as a recording area for the non-sequential playback type flag 300, and the setting value range is 0, 1, or 2. Is the value of When the non-sequential playback type flag 300 is set to 1, playback processing is performed in the random playback mode (step S405 in FIG. 24), and when it is set to 0, playback processing by the shuffle playback mode is performed. Is performed (step S406 in FIG. 24), and when it is set to 2, reproduction processing by the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction is performed (step S1300 in FIG. 24).

  In the following, as shown in FIG. 25, the target program for the guaranteed number of times of random playback is four programs of commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, which are recorded on a portable recording medium. The case where the appearance frequency parameter is 30, 10, 50, 10 for each of the commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, and the repeat count RN is one will be described. . In the seventh embodiment, for example, when 100 times (= 30 + 10 + 50 + 10) of program playback is executed, the number of playback times for each of the commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 is always 30 times, 10 times, 50 times and 10 times are guaranteed. In the sixth embodiment, the selection probabilities 30/100, 10/100, 50/100, and 10/100 are selected when each of the commercial information CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 is selected. However, in the seventh embodiment, the selection probability is changed based on the remaining number of reproductions of the program.

  The example shown in FIG. 25 will be described below. The example shown in FIG. 25 is based on the appearance frequency parameter information when the extracted programs CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are reproduced 100 times during the guaranteed number of times pseudo random reproduction. The program is played back non-sequentially so that the playback times of 30 times, 10 times, 50 times and 10 times are guaranteed.

  The random number generation unit 116 selects a random number within the range of the total sum (that is, 100) of the remaining number of reproductions (that is, 30, 10, 50, 10) of the program extracted by the program extraction unit 115 at the first program selection. generate. At this time, if a random number is generated within a range of 1 to 100 and a value within a range of 1 to 30 is generated as a random number, CM # 1 is selected, and a value within a range of 31 to 40 is generated as a random number. If CM # 2 is selected, CM # 3 is selected if a value in the range of 41 to 90 is generated as a random number, and CM # 4 if a value in the range of 91 to 100 is generated as a random number. Is selected.

  When the first reproduction program is CM # 1, the random number generation unit 116 selects the remaining number of reproductions of the program selected by the program extraction unit 115 (that is, 29, 10) when the second program selection is performed. , 50, 10), random numbers are generated within the range of the sum (ie, 99). At this time, if a random number is generated in the range of 1 to 99 and a value in the range of 1 to 29 is generated as a random number, CM # 1 is selected, and a value in the range of 30 to 39 is generated as a random number. If CM # 2 is selected, CM # 3 is selected if a value in the range of 40 to 89 is generated as a random number, and CM # 4 if a value in the range of 90 to 99 is generated as a random number. Is selected.

  Similarly, as shown in FIG. 25, the program selection probability is changed based on the total number of remaining reproductions of each program and the remaining number of reproductions for each program.

  The number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction shown in FIG. 25 is executed while changing the program selection probability as follows. As shown in FIG. 25, before the start of playback (0 playback times), the remaining playback times of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are 30 times, 10 times, and 50 times, respectively. 10 times.

  Next, the first reproduction is performed. In the first reproduction, a program is first selected. The probability of selecting a program (selection probability) is 30/100, 10/100, 50/100, and 10/100 for CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, respectively (FIG. 24 step S1301). Here, since CM # 1 is selected, reproduction of CM # 1 is executed (step S1302 in FIG. 24), and the counter value indicating the remaining number of reproductions of reproduced CM # 1 is decremented by 1 (FIG. 24). Step S1303), from 30 times to 29 times. As a result, the remaining reproduction counts of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are 29 times, 10 times, 50 times, and 10 times, respectively. Next, the selection probability used when selecting the next program is changed (step S1304 in FIG. 24). Here, the selection probability of CM # 1 is changed from 30/100 to 29/99. As a result, the selection probabilities are 29/99, 10/99, 50/99, and 10/99 for CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, respectively.

  Next, the second reproduction is performed. In the second reproduction, first, a program is selected. The probability that the program is selected (selection probability) is a changed value, and for each of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, 29/99, 10/99, 50/99, 10/99 (step S1301 in FIG. 24). Here, since CM # 2 is selected, reproduction of CM # 2 is executed (step S1302 in FIG. 24), and the counter value indicating the remaining number of reproductions of reproduced CM # 2 is decremented by 1 (in FIG. 24). Step S1303) 10 times to 9 times. As a result, the remaining reproduction counts of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 are 29 times, 9 times, 50 times, and 10 times, respectively. Next, the selection probability used when selecting the next program is changed (step S1304 in FIG. 24). Here, the selection probability of CM # 2 is changed from 10/99 to 9/98. As a result, the selection probabilities are 29/98, 9/98, 50/98, and 10/98 for CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, respectively.

  Thereafter, the same program selection and reproduction process are repeated. For example, the 95th reproduction will be described. In the 95th playback, first, a program is selected. The probability that the program is selected (selection probability) is a changed value, and for each of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, 1/6, 0/6, 4/6, 1/6 (step S1301 in FIG. 24). Here, since the selection probability of CM # 2 is 0/6, that is, 0, CM # 2 is not selected. Therefore, in the seventh embodiment, unlike the processing in step S1202 in the sixth embodiment, it is not necessary to determine whether or not the remaining number of reproductions is one or more. If CM # 3 is selected, CM # 3 is reproduced (step S1302 in FIG. 24), and the counter value indicating the remaining number of reproductions of the reproduced CM # 3 is decremented by 1 (step S1303 in FIG. 24), 4 From 3 times to 3 times. As a result, the remaining number of reproductions of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 is 1, 0, 3, and 1 respectively. Next, the selection probability used when selecting the next program is changed (step S1304 in FIG. 24). Here, the selection probability of CM # 3 is changed from 4/6 to 3/5. As a result, the selection probabilities are 1/5, 0/5, 3/5, and 1/5 for CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4, respectively.

  Thereafter, the same program selection process and playback process are repeated until the remaining playback counts of CM # 1, CM # 2, CM # 3, and CM # 4 all become zero.

  As described above, according to the seventh embodiment, the same effect as in the sixth embodiment can be obtained. Further, according to the seventh embodiment, since the selection probability of the program is reduced according to the remaining number of reproductions of the program, the reduction ratio of the remaining reproduction number of each program can be made uniform.

  The configuration or process of Embodiments 1 to 6 may be combined with the portable recording medium 100G, the recording medium playback device 107, and the recording medium playback method of Embodiment 7.

  In the above description, the case where the number of non-sequential playback types is three has been described. However, the number of non-sequential playback types may be two or less including the number-guaranteed pseudo-random playback of the seventh embodiment. Further, four or more types may be added to which other types are added.

6 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a recording medium playback device in Embodiments 1, 2, and 5. FIG. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an internal data structure of a DVD-ROM disc in the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, and seventh embodiments. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal structure of a reproduction block of a DVD-ROM disc in Embodiment 1. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing DVD-ROM disc playback processing in the first, second, third, and fourth embodiments. 4 is a flowchart showing processing for extracting a program that is a candidate for non-sequential playback by the recording medium playback device in the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure of program extraction from a DVD-ROM disc in the first embodiment. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal structure of a playback block of a DVD-ROM disc in a second embodiment. 11 is a flowchart showing processing for extracting a program that is a candidate for non-sequential playback by the recording medium playback device in the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure for extracting a program from a DVD-ROM disc at the time of random reproduction according to the second embodiment. 6 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a recording medium playback device in Embodiments 3 and 4. FIG. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal structure of a reproduction block of a DVD-ROM disc in a third embodiment. 14 is a flowchart showing processing for extracting a program that is a candidate for non-sequential playback by the recording medium playback device in the third embodiment. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure for extracting a program from a DVD-ROM disc in a third embodiment. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an internal structure of a reproduction block of a DVD-ROM disc in a fourth embodiment. 15 is a flowchart showing processing for extracting a program that is a candidate for non-sequential playback by the recording medium playback device in the fourth embodiment. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an algorithm structure of program extraction from a DVD-ROM disc in a fourth embodiment. FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an internal data structure of a DVD-ROM disc in a fifth embodiment. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a menu screen in the fifth embodiment. FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an internal data structure of sub-picture data information in the fifth embodiment. 16 is a flowchart showing setting processing of area selection condition information in the fifth embodiment. FIG. 10 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of a recording medium playback device in Embodiments 6 and 7. 18 is a flowchart showing the operation of the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction (when the selection probability is constant) in the sixth embodiment. FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram of the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction (when the selection probability is constant) in the sixth embodiment. 18 is a flowchart showing the operation of number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction (when the selection probability is changed) in the seventh embodiment. FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram of the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction (when the selection probability is changed) in the seventh embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

  100A, 100B, 100C, 100D, 100E, 100F, 100G DVD-ROM disk (portable recording medium), 101,..., 106 Recording medium playback device, 110 playback drive section, 111 program playback section, 112 system control section, 113 Operation section, 114 area selection information storage section, 115 program extraction section, 116 random number generation section, 117 time information acquisition section, 118 playback count storage section, 119 nonvolatile memory, 120 display section, 201 disk inner circumference side, 202 disk outer circumference 210, lead-in area, 211 file management information area, 212 data area, 213 lead-out area, 220, 220A, 220B, 220C, 220D content index information, 221 content data information, 230 Raw block, 250 menu screen content data information, 251 video pack, 252 audio pack, 253 sub-video pack, 300 non-sequential playback type flag, 301 non-sequential playback repeat count information, 302A, 302B, 302D program selection condition information table, 303 Program (PG), 304A, 304B, 304D Program selection condition field, 310C, 310D Expiration date information table, 901 menu screen, 902 video data information, 903 sub-video data information, 911 region information selection button (Tohoku), 912 region Information selection button (Kanto), 913 Regional information selection button (Kansai), 914 Regional information selection button (China), 915 Regional information selection button (Kyushu), 916 Transition Button, 1000 sub-video data information, 1001 graphic control data, 1002 graphic image data, 1011 button information, 1012 button data, 1021 button position information, 1022 adjacent button information, 1023 button command, 1031 command type, 1032 command argument, 1033 region Selection information number.

Claims (24)

A portable recording medium in which encoded content data information and content index information are recorded,
The content data information includes a plurality of programs as playback units,
The content index information includes a program selection condition information table,
The program selection condition information table is :
For each program unit, including multiple appearance frequency parameter information during non-sequential playback,
During non-sequential playback, one of the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information is selected for each program unit according to the user-defined program selection condition information on the recording medium playback device side and used as the playback frequency for each program unit a portable recording medium, characterized in that it is. The program selection condition information table further includes reproducibility information indicating reproducibility during non-sequential playback for each program unit corresponding to the user-defined program selection condition information during non-sequential playback. Item 2. The portable recording medium according to Item 1. A portable recording medium on which encoded and compressed content data information, content index information, and menu screen content data information are recorded,
The content data information includes a plurality of programs that are units of reproduction,
The content index information includes a program selection condition information table,
The menu screen content data information includes menu screen information that enables effective program selection condition information to be selected on the menu screen from the program selection condition information table.
The program selection condition information table is:
For each program unit, including multiple appearance frequency parameter information during non-sequential playback,
During non-sequential playback, one of the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information is selected for each program unit according to the user-defined program selection condition information assigned to the button displayed based on the menu screen information. The portable recording medium is used as a reproduction frequency for each program unit . The program selection condition information table further includes reproducibility information indicating reproducibility during non-sequential playback for each program unit corresponding to the user-defined program selection condition information during non-sequential playback. Item 4. The portable recording medium according to Item 3. A portable recording medium in which encoded content data information and content index information are recorded,
The content data information includes a plurality of programs that are units of reproduction,
The content index information includes an expiration date information table and a program selection condition information table ,
The expiration date information table, only contains the viewing validity period information of each program unit,
The program selection condition information table is:
For each program unit, including multiple appearance frequency parameter information during non-sequential playback,
During non-sequential playback, one of the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information is selected for each program unit according to the user-defined program selection condition information on the recording medium playback device side and used as the playback frequency for each program unit a portable recording medium, characterized in that it is. The program selection condition information table further includes reproducibility information indicating reproducibility during non-sequential playback for each program unit corresponding to the user-defined program selection condition information during non-sequential playback. Item 6. The portable recording medium according to Item 5. A portable recording medium in which encoded content data information and content index information are recorded,
The content data information includes a plurality of programs that are units of reproduction,
The content index information includes a program selection condition information table,
The program selection condition information table includes appearance frequency parameter information for each program unit during non-sequential playback,
One of the types of non-sequential playback is guaranteed the number of times the program is played back non-sequentially so that when the program is played a predetermined number of times by the recording medium playback device, the playback count based on the appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed. Including pseudo-random playback,
In the number-guaranteed pseudo-random reproduction,
In the first program playback, the selection probability that any program is selected is a value based on the guaranteed number of playbacks,
Thereafter, until the program playback of the guaranteed number of playbacks ends, the selection probability of each program is obtained by subtracting the number of times each program was actually played from the guaranteed number of playbacks for each program. A portable recording medium , wherein the selection probability of each program is changed so as to be a value based on the number of remaining reproductions for each program obtained . The program selection condition information table includes, in non-sequential reproduction, reproduction availability information indicating reproduction availability in non-sequential reproduction for each program unit corresponding to user-defined program selection condition information on the recording medium reproduction apparatus side. The portable recording medium according to claim 7 , wherein: In the portable recording medium, menu screen content data information is further recorded,
The program selection condition information table includes reproducibility information indicating reproducibility during non-sequential reproduction for each program unit corresponding to each program selection condition information during non-sequential reproduction,
8. The portability according to claim 7 , wherein the menu screen content data information includes menu screen information that enables effective program selection condition information to be selected from the program selection condition information table on the menu screen. recoding media. The content index information further includes an expiration date information table,
The portable recording medium according to claim 7 , wherein the validity period information table includes viewing validity period information for each program unit. A recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 1 or 2 ,
A user-defined information recording unit for storing user-defined program selection condition information;
At the time of non-sequential playback, based on the program selection condition information table read from the portable recording medium and the user-defined program selection condition information, for each program that can be used from the portable recording medium , and for each program unit, A program extraction unit for extracting one appearance frequency parameter information from among a plurality of appearance frequency parameter information ;
At the time of non-sequential playback, a program to be played is selected non-sequentially with a probability based on the extracted appearance frequency parameter information from among the programs extracted by the program extraction unit from the portable recording medium. A recording medium reproducing apparatus comprising: a program reproducing unit that reads and reproduces a program. A recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 3 or 4 ,
A program that can be used from within the portable recording medium based on information selected using the program selection condition information table read from the portable recording medium and the menu screen content data information during non-sequential playback ; And a program extracting unit for extracting one appearance frequency parameter information from the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information for each program unit ;
At the time of non-sequential playback, a program to be played is selected non-sequentially with a probability based on the extracted appearance frequency parameter information from among the programs extracted by the program extraction unit from the portable recording medium. A recording medium reproducing apparatus comprising: a program reproducing unit that reads and reproduces a reproduction target program. A recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 5 or 6 ,
A user-defined information recording unit for storing user-defined program selection condition information;
A time information acquisition unit for holding current time information;
Based on the expiration date information table and the current time information read from the portable recording medium and the program selection condition information table and the user-defined program selection condition information read from the portable recording medium during non-sequential playback. A program extractor for extracting one appearance frequency parameter information from among the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information for each program unit that can be used from within the portable recording medium , and
At the time of non-sequential playback, a program to be played is selected non-sequentially with a probability based on the extracted appearance frequency parameter information from among the programs extracted by the program extraction unit from the portable recording medium. A recording medium reproducing apparatus comprising: a program reproducing unit that reads and reproduces a reproduction target program. A recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 7 ,
A program extraction unit for extracting a usable program from the portable recording medium;
In the guaranteed number of times of pseudo-random playback, a playback count recording unit for recording the playback count of each program,
In the guaranteed number of times reproduction, when the extracted program is reproduced a predetermined number of times, the number of times of reproduction based on the appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed , and in the initial program reproduction, any program is The selection probability to be selected is a value based on the guaranteed number of reproductions, and thereafter, until the program reproduction of the guaranteed number of reproductions is completed, the selection probability of each program is the value for each program. While changing the selection probability of each program so that the value is based on the remaining number of playbacks for each program obtained by subtracting the number of times each program was actually played from the guaranteed number of playbacks, A recording medium playback apparatus, comprising: a program playback unit that plays back sequentially. A recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 8 ,
A user-defined information recording unit for storing user-defined program selection condition information;
A program extraction unit for extracting a usable program from the portable recording medium based on the program selection condition information table read from the portable recording medium and the user-defined program selection condition information during non-sequential playback;
In the guaranteed number of times of pseudo-random playback, a playback count recording unit for recording the playback count of each program,
A program playback unit for playing back the program non-sequentially so that the number of playbacks based on the appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed when the extracted program is played a predetermined number of times during the guaranteed number of times pseudo-random playback A recording medium reproducing apparatus characterized by the above. A recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 9 ,
At the time of non-sequential playback, it can be used from within the portable recording medium based on the program selection condition information table read from the portable recording medium and information selected using the menu screen content data information A program extraction unit for extracting a program;
In the guaranteed number of times of pseudo-random playback, a playback count recording unit for recording the playback count of each program,
A program playback unit for playing back the program non-sequentially so that the number of playbacks based on the appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed when the extracted program is played a predetermined number of times during the guaranteed number of times pseudo-random playback A recording medium reproducing apparatus characterized by the above. A recording medium reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 10 ,
A time information acquisition unit for holding current time information;
A program extraction unit for extracting a usable program from the portable recording medium based on the expiration date information table read from the portable recording medium and the current time information during non-sequential reproduction;
In the guaranteed number of times of pseudo-random playback, a playback count recording unit for recording the playback count of each program,
A program playback unit for playing back the program non-sequentially so that the number of playbacks based on the appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed when the extracted program is played a predetermined number of times during the guaranteed number of times pseudo-random playback A recording medium reproducing apparatus characterized by the above. A recording medium reproduction method for reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 1 or 2 ,
At the time of non-sequential playback, based on the program selection condition information table and user-defined program selection condition information read from the portable recording medium, the program that can be used from the portable recording medium and the plurality of programs for each program unit One piece of appearance frequency parameter information is extracted from the pieces of appearance frequency parameter information ,
During non-sequential playback, a playback target program is selected non-sequentially with a probability based on the extracted appearance frequency parameter information from among the programs extracted from the portable recording medium, and the selected playback target program is read out A recording medium playback method characterized by comprising the steps of: A recording medium reproduction method capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 3 or 4 ,
At the time of non-sequential playback, it can be used from within the portable recording medium based on the program selection condition information table read from the portable recording medium and information selected using the menu screen content data information For each program and program unit, one appearance frequency parameter information is extracted from the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information ,
During non-sequential playback, a playback target program is selected non-sequentially with a probability based on the extracted appearance frequency parameter information from among the programs extracted from the portable recording medium, and the selected playback target program is read out And reproducing the recording medium. A recording medium reproduction method capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 5 or 6 ,
Holds the current time information,
Based on the expiration date information table and the current time information read from the portable recording medium and the program selection condition information table and the user-defined program selection condition information read from the portable recording medium during non-sequential playback. , For each program that can be used from within the portable recording medium , and for each program unit, to extract one appearance frequency parameter information of the plurality of appearance frequency parameter information ,
During non-sequential playback, a playback target program is selected non-sequentially with a probability based on the extracted appearance frequency parameter information from among the programs extracted from the portable recording medium, and the selected playback target program is read out A recording medium playback method characterized by comprising the steps of: A recording medium reproduction method capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 7 ,
Extract a usable program from the portable recording medium,
In the guaranteed number of times reproduction, when the extracted program is reproduced a predetermined number of times, the number of times of reproduction based on the appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed , and in the initial program reproduction, any program is The selection probability to be selected is a value based on the guaranteed number of reproductions, and thereafter, until the program reproduction of the guaranteed number of reproductions is completed, the selection probability of each program is the value for each program. While changing the selection probability of each program so that the value is based on the remaining number of playbacks for each program obtained by subtracting the number of times each program was actually played from the guaranteed number of playbacks, A recording medium playback method characterized by sequential playback. A recording medium reproduction method capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 8 ,
At the time of non-sequential playback, based on the program selection condition information table read from the portable recording medium and the user-defined program selection condition information, a usable program is extracted from the portable recording medium,
A recording medium that reproduces a program non-sequentially so that the number of times of reproduction based on appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed when the extracted program is reproduced a predetermined number of times during pseudo-random reproduction Playback method. A recording medium reproduction method capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 9 ,
Based on the program selection condition information table read from the portable recording medium and information selected using the menu screen content data information, a usable program is extracted from the portable recording medium,
A recording medium that reproduces a program non-sequentially so that the number of times of reproduction based on appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed when the extracted program is reproduced a predetermined number of times during pseudo-random reproduction Playback method. A recording medium reproduction method capable of reproducing the portable recording medium according to claim 10 ,
Holds the current time information,
Based on the expiration date information table read from the portable recording medium and the current time information, a usable program is extracted from the portable recording medium,
A recording medium that reproduces a program non-sequentially so that the number of times of reproduction based on appearance frequency parameter information is guaranteed when the extracted program is reproduced a predetermined number of times during pseudo-random reproduction Playback method.

Images