WO2006079943A1

WO2006079943A1 - Apparatus and method for playing a program

Info

Publication number: WO2006079943A1
Application number: PCT/IB2006/050177
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jiagang Zhang
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date: 2005-01-26
Filing date: 2006-01-18
Publication date: 2006-08-03
Also published as: TW200729963A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for playing a program. The data layer to be detected is determined according to the requirements for playing quality of said program; the acquirable playing resources are detected; and said acquirable playing resources are compared with the playing resources required for detecting said data layer to determine whether said program can be played according to said quality requirements. If the acquirable playing resources are more than the playing resources required for detecting the data layer, then said data layer is detected to play said optical disc. If the acquirable playing resources are less than the required playing resources, said one or more data layers to be detected is reduced and step (c) is preformed repeatedly till the detection of the data layer to be detected can be executed according to the acquirable resources

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PLAYING A PROGRAM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the technical field of playing, in particular to a method and apparatus for playing a program.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The playing performance of an optical disc playing apparatus is enhanced increasingly with the proposition and implementation of various improved methods. However, an optical disc playing apparatus is an embedded operation system, i.e. embedding a microprocessor into a specific system to realize a whole set of intelligently controlled micro-computer system, wherein the function of the microprocessor (CPU) and the storage capacity of the storage unit are very limited, as a result, the playing performance of the optical disc playing apparatus is inevitably restricted. In this case, a reasonable configuration of the limited optical disc playing resources has become an important research task in order to improve the playing performance.

Usually, the program data on the optical disc is managed hierarchically, such a manner of data hierarchical management is convenient for managing a large amount of data and retrieving data, for example, the video data on a DVD optical disc is the data that is managed hierarchically.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the layered data structure of the DVD video data. The DVD video data may include: video titles sets (VTS), video object (VOB), video cell layer, video object unit (VOBU) layer and data packet, while the data packet can be further divided hierarchically. For example, according to MPEG encoding standard, the data packet may be further divided into picture sequence layer, group of picture GOP, picture layer, macro-block slice layer, macro-block layer and data block layer, etc.

To ensure the playing quality, it needs to perform error correction and detection on each layer (as shown in Fig. 1) of the DVD video data during playing the optical disc. Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of performing error correction and detection on the DVD video data in the prior art. When playing the optical disc, the program on the optical disc experiences error correction and detection starting with a video titles sets layer, and goes downward layer by layer till each data block of the data block layer is detected. The detection of each data layer only has one outlet to detect the lower data layer and the detection of data layer is not terminated until the lowest layer (data block layer). The procedure of the layer-by-layer detection takes a large amount of storage space and processing time.

Where the playing resources (for example, the storage space for storing or buffering, or the time for buffering) are insufficient, or the user has no requirement for perfect playing quality, but the optical disc playing apparatus still detects all the data layers according to the conventional method, then it may go to an opposite direction that a large amount of playing resources are occupied, and the user's requirement for smooth playing cannot be satisfied, even causing an interrupt during the playing of the optical disc. Contrariwise, in the case that only several data layers are retrieved fixedly in order to save resources, where the playing resources are sufficient and the user has a requirement for higher playing quality, the optical disc playing apparatus will not perform the detection on the lower data layer, as a result, the playing resources are wasted and the user's requirement cannot be satisfied.

Therefore, it needs to provide a method and apparatus for playing programs that can realize better control of playing resources and improve playing performance by balancing the relation between the occupation of optical disc playing resources, the processing of optical data and the user's playing requirements.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for playing a program to overcome the disadvantages in the prior art and thereby improve playing performance.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for playing a program, said program has a layered data structure, said method comprising the steps of: (a) determining the data layer to be detected according to the requirements for playing quality of said program; (b) detecting the acquirable playing resources; and (c) comparing said acquirable playing resources with the playing resources required for detecting said data layer to determine whether said program can be played according to said quality requirements.

In the above method, if the acquirable playing resources are more than the playing resources required for detecting the data layer, then said data layer is detected to play said optical disc. If the acquirable playing resources are less than the required playing resources, said one or more data layers to be detected are reduced and step (c) is preformed repeatedly till the detection of the data layer to be detected can be executed according to the acquirable resources.

According to an embodiment of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for playing a program, said program has a layered data structure, said apparatus comprising: determination means for determining the data layer to be detected according to the requirements for playing quality of said program; detection means for detecting the acquirable playing resources; and comparison means for comparing said acquirable playing resources with the playing resources required for detecting said data layer to determine whether said program can be played according to said quality requirement.

By means of the method and apparatus provided by the invention, the playing system (for example, an optical disc playing system) can, according to the user's requirements for playing quality, the occupation situation of the playing resources of the system and the playing resources that need to be occupied for detecting the data layer, accomplish detection of program data to play the programs. Where the playing resources are insufficient, more playing resources are released by reducing the data layers to be detected to maintain smooth playing of the program; where playing resources are sufficient, the program playing effect is improved though a deeper detection of the data layer.

The method and apparatus provided by the present invention can be used in both the playing of the optical disc and the processing of layered data.

Through the description made in connection with accompanying drawings and the contents of the claims and with more comprehensive understanding of the invention, other objects and effects of the present invention will become much clearer and easier to understand.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Through embodiments, the present invention is further explained in detail with reference to accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the layered data structure of DVD video data;

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of detecting the DVD video data layer by layer in the prior art;

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of the method for playing a program according to an embodiment of the invention; Fig. 4 is a block diagram of the apparatus for playing a program according to an embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of detecting the data layer of the DVD video data according to an embodiment of the invention.

In the above drawings, the same reference signs represent the same, similar or corresponding features or functions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The method and apparatus for playing a program according to the invention are described in details in connection with the accompanying drawings. Below, an optical disc playing system is taken as an example for description.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of the method for playing a program according to an embodiment of the invention. According to various requirements for the playing quality of the program, the optical disc playing system can determine the data layer to be detected (step S310). When playing an optical disc, the user has various requirements for playing the optical disc, for example, the user may require a smooth playing process but is not overcritical to the picture effect, or the user may emphasize picture effect but does not require that the whole process of playing is smooth, because the user only wants to view the sections therein, etc. Therefore, the user has a choice among various requirements for playing quality.

Different requirements for playing quality correspond to different data layers that need to be error corrected. For example, in the data layer structure as shown in Fig. 1, the requirements for the highest playing quality correspond to the detection of data block layer. If the user selects the highest quality, the data block layer and the data layer thereon would be identified as the data layer to be detected. The requirements for playing quality of the program can also be directed to the proposed data layer of said program to be detected, or to the default data layer to be detected that is preset by the optical disc playing system, etc.

Next, the information of acquirable playing resources is detected (S320). As far as a playing system is concerned, the playing resources (for example, memory capacity, occupation rate of CPU, data transmission bandwidth, etc.) are limited. In order to guarantee normal operation of the playing system, the occupation rate of the playing resources shall be under continuous detection so as to adjust the playing process in time. When the optical disc playing system is playing an optical disc, it will necessarily utilize certain playing resources. If the occupation rate of playing resources exceeds a limit value, e.g. 95%, then the optical disc playing process may possibly become very slow and unstable, and a slight increase of the occupation rate of resources may result in breakdown or crash of system. Therefore, the acquirable playing resources should be those resources acquired under the limit of the resource occupation.

According to the specific situation of the playing resources of the optical disc playing system, one or a group of resource occupation limit values or conditions can be set. If a limit value or a condition is set, this limit value or condition can reflect a general occupation situation of the playing resources, or the occupation situation of a critical resource, for example, the occupation rate of CPU cannot exceed 90%, etc. If a set of limit values or conditions are set with regard to different resources, then it will be deemed that the occupation of the system resource has reached the limit value or limit condition as long as the occupation of one of these resources reaches the limit value.

Then, a comparison between the acquirable resources and the playing resources required for detecting the data layer is made to determine whether the acquirable resources are more than the resources required for detecting the data layer (step S330). In general, in order to detect a data layer, it needs to detect the respective data layers comprising said data layer, for example, if a data packet layer is to be detected, the detection starts from the video title sets layer till the data packet layer, while the data layers below the data packet layer are not detected.

The information of the resources that need to be occupied for playing the programs on the optical disc belongs to the description information of the program data on the optical disc and can be obtained from the optical disc. The detection resources that need to be occupied grow up with the increase of the data layers as detected. When the required resources exceed the acquirable resources, the playing of the program will be affected accordingly, for example, the playing system breaks down or crashes, etc.

If the acquirable resources can satisfy the requirements for detecting the data layer to be detected, i.e. the detection of data error correction from the data layer detection entrance to the detection of termination data layer can be done while ensuring smooth playing of the optical disc, then the data layer is detected (step S340), and the program is played according to the data as detected for error correction (step S350). If the acquirable resources are less than the playing resources required for detecting data layer, then the data layer to be detected is reduced (step S360), and step 330 is performed repeatedly till the acquirable resources are more than the resources required for detecting said data layer to be detected. Next, the data layer is detected and the program is played.

In step S360, the reduced data layer is, in general, the lowest one or more data layers among the predetermined data layers to be detected. For example, in connection with Fig. 1, if the predetermined data layers to be detected are those data layers from the video title sets layer to the macro-block layer, then where the playing resources are insufficient, the macro-block layer or several data layers upward from the macro-layer can be reduced; where the acquirable resource are much less than the required playing resources, a plurality of data layers to be detected can be reduced.

If, after step S330 is performed, the acquirable playing resources are still not enough to support the detection of data layer, while at this time the layer to be detected only has a root catalog layer (e.g. the video title sets layer in Fig. 1) of the program data, then the entrance and outlet for the data layer detection are the same, i.e. the result of performing step S 360 is to go from the entrance for data detection directly to the outlet for the data detection and terminate the detection of the program data.

Through the above method, the optical disc playing system can balance the user's requirements, the occupation situation of resources and the occupation situation of the resources required for detecting program data and accomplish the detection of data layer so as to configure playing resources reasonably and thereby improve playing performance of the optical disc. An optical disc playing system can monitor in real time the occupation situation of resources and detect in time the data layer that is allowed to be detected by the resources. The detected data layer is determined in a manner for processing data layer list, if a processing data layer list file describes the data layer to be detected, then in the case that the resources or user's requirements are changed, the processing data layer list file is adjusted or updated in time so as to adjust the detected data layer in time.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of apparatus 400 for playing a program according to an embodiment of the invention. Apparatus 400 may include receiving means 410 for receiving the user's requirements for playing, for example, the user requires a better picture definition or smooth playing process, etc.. Apparatus 400 comprises determination means 400 for determining the data layer to be detected. The data layer to be detected may be set according to the user's requirements for playing, or according to the real time monitoring of the playing resources and the requirements for program data detecting resources by the optical disc playing system, or is determined according to the data layer to be detected that is default set by the optical disc playing system or on the optical disc.

Apparatus 400 further includes detection means 430 for detecting the information of the acquirable playing resources. When the optical disc playing system is playing an optical disc, it will necessarily use certain playing resources. If the occupation rate of playing resources exceeds a limit value, e.g. 90%, then the optical disc playing process may possibly be very slow and unstable, and a slight increase of the occupation rate of resources may result in breakdown or crash of system. Therefore, the information of occupyable playing resource shall be the occupyable resources under the resource occupying limit. The information of the occupyable resource may be under a continuous detection to adjust in time the configuration of the playing resources.

Apparatus 400 further comprises comparison means 440 for comparing the acquirable resources with the resources required for detecting the data layer to be detected so as to determine whether the acquirable resources can satisfy the requirements for detecting the data layer to be detected. The resources include memory capacity, occupation rate of CPU, data transmission bandwidth, etc.. If the determination means 420 is unable to detect, it will reduce the data layers to be detected and then make comparison via the comparison means 450.

Apparatus 400 further includes playing engine means 450 for detecting the data layer to be detected and playing said program.

Through the aforesaid apparatus for playing a program, the optical disc playing system can balance the user' s requirements, the occupation situation of resources and the situation of the resources needed to bebeing occupied, determine the ultimate data layer to be detected, detect the program data, play programs and thereby improve the playing performance of the optical disc. The optical disc playing system can monitor in real time the occupation situation of the playing resources and adjust in time the ultimate data layer to be detected, such that smooth playing of the program can be achieved in the case of insufficient playing resources, and better picture effect is realized as possible as it can in the case that the resources are allowable. Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of detecting the DVD video data according to an embodiment of the invention. In the manner of detecting the program data as shown in Fig. 5, the detection of each data layer includes two outlets, one is an outlet of terminating the detection of the complete program data, the other is an outlet of entering the next data layer of this data layer to be detected. When detecting a data layer, if the playing resources are not very sufficient, then the detection work is directly terminated at this data layer; contrariwise, if there are sufficient playing resources, then the detection of the next data layer can be performed.

Another obvious difference from Fig. 2 is the detection work of the whole data layer can be directly omitted, and it may go directly from the data layer detection entrance to the data layer detection outlet without experiencing any data layer detection work.

The manner of detecting data layer as shown in Fig. 5 can flexibly adjust in real time the detection work of program data according to the playing resources and the user's requirements and efficiently configure the playing resources of the optical disc playing system. Therefore, more playing resources are released by reducing the detected data layer in order to maintain smooth playing of the program where the playing resources are insufficient, and the playing performance of the optical disc is improved though a deeper detection of the data layer where the optical disc playing resources are sufficient. Thus, a better program playing effect can be achieved.

Although the invention is described above in connection with various embodiments, apparently, it is obvious that those skilled in the art are able to make various alternations, modifications and changes based on the contents described above. Therefore, such alternations, modifications and changes shall fall within the scope of spirit and range of the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method for playing a program, said program has a layered data structure, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) determining a data layer to be detected according to the requirements for playing quality of said program;

(b) detecting the acquirable playing resources; and

(c) comparing said acquirable playing resources with the playing resources required for detecting said data layer to determine whether said program can be played according to said quality requirements.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(d) detecting said data layer(s) to play said program if the acquirable playing resources are more than the playing resources required for detecting the data layer,.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(d) reducing said data layers to be detected if the acquirable playing resources are less than the required playing resources;

(e) performing step (c), wherein said data layer(s) is the reduced data layer(s).

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data layer(s) to be detected comprises a plurality of data layers.

5. The method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein said playing resources comprise CPU's resources for processing data.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said program includes the program stored on the optical disc.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said quality requirements are determined according to external instructions.

8. An apparatus for playing a program, said program has a layered data structure, said apparatus comprising: determination means for determining a data layer to be detected according to the requirements for playing quality of said program; detection means for detecting the acquirable playing resources; and comparison means for comparing said acquirable playing resources with the playing resources required for detecting said data layer to determine whether said program can be played according to said quality requirements.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said determination means is further for reducing the data layers be detected if said acquirable resources are less than the resources required for detecting said data layer.

10. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising: playing engine means for detecting said data layer(s) for playing said program if said acquirable resources are more than the resources required for detecting said data layer(s).

11. The apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising: receiving means for receiving an external instruction for determining said requirements for playing quality.

12. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said playing resources comprise CPU's resources for processing data.