JP2007133938A - Information recording medium with flag showing propriety of audio mixing output, and device and method for reproducing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a contrivance which can easily manage an application operating within a management unit and does not have influence on the outside of the management unit because it becomes possible to manage timing of activation and termination of the application and that of reading and release of data using a title or the like as the management unit. <P>SOLUTION: The contrivance outputs main voice without degrading tone quality by providing a player with a register showing permission/forbidden of synthesis of the main voice and additive voice or effective sound and permitting to change over the state according to user's intention. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information recording medium on which video data is recorded, such as a BD-ROM, and a playback apparatus and playback method thereof, and more particularly to an improvement in the case of introducing a programming environment to the development of content including video data and a program.

  A typical information recording medium on which video data is recorded is a DVD (hereinafter referred to as SD-DVD or simply DVD). Hereinafter, a conventional DVD will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the structure of an SD-DVD. As shown in the lower part of FIG. 1, a logical address space is provided on the DVD disc from lead-in to lead-out, and the volume information of the file system is recorded from the head of the logical address space, followed by video / audio, etc. Application data is recorded.

  A file system is ISO9660 or UDF (Universal Disc Format), and is a mechanism for expressing data on a disk in units called directories or files. Even in the case of a personal computer (PC) that is used daily, data recorded on a hard disk in a directory or file structure is expressed on the computer by passing through a file system called FAT or NTFS, thereby improving usability. In the case of SD-DVD, both UDF and ISO9660 are used (sometimes referred to as “UDF bridge” together), and data is read by either UDF or ISO9660 file system drivers (DVDs handled here are This is a ROM disk for package media, and is physically unwritable).

  Data recorded on the DVD can be viewed as a directory or file as shown in the upper left of FIG. 1 through the UDF bridge. A directory called “VIDEO_TS” is placed directly under the root directory (“ROOT” in the figure), and DVD application data is recorded therein. Application data is recorded as a plurality of files, and the main files are as follows.

VIDEO_TS. IFO disc playback control information file VTS_01_0. IFO video title set # 1 playback control information file VTS_01_0. VOB video title set # 1 stream file. . . . .

  There are two types of extensions. “IFO” is a file in which reproduction control information is recorded, and “VOB” is a file in which an MPEG stream that is AV data is recorded. The playback control information is information for realizing interactivity (technology for dynamically changing playback in accordance with user operations) adopted by DVD, information attached to titles and AV streams such as metadata. And so on. In DVD, generally, reproduction control information is sometimes referred to as navigation information.

  The playback control information file includes “VIDEO_TS.IFO” for managing the entire disc and individual video title sets (multiple titles for DVD, in other words, different movies and different versions of movies can be recorded on one disc. There is “VTS — 01 — 0.IFO” which is reproduction control information for each. Here, “01” in the file name body indicates the number of the video title set. For example, in the case of the video title set # 2, “VTS — 02 — 0.IFO”.

  The upper right part of FIG. 1 is a DVD navigation space in the DVD application layer, which is a logical structure space in which the above-described reproduction control information is expanded. Information in “VIDEO_TS.IFO” is stored in the DVD navigation space as VMGI (VIDEO Manager Information), “VTS — 01 — 0.IFO”, or playback control information existing for each other video title set is stored in the DVD navigation space as VTSI (Video Title Set Information). Be expanded.

  In VTSI, PGCI (Program Chain Information), which is information of a reproduction sequence called PGC (Program Chain), is described. The PGCI is composed of a set of cells and a kind of programming information called a command. Cell itself is a set of a part or all of a VOB (which is an abbreviation of Video Object and indicates an MPEG stream), and playback of a cell means that a section specified by the cell of the VOB is played back. ing.

  The command is processed by a DVD virtual machine and is similar to a Java (registered trademark) script executed on a browser. However, while Java (registered trademark) scripts control windows and browsers in addition to logical operations (for example, opening a new browser window), DVD commands play AV titles in addition to logical operations. It is different in that it only performs control, for example, specifying a chapter to be played back.

  The Cell has VOB start and end addresses (logical addresses) recorded on the disc as its internal information, and the player reads data using the VOB start and end address information described in the Cell. Execute playback.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining navigation information embedded in an AV stream. The interactivity, which is the feature of SD-DVD, is not realized only by the navigation information recorded in the aforementioned “VIDEO_TS.IFO”, “VTS — 01 — 0.IFO”, etc. It is multiplexed together with video and audio data in a VOB using a dedicated carrier called a pack (called Navi pack or NV_PCK).

  Here, a menu is described as an example of simple interactivity. Several buttons appear on the menu screen, and each button defines processing when the button is selected and executed. In addition, one button is selected on the menu (the highlight button has a translucent color overlaid on the selection button), and the user can use the up / down / left / right keys on the remote control to move the selected button up / down / left / right. It can be moved to any of the buttons. Using the up / down / left / right keys on the remote control, move the highlight to the button you want to select and execute, and press the enter key to execute the corresponding command program. In general, reproduction of a corresponding title or chapter is executed by a command.

The upper left part of FIG. 2 shows an outline in NV_PCK.
NV_PCK includes highlight color information and individual button information. In the highlight color information, color palette information is described, and a semi-transparent color of the highlight displayed on the overlay is designated. The button information includes rectangular area information that is position information of each button, movement information from the button to another button (designation of a destination button corresponding to each of the user's up / down / left / right key operations), and button command information. (Command executed when the button is determined) is described.

  The highlight on the menu is created as an overlay image as shown in the upper right part of the center of FIG. The overlay image is obtained by adding the color palette information color to the rectangular area information of the button information. This overlay image is combined with the background image shown on the right and displayed on the screen.

  As described above, the menu is realized in the DVD. The reason why a part of the navigation data is embedded in the stream using NV_PCK is that the menu information is dynamically updated in synchronization with the stream, for example, during 5 to 10 minutes during movie playback. This is because, even in the case of an application in which synchronization timing is likely to be a problem, such as a menu being displayed only on the screen, it can be realized without any problem.

  FIG. 3 is an image of a DVD VOB. As shown in the figure, data (A stage) such as video, audio, subtitles, etc. is packetized and packed (B stage) based on the MPEG system (ISO / IEC13818-1) standard, and each is multiplexed into one. MPEG program stream (stage C). Further, as described above, NV_PCK including a button command for realizing interactive is also multiplexed together.

  The multiplexing feature of the MPEG system is that each data to be multiplexed is a bit string based on the decoding order, but between the multiplexed data, that is, between video, audio and subtitles, it is not necessarily the playback order, in other words For example, the bit string is not formed based on the decoding order. This is because the MPEG system stream decoder model (generally called System Target Decoder or STD (D stage in FIG. 3)) has a decoder buffer corresponding to each elementary stream after demultiplexing, and by the decoding timing It comes from temporarily accumulating data. This decoder buffer has a different size for each elementary stream, and has 232 kB for video, 4 kB for audio, and 52 kB for subtitles. For this reason, since the data input timing to each decoder buffer is different for each elementary stream, there is a difference between the order in which the bit string is formed as the MPEG system stream and the display (decoding) timing.

  That is, subtitle data multiplexed side by side with video data is not necessarily decoded at the same timing.

The configuration of such a DVD is described in Patent Document 1 below.
Japanese Patent No. 2813245

  In BD-ROM, an application that synthesizes main sound and additional sound or sound effect can be realized, but the sound quality of the main sound may deteriorate due to the synthesis, and even if it is known that the sound quality is deteriorated, the user prohibits synthesis. There is no way.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the playback apparatus according to the present invention includes a register that indicates permission / prohibition of synthesis of main sound and additional sound or sound effect, and can switch the state according to the user's intention, thereby deteriorating sound quality. Provide a mechanism to output the main voice without any problems.

  In the configuration described above, it is possible to manage the timing of starting and ending an application and reading and releasing data using a title as a management unit, so that an application operating within the management unit can be easily managed, and the influence outside the management unit is affected. It is possible to provide a mechanism that does not extend.

  Here, the management information may include priority information for reading data into the memory. By using data reading priority as management information, it is possible to adjust the data size to be read according to the memory size installed in the player. Even if the memory size is small, the operation of the application is guaranteed and the memory size is large. In this case, it is possible to provide the convenience that the operation and switching of the application are accelerated.

Example 1
First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(Logical data structure on disk)
FIG. 4 shows the structure of a BD-ROM (hereinafter also referred to as “BD”), in particular, the structure of a BD disk (104) as a disk medium and data (101, 102, 103) recorded on the disk. FIG. Data recorded on the BD disc (104) is AV data (103), BD management information (102) such as management information related to AV data and an AV playback sequence, and a BD playback program (101) that realizes interactive processing. . In the present embodiment, a BD disc will be described mainly with respect to an AV application for reproducing AV contents such as movies, but the BD disc will be used as a recording medium for computers such as a CD-ROM and a DVD-ROM. Of course, it is also possible. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing logical data recorded on the BD disc described above. A BD disc has a spiral recording area from the inner circumference to the outer circumference like other optical discs such as DVDs and CDs, and logical data is transferred between the inner lead-in and outer lead-out. It has a logical address space that can be recorded. Further, inside the lead-in, there is a special area that can be read only by a drive called BCA (Burst Cutting Area). Since this area cannot be read from an application, it is often used for copyright protection technology, for example.

  Application data such as video data is recorded in the logical address space with file system information (volume) at the head. As described in the prior art, the file system is UDF, ISO9660 or the like, and logical data recorded in the same way as a normal PC can be read using a directory and file structure. .

  In the case of this embodiment, the directory and file structure on the BD disc is a BDVIDEO directory placed directly under the root directory (ROOT). This directory is a directory in which data (101, 102, 103 described in FIG. 4) such as AV contents and management information handled by the BD-ROM is recorded.

  The following seven types of files are recorded under the BDVIDEO directory.

BD. INFO (fixed file name)
This is one of “BD management information” and is a file in which information related to the entire BD disc is recorded. The BD player first reads this file.

BD. PROG (fixed file name)
It is one of “BD playback programs” and is a file in which programs related to the entire BD disc are recorded.

XXX. PL ("XXX" is variable, extension "PL" is fixed)
It is one of “BD management information”, and is a file in which play list information for recording a scenario is recorded. I have one file per playlist.

XXX. PROG ("XXX" is variable, extension "PL" is fixed)
It is one of “BD playback programs” and is a file in which a program for each playlist described above is recorded. Correspondence with a playlist is identified by a file body name (“XXX” matches).

YYY. VOB ("YYY" is variable, extension "VOB" is fixed)
It is one of “AV data” and is a file in which VOB (same as VOB described in the conventional example) is recorded. There is one file for each VOB.

YYY. VOBI ("YYY" is variable, extension "VOBI" is fixed)
This is one of “BD management information” and is a file in which management information related to VOB as AV data is recorded. The correspondence with the VOB is identified by the file body name (“YYY” matches).

ZZZ. PNG ("ZZZ" is variable, extension "PNG" is fixed)
It is one of “AV data” and is a file in which image data PNG (an image format standardized by W3C and read as “ping”) for composing subtitles and menus is recorded. There is one file for each PNG image.

(Player configuration)
Next, the configuration of the player that plays the above-described BD disc will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a rough functional configuration of the player.
Data on the BD disc (201) is read through the optical pickup (202). The read data is recorded in a dedicated memory according to the type of each data. The BD playback program (the contents of the “BD.PROG” or “XXX.PROG” file) is stored in the program recording memory (203) in the BD management information (“BD.INFO”, “XXX.PL” or “YYY.VOBI”). Are recorded in the management information recording memory (204), and AV data ("YYY.VOB" or "ZZZ.PNG") is recorded in the AV recording memory (205).

  The BD playback program recorded in the program recording memory (203) is recorded by the program processing unit (206), and the BD management information recorded in the management information recording memory (204) is recorded by the management information processing unit (207). The AV data recorded in the memory (205) is processed by the presentation processing unit (208).

  The program processing unit (206) receives event information such as playlist information to be played back and program execution timing from the management information processing unit (207), and processes the program. Also, the program can dynamically change the play list to be played back. In this case, the play list play command is sent to the management information processing unit (207). The program processing unit (206) receives an event from the user, that is, a request from the remote control key, and executes an execution process when there is a program corresponding to the user event.

  The management information processing unit (207) receives an instruction from the program processing unit (206), analyzes the management information of the VOB corresponding to the corresponding playlist and the playlist, and the AV data to be processed by the presentation processing unit (208). Instruct to play. Also, the management information processing unit (207) receives the reference time information from the presentation processing unit (208), instructs the presentation processing unit (208) to stop AV data reproduction based on the time information, and the program processing unit An event indicating the program execution timing is generated for (206).

  The presentation processing unit (208) has a decoder corresponding to each of video, audio, and caption / image, and decodes and outputs AV data in accordance with an instruction from the management information processing unit (207). In the case of video data and subtitles / images, after decoding, the video data and subtitles / images are drawn on the respective dedicated planes, the video plane (210) and the image plane (209), and the video synthesis process is performed by the synthesis processing unit (211). Output to the device.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the BD player has a configuration based on the data configuration recorded on the BD disc shown in FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a detailed block diagram of the player configuration described above. In FIG. 7, the AV recording memory (205) is in the image memory (308) and the track buffer (309), the program processing unit (206) is in the program processor (302) and the UOP manager (303), and the management information processing unit (207). ) Is a scenario processor (305) and a presentation controller (306), and a presentation processing unit (208) is a clock (307), a demultiplexer (310), an image processor (311), a video processor (312) and a sound processor (313). Are corresponding to each.

  The VOB data (MPEG stream) read from the BD disc (201) is recorded in the track buffer (309), and the image data (PNG) is recorded in the image memory (308). The demultiplexer (310) extracts the VOB data recorded in the track buffer (309) based on the time of the clock (307), and sends the video data to the video processor (312) and the audio data to the sound processor (313). The video processor (312) and the sound processor (313) are each composed of a decoder buffer and a decoder as defined by the MPEG system standard. That is, the video and audio data sent from the demultiplexer (310) are temporarily recorded in the respective decoder buffers and decoded by the individual decoders according to the clock (307).

  The PNG recorded in the image memory (308) has the following two processing methods. If the image data is for subtitles, the presentation controller (306) instructs the decoding timing. In order for the scenario processor (305) to receive the time information from the clock (307) once and display the appropriate subtitles, the subtitles are displayed to the presentation controller (306) at the subtitle display time (start and end). Give hidden instructions. The image processor (311) that has received the decode / display instruction from the presentation controller (306) extracts the corresponding PNG data from the image memory (308), decodes it, and draws it on the image plane (314).

  Next, when the image data is for a menu, the program processor (302) instructs the decoding timing. The time when the program processor (302) instructs to decode the image depends on the BD program being processed by the program processor (302), and is not generally determined.

  As described with reference to FIG. 6, the image data and the video data are recorded on the image plane (314) and the video plane (315) after being decoded, and are synthesized and output by the synthesis processing unit (316).

  The management information (scenario, AV management information) read from the BD disc (201) is recorded in the management information recording memory (304), but the scenario information (“BD.INFO” and “XXX.PL”) is stored in the management information recording memory (304). It is read and processed by the scenario processor (305). The AV management information (“YYY.VOBI”) is read and processed by the presentation controller (306).

  The scenario processor (305) analyzes the information of the playlist, and instructs the presentation controller (306) the VOB referenced by the playlist and the playback position thereof. The presentation controller (306) manages the management information of the target VOB. ("YYY.VOBI") is analyzed, and an instruction is issued to the drive controller (317) to read out the target VOB.

  The drive controller (317) moves the optical pickup according to the instruction of the presentation controller (306), and reads the target AV data. The read AV data is recorded in the image memory (308) or the track buffer (309) as described above.

  The scenario processor (305) monitors the time of the clock (307) and throws an event to the program processor (302) at the timing set in the management information.

  The BD program (“BD.PROG” or “XXX.PROG”) recorded in the program recording memory (301) is executed by the program processor 302. The program processor (302) processes the BD program when an event is sent from the scenario processor (305) or when an event is sent from the UOP manager (303). The UOP manager (303) generates an event in the program processor (302) when a request is sent from the user by a remote control key.

(Application space)
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an application space of the BD-ROM.

  In the application space of the BD-ROM, a play list (PlayList) is one reproduction unit. The playlist has a static scenario composed of a playback sequence of a cell (Cell) and a dynamic scenario described by a program. Unless there is a dynamic scenario by the program, the playlist only reproduces the individual cells in order, and the reproduction of the playlist ends when the reproduction of all the cells is completed. On the other hand, the program can dynamically change the playback target depending on the playback description beyond the playlist, the user selection, or the player status. A typical example is a menu. In the case of a BD-ROM, the menu is to dynamically select a scenario to be played by the user's selection, that is, a playlist.

  The program here is an event handler executed by a time event or a user event.

  The time event is an event generated based on time information embedded in the playlist. The event sent from the scenario processor (305) described in FIG. 7 to the program processor (302) corresponds to this. When a time event is issued, the program processor (302) executes an event handler associated with the ID. As described above, the program to be executed can instruct playback of another playlist. In this case, playback of the currently played playlist is stopped and playback of the specified playlist is started. And transition.

  A user event is an event generated by a user's remote control key operation. User events are roughly divided into two types. The first is a menu selection event generated by operating a cursor key ("Up", "Down", "Left", "Right" key) or a "Determination" key. The event handler corresponding to the event selected from the menu is valid only for a limited period in the playlist (the validity period of each event handler is set as playlist information). A valid event handler is searched when the “down”, “left”, “right” key, or “decision” key is pressed. If there is a valid event handler, the event handler is executed. In other cases, menu selection events will be ignored.

  The second user event is a menu call event generated by operating the “menu” key. When a menu call event is generated, a global event handler is called. A global event handler does not depend on a playlist and is always an effective event handler. By using this function, it is possible to implement a DVD menu call (calling a voice, subtitle menu, etc. during title playback, and executing title playback from the point where it was interrupted after changing the voice or subtitle).

  A cell (Cell), which is a unit constituting a static scenario in a playlist, refers to all or part of a playback section of a VOB (MPEG stream). The cell has a playback section in the VOB as start and end time information. The VOB management information (VOBI) paired with each VOB has a time map (Time Map or TM) inside, and the playback and end times of the VOB described above are indicated in the VOB ( That is, it is possible to derive the read start address and end address in the target file “YYY.VOB”). Details of the time map will be described later.

(Details of VOB)
FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of an MPEG stream (VOB) used in this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 9, a VOB is composed of a plurality of VOBUs (Video Object Units). The VOBU is one playback unit as a multiplexed stream including audio data on the basis of GOP (Group Of Pictures) referred to as an MPEG video stream. A VOBU has a duration of 0.4 to 1.0 seconds, and usually has a playback time of 0.5 seconds. This is because the structure of MPEG GOP is usually derived by 15 frames / second (in the case of NTSC).

  The VOBU has a video pack (V_PCK) and an audio pack (A_PCK) therein. Each pack is composed of one sector, in the case of this embodiment, in units of 2 kB.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the configuration of the pack.
As shown in FIG. 10, elementary data such as video data and audio data are sequentially entered from the head into a data storage area of a packet called a payload. A packet header is attached to the payload to form one packet. In the packet header, an ID for identifying which stream, video, or audio the data stored in the payload is, and if there are multiple streams of video or audio, which stream is the data (Stream_id) and time stamps DTS and PTS which are decoding time and display time information of the payload are recorded. PTS / DTS is not necessarily recorded in all packet headers, but rules for recording in MPEG are defined. Details of the rules are described in the MPEG system (ISO / IEC13818-1) standard, and therefore will be omitted.

  The packet is further provided with a header (pack header) to form a pack. In the pack header, a time stamp SCR (System Clock Reference) indicating when the pack passes the demultiplexer and is input to the decoder buffer of each elementary stream is recorded.

(VOB interleaved recording)
Next, interleaved recording of a VOB file will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The upper part of FIG. 11 is a part of the player configuration diagram described above. As shown in the figure, the data on the BD disc is input to the track buffer if it is a VOB or MPEG stream through the optical pickup, and is input to the image memory if it is PNG or image data.

  The track buffer is a FIFO, and the input VOB data is sent to the demultiplexer in the input order. At this time, each pack is extracted from the track buffer in accordance with the SCR described above, and the data is sent to the video processor or sound processor via the demultiplexer. On the other hand, in the case of image data, the presentation controller instructs which image to draw. The image data used for drawing is deleted from the image memory at the same time in the case of image data for subtitles, but remains in the image memory in the case of image data for menus. This is because menu drawing may depend on user operations, and the same image may be drawn multiple times.

  The lower part of FIG. 11 is a diagram showing interleaved recording of a VOB file and a PNG file on a BD disc. In general, in the case of a ROM such as a CD-ROM or a DVD-ROM, AV data serving as a series of continuous reproduction units is continuously recorded. As long as continuous recording is performed, the drive only needs to read the data sequentially and send it to the player side. However, if the continuous data is divided and discretely arranged on the disc, seek is performed between individual continuous sections. This is because an operation is entered, and during this time, reading of data is stopped, and supply of data may be stopped. Similarly, in the case of a BD-ROM, it is desirable that the VOB file can be recorded in a continuous area. However, there is data that is reproduced in synchronization with video data recorded in the VOB, such as subtitle data. Similar to the VOB file, it is necessary to read the caption data from the BD disc by some method.

  As one method of reading subtitle data, there is a method of reading subtitle image data (PNG file) all at once before the start of VOB reproduction. However, in this case, a large amount of memory used for temporary recording is required, which is unrealistic.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, a method is used in which the VOB file is divided into several blocks and interleaved with image data. The lower part of FIG. 11 illustrates the interleave recording. By appropriately interleaving the VOB file and the image data, it becomes possible to store the image data in the image memory at a necessary timing without the large amount of temporary recording memory as described above. However, when reading the image data, the reading of the VOB data is naturally stopped.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a VOB data continuous supply model using a track buffer that solves this problem.

  As described above, VOB data is temporarily stored in the track buffer. If a difference is provided between the data input rate to the track buffer and the data output rate from the track buffer, as long as data is continuously read from the BD disc, the data storage amount of the track buffer increases. Here, the input rate to the track buffer is Va, and the output rate from the track buffer is Vb. As shown in the upper part of FIG. 12, it is assumed that a continuous recording area of VOB continues from “a1” to “a2” of logical addresses. It is assumed that between “a2” and “a3” is an interval in which image data is recorded and VOB data cannot be read.

The lower part of FIG. 12 shows the inside of the track buffer. The horizontal axis indicates time, and the vertical axis indicates the amount of data stored in the track buffer. Time “t1” indicates the time when reading of “a1”, which is the starting point of one continuous recording area of the VOB, is started. After this time, data is accumulated in the track buffer at the rate Va-Vb. Needless to say, this rate is the difference between the input and output rates of the track buffer. The time “t2” is the time when the data “a2”, which is the end point of one continuous recording area, is read. That is, the amount of data in the track buffer increases from time “t1” to “t2” at the rate Va−Vb, and the data accumulation amount at time “t2” can be obtained by the following equation. .
B (t2) = (Va−Vb) × (t2−t1) (Formula 1)

  After this, since the image data continues until the address “a3” on the BD disc, the input to the track buffer becomes 0, and the data amount in the track buffer decreases at the output rate “−Vb”. Become. This is up to the read position “a3” and “t3” in time.

  What is important here is that if the amount of data stored in the track buffer before time “t3” becomes zero, there is no VOB data to be supplied to the decoder, and there is a possibility that VOB reproduction stops. There is. However, if data remains in the track buffer at time “t3”, this means that VOB playback can be continued without stopping.

This condition can be expressed by the following equation.
B (t2) ≧ −Vb × (t3−t2) (Formula 2)

  That is, it is only necessary to determine the arrangement of the image data so as to satisfy Expression 2.

(Navigation data structure)
The structure of navigation data (BD management information) in the BD-ROM will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 13 shows the internal structure of the VOB management information information file (“YYY.VOBI”).

  The VOB management information includes stream attribute information (Attribute) and time map (TMAP) of the VOB. Each stream attribute has a video attribute (Video) and an audio attribute (Audio # 0 to Audio # m). Particularly in the case of an audio stream, since a VOB can have a plurality of audio streams at the same time, the presence or absence of a data field is indicated by the number of audio streams (Number).

The following are the fields that the video attribute (Video) has and the values that each can have.
Compression method (Coding):
MPEG1
MPEG2
MPEG4
Resolution:
1920x1080
1280x720
720x480
720x565
Aspect ratio (Aspect)
4: 3
16: 9
Frame rate
60
59.94
50
30
29.97
25
24

The following are the fields that the audio attribute (Audio) has and the values that each can have.
Compression method (Coding):
AC3
MPEG1
MPEG2
LPCM
Number of channels (Ch):
1-8
Language attribute:

  The time map (TMAP) is a table having information for each VOBU, and has the number of VOBUs (Number) possessed by the VOB and each VOBU information (VOBU # 1 to VOBU # n). Each VOBU information has a playback time length (Duration) of the VOBU and a data size (Size) of the VOBU.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining the details of the VOBU information.
As is widely known, an MPEG stream has two aspects, a temporal aspect and a data size aspect. For example, since AC3, which is a voice compression standard, performs compression at a fixed bit rate, the relationship between time and address can be obtained by a linear expression. However, in the case of MPEG video data, each frame has a fixed display time, for example, in the case of NTSC, one frame has a display time of 1 / 29.97 seconds, but the data size after compression of each frame is picture size. The data size varies greatly depending on the characteristics and the picture type used for compression, so-called I / P / B picture. Therefore, in the case of MPEG video, the relationship between time and address cannot be expressed in a general form.

  As a matter of course, an MPEG system stream in which MPEG video data is multiplexed, that is, VOB, cannot express time and data in a general form. Instead, the time map (TMAP) links the relationship between time and address in the VOB. As shown in FIG. 14, a table having a number of frames in a VOBU and the number of packs in a VOBU as entries for each VOBU is a time map (TMAP).

The usage of the time map (TMAP) will be described with reference to FIG.
When time information is given as shown in FIG. 15, first, a search is performed as to which VOBU the time belongs to. This is done by adding the number of frames for each VOBU of the time submap, and the VOBU whose sum of frames exceeds or coincides with the time (converted to the number of frames) becomes the VOBU. Next, the size for each VOBU of the time map is added to the VOBU immediately before the VOBU, and the value is the leading address of the pack to be read in order to reproduce the frame including the given time.

Next, the internal structure of the playlist information (“XXX.PL”) will be described with reference to FIG.
The playlist information includes a cell list (CellList) and an event list (EventList).

  The cell list (CellList) is a reproduction cell sequence in the playlist, and the cells are reproduced in the description order of the list. The contents of the cell list (CellList) are the number of cells (Number) and cell information (Cell # 1 to Cell # n).

  The cell information (Cell #) has a VOB file name (VOBName), a valid section start time (In) and a valid section end time (Out) in the VOB, and a caption table (SubtitleTable). The valid section start time (In) and valid section end time (Out) are each expressed by a frame number in the VOB, and the address of VOB data necessary for reproduction is obtained by using the time map (TMAP) described above. I can do things.

  The caption table (SubtitleTable) is a table having caption information that is reproduced in synchronization with the VOB. Subtitles can have multiple languages as well as audio, and the first information of the subtitle table (SubtitleTable) consists of the number of languages (Number) followed by tables for each language (Language # 1 to Language # k). Yes.

  A table (Language #) for each language includes language information (Language), the number of subtitle information (Number) of subtitles displayed individually, and subtitle information of subtitles (Speech # 1 to Speech # j) displayed individually. The caption information (Speech #) is composed of the corresponding image data file name (Name), caption display start time (In) and caption display end time (Out), and caption display position (Position). .

  The event list (EventList) is a table that defines the events listed in the play list. The event list is made up of individual events (Event # 1 to Event # m) following the number of events (Number), and each event (Event #) includes an event type (Type) and an event ID (ID). The event generation time (Time) and the validity period (Duration) are included.

  FIG. 17 is an event handler table (“XXX.PROG”) having event handlers (time events and user events for menu selection) for each playlist.

  The event handler table has a defined number of event handlers / programs (Number) and individual event handlers / programs (Program # 1 to Program # n). The description in each event handler / program (Program #) has the event handler ID (ID) paired with the event handler start definition (<event_handler> tag) and the above-mentioned event ID. It is described between parentheses “{” and “}” following the Function.

  Next, the internal structure of information relating to the entire BD disc (“BD. INFO”) will be described with reference to FIG.

  The entire BD disc information includes a title list (TitleList) and an event table for global events (EventTable).

  The title list (TitleList) is composed of the number of titles (Number) in the disc and the following pieces of title information (Title # 1 to Title # n). Each piece of title information (Title) includes a playlist table (PLTable) included in the title and a chapter list (ChapterList) in the title. The playlist table (PLTable) has the number of playlists in the title (Number) and the playlist name (Name), that is, the playlist file name.

  The chapter list (ChapterList) is composed of the number of chapters (Number) included in the title and individual chapter information (Chapter # 1 to Chapter # n), and the chapter information (Chapter #) is a table of cells included in the chapter (Chapter #). The cell table (CellTable) includes the number of cells (Number) and individual cell entry information (CellEntry # 1 to CellEntry # k). Cell entry information (CellEntry #) is described by the name of the playlist including the cell and the cell number in the playlist.

  The event list (EventList) includes the number of global events (Number) and information on individual global events. It should be noted that the global event defined first is called a first event (FirstEvent), and is the first event called when a BD disc is inserted into a player. The event information for global events has only an event type (Type) and an event ID (ID).

  FIG. 19 is a global event handler program table (“BD.PROG”). This table has the same contents as the event handler table described in FIG.

(Event generation mechanism)
The event generation mechanism will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 20 is an example of a time event.
As described above, a time event is defined by an event list (EventList) of playlist information (“XXX.PL”). When an event defined as a time event, that is, when the event type (Type) is “TimeEvent”, the time event having the ID “Ex1” is transferred from the scenario processor to the program processor when the event generation time (“t1”) is reached. Against. The program processor searches for an event handler having the event ID “Ex1” and executes the target event handler. For example, in this embodiment, two button images can be drawn.

FIG. 21 shows an example of a user event for performing a menu operation.
As described above, the user event for performing the menu operation is also defined in the event list (EventList) of the playlist information (“XXX.PL”). When an event defined as a user event, ie, an event type (Type) is “UserEvent”, the user event becomes ready when the event generation time (“t1”) is reached. At this time, the event itself has not yet been generated. The event is in a ready state for the period described by the valid standard information (Duration).

  As shown in FIG. 21, when the user presses the “up”, “down”, “left”, “right” key or “decision” key of the remote control key, a UOP event is first generated by the UOP manager and raised to the program processor. The program processor sends a UOP event to the scenario processor, and the scenario processor searches whether there is a valid user event at the time when the UOP event is received. Generate and lift to the program processor. The program processor searches for an event handler having the event ID “Ev1” and executes the target event handler. For example, in the case of the present embodiment, reproduction of playlist # 2 is started.

  The generated user event does not include information on which remote control key is pressed by the user. Information on the selected remote control key is transmitted to the program processor by a UOP event, and is recorded and held in the register SPRM (8) of the virtual player. The event handler program can check the value of this register and execute branch processing.

FIG. 22 shows an example of a global event.
As described above, a global event is defined by an event list (EventList) of information (“BD. INFO”) relating to the entire BD disc. When an event defined as a global event, that is, an event type (Type) is “GlobalEvent”, an event is generated only when a user operates a remote control key.

  When the user presses “Menu”, a UOP event is first generated by the UOP manager and raised to the program processor. The program processor sends a UOP event to the scenario processor, and the scenario processor generates a corresponding global event and sends it to the program processor. The program processor searches for an event handler having the event ID “menu” and executes the target event handler. For example, in the case of the present embodiment, reproduction of playlist # 3 is started.

  In this embodiment, it is simply called a “menu” key, but there may be a plurality of menu keys as in a DVD. It is possible to cope by defining IDs corresponding to the respective menu keys.

(Virtual player machine)
The functional configuration of the program processor will be described with reference to FIG.

  The program processor is a processing module having a virtual player machine inside. The virtual player machine is a functional model defined as a BD-ROM and does not depend on the implementation of each BD-ROM player. That is, it is guaranteed that the same function can be executed in any BD-ROM player.

  The virtual player machine has two functions. Programming functions and player variables (registers). The programming function defines two functions described below as BD-ROM specific functions based on Java (registered trademark) Script.

Link function: Stops the current playback and starts playback from the specified playlist, cell, and time Link (PL #, Cell #, time)
PL #: Playlist name Cell #: Cell number time: Playback start time in the cell PNG drawing function: Draws specified PNG data on the image plane Draw (File, X, Y)
File: PNG file name X: X coordinate position Y: Y coordinate position Image plane clear function: Clear specified area of image plane Clear (X, Y, W, H)
X: X coordinate position Y: Y coordinate position W: X direction width H: Y direction width

  The player variables include a system parameter (SPRM) indicating the player status and a general parameter (GPRM) that can be used for general purposes.

FIG. 24 is a list of system parameters (SPRM).
SPRM (0): Language code SPRM (1): Audio stream number SPRM (2): Subtitle stream number SPRM (3): Angle number SPRM (4): Title number SPRM (5): Chapter number SPRM (6): Program Number SPRM (7): Cell number SPRM (8): Selection key information SPRM (9): Navigation timer SPRM (10): Playback time information SPRM (11): Karaoke mixing mode SPRM (12): Parental country information SPRM (13): Parental level SPRM (14): Player set value (video)
SPRM (15): Player setting value (audio)
SPRM (16): Audio stream language code SPRM (17): Audio stream language code (extended)
SPRM (18): Language code for subtitle stream SPRM (19): Language code for subtitle stream (extended)
SPRM (20): Player region code SPRM (21): Reserve SPRM (22): Reserve SPRM (23): Playback state SPRM (24): Reserve SPRM (25): Reserve SPRM (26): Reserve SPRM (27): Spare SPRM (28): Spare SPRM (29): Spare SPRM (30): Spare SPRM (31): Spare

  In this embodiment, the programming function of the virtual player is based on Java (registered trademark) Script. However, instead of Java (registered trademark) Script, B-Shell used in UNIX (registered trademark) OS, Other programming functions such as Perl Script may be used. In other words, the present invention is not limited to Java (registered trademark) Script.

(Program example)
25 and 26 are examples of programs in the event handler.

FIG. 25 shows an example of a menu having two selection buttons.
The program on the left side of FIG. 25 is executed using the time event at the head of the cell (PlayList # 1. Cell # 1). Here, “1” is first set to GPRM (0), one of the general parameters. GPRM (0) is used to identify the selected button in the program. In the initial state, the initial value is that the button 1 arranged on the left side is selected.

  Next, PNG drawing is performed for each of the buttons 1 and 2 by using a drawing function Draw. The button 1 draws the PNG image “1black.png” with the coordinates (10, 200) as the starting point (left end). The button 2 draws a PNG image “2white.png” with the coordinates (330, 200) as a starting point (left end).

  At the end of this cell, the program on the right side of FIG. 25 is executed using a time event. Here, it is specified to play again from the beginning of the cell using the Link function.

FIG. 26 is an example of an event handler for a user event for menu selection.
When the remote control key of “Left” key, “Right” key, or “Determination” key is pressed, a corresponding program is written in the event handler. When the user presses the remote control key, as described in FIG. 21, a user event is generated and the event handler of FIG. 26 is activated. In this event handler, branch processing is performed using the value of GPRM (0) identifying the selection button and SPRM (8) identifying the selected remote control key.

Condition 1) When button 1 is selected and the selection key is the “right” key GPRM (0) is reset to 2, and the button in the selected state is changed to right button 2.
Rewrite the images of Button 1 and Button 2, respectively.
Condition 2) When the selection key is “OK” and button 1 is selected, playback of playlist # 2 is started. Condition 3) When the selection key is “OK”. When button 2 is selected, playback of playlist # 3 is started. Execution processing is performed as described above.

(Player processing flow)
Next, the processing flow in the player will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 27 is a basic processing flow up to AV playback.
When the BD disc is inserted (S101), the BD-ROM player is set to BD. Reading and analysis of INFO file (S102), BD. PROG reading (S103) is executed. BD. INFO and BD. Both PROGs are temporarily stored in the management information recording memory and analyzed by the scenario processor.

  Subsequently, the scenario processor is BD. The first event is generated according to the first event (FirstEvent) information in the INFO file (S104). The generated first event is received by the program processor, and an event handler corresponding to the event is executed (S105).

  It is expected that playlist information to be reproduced first is recorded in the event handler corresponding to the first event. If play list reproduction is not instructed, the player does not reproduce anything and simply waits for acceptance of a user event. In this case, it continues to wait for accepting a user event (S201). When the BD-ROM player receives a remote control operation from the user, the UOP manager raises a UOP event to the program manager (S202).

  The program manager determines whether the UOP event is caused by a menu key (S203). If the UOP event is a menu key, the program manager sends a UOP event to the scenario processor, and the scenario processor generates a user event (S204). The program processor executes an event handler corresponding to the generated user event (S205).

FIG. 28 is a processing flow from the start of PL playback to the start of VOB playback.
As described above, play list reproduction is started by the first event handler or the global event handler (S301). The scenario processor reads and analyzes playlist information “XXX.PL” as information necessary for playback of the playlist to be played back (S302), and reads program information “XXX.PROG” corresponding to the playlist (S303). ). Subsequently, the scenario processor starts cell reproduction based on the cell information registered in the playlist (S304). Cell playback means that a request is sent from the scenario processor to the presentation controller, and the presentation controller starts AV playback (S305).

  When the start of AV playback (S401) is started, the presentation controller reads and analyzes the VOB information file (XXX.VOBI) corresponding to the cell to be played back (S402). The presentation controller uses the time map to specify the VOBU to start playback and its address, and instructs the drive controller to specify the read address. The drive controller reads the target VOB data (S403), and the VOB data is sent to the decoder. Playback is started (S404). The VOB playback is continued until the playback section of the VOB ends (S405), and when it ends, the process proceeds to the next cell playback S304. Next, if there is no cell, playback stops (S406).

FIG. 29 is an event processing flow after the start of AV playback.
The BD-ROM player is an event-driven player model. When playback of the playlist is started, event processing processes for the time event system, the user event system, and the caption display system are started, and the event processing is executed in parallel.

The S500 system processing is a time event system processing flow.
After the play list reproduction is started (S501), the scenario processor confirms whether or not the time event occurrence time is reached (S503) through a step (S502) for confirming whether the play list reproduction is completed. If the time event occurrence time is reached, the scenario processor generates a time event (S504), and the program processor receives the time event and executes the event handler (S505).

  If the time event occurrence time is not reached in step S503, or after the event handler execution process in step S504, the process returns to step S502 again, and the above-described process is repeated. Also, when it is confirmed in step S502 that the play list reproduction has been completed, the time event processing is forcibly terminated.

The S600 system processing is a user event system processing flow.
After the play list reproduction is started (S601), the play list reproduction end confirmation step (S602) is performed, and then the process proceeds to the UOP reception confirmation step (S603). When the UOP is accepted, the UOP manager generates a UOP event (S604), and the program processor that receives the UOP event checks whether the UOP event is a menu call (S605). The program processor causes the scenario processor to generate an event (S607), and the program processor executes the event handler (S608).

  If it is determined in step S605 that the UOP event is not a menu call, it indicates that the UOP event is an event by a cursor key or a “decision” key. In this case, the scenario processor determines whether the current time is within the user event valid period (S606), and if it is within the valid period, the scenario processor generates a user event (S607), and the program processor is targeted. The event handler is executed (S608).

  If no UOP is accepted in step S603, if the current time is not in the user event valid period in step S606, or after the event handler execution process in step S608, the process returns to step S602 again to repeat the above-described process. Further, when it is confirmed in step S602 that the play list reproduction has ended, the user event processing is forcibly ended.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart of caption processing.
After the play list reproduction is started (S701), the play list reproduction end confirmation step (S702) is followed by the subtitle drawing start time confirmation step (S703). In the case of the caption rendering start time, the scenario processor instructs the presentation controller to render captions, and the presentation controller instructs the image processor to render captions (S704). If it is determined in step S703 that it is not the caption drawing start time, it is confirmed whether it is the caption display end time (S705). If it is determined that the subtitle display end time is reached, the presentation controller instructs the image processor to delete the subtitle and deletes the drawn subtitle from the image plane (S706).

  After the caption drawing step S704 ends, after the caption erasure step S706 ends, or when it is determined that the time is not the same at the caption display end time confirmation step S705, the process returns to step S702 and the above-described processing is repeated. Also, when it is confirmed in step S702 that the playlist reproduction has been completed, the caption display processing is forcibly terminated.

(Example 2)
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  The second embodiment relates to audio mixing control that realizes a new added value in the BD-ROM. Basically, the contents are based on the first embodiment, and the description will be focused on the expansion or different portions.

(Audio mixing)
Audio mixing is the name of an application that specifies and outputs two or more audio streams. FIG. 31 shows a basic model of audio mixing.

  When watching the main movie, the main voice alone is sufficient. In such a case, since the main sound may be output as it is, it is not necessary to perform audio mixing processing, the coefficient for the main sound may be 1, that is, 100%, and the coefficient for the additional sound or the sound effect may be 0. Good.

  On the other hand, in the case of making content, it is possible to realize an application in which the video and audio of the main part of the movie are played and the video and audio of the director are overlapped on the video content for explanation. In that case, the main sound and the additional sound can be synthesized and output by outputting the sound by applying a coefficient such as the main sound 0.5 of the main part and the additional sound 0.5 of the explanation.

  If the main voice is 0 and the additional voice is 1, it is possible to output only the commentary voice as in post-recording.

  Further, in the example given here, synthesis is performed so that the output after audio mixing does not exceed 1. This is because the output level after synthesis becomes 2 when the main sound 1 and the additional sound 1 are used, so that the loudspeaker is not damaged and the speaker is broken. This is because of the adjustment. Even if the combined level exceeds 2 as a model, if the player has a mechanism like a limiter that suppresses the final output level to 1 or less, it is necessary to suppress the combined level to 1 or less as a model. In that case, the sum of the coefficients may be set to 1 or more.

  Furthermore, in the BD-ROM, it is possible to synthesize sound effects such as games in addition to the main sound and additional sound. The synthesis method is a model for further synthesizing sound effects after synthesizing the main voice and the additional voice. When there is no sound effect, the result of synthesizing the main sound and the additional sound is multiplied by a coefficient 1 and output. Similarly, multiple stages of sound effect synthesis may be added for speech synthesis.

(Deterioration of sound due to audio mixing)
When the main sound is output as it is, that is, when audio mixing is not performed, it is possible to output the sound quality of the audio stream of the main sound as it is. When lossless audio is used, it is possible to output voice without information loss due to compression.

  However, when performing audio mixing, if the main sound and additional sound are synthesized (totaled) as they are, the sound level will increase and the sound will become louder. It will be multiplied by a lowering factor. At this time, even if high-quality sound is used like lossless audio, there is a possibility that information may be lost by applying a coefficient.

  For example, when processing 16-bit lossless audio as 24 bits as internal processing, if the coefficient is a multiple of 2 such as 0.5 or 0.125, information loss will not occur even if the coefficient is multiplied by 1/256. However, in the case where 24-bit audio is processed with 24 bits, even if only a coefficient of 0.5 is applied, in the digital processing world, one bit of the minimum bit loses information. Further, when a floating point that is not a multiple of 2 is multiplied, information loss occurs regardless of how many bits are used for internal processing.

  In this case, even if the content uses lossless audio and the sound is important, the sound is deteriorated.

(Audio mixing and output route)
Next, consider the output after audio mixing. FIG. 32 is a diagram for explaining the output.

  In order to perform audio mixing, it is necessary to decode compressed audio such as AC-3 or DTS and convert it to LPCM, which is uncompressed audio data. Audio mixing is performed with LPCM, and the synthesis result is also LPCM.

  As shown in FIG. 32A, when outputting the combined LPCM, it may be output as it is by digital LPCM, or may be converted to analog through a D / A converter and output. In the case of digital output, there are some digital streams that cannot be transmitted depending on the standard of the transmission path. In the case of a transmission path such as HDMI, although depending on the video resolution, it is possible to transmit a 5.1ch or 8ch digital stream as LPCM. In such a case, the audio stream after audio mixing may be transmitted as it is.

  However, in the case of a transmission line such as S / PDIF, which is currently widely used as an optical digital output, a 5.1ch LPCM cannot be output. This is because the bandwidth of the transmission path is insufficient, the standard is not defined, and the transmission method is not compatible, so that transmission is not possible.

  Since S / PDIF can output only up to 2ch in the case of LPCM, in order to prevent deterioration of sound quality due to compression, is it necessary to extract and output only 2ch such as L / R out of 5.1ch as shown in FIG. 32 (b)? It is necessary to downmix 5.1ch to 2ch using a downmixer and output.

  Alternatively, S / PDIF can transmit 5.1ch in the case of compressed audio such as DTS or AC-3, so the audio decoded and synthesized into LPCM is encoded again by the encoder and then used as compressed audio. It is necessary to transmit. In this case, in addition to the deterioration of sound quality due to audio mixing, deterioration of sound quality due to decoding and encoding may also occur.

(Settings for audio mixing permission / prohibition)
As described above, there is a possibility that sound quality deterioration may occur due to audio mixing. In the case of content focusing on sound quality, the user may not want to deteriorate the sound quality. In such a case, it is desirable that audio mixing can be prohibited as the user's intention. FIG. 33 shows a player having a register for holding an audio mixing permission / prohibition state and its setting screen. Registers hold user settings.

(Reference from the register program indicating whether audio mixing is enabled or disabled)
Such a register indicating permission / prohibition of audio mixing is preferably prepared as a system parameter (SPRM) indicating the state of the player and can be referred to from a program on the BD-ROM.

  The SPRM is set by the user, but when the set value can be referred from the program, the processing of the program can be switched depending on the state of the player holding the user's intention. FIG. 34 shows an example of a program in which a program refers to a register indicating permission / prohibition of audio mixing and switches processing according to the state. The program may be downloaded from a network, recorded in an external storage device such as an HDD, and may operate in conjunction with the BD-ROM.

  If audio mixing is permitted even if the same title is being played back by allowing the program to refer to the audio mixing permission / prohibition status, the content and audio mixing mainly consists of synthesizing commentary speech with additional speech. When prohibited, it is possible to automatically use content mainly composed of icons and video composition on the screen.

  By referring to the state of the player, the user's audio mixing permission / prohibition setting that is unknown in advance when creating the program, the program can realize appropriate content reproduction and additional functions.

(Flag on content indicating permission / prohibition of audio mixing)
Similarly, a flag that recommends permission / prohibition of audio mixing not as the user's intention but as the author's intention can be recorded as static data on the BD-ROM.

  FIG. 35 shows an example in which the audio mixing permission / prohibition flag is stored in the navigation data. Consider an example in which the same navigation data other than the audio mixing permission / prohibition attribute refers to AV data and programs including additional sound and sound effects.

  When navigation data for which audio mixing is permitted is reproduced, the additional sound and sound effect included in the AV data and the program are mixed and reproduced. On the other hand, when navigation data for which audio mixing is prohibited is reproduced, the additional sound and sound effect included in the AV data and the program are not mixed, and only the main sound is output as it is without deterioration in sound quality.

  If there is such a mechanism, by using common AV data and programs, it is possible to realize content such as the main part of a movie that you do not want to perform audio mixing, and content such as a making image that you want to add value by audio mixing It becomes possible to do. The author does not need to create a plurality of types of AV data and programs, and does not need to store extra data on the disc, so that the content can be recorded more efficiently.

(Combination of registers and flags)
When the register on the player indicating the user's intention and the flag indicating the content author's intention are applied at the same time, only when audio mixing is permitted, the additional audio and sound effects stored in the AV data and the program are stored. Audio mixing is performed.

  FIG. 36 is a table showing the states of registers and flags and whether or not audio mixing is performed.

(Example 3)
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  The third embodiment relates to the control of the picture-in-picture application that realizes a new added value in the BD-ROM. Basically, the contents are based on the first and second embodiments, and the description will be focused on the expanded or different portions.

(Picture in picture)
FIG. 37 shows an example of a picture-in-picture application. In the BD-ROM, it is possible to realize an application that displays the main video stream and the sub video stream on the same screen while simultaneously decoding the main video stream and the sub video stream.

  However, since it is necessary to decode two video streams at the same time, the processing of the player is very heavy. In addition, the process of overlapping the screens is necessary, and this process is also heavy.

  There will be no problem if the processor capacity is improved in the future, but now it is difficult to smoothly decode two HD-size images simultaneously.

  Since decoding of the main video is necessary, decoding is essential regardless of whether it is SD video or HD video with high resolution. However, if the player's ability is insufficient, sub-pictures may not be decoded or only SD videos with low resolution may be decoded.

  Therefore, a case is considered in which whether or not the player can reproduce the sub-video is stored in the player system parameter.

  As shown in FIG. 38, the system parameter (register) of the player stores whether the player cannot decode the sub-video, whether it is SD video, or HD video. deep.

The decoding capability may be set more finely for each resolution and frame rate.
However, unlike the case of the second embodiment, this system parameter cannot be changed by the user, and is a system parameter that is automatically set according to the capability of the player.

  If the decoding capability is stored in the system parameter and the status can be referred to from the program, the program will appropriately play back the content to be played according to the player's capability, as in the audio mixing permission / prohibition register of the embodiment. It becomes possible to switch to.

  By using such a mechanism, as in the case of audio mixing, even if the same content is played back, a player that does not support picture-in-picture plays an application using graphics or the like. Players that support SD video can realize applications with slightly rough video, and players that support high-performance picture-in-picture HD video can realize applications that include overlay video with high-quality video. It becomes possible.

  By utilizing the present invention, it is possible to provide a mechanism for outputting a main sound as it is recorded original to a user who does not desire sound quality deterioration for an application that performs audio mixing.

DVD configuration diagram Highlight configuration diagram Diagram showing an example of multiplexing on a DVD Data hierarchy diagram of BD-ROM Configuration diagram of logical space on BD-ROM Outline block diagram of BD-ROM player Configuration block diagram of BD-ROM player BD-ROM application space explanatory diagram Configuration diagram of MPEG stream (VOB) Pack configuration diagram The figure explaining the relationship between AV stream and a player structure AV data continuous supply model diagram to track buffer VOB information file configuration diagram Illustration of time map How to get address information using time map Playlist file structure diagram Configuration diagram of program files corresponding to playlists BD disk overall management information file configuration diagram Diagram of the file that records global event handlers Diagram explaining examples of time events Diagram explaining examples of user events Diagram explaining an example of a global event handler Virtual machine configuration diagram Diagram of player variable table Figure showing an example of event handler (time event) Diagram showing an example of event handler (user event) Flow chart of basic processing of player Flow chart of playlist playback processing Event processing flowchart Subtitle processing flowchart Diagram showing audio mixing model Illustration of audio mixing output Illustration of the setting screen for enabling / disabling audio mixing and the register that holds the setting screen Explanatory drawing of the program that switches processing with reference to the register Illustration of navigation data with attributes indicating permission / prohibition of audio mixing and its processing Table describing register and flag combinations Illustration of picture-in-picture Explanatory diagram of the program that switches processing with reference to the register

Explanation of symbols

201 BD disc 202 optical pickup 203 program recording memory 204 management information recording memory 205 AV recording memory 206 program processing unit 207 management information processing unit 208 presentation processing unit 209 image plane 210 video plane 211 composition processing unit 301 program recording memory 302 program processor 303 UOP manager 304 Management information recording memory 305 Scenario processor 306 Presentation controller 307 Clock 308 Image memory 309 Track buffer 310 Demultiplexer 311 Image processor 312 Video processor 313 Sound processor 314 Image plane 315 Video plane 316 Composition processing unit 317 Drive controller 101 disc insertion step S102 BD. INFO reading step S103 BD. PROG reading step S104 First event generation step S105 Event handler execution step S201 UOP reception step S202 UOP event generation step S203 Menu call determination step S204 Event generation step S205 Event handler execution step S301 Playlist reproduction start step S302 Playlist information (XXX.PL ) Reading step S303 Playlist program (XXX.PROG)
Read step S304 Cell playback start step S305 AV playback start step S401 AV playback start step S402 VOB information (YYY.VOBI) read step S403 VOB (YYY.VOB) read step S404 VOB playback start step S405 VOB playback end step S406 Next cell exists Determination step S501 Playlist playback start step S502 Playlist playback end determination step S503 Time event time determination step S504 Event generation step S505 Event handler execution step S601 Playlist playback start step S602 Playlist playback end determination step S603 UOP acceptance determination step S604 UOP Event generation step S605 Menu call determination step S606 user event the effective period determination step S607 event generation step S608 event handler executes step S701 playlist playback start step S702 playlist reproduction end determination step S703 to start the rendering of subtitles decision step S704 subtitle rendering step S705 subtitle display end determination step S706 subtitles erasing step

Claims (8)

  A plurality of audio streams can be combined and played back, and a register for identifying whether the plurality of audio streams are combined and played back or only the main audio stream is output is provided, and is combined according to the state of the register An audio stream synthesizing unit for discriminating whether or not the playback apparatus is provided.   The content to be played back is switched by referring to a register in the playback device that synthesizes and plays back a plurality of audio streams and identifies whether to synthesize and play back the plurality of audio streams or to output only the main audio stream. An information recording medium with a program.   An information recording medium, wherein a plurality of audio streams are recorded, and an identifier for identifying whether to synthesize and reproduce the plurality of audio streams or to output only a main audio stream.   A playback apparatus comprising a register that can play back a plurality of video streams on the same screen by overlaying and indicates a playback capability of the plurality of video streams.   The plurality of video streams are composed of a main video and a sub-video, and the playback capability is a playback capability for the sub-video, and the register is whether or not the sub-video can be played back. 5. The playback apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the resolution indicates whether playback is possible.   An information recording medium comprising a program for switching a content to be reproduced by referring to a register indicating a reproduction capability of the plurality of video streams in a reproduction apparatus that reproduces the plurality of video streams on the same screen by overlaying.   A step of referring to a register for identifying whether to synthesize and reproduce a plurality of audio streams or to output only the main audio stream, and a determination unit that switches a procedure to be executed according to the value of the register Playback method.   A playback method comprising: a step of referring to a register indicating a playback capability of a plurality of video streams played back on the same screen; and a determination unit that switches a procedure to be executed according to the value of the register.

Images