JP4903132B2 - Optical disk playback method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an optical disc playback technique, and more particularly, to an optical disc playback method and apparatus whose contents are expanded by a network or other methods.

  With the development of optical storage technology, optical discs can not only store a large amount of information, but can also be used as a method and means for obtaining further information, such as eDVD (Enhanced Digital Versatile Disk) format and Blu-ray (Blu-ray) An optical disc such as an optical disc format can be used. These optical disc formats eliminate the limitation that the initial optical disc format can only support the playback of the content stored on the optical disc, and the contents related to the optical disc but not stored in the optical disc (eg network) That is, it is possible to further cope with the extended content (enhanced content). For example, when an optical disc player is playing back an optical disc, in addition to playing back the content in the optical disc, the content of the optical disc or information related to a certain scenario is also transmitted via network link information provided on the optical disc. Is acquired from the network and played. Furthermore, information stored in other local storage media (for example, U disk, hard disk, storage card, etc.) related to the contents of the optical disk can also be reproduced based on link information provided in the optical disk. These optical disc formats with extended information functionality can provide the user with an unprecedented audiovisual experience.

  These optical disc formats with extended content of optical discs not only play back the content stored on the optical disc, but also access and play back the content from other information sources (especially the network) related to the optical disc content. In addition, an optical display playback engine is required. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a conventional optical disc playback apparatus 100. The playback apparatus 100 can not only play back the contents of an optical disk or other local storage medium, but can also access a network server to obtain contents related to the contents of the optical disk for playback.

  When the playback device 100 is playing back an optical disk, the content stored on the optical disk can be directly played back by the playback engine 110 according to a corresponding application program interface (API). For content related to the contents of an optical disc stored on a network server or other local storage medium, the playback engine 110 may use corresponding commands and API commands (e.g., TCP commands based on these different content storage addresses and storage methods). Command based on / IP socket) to access the associated addresses and replay their contents. The buffering manager 130 can control the buffer 120 to play the expanded content.

  In the conventional optical disc reproducing apparatus and optical disc reproducing method, it is necessary to access and reproduce the contents of various storage media with different instructions and different methods. The playback engine 110 needs to identify the stored information of these contents, and needs to select different methods to handle according to various content formats. Further, the contents stored on the optical disk and the expanded contents stored on other storage media related to these contents can only be individually processed by the optical disk reproducing apparatus, and it is very important to use them collectively. As a result, the design and manufacture of the regeneration engine is particularly complicated.

  If the extension, particularly in the network, includes a new media format or is associated with a new network protocol, the playback engine 110 may extend the new application program interface or update the current technology version, It is also necessary to be able to play back the contents of the corresponding format.

  Accordingly, there is a need to provide an optical disc playback method and apparatus for simplifying playback of the contents and extended contents of an optical disc.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an optical disk reproducing method and apparatus that solves the drawbacks of the prior art.

  An optical disc reproducing method according to the present invention generates a reproduction file system based on the description information of contents to be reproduced and a directory file system in the storage medium of contents to be reproduced based on the description information. And a step of reproducing the reproduction content to be reproduced according to the reproduction file system. The content to be reproduced includes content stored on the optical disc and optical disc extended content stored on another storage medium (for example, a network). The description information includes storage information of the contents to be reproduced. Further, the method of the present invention includes a method of searching for information of a playback software resource that plays back the content to be played back, and a step of generating the playback file system based on the information of the playback software resource and the description information of the resource to be played back. And have. The content to be played is accessed and played according to the playback file program by a single application program interface.

  An optical disc reproducing apparatus according to the present invention has a retrieval device for retrieving description information of contents to be reproduced, and the description information has storage information of the contents to be reproduced. Further, this optical disk reproducing apparatus has a generating apparatus for generating a reproduction file system based on the description information, and this reproduction file system corresponds to a directory file system in the storage medium of the contents to be reproduced. Further, the optical disc playback apparatus has a playback engine for playing back the content to be played in accordance with the playback file system. The search device is also used to search for information on playback software resources necessary to play back the content to be played back, including stored information, for example buffered storage information. The generating device for generating the playback file system is also used for generating the playback file system based on the description information and the information of the playback software resource. The playback engine accesses and plays back content to be played back using a single application program interface according to the playback file system.

  According to the optical disc playback method and apparatus of the present invention, the playback processing of the content to be played back using the optical disc playback engine is simplified, and the contents in various storage media can be accessed and accessed by using a single application program interface. Can be regenerated. There is no need to update the optical disc playback engine when it is necessary to play back the contents of a new optical disc format, or when other new storage media appear, and several functional modules of the playback engine according to the present invention are simply used. The expansion is sufficient, and the function of the entire optical disc playback apparatus can be improved. Therefore, the design and implementation complexity of the playback engine is greatly reduced.

  Further objects and advantages of this invention will be better appreciated from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

  Throughout the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same, similar, or corresponding features and functions.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an optical disc reproducing apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The optical disc playback apparatus 200 includes a search device 210, a generation device 220, and a playback engine 230.

  The search device 210 is used to search for description information of contents to be reproduced. The contents to be reproduced include the contents to be reproduced stored on the optical disk and the extended contents related to the contents to be reproduced in the optical disk. The extended contents have contents stored in the network (in this case, the link address is provided with an optical disk), and some kind of stored in other local storage media (eg, hard disk, U disk, etc.) It can also have contents such as text, still images, moving images, audio and video segments (again, the link address is provided on the optical disc). The description content retrieved by the retrieval device 210 is downloaded from the storage information of the content to be reproduced as described above, for example, the storage address of the content to be reproduced in the optical disk or the local storage medium, or the network, and is buffered in the buffer. A storage address of the content to be reproduced. In order to realize seamless reproduction, it is necessary to first download the extended contents of the network to the buffer of the optical disk reproducing apparatus so that the address where the contents of the network are buffered in the buffer can be obtained.

  If the content to be played has network content, download a certain application program resource that supports the playback of the network content into the buffer storage device of the optical disc playback device and obtain the corresponding buffering storage address It is necessary to be able to reproduce the contents of the network promptly. Therefore, in such a case, the search device 210 includes information on the playback software resource that supports the playback of the content to be played back, such as a network storage address or a buffering storage address in the buffer of the optical disk playback device. It is also used to obtain stored information.

  The generation device 220 is used to generate a reproduction file system using the description information of the content to be reproduced retrieved by the retrieval device 210. Since the directory file system in the storage medium has description information of the content to be played back, the generating device 220 can use the directory file system in the storage medium of the content to be played back, for example, the optical disc content based on the directory file system in the optical disc. Can be generated. In general, an initial playback file system is established by a mapping or conversion method based on a directory file system of content to be played stored in an optical disc, and subsequently the established playback file system is expanded to Description information of the directory file system is added, so that a reproduction file system having a uniform content to be reproduced is established in the optical disk reproduction apparatus. This file system is a description information of the content to be reproduced in various storage media. (For example, stored information).

  If the content to be played back has network link content, the generation device 220 adds playback resource information (such as an application program) necessary for playing back the corresponding network content to be played back to the generated file system. That is, it is necessary to map the storage information of the application program to the playback file system so that the relevant directory of the playback file system also has a storage / buffering address link for these application programs. By establishing such a reproduction file system, it is possible to access and reproduce the contents to be reproduced, the extended contents, and the resources necessary for reproduction in a single method.

  For content that needs to be buffered by a buffer, if these content are obtained in the buffer and have a buffering storage address, generator 220 appends this information to the established playback file system. Only when these contents are downloaded during playback, if these contents have a buffering storage address, the generator 220 continues to update the established playback file system during playback of the optical disc. Thus, the apparatus 200 may also have a buffer (not shown) for buffering the contents that need to be buffered and the corresponding playback application program.

  The playback engine 230 is used to play back the content to be played back on the optical disc according to the above-described playback file system, and does not need to access the directory file system in the optical disc. The playback engine 230 can quickly access and play back the playback content of the optical disc and the extended content of the optical disc based on the information provided by the playback file system only by using a single application program interface program.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an optical disc reproducing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. When the optical disc is inserted into the playback device, the optical disc playback device first reads a directory file stored in the optical disc (step S305). This directory file has a certain kind of description information to be reproduced, and information of reproduction software resources corresponding to the description information, for example, storage information. The purpose of step S305 is to search for description information of the content to be reproduced. This is because the directory file system in the storage medium of the content to be reproduced has description information of the content to be reproduced. The embodiment of the present invention is convenient because the description information of the content to be reproduced can be obtained according to the directory file system in the storage medium of the content to be reproduced. Of course, other conventional methods for retrieving descriptive information of the content to be reproduced can also be used.

  Subsequently, an initial reproduction file system is generated based on the directory file system of the reproduction content of the inserted optical disk (step S310). Based on the directory file on the optical disc, an initial playback file system is generated by mapping. The generation process of the reproduction file system will be described in detail later with reference to FIG.

  The initial reproduction file system has a directory file system generated by mapping, and this directory file system has a directory file structure corresponding to contents to be reproduced stored in the optical disc. For example, an optical disc directory file system has a “video transfer (transfer) subdirectory (VIDEO_TS)” and an “optical disc extension content subdirectory (DVD_ENAV)”, and the playback file system also corresponds to these. Has two subdirectories. Link information of the extended contents to be reproduced, which is a storage path toward the expanded contents to be reproduced, is also included in the subdirectory of the initial reproduction file system. When it is necessary to support application programs stored in the optical disc in order to reproduce the extended contents to be reproduced, the storage information of these application programs is also mapped in the relevant directory of the reproduction file system.

  Subsequently, the description information of the extended contents in the other local storage medium is retrieved and added to the reproduction file system (step S320). Certain descriptive information of the content stored in the optical disc, such as title, subject and some keywords, is defined during the manufacturing of the optical disc and stored in the optical disc, so that the corresponding content to be played It can be easily found in other local storage media based only on information. Since the description information (e.g., storage address) of the extended content in the other local storage medium is mapped in the established playback file system, the playback file system (e.g., the extended playback content (e.g., storage address) in the other local storage medium) , Storage information of another local storage medium).

  Thereafter, the playback file system is updated based on the description information of the extended contents in the network. Normally, the extended contents in the network and the corresponding playback resources (for example, playback application programs for audio and video and other application programs necessary for network playback) are downloaded in advance into the buffer storage device of the optical disk playback device. It is necessary to keep it. These are then played back to achieve seamless playback for certain scenarios. For example, an optical disc generates a network server address through which certain extensions can be obtained in the form of a URL link (eg, www.dvd._2.com.cn/video.exe). That is, the extended contents of the network and the playback resources corresponding to them can be accessed and downloaded for buffering according to the URL link information. Accordingly, the extended contents of the network and the playback resource have a corresponding buffering storage address after downloading in addition to the network storage address information.

  By updating the playback file system based on the downloaded network extension and playback resource description information, the corresponding information including buffering storage information is added to the established playback file system according to the directory structure. Is done. The playback file system has link information of the downloaded contents toward the buffering address in the buffering storage device, for example, file: // buffer: / Offset = offset & Length = length. Here, “buffer” indicates that the content exists in the buffering storage device, the start address is offset, and the length is “length”. Similarly, the playback file system can also have descriptive information that goes directly to application program resources in the buffering storage. Step S330 can also be executed during reproduction.

  Finally, the optical disk is reproduced according to the established reproduction file system (step S340). According to this reproduction file system, the content to be reproduced is reproduced by a single application program interface. By accessing a link address in the playback file system, for example dvd: // dvdrom: /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO, the playback device can obtain the path of the file VIDEO_TS.IFO (stored in the directory VIDEO_TS on the optical disc DVD). The playback device can achieve file access and playback according to this path. By establishing a playback file system, the playback engine is separated from a specific storage medium, and the playback engine does not need to adopt a unique and different method to play back the contents in the various storage media. The operation of is simplified.

  It should be noted that the network extension stored in the network server can be downloaded into a buffer or other storage medium during playback, not before playback. After the download is completed, the playback device maps the buffer addresses of these downloaded network playback contents into the playback file system, and the playback device uses the buffer address link obtained in the playback file system to expand these extended contents. Make it accessible.

  When the reproduction of the optical disc is completed, the reproduction apparatus can delete the reproduction file system. Since the reproduction file system is dynamically generated while the optical disk is inserted, the reproduction apparatus can automatically delete the reproduction file system when the reproduction ends. However, when considering that the same optical disc may be repeatedly played, the playback file system is stored in another local storage medium during playback or at the end of playback, thereby playing the same optical disc next time. At this time, it is not necessary to establish a reproduction file system, and it is possible to reproduce an optical disk by simply calling based on an existing reproduction file system.

  FIG. 4 is a structural diagram of a directory structure of a reproduction file system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The playback device establishes an initial playback file system based on the directory file system of the contents in the optical disc. The directory structure of the playback content in the optical disc has a root directory, and under this root directory, there are two subdirectories, namely, an “optical disc extension content subdirectory” and a “video transfer subdirectory”. Assume that “subdirectories” have second level subdirectories, “font subdirectories” and “page number subdirectories”, and all files are stored in their respective directories. For example, an activation file exists in the “optical disc extension content subdirectory” of the optical disc, and a video transfer file exists in the “video transfer subdirectory”.

  Since the directory structure of the reproduction file system corresponds to the directory structure of the optical disk, the directory structure of the reproduction system can be matched with the directory structure of the optical disk by mapping the entire directory structure of the optical disk to the reproduction file system. As is clear from FIG. 4, the directory structure of the playback file system also has a root directory. Under this root directory, there are an “optical disc extension content subdirectory” and a “video transfer subdirectory”. Under the “subdirectory”, there are a “font subdirectory” and a “page number subdirectory”. The optical disk description information is stored in these related subdirectories. For example, the start file description information, that is, the start file storage information, is stored in the “optical disk extension content subdirectory” of the reproduction file system.

  The reproduction file system has a directory corresponding to the directory structure of another local storage medium in addition to the directory corresponding to the directory structure of the optical disc. When retrieving the related contents of the optical disc in another local storage medium by the playback device, it is necessary to map the directory structure of the other local storage medium to the playback file system. As is apparent from FIG. 4, it is necessary to add a directory that does not exist in the directory structure of the initial playback file system, for example, an “audio subdirectory” to the directory structure of the playback file system. It is stored in the “subdirectory”. For existing directories such as “Optical extension subdirectory”, “Font subdirectory” and “Page number subdirectory”, files under these directories in other local media (eg Chinese font files) , Index file, segment file, page number file, etc.) need only be mapped to the relevant directory of the playback file system. The storage paths for these files are stored in the associated subdirectory of the playback file system. When the same file exists in the same subdirectory, for example, when the description information of “Chinese font file” already exists under “Font subdirectory”, the original information is stored in another local storage. It is necessary to replace the new file “Chinese font file” in the medium. In this way, the directory system file of the playback file system is completely established.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing links of a reproduction file system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and is for explaining a link format stored in the reproduction file system that can be reproduced by these links. The playback file system can be linked based on the URI setting, for example, a URI setting of “ file: // ” indicates that this content is some kind of file that can be extracted from the local storage space. And the URI setting of “ http: // ” indicates that this content is in the network server and can therefore be extracted using the HTTP protocol, and “dvd: //” This indicates that this content is in the optical disc, and therefore it can be extracted using an application program interface specific to the optical disc. In the case of a device identifier of “ file: // ” URI (eg, buffer: / buffer, hd: / hard disk, flash: / flash memory), physically identifies what kind of storage medium the playback content is stored can do.

  As shown in FIG. 5, it is not necessary to first download the contents from the optical disc to the buffer, but “video transfer subdirectory” and “optical disc extension content subdirectory” based on the URI setting (specifying the display method of the information position). You only need to map these contents under. For example, the description information of the video transfer file is stored in the form of “dvd: // dvdrom: /VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO”, where the video file of the optical disc is stored under the video transfer subdirectory of the optical disc dvdrom. , Indicating that the file name is VIDEO_TS.IFO. In another embodiment, the description information of the start file is stored in the form of “dvd: // dvdrom: /VIDEO_TS/STARTUP.MLS” in the “optical disc extension content subdirectory”, which is the same as the start file stored in the optical disc dvdrom. The file name is STARTUP.MLS and is stored under the video transfer subdirectory.

It is not always necessary to download the playback content of the optical disc, but the playback content of a certain type of optical disc can be downloaded into the buffer in advance. This content portion can be some kind of image, text or audio and video segment, etc., thereby avoiding frequent jumping of the playback device when playing back this content. The downloaded content part needs to be mapped under "Optical extension contents subdirectory", which can be expressed in the form of file: // buffer: / Offset = offset & Length = length , This file is stored in the buffer, the buffering activation address is offset, and the length is length.

The playback contents from other local storage media do not need to be downloaded, and the description information of these playback contents can be directly mapped under the “optical disc extension content subdirectory” according to the file format of the URI setting. There is an image file related to the contents of the optical disk stored in another local storage medium. For example, this image file exists in the form of file: // hd: /disc_a/file.jpg in the playback file system. To do. This indicates that this image is stored under the disc_a directory on the hard disk and the file name is “file.jpg”.

  Regarding the contents from the network server, it is necessary to first download the playback contents or application program resources into the buffer. The description information of the downloaded contents is stored in the “optical disc extension contents subdirectory” according to the file format of the URI setting. For example, the description information of the downloaded text file is stored in the format file: // buffer: / Offset = 0x3000 & Length = 0x1200. This indicates that this text file is stored in the buffer, the activation address is 0x3000, and the length is 0x1200. In another embodiment, the description information of the downloaded Chinese font file is stored under “font subdirectory” and stored in the form of file: // buffer: / Offset = 0x0000 & Length = 0x1000. This indicates that the Chinese font file is stored in the buffer, the activation address is 0x0000, and the length is 0x1000. The Chinese font file can be expressed without using the font format of the URI setting, and the buffering address of the content downloaded in the buffer and the length of the content can be directly expressed in the form of a pointer.

  According to the present invention, contents inside and outside the optical disk are integrally mapped in the reproduction file system in the form of a link, and the reproduction engine can operate in the reproduction file system, and various contents sources can be directly accessed. There is no need to process. By doing so, it is not necessary to significantly change the structure of the regeneration engine, and the design and manufacturing complexity of the regeneration engine can be greatly reduced. More importantly, when a new protocol and media format is introduced, there is no need to change the optical disc playback engine, just the corresponding software resources of the search device and the generator to handle the new protocol and media. It is sufficient to upgrade and expand, which improves the generality and expandability of the entire playback device.

  The apparatus and method described in the embodiments of the present invention are suitable for various optical disc formats such as eDVD format and Blu-ray optical disc format.

  While the invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in accordance with the above description. Accordingly, variations and modifications included in the concept of the present invention and the scope of the claims should be included in the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an optical disc reproducing apparatus 100 according to the prior art. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an optical disc reproducing apparatus 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an optical disc reproducing method according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the directory structure of the playback file system according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing links of a reproduction file system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (16)

(a) reading a directory file from the optical disc inserted in the optical disc playback device;
(b) generating an initial playback file system according to the directory file;
(C1) are stored in a local storage medium of the associated and the optical disc reproducing apparatus to the contents stored in the optical disc, comprising the steps of to eject the description information relating to reproduction content,
( c2) adding the description information to the initial playback file system to establish a unified playback file system;
(d) updating the unified playback file system based on descriptive information related to the extended content from the network;
(e) playing back the optical disc based on the updated unified playback file system;
An optical disc reproducing method comprising: The optical disc playback method according to claim 1, wherein the updated unified playback file system has link information for accessing playback content stored in the local storage medium and extended content from the network.   The optical disc playback method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of downloading the extended content and a playback resource corresponding to the extended content to the optical disc playback device and storing them in a buffer. 4. The optical disc playback method according to claim 3, wherein the updated unified playback file system includes the extended content and buffering storage information of playback resources corresponding to the extended content.   2. The optical disc reproducing method according to claim 1, wherein the directory file includes description information relating to contents to be reproduced and resource information of reproduction software corresponding to the description information. 6. The optical disk reproducing method according to claim 1, wherein the step (b) includes a step of generating the initial reproduction file system by mapping according to the directory file. 7. The optical disc playback method according to claim 6, wherein the initial playback file system generated in the step (b) has a directory file structure corresponding to the content to be played back stored in the optical disc. The updated unified playback file system has buffering storage information of an application program for playback of the optical disc,
The step (e) comprises accessing the optical disc, the local storage device and / or the network via a single interface associated with the application program to obtain content to be played back. The optical disc playback method according to any one of 1 to 7. An optical disk playback device,
Means for reading a directory file from the optical disc inserted in the optical disc playback apparatus;
Means for generating an initial playback file system according to the directory file;
And associated with the content stored on the optical disk is stored in the local storage medium of the disk reproducing apparatus, and means to eject the description information relating to reproduction content,
Means for adding the description information to the initial playback file system to establish a unified playback file system;
Means for updating the unified playback file system based on description information relating to the extended content from the network;
An optical disc reproducing apparatus comprising: means for reproducing the optical disc based on the updated unified reproduction file system. 10. The optical disc playback apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the updated unified playback file system has link information for accessing playback content stored in the local storage medium and extended content from the network. Means for downloading the extension content and a playback resource corresponding to the extension content;
11. The optical disc playback apparatus according to claim 9 or 10, further comprising: means for buffering and storing the downloaded extended content and the playback resource. 12. The optical disc playback apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the updated unified playback file system has buffering storage information of the extension contents and playback resources corresponding to the extension contents.   10. The optical disc playback apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the directory file includes description information related to contents to be played back and resource information of playback software corresponding to the description information. Means for generating the initial reproduction file system, the generating the initial reproduction file system by mapping according to the directory file, the optical disk reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 13. 15. The optical disc playback apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the initial playback file system has a directory file structure corresponding to content to be played back stored in the optical disc. The updated unified playback file system has buffering storage information of an application program for playback of the optical disc,
The means for playing back the optical disc accesses the optical disc, the local storage device and / or the network via a single interface related to the application program to obtain the content to be played back. The optical disc reproducing device according to any one of 16.

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