D E S C R I P T I O N
METHOD FOR RESTRICTING PLAYBACK OPERATION OF PROGRAM ON OPTICAL DISC
1. Technical Field The present invention relates to a method for restricting a playbac operation of a program on an optical disc, and more particularly to a method for recording viewing restriction information associated with a viewing-restricted program when recording the viewing-restricted program on an optical disc such as a Blu-ray Disc (BD) , and a method for restricting playback and editing operations of a program on the basis of the viewing restriction information.
2. Background Art There have been widely used a variety of optical discs capable of storing high-quality video data and high-quality audio data for a long period of time, for example, a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) having storage capacity of about 4.7Gbytes. In recent times, many developers have conducted intensive research into standardization of the BD having recording density higher than that of the DVD, and it is expected that a high-density BD will be developed and placed on the market. The disc recorder for recording a program on the above-mentioned optical disc or reproducing the program recorded on the optical disc encodes video and audio data into an MPEG-based data stream, records the MPEG-based data stream on an optical disc, and manages navigation information for controlling a playback operation of the recorded program. The disc recorder displays list information of programs
recorded on the optical disc on a user selection menu image. If a user selects a program from among a plurality of programs, the disc recorder selectively reproduces the selected program. In the meantime, if the program recorded on the optical disc such as a BD is determined to be a viewing-restricted program, for example, an adult program including adult video and audio data inappropriate for adolescents or children, there is no solution for restricting a playback operation of the adult program, such that there must be developed a solution capable of preventing the adult program from being exposed to the adolescents or children.
3. Disclosure of Invention Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for automatically restricting a playback operation of a specific program although the specific program is not setup to be viewing-restricted. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for preventing a viewing-restricting setup from being released by edition of a clip information file. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a method for restricting a program on a recording medium, comprising the steps of: a) determining whether the program to be recorded on the recording medium is indicative of a viewing-restricted program; and b) if the program is indicative of the viewing-restricted program, recording viewing-restricting information in clip information associated with the program. Preferably, whether the program is indicative of the viewing-restricted program is determined on the basis of rating region table (RRT) information included in a program system information protocol (PSIP) of the program. Preferably, if the program is indicative of the viewing-restricted program, the RRT
information indicative of the viewing-restricting information is recorded in clip information associated with the program. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for restricting a program on a recording medium, comprising the steps of: a) determining whether the program on the recording medium of which playback is requested is indicative of a viewing-restricted program on the basis of clip information associated with the program; and b) restricting the playback of the program according to the determination result. Preferably, whether the program is indicative of the viewing-restricted program is determined on the basis of rating region table (RRT) information recorded in the clip information. Preferably, if the RRT information is not contained in the clip information or is not determined to be viewing-restricting information, the playback-requested program is reproduced, and if the RRT information contained in the clip information is determined to be the viewing-restricting information, the playback-requested program is reproduced only when a predetermined specific key value is entered. In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium, comprising: a program area for storing at least one program therein; and a clip information area for storing clip information associated with individual programs, wherein the clip information includes management information indicating whether a playback operation of a corresponding program is restricted. Preferably, the management information is a rating region table (RRT) . Preferably, the recording medium is a high-density optical disc.
4. Brief Description of Drawings The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, illustrate the preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the description,
serve to explain the principles of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an optical disc apparatus according to the present invention; Fig. 2 shows an exemplary state in which viewing-restricting information (also called a Rating Region Table (RRT) information) is recorded in clip information of an optical disc according to the present invention; Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for restricting a playback operation of a program on the optical disc according to the present invention; and Fig. 4 is an exemplary image for showing a viewing-restricting information message displayed on a screen according to the present invention. Features, elements, and aspects of the invention that are referenced by the same numerals in different figures represent the same, equivalent, or similar features, elements, or aspects in accordance with one or more embodiments.
5. Modes for Carrying out the Invention Now, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the annexed drawings. Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an optical disc apparatus according to the present invention. For example, a disc recorder for recording a program on an optical disc such as a BD or reproducing the program recorded on the optical disc includes an optical disc 10, an optical pickup unit 11, a record/playback system 12, an MPEG encoder 13, an MPEG decoder 14, a microprocessor 15, a memory 16, and a menu graphic generator 17, etc., as shown in Fig. 1. As shown in Fig. 2, in the case of a file system of the optical disc 10 (i.e., a BD) according to the present invention, at least one BD directory is allocated under a root directory, and an information file (info.dbav), a menu file (menu.tidx),
and a mark file (mark.tidx) are recorded in the BD directory. A PLAYLIST directory, a CLIPINF directory, and a STREAM directory are recorded in the BD directory. A real playlist file (*.rpls) and a virtual playlist file (*.vpls) are recorded in the PLAYLIST directory. A plurality of clip information files are recorded in the CLIPINF directory. A plurality of MPEG stream files (*.m2ts) are recorded in the STREAM directory. At least one clip information file (e.g., 010001. cpli) recorded in the CLIPINF directory includes viewing-restricting information indicating that a corresponding program is a viewing-restricted program. For example, rating region table
(RRT) information contained in a program system information protocol (PSIP) may be recorded in the viewing-restricting information. Upon receiving a request for recording a program from a user, the microprocessor 15 determines whether the requested program is indicative of a viewing-restricted program, and additionally records viewing-restricting information in clip information corresponding to the program. Thereafter, upon receiving a request for reproducing the program from the user, the microprocessor 15 restricts playback and editing operations of the user-requested program on the basis of the viewing-restricting information recorded in the clip information corresponding to the user-requested program. Therefore, although an additional viewing-restricting setup is not applied to a corresponding program, the microprocessor 15 can automatically prevent the user from viewing the program through the RRT recorded in the clip information file. Fig. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for restricting a playback operation of a program on the optical disc according to the present invention. If a user requests to record a specific program at step S10, the microprocessor 15 controls the record/playback system 12 and
the MPEG encoder 13 to record the user-requested program in the form of an MPEG data stream on the optical disc 10 at step Sll. The microprocessor 15 checks RRT information contained in the PSIP associated with the program to be recorded on the optical disc at step S12, and determines whether the RRT information corresponds to viewing-restricting information at step S13. If the RRT information corresponds to viewing-restricting information at step S13, the microprocessor 15 additionally records RRT information indicative of viewing-restricting information in clip information (Clipinfo) from among navigation information for controlling a playback operation of the program at step S14. Otherwise, if the RRT information does not correspond to viewing-restricting information, the microprocessor 15 does not record RRT information in the clip information, or additionally records RRT information of a specific value indicative of a non-viewing-restricting information in the clip information. The microprocessor 15 normally completes a recording operation of the recording-requested program at step S15. If the user desires to reproduce the program recorded on the optical disc 10 at step S20, the microprocessor 15 controls the menu graphic generator 17, such that recording list information stored on the optical disc 10 is displayed on a screen. If the user selects one of recording programs by referring to the recording list information, the microprocessor 15 checks clip information corresponding to the selected program at step S21, and determines whether the RRT information recorded in the clip information is indicative of viewing-restricting information at step S22. If the RRT information recorded in the clip information is indicative of the viewing-restricting information at step S22, the microprocessor 15 controls the menu graphic generator 17 to
output a predetermined message indicative of a viewing-restricted program, and commands a user to enter a specific key value (e.g., a password) at step S23. For example, if a first program selected by a user on the recording list image is indicative of a viewing-restricted program as shown in Fig. 4, the microprocessor 15 outputs a predetermined message indicative of the viewing-restricted program, and commands the user to enter his or her password. The microprocessor 15 determines whether the user-entry key value is equal to a predetermined key value at step S24. If the user-entry key value is equal to a predetermined key value at step S24, the microprocessor 15 normally performs playback and editing operations of a corresponding program at step S25.
Otherwise, if the user-entry key value is different from the predetermined key value at step S24, the microprocessor 15 re-commands the user to enter a correct password, such that it restricts playback and editing operations of the corresponding program. In the meantime, if the program selected by the user is not indicative of the viewing-restricted program, the microprocessor 15 normally performs playback and editing operations of the corresponding program without displaying an additional information message. Conventionally, if a viewing-restricting setup is not applied to the clip information file, a user can edit the clip information file to release the viewing-restricting setup and can view a desired program. Contrary to the above-mentioned conventional art, the present invention adds RRT information in such a clip information file, such that irrespective of edition of the clip information file, a reproduction operation of a corresponding program can be restricted through the RRT information . As apparent from the above description, the present
invention can restrict playback and editing operations of a specific program on an optical disc such as a BD, for example, an adult program including adult video and audio data inappropriate for adolescents or children, in program units, and can prevent a viewing-restricting setup from being released by edition of a clip information file and others. Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.