Player device

• US 20060227673A1
• Filed: 03/21/2006
• Published: 10/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Matsuda, Masafumi, Inoue, Makoto, Sako, Yoichiro, Terauchi, Toshiro, Miyajima, Yasushi, Sasaki, Toru, Nakamura, Takatoshi, Takehara, Mitsuru, Asukai, Masamichi, Yamashita, Kosei
• Granted Patent: US 8,107,327 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 369/30.80
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/022 Control panels
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols

Abstract

A player device uses playlists having names of contents. Users can update the playlists via network. The player device includes a storage device for storing digital data of the contents, a reception/reception circuit for downloading playlists, a display for displaying the titles of contents included in the playlists, a pointing device for specifying displayed titles, a circuit for retrieving digital data from the storage device in the event that digital data of a content specified by the pointing device is stored within the storage device, and an output circuit for outputting the retrieved digital data.

Claims

1. A player device which uses playlists having names of contents such that users can update the playlists via a network, the player device comprising:

a storage device for storing digital data of the contents;

a transmission/reception circuit for downloading the playlists;

a display for displaying the titles of contents included in the playlists;

a pointing device for specifying one of the displayed titles;

a circuit for retrieving digital data from the storage device in the event that digital data of a content specified by the pointing device is stored within the storage device; and

an output circuit for outputting the retrieved digital data.

2. The player device according to claim 1, wherein, in the event that the digital data of the content specified by the pointing device is not stored within the storage device, the digital data thereof is retrieved from a server on the network, and the retrieved digital data is output by the output circuit.

3. The player device according to claim 2, wherein, in the event that the playlists are hierarchically arranged according to playback situations desired by users, the hierarchical level is selected with the pointing device.

4. The player device according to claim 3, wherein, in the event that the playlists have data indicating rating points of the playlists, the rating points are displayed on the display, and the rating points are updated and uploaded to the server.

5. The player device according to claim 3, wherein, in the event that the playlists have comments regarding the contents of the playlist, the comments are displayed on the display, and wherein other comments are uploaded to the server and the other comments are added to the comments which the playlists have.

6. The player device according to claim 3, wherein, in the event that the playlists have data indicating rating points of the playlists, the rating points are automatically updated according to a playback state of the contents stored in the storage device and uploaded to the server.

7. The player device according to claim 2, wherein, in the event of retrieving the digital data form a server on the network, experimental playback of the content to be reproduced from the digital data is enabled, and is saved in the storage device in the event that the user gives instructions to save to the storage device.

8. A playback method which uses playlists having names of contents such that users can update the playlists via a network, the method comprising the steps of:

downloading the playlists;

displaying the titles of contents included in the playlists;

specifying one of the displayed titles;

retrieving digital data from a storage device in the event that digital data of a specified content is stored within the storage device; and

outputting the retrieved digital data.