Playback apparatus, playback method, and computer program

• US 20080015718A1
• Filed: 07/10/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Koya, Takashi, Kudo, Shigetaka, Fujimoto, Taketeru, Yoneda, Michiaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,966,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2805 Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching

Abstract

A playback apparatus can communicate with a second server, which temporarily stores in a first buffer compressed digital data that is received from a first server, and when the first buffer has stored a first data volume of the compressed digital data, which is a volume that is sufficient for a decoding of the compressed digital data, reads the compressed digital data out of the first buffer and decodes it into decompressed digital data. The playback apparatus includes a second buffer, which temporarily stores the decompressed digital data that is received from the second server; a D/A conversion portion (340), which converts into analog data the decompressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the second buffer; and a notification information generation portion (370), which generates notification information that conveys storage statuses of the first buffer and the second buffer.

Claims

1. A playback apparatus that can communicate with a second server, which temporarily stores in a first buffer compressed digital data that is received from a first server, and when the first buffer has stored a first data volume of the compressed digital data, which is a volume that is sufficient for a decoding of the compressed digital data, reads the compressed digital data out of the first buffer and decodes it into decompressed digital data, the playback apparatus comprising:

a communication portion that transmits data to and receives data from the second server;

a second buffer that temporarily stores the decompressed digital data that is received from the second server through the communication portion;

a D/A conversion portion that performs a D/A conversion of the decompressed digital data, which is read out from the second buffer, and outputs analog data;

a control portion that performs control such that, when a second data volume of the decompressed digital data, which is a volume that is sufficient for the D/A conversion portion to operate without an interruption of its output, has been temporarily stored in the second buffer, the decompressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the second buffer is transferred to the D/A conversion portion; and

a notification information generation portion that generates notification information that conveys storage statuses of the first buffer and the second buffer.

2. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when the control portion receives from the second server through the communication portion an end notification that indicates that the first data volume of the compressed digital data has been stored in the first buffer, the control portion transmits through the communication portion request information that requests the decompressed digital data, and

when the decompressed digital data that is transmitted from the second server in response to the request information is received through the communication portion, the decompressed digital data is temporarily stored in the second buffer.

3. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification information generation portion generates the notification information based on the data volume of the compressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the first buffer and the data volume of the decompressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the second buffer.

4. The playback apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the notification information is sound information that uses a sound to convey the storage statuses of the first buffer and the second buffer.

5. The playback apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the notification information is image information that uses an image to convey the storage statuses of the first buffer and the second buffer.

6. The playback apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the notification information is numerical value information that indicates the data volumes that are temporarily stored in the first buffer and the second buffer as ratios of the first data volume and the second data volume, respectively.

7. The playback apparatus according to claim 6, wherein

the numerical value information is a first ratio that indicates the data volume of the compressed digital data that is stored in the first buffer and a second ratio that indicates the data volume of the decompressed digital data that is stored in the second buffer, and

a weighting of the numerical value information is varied according to a file format of the compressed digital data.

8. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, when the end notification that indicates that the first data volume of the compressed digital data has been stored in the first buffer is received from the second server, the notification information generation portion changes the content of the notification information that it generates.

9. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification information generation portion changes, in incremental steps, the content of the notification information that it generates, based on the data volume of the compressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the first buffer and the data volume of the decompressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the second buffer.

10. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification information generation portion maintains the content of the notification information that it generates when the data volume of the decompressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the second buffer reaches the second data volume.

11. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification information generation portion stops generating the notification information when the data volume of the decompressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the second buffer reaches the second data volume.

12. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification information generation portion starts generating the notification information when the first buffer starts receiving the compressed digital data from the first server.

13. The playback apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control portion obtains the storage status of the first buffer through the communication portion.

14. A playback method for a playback apparatus that can communicate with a second server, which temporarily stores in a first buffer compressed digital data that is received from a first server, and when the first buffer has stored a first data volume of the compressed digital data, which is a volume that is sufficient for a decoding of the compressed digital data, reads the compressed digital data out of the first buffer and decodes it into decompressed digital data, the playback method comprising the steps of:

receiving the decompressed digital data from the second server;

temporarily storing the received decompressed digital data in a second buffer;

transferring the decompressed digital data that is temporarily stored in the second buffer to a D/A conversion portion when a second data volume of the decompressed digital data, which is a volume that is sufficient for the D/A conversion portion to operate without an interruption of its output, has been temporarily stored in the second buffer;

executing, in the D/A conversion portion, a D/A conversion of the decompressed digital data that is transferred from the second buffer and outputting analog data; and

generating notification information that conveys storage statuses of the first buffer and the second buffer for at least a time period from when the compressed digital data is temporarily stored in the first buffer until the second data volume of the decompressed digital data is temporarily stored in the second buffer.