RECORDING MEDIUM, RECORDING DEVICE, AND PLAYBACK DEVICE FOR USE IN INDIVIDUAL SALES AND METHOD THEREFOR

• US 20090228520A1
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Published: 09/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Wataru, YAHATA, Hiroshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,051,100 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/213 Read-only discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2516 Hard disks
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2541 Blu-ray discs; Blue laser DVR discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8063 using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/914 Video
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/915 Image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/916 Audio

Abstract

A recording medium has a hierarchical directory structure. In the directory structure, a ROOT/BDMV directory and a MoDESTxx/BDMV directory are located below a root directory. The ROOT/BDMV directory contains a BD-J application that constitutes a FirstPlayback title. The BD-J application is a program to be first executed by a playback device upon loading of the recording medium to a playback device 103. When executed, the BD-J application causes the playback device to display a menu for receiving a user operation of selecting the BDMV directory and executes a root change function. The root change function is to cause the playback device to recognize the selected MoDESTxx directory as a virtual root directory.

Claims

1. A recording medium having a hierarchical directory structure, comprising:

a root directory;

a default directory and a service domain directory both below the root directory; and

a movie directory below the service domain directory, wherein

the default directory contains a startup program,

the service domain directory is created at a time when an AV stream is received via an Manufacturing on Demand service or an Electric Sell Through service,

the movie directory contains the AV stream,

the startup program is a program to be first executed by a playback device upon loading of the recording medium to the playback device,

when executed, the startup program causes the playback device to display a menu, and

in response to a user operation made on the menu to select the movie directory, the startup program causes the playback device to execute a root change function so that the service domain directory to which the selected movie directory belongs is recognized as a virtual root directory.

2. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein

the root change function is executed by calling a programming interface, and

upon an occurrence of exception handling as a result of calling the programming interface, the startup program causes the playback device to inform a user that playback of the recording medium is not supported.

3. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein

the root change function is executed by calling a programming interface,

the startup program judges whether or not the root change function is supported, based on a system property of the playback device indicating whether or not the root change function is supported, and

upon judging that the root change function is not supported, the startup program causes the playback device to inform a user that playback of the recording medium is not supported.

4. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein

the movie directory contains a playback control program for playback control,

the playback control program instructs the playback device to execute playback of the AV stream and defines a procedure to be executed by the playback device in response to a user operation to stop playback, and

the procedure to be executed in response to the user operation of playback stop is to re-display the menu for selecting the movie directory, if the playback device supports the root change function.

5. The recording medium according to claim 1, wherein

the movie directory contains a playback control program for playback control,

the playback control program instructs the playback device to execute playback of a virtual package,

the virtual package is a combination of data stored in the movie directory and data stored in another directory residing on said recording medium or on another recording medium, and

the playback control program instructs the playback device to create the virtual package, by using a file path in which the service domain directory to which the selected movie directory belongs is specified as the virtual root directory.

6. A recording device comprising:

a creating unit operable to create, in a recording medium, a default directory and a service domain directory both below a root directory and a movie directory below the service domain directory at a time when an AV stream is received via an Manufacturing on Demand service or an Electric Sell Through service;

an acquiring unit operable to acquire the AV stream; and

a write unit operable to write a startup program into the default directory and the AV stream into the movie directory located below the service domain directory, wherein

the startup program is a program to be first executed by a playback device upon loading of the recording medium to the playback device,

when executed, the startup program causes the playback device to display a menu, and

in response to a user operation made on the menu to select the movie directory, the startup program causes the playback device to execute a root change function so that the service domain directory to which the selected movie directory belongs is recognized as a virtual root directory.

7. The recording device according to claim 6, wherein

the service domain directory is a first service domain directory that is created at a time when a user first receives either of the services, and

the write unit is operable to create, without updating the default directory, another service domain directory for each service subsequently received by the user.

8. The recording device according to claim 6, wherein

the write unit is operable not to update the startup program contained in the default directory when the user subsequently receives either of the services.

9. A playback device for reading an AV stream from a recording medium having a hierarchical directory structure to execute playback of the AV stream,

the recording medium having a root directory, a default directory below the root directory, a service domain directory both below the root directory, and a movie directory below the service domain directory, the default directory containing a startup program, the service domain directory being created at a time when an AV stream is received via an Manufacturing on Demand service or an Electric Sell Through service, and the movie directory containing the AV stream,

the playback device comprising:

a selecting unit operable to execute, upon loading of the recording medium to the playback device, the startup program to display a menu and to receive a user operation made on the menu to select the movie directory; and

a playback unit operable to execute playback of the AV stream contained in the selected movie directory, by recognizing that the service domain directory to which the selected movie directory belongs is a virtual root directory.

10. The playback device according to claim 9, wherein

the playback unit is operable to execute playback of a virtual package,

the virtual package is a combination of data stored in the movie directory and data stored in another directory residing on said recording medium or on another recording medium, and

the movie directory contains a playback control program that instructs the playback device to create the virtual package, by using a file path in which the service domain directory to which the selected movie directory belongs is specified as the virtual root directory.

11. A recording method comprising:

creating, in a recording medium, a default directory and a service domain directory both below a root directory and a movie directory below the service domain directory at a time when an AV stream is received via an Manufacturing on Demand service or an Electric Sell Through service;

acquiring the AV stream; and

writing a startup program into the default directory and the AV stream into the movie directory located below the service domain directory, wherein

the startup program is a program to be first executed by a playback device upon loading of the recording medium to the playback device,

when executed, the startup program causes the playback device to display a menu, and

in response to a user operation made on the menu to select the movie directory, the startup program causes the playback device to execute a root change function so that the service domain directory to which the selected movie directory belongs is recognized as a virtual root directory.

12. A playback method for reading an AV stream from a recording medium and executing playback of the AV stream,

the recording medium having a hierarchical directory structure which includes a root directory, a default directory and a service domain directory both below the root directory, a movie directory below the service domain directory, the default directory containing a startup program, the service domain directory being created at a time when an AV stream is received via an Manufacturing on Demand service or an Electric Sell Through service, and the movie directory containing the AV stream,

the playbacks method comprising:

executing, upon loading of the recording medium to the playback device, the startup program to display a menu and receiving a user operation made on the menu to select the movie directory; and

executing playback of the AV stream contained in the selected movie directory, by recognizing that the service domain directory to which the selected movie directory belongs is a virtual root directory.