Information processing apparatus and associated method of prioritizing content for playback

• US 7,804,505 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2005
• Issued: 09/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kubota, Tatsuya, Watanabe, Kohki
• Primary Examiner(s): Mengistu; Amare
• Assistant Examiner(s): Guertin; Aaron M
• Application Number:
  US11/206,057
• Publication Number:
  US 20060045475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,867 Days
• Field of Search: 345/327, 345/547, 345/302, 345/328, 345/352, 345/357, 345/552, 348/7, 348/10, 348/12, 39520047-20049, 386/69, 386/70, 375/240.01, 707/102, 725/139
• US Class Current: 345/547
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1062 Data buffering arrangements, e.g. recording or playback buffers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10675 aspects of buffer control
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/65 wherein solid state memory is used for storing indexing information or metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D

Abstract

A cache control unit of a video data playback control apparatus sets priority video data in order to efficiently use a storage area of a cache memory. The priority video data includes video data which includes a greater number of portions of video data than that of data displayed in a display unit, which includes a smaller number of portions of video data than a maximum number that can be held in the cache memory, and which has a high possibility of being output from the cache memory to the display unit. Also, the cache control unit preferentially reads the priority video data from a recording medium and stores it in the cache memory.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus for processing video data, comprising:

video data memory that includes a dedicated thumbnail data cache area, the thumbnail data cache area including a dedicated clip area that is configured to store clip thumbnail data and a dedicated sub-clip area that is configured to store sub-clip thumbnail data, the clip area and the sub-clip area being separate areas within the thumbnail data cache area that are respectively configured such that the clip area does not cache sub-clip thumbnail data and the sub-clip area does not cache clip thumbnail data; and

a controller configured to control the video data memory to preferentially cache a predetermined range of the video data as priority video data in the clip area, the priority video data including video data currently output from the video data memory to a display device and, video data, which is sequentially related to the currently output video data in the sub-clip area, and which is priority video data corresponding to an edit list having a greater number of reference marker image video data than that of the output video data,

wherein, the predetermined range of the video data that is preferentially cached in the clip area as priority video data changes depending on the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, the predetermined range of the video data including the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, a first predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately precedes the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in a management order of the video data, and a second predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately follows the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in the management order of the video data.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number of thumbnails of priority video data is an integral multiple of the number of portions of the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number of thumbnails of priority video data is less than a maximum number that can be cached in the video data memory.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in a case where new priority video data is to be cached in the video data memory which holds a maximum number of thumbnails of video data, the controller controls the video data memory to delete video data furthest from the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in managing order of the video data from among the video data cached in the video data memory, whereby the new priority video data is cached in the video data memory.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a reproduction unit configured to read the video data from a recording medium;

the display device configured to display the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device;

an interface unit configured to receive instructions of changing the contents of the display;

wherein the controller sets the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device and the priority video data based on the instructions received by the interface; and

determines whether the priority video data set includes missing video data that is not cached in the video data memory, and if the determination is that, priority video data includes missing video data, the controller controls the reproduction unit to read the missing video data from the recording medium and controls the video data memory to cache the read missing video data.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein, when thumbnails of video data are displayed as an index time by the display device, the controller sets video data of the index as the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, and sets the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device and video data of thumbnails before and after the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in managing order of the video data as the priority video data in groupings based upon a size of the index.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the reproduction unit reads moving picture data of a low resolution recorded on the recording medium and generates the video data by using the read moving picture data.

8. An information processing method comprising:

caching video data in a memory that includes a dedicated thumbnail data cache area, the thumbnail data cache area including a dedicated clip area that is configured to store clip thumbnail data and a dedicated sub-clip area that is configured to store sub-clip thumbnail data, the clip area and the sub-clip area being separate areas within the thumbnail data cache area that are respectively configured such that sub-clip thumbnail data is not cached in the clip area and clip thumbnail data is not cached in the sub-clip area; and

allowing the memory to preferentially cache a predetermined range of the video data as priority video data in the clip area, the priority video data including video data currently output from the memory to a display device, and, video data, which is sequentially related to the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in the sub-clip area, and, which is priority video data corresponding to an edit list having a greater number of thumbnails of video data than that of the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, by controlling the memory accordingly,

wherein, the predetermined range of the video data that is preferentially cached in the clip area as priority video data changes depending on the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, the predetermined range of the video data including the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, a first predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately precedes the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in a management order of the video data, and a second predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately follows the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in the management order of the video data.

9. A computer-readable storage medium, including computer program instructions, that cause a computer to implement a method of prioritizing content for playback, comprising:

caching video data in a memory that includes a dedicated thumbnail data cache area, the thumbnail data cache area including a dedicated clip area that is configured to store clip thumbnail data and a dedicated sub-clip area that is configured to store sub-clip thumbnail data, the clip area and the sub-clip area being separate areas within the thumbnail data cache area that are respectively configured such that sub-clip thumbnail data is not cached in the clip area and clip thumbnail data is not cached in the sub-clip area; and

allowing the memory to preferentially cache a predetermined range of the video data as priority video data in the clip area, the priority video data including video data currently output from the memory to a display device, and, video data, which is sequentially related to the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in the sub-clip area, and, which is priority video data corresponding to an edit list having a greater number of thumbnails of video data than that of the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, by controlling the memory accordingly,

wherein, the predetermined range of the video data that is preferentially cached in the clip area as priority video data changes depending on the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, the predetermined range of the video data including the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, a first predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately precedes the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in a management order of the video data, and a second predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately follows the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in the management order of the video data.

10. An information processing apparatus for processing video data, comprising:

means for caching video data that includes a dedicated thumbnail data cache area, the thumbnail data cache area including a dedicated clip area that is configured to store clip thumbnail data and a dedicated sub-clip area that is configured to store sub-clip thumbnail data, the clip area and the sub-clip area being separate areas within the thumbnail data cache area that are respectively configured such that the clip area does not cache sub-clip thumbnail data and the sub-clip area does not cache clip thumbnail data; and

,

means for controlling the means for storing data to preferentially hold a predetermined range of the video data as priority video data, the priority video data in the clip area, including video data, currently output from the means for storing and video data to a display device which is sequentially related to the currently output video data in the sub-clip area and which is priority video data corresponding to an edit list having a greater number of thumbnails of video data than that of the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device,

wherein, the predetermined range of the video data that is preferentially cached in the clip area as priority video data changes depending on the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, the predetermined range of the video data including the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device, a first predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately precedes the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in a management order of the video data, and a second predetermined range of sequential video data that immediately follows the video data currently output from the video data memory to the display device in the management order of the video data.