Recording medium, recording device, and playback device for use in individual sales and method therefor

• US 8,051,100 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2008
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Ikeda, Wataru, Yahata, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): DANG, THANH HA T
• Application Number:
  US12/336,010
• Publication Number:
  US 20090228520A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,050 Days
• Field of Search: 707/791, 707/913, 707/914, 707/915, 707/916, 707/828, 707/829, 707/823, 707/831
• US Class Current: 707/791
• 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. 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 below the root directory;

a service domain directory below the root directory; and

a movie directory below the service domain directory,

wherein the default directory contains a startup program,

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

wherein the movie directory contains the audiovisual stream,

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,

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

wherein, 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, and

wherein, when executed, the root change function causes the playback device to recognize that the service domain directory, to which the selected movie directory belongs, is 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

wherein, 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,

wherein 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

wherein, 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,

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

wherein the procedure to be executed in response to the user operation to stop playback 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,

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

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

wherein 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 processor;

a creating unit that creates, in a recording medium, (i) a default directory below a root directory, (ii) a service domain directory below the root directory, and (iii) a movie directory below the service domain directory at a time when an audiovisual stream is received via a Manufacturing on Demand service or an Electric Sell Through service;

an acquiring unit that acquires the audiovisual stream; and

a write unit that writes, using the processor, a startup program into the default directory and the audiovisual 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,

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

wherein, 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, and

wherein, when executed, the root change function causes the playback device to recognize that the service domain directory, to which the selected movie directory belongs, is 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 the Manufacturing on Demand service or the Electric Sell Through service, and

wherein the write unit creates, 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 does not update the startup program contained in the default directory when the user subsequently receives the Manufacturing on Demand service or the Electric Sell Through service.

9. A playback device for reading an audiovisual stream from a recording medium to execute playback of the audiovisual stream, the playback device comprising:

a processor;

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

a playback unit that executes, using the processor, playback of the audiovisual stream contained in the selected movie directory by recognizing that a service domain directory, to which the selected movie directory belongs, is a virtual root directory,

wherein the recording medium has a hierarchical directory structure which includes (i) a root directory, (ii) a default directory below the root directory, (iii) the service domain directory below the root directory, and (iv) the movie directory below the service domain directory,

wherein the default directory contains the startup program,

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

wherein the movie directory contains the audiovisual stream.

10. The playback device according to claim 9,

wherein the playback unit executes playback of a virtual package,

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

wherein the movie directory contains a playback control program, the playback control program instructing 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, (i) a default directory below a root directory, (ii) a service domain directory below the root directory, and (iii) a movie directory below the service domain directory at a time when an audiovisual stream is received via a Manufacturing on Demand service or an Electric Sell Through service;

acquiring the audiovisual stream;

writing a startup program into the default directory; and

writing the audiovisual 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,

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

wherein 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, and

wherein, when executed, the root change function causes the playback device to recognize that the service domain directory, to which the selected movie belongs, is a virtual root directory.

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

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

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

wherein the recording medium has a hierarchical directory structure which includes (i) a root directory, (ii) a default directory below the root directory, (iii) the service domain directory below the root directory, and (iv) the movie directory below the service domain directory,

wherein the default directory contains the startup program,

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

wherein the movie directory contains the audiovisual stream.