Convergence-enabled DVD and web system

• US 8,341,683 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2007
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Mohan, Fergal John, Brodersen, Rainer
• Primary Examiner(s): BOCCIO, VINCENT F
• Application Number:
  US11/940,297
• Publication Number:
  US 20080131093A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,868 Days
• Field of Search: 725/109, 725/110, 386/240, 386/239
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/022 Control panels
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs

Abstract

Methods for integrating an authored DVD system and a WWW web browser are described. Universal Resource Locator (URL) information corresponding to sites accessible by the browser is stored in fields within the DVD data. When a user actuates a DVD element that has a corresponding URL, the web browser displays information from that site. When the user actuates an HTML menu or other browser-implemented feature, the DVD system accesses a portion of the DVD data specified in the menu. This arrangement provides for two-way communication, i.e., HTML in the browser is able to control DVD content and vice-versa. Having the WWW information embedded in the DVD brings a number of benefits, the foremost of which is the ability to write a “one size fits all” template web page that can interrogate the DVD for URL information and present WWW content corresponding to the URL synchronized with the DVD information.

Claims

1. A method for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate one or more General DVD Parameter Registers (GPRMs), the system comprising:

playing the DVD in a DVD unit, including the steps of

generating information representative of the contents of a DVD and, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the one or more GPRMs upon receiving a certain command embedded in the information;

extracting a TXTDT_MG data structure from the information, the TXTDT_MG data structure being associated with the DVD;

displaying video content extracted from the information; and

displaying content designated by Universal Resource Locators (URLs) in a browser, the URLs being derived by using the GPRMs to index into the TXTDT_MG data structure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying content designated by Universal Resource Locators (URLs) includes indexing into the DVD Text Data Structure using the indicia to obtain URLs, wherein the indexing includes using a DVD Text Data parser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the content designated by the URL is HTML-coded.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the content designated by the URL is streaming media content.

5. The method of claim 2, and further comprising:

displaying a menu button specified by the information from the DVD, the menu button being associated with the URL, the association between the menu button and the URL being responsive to the positional playback data in the GPRMs; and

displaying the content specified by the URL responsive to user actuation of the menu button.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising

generating a button number message responsive to the user actuation of the menu button;

and

executing an event script for receiving the message and responsive thereto calling the DVD Text Data parser.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising

receiving a DVD Text Data Structure from the DVD each time the DVD is initialized, the DVD Text Data Structure including the URLs;

and

using the button number message to index into the DVD Text Data Structure to obtain the URLs.

8. A method for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Register (GPRM) with positional playback data, the system comprising:

generating the information by playing the DVD;

responsive to a certain embedded command received during the playing, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM;

parsing a TXTDT_MG data structure in the information to derive data containing a Universal Resource Locator (URL) therefrom;

displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the URL in a browser;

responsive to actuation of the hyperlink, displaying content designated by the URL; and

displaying video content extracted from the information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the content designated by the URL is HTML-coded.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the content specified by the URL is streaming media content.

11. A method for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Registers (GPRM) with positional playback data, the system comprising:

playing the DVD in a DVD unit;

generating the information responsive to the playing;

upon receiving a certain embedded command, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM;

deriving Universal Resource Locators (URL) from a DVD Text Data Structure using a DVD Text Data parser and the content of the GPRM;

displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the URL in a browser;

responsive to actuation of the hyperlink, displaying content designated by the URL;

extracting the DVD Text Data Structure and video content from the information;

displaying the video content and a button associated with the URL; and

displaying content designated by the URL responsive to an actuation of the button.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the information from the DVD includes positional information associated with the URL.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the positional information indicates a position of the button within the DVD content.

14. A method for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Registers (GPRM) associated with the DVD with positional playback data, the system comprising:

generating the information by playing the DVD in a DVD unit;

upon receiving a certain embedded command, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM;

using a DVD Text Data parser to derive a data structure from the information;

parsing the information to derive a plurality of URLs therefrom based on the content of the GPRM;

displaying content designated by any one of the plurality of URLs in a browser, wherein the browser displays content upon actuation of the any one URL;

receiving the information at a media player;

displaying video content extracted from the information received at the media player; and

displaying a plurality of buttons, wherein each button is associated with at least one of the plurality of URLs, the association between the each button and the at least one URL being responsive to the positional playback data in the GPRM.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the information includes a DVD Text Data Structure and further comprising indexing into the DVD Text Data Structure to obtain a selected URL from the plurality of URLs, the indexing is based on the positional playback data.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the displaying the designated content and the displaying the video content are performed simultaneously.

17. The system of claim 14, and further comprising displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the any one URL.

18. A non-transitory medium that stores instructions executable by one or more processing devices to perform a method for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate one or more General DVD Parameter Registers (GPRMs), the method comprising:

playing the DVD in a DVD unit, including the steps of

generating information representative of the contents of a DVD and, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the one or more GPRMs upon receiving a certain command embedded in the information;

extracting a TXTDT_MG data structure from the information, the TXTDT_MG data structure being associated with the DVD;

displaying video content extracted from the information; and

displaying content designated by Universal Resource Locators (URLs) in a browser, the URLs being derived by using the GPRMs to index into the TXTDT_MG data structure.