# US 6,553,180 B1 · Digital information recording/playback system and digital information recording medium

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- Number: US 6,553,180 B1
- Document ID: US6553180B1
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B1
- Application number: 09/621,812
- Filed: 2000-07-21
- Granted: 2003-04-22
- Earliest claimed: 1998-01-21
- Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
- Inventors: Shinichi Kikuchi; Masafumi Tamura; Hideo Ando; Shuichi Hisatomi; Mitsuyuki Nozaki; Kazuhiko Taira; Yuji Ito
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US6553180B1

## CPC

- G11B 27/11: by using information not detectable on the record carrier
- G11B 19/022: {Control panels}
- G11B 27/034: on discs (G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence)
- G11B 27/105: {of operating discs}
- G11B 27/3027: {used signal is digitally coded}
- G11B 27/329: {on a disc [VTOC]}
- G11B 27/34: Indicating arrangements {(indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D)}
- G11B 27/36: Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing {(for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06)}
- H04N 5/9205: {the additional signal being at least another television signal}
- H04N 9/8227: {the additional signal being at least another television signal}
- G11B 2020/00079: {the compression ratio or quality level being adapted to circumstances, e.g. to the available recording space}
- G11B 2220/216: Rewritable discs
- G11B 2220/218: Write-once discs
- G11B 2220/2516: Hard disks
- G11B 2220/2562: DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
- G11B 2220/2575: DVD-RAMs
- G11B 2220/455: said record carriers being in one device and being used as primary and secondary/backup media, e.g. HDD-DVD combo device, or as source and target media, e.g. PC and portable player
- G11B 2220/65: wherein solid state memory is used for storing indexing information or metadata
- H04N 5/85: on discs or drums
- H04N 9/8042: {involving data reduction}
- H04N 9/8063: {using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals}
- G11B: INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORD CARRIER AND TRANSDUCER (recording measured values in a way that does not require playback through a transducer G01D9/00; recording or playback apparatus using mechanically marked tape, e.g. punched paper tape, or using unit records, e.g. punched or magnetically marked cards G06K; transferring data from one type of record carrier to another G06K1/18; circuits for coupling output of reproducer to radio receiver H04B1/20; gramophone pick-ups or like acoustic electromechanical transducers or circuits therefor H04R)
- H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION

## Abstract

In a system for recording/playing back video data together with control information, a thumbnail, or thumbnail control information, extracted from a moving picture of a video is used as the control information. The thumbnail control information includes information for generating a thumbnail image which is generated based on the contents of the video data, and information for using the generated thumbnail picture in a menu corresponding to the contents of the video data. The user can create a menu corresponding to the video recorded contents.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An information medium comprising:
a data area configured to store video data; and
a management area configured to store control information, the control information including:
program chain information associated with at least one of a plurality of program chains each describing an order of reproduction of individual cells being able to form a program, said cells corresponding to said video data, at least one of the program chains being identified by a representative picture, and
a table including at least one representative picture relating information, the representative picture relating information including,
information corresponding to said program chain that said representative picture identifies, and
information corresponding to a location of said representative picture in said data area, the location information including time information or address information, wherein,
said representative picture is a picture included in said portion of said video data, and
one of the cells of one of the program chains and another one of the cells of another one of the program chains are configured to refer to a same portion of the video data.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The information medium of claim 1, wherein said control information includes time information.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The information medium of claim 1, wherein said control information includes number information of the program chains.

### Claim 4

A method of recording information on an information medium including,
a data area configured to store video data, and
a management area configured to store control information, the control information including:
program chain information associated with at least one of a plurality of program chains each describing an order of reproduction of individual cells being able to form a program, said cells corresponding to said video data, at least one of the program chains being identified by a representative picture, and
a table including at least one representative picture relating information, the representative picture relating information including,
information corresponding to said program chain that said representative picture identifies, and
information corresponding to a location of said representative picture in said data area, the location information including time information or address information, wherein,
said representative picture is a picture included in said portion of said video data, and
one of the cells of one of the program chains and another one of the cells of another one of the program chains are configured to refer to a same portion of the video data,
said method comprising:
recording said video data in said data area; and
recording said control information in said management area.

### Claim 5

An information recording apparatus for recording information on an information medium including,
a data area configured to store video data, and
a management area configured to store control information, the control information including:
program chain information associated with at least one of a plurality of program chains each describing an order of reproduction of individual cells being able to form a program, said cells corresponding to said video data, at least one of the program chains being identified by a representative picture, and
a table including at least one representative picture relating information, the representative picture relating information including,
information corresponding to said program chain that said representative picture identifies, and
information corresponding to a location of said representative picture in said data area, the location information including time information or address information, wherein,
said representative picture is a picture included in said portion of said video data, and
one of the cells of one of the program chains and another one of the cells of another one of the program chains are configured to refer to a same portion of the video data,
said information recording apparatus comprising:
a first recorder configured to record video data in said data area; and
a second recorder configured to record said control information in said management area.

### Claim 6

A method of reproducing recorded information from an information medium including,
a data area including video data, and
a management area including control information, the control information including:
program chain information associated with at least one of a plurality of program chains each describing an order of reproduction of individual cells being able to form a program, said cells corresponding to said video data, at least one of the program chains being identified by a representative picture, and
a table including at least one representative picture relating information, the representative picture relating information including,
information corresponding to said program chain that said representative picture identifies, and
information corresponding to a location of said representative picture in said data area, the location information including time information or address information, wherein,
said representative picture is a picture included in said portion of said video data, and
one of the cells of one of the program chains and another one of the cells of another one of the program chains are configured to refer to a same portion of the video data,
said method comprising:
reproducing control information from said management area; and
reproducing video data from said data area.

### Claim 7

An apparatus for reproducing recorded information from an information medium including,
a data area including video data, and
a management area including control information, the control information including:
program chain information associated with at least one of a plurality of program chains each describing an order of reproduction of individual cells being able to form a program, said cells corresponding to said video data, at least one of the program chains being identified by a representative picture, and
a table including at least one representative picture relating information, the representative picture relating information including,
information corresponding to said program chain that said representative picture identifies, and
information corresponding to a location of said representative picture in said data area, the location information including time information or address information, wherein,
said representative picture is a picture included in said portion of said video data, and
one of the cells of one of the program chains and another one of the cells of another one of the program chains are configured to refer to a same portion of the video data,
said apparatus comprising:
a first reproducer configured to reproduce said control information from said management area; and
a second reproducer configured to reproduce said video data from said data area.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said video data is reproduced to form a thumbnail picture, still picture, or movie picture.