Patent ID: 6931200

Claim:
An apparatus for playing back an optical disc which includes at least one audio/video data storage area which contains at least one audio title set or video title set, at least one title set management information storage area which contains audio/video sequence information indicating a playback order of prescribed pieces of audio/video data constituting an audio/video sequence, and object position information indicating positions of the audio/video data on the optical disc, and at least one disc management information storage area which contains disc management information for managing the whole disc, including title set position information indicating a position of the title set on the optical disc, said playback apparatus comprising: reading means for reading audio/video data, the audio/video sequence information, object position information, the title set position information, and disc management information from an optical disc, to play back the read data; control means for controlling the reading means; storage means for storing disc management information read from the at least one disc management information storage area; external input receiving means for receiving an external input for disc management information selected by a user among plural kinds of disc management information obtained from the at least one disc management information storage area; first judging means for determining whether or not plural kinds of disc management information are contained in the storage means; and second judging means for determining whether or not one of plural kinds of disc management information has been selected by the external input receiving means when the first judging means determines that plural kinds of disc management information are stored in the storage means, wherein the control means is for controlling the reading means to read audio/video sequence information, object position information, title set position information and disc management information from an optical disc, to play back audio/video data successively in accordance with disc management information, title set position information, audio/video sequence information and object position information, and means for receiving an instruction for selecting one of the plural kinds of disc management information the control means is for selecting disc management information in accordance with said instruction, and for performing control to play back audio data or video data on the basis of the title set position information included in the selected disc management information, sequence information, and the object position information, when the first judging means determines that plural kinds of disc management information are contained in the storage means and an instruction for selecting one of plural kinds of disc management information has been received.