Patent ID: 7340156

Claim:
A reproduction apparatus for reproducing information from an information storage medium, wherein the information storage medium comprises: a recording information area; and an aggregate attribute information area, wherein the recording information area comprises: a group information area where one or more group information objects are recorded, each of the group information objects including one or more unit audio information which are logically defined; and a control data area where control data including group information attribute information is recorded, the control data corresponding to each of the group information objects and controlling the one or more unit audio information included in the corresponding group information objects in a predetermined order, the group information attribute information indicating attributes of all of the unit audio information included in the group recording information objects and wherein one or more unit audio information attribute information pieces are collectively recorded in the aggregate attribute information area, the one or more unit audio information attribute information pieces corresponding to each of the unit audio information and indicating attributes of the corresponding unit audio information respectively, and wherein the aggregate attribute information area is formed at a position on the information storage medium such that the one or more unit audio information attribute information pieces can be detected prior to the one or more group information objects and the control data, wherein the one or more unit audio information attribute information pieces are recorded in a one-to-one correspondence between each of attributes and each of the corresponding unit audio information and the reproduction apparatus comprises: a reading unit which reads information from the information storage medium; a storage unit which stores the aggregate attribute information read by the reading unit; an input unit which receives, from a user, a reproduction instruction designating the unit audio information to be reproduced successively; and a reproduction unit which sets the attribute for the reproduction based on the aggregate attribute information stored in the storage unit and reproduces the unit audio information designated by the user in accordance with the attribute set, wherein said reproduction unit comprises: an obtaining unit which obtains the attributes corresponding to the unit audio information designated by the user from the aggregate attribute information stored in the storage unit; a determining unit which determines whether or not the obtained attributes of the unit audio information to be successively reproduced are identical; and an attribute change unit which starts an attribute setting of the unit audio information to be reproduced next immediately after the reproduction of the unit audio information currently reproduced, if the determining unit determines that the attributes are different.