Patent ID: 8139922

Claim:
A playback apparatus comprising: obtaining means for obtaining playback management information including a main playback path indicating a position on a time axis of a main stream set, a first sub playback path indicating a position on the time axis of a first sub-stream set, and a second sub playback path indicating a position on the time axis of a second sub-stream set different from the first sub-stream set, the playback management information being classified into a predetermined application media category among a plurality of application media categories based on the type of media of the main stream set, each application media category corresponding to a set of sub playback path types, and satisfying at least a first condition that a type of each of the first sub playback path and the second sub playback path corresponds to the set of sub playback path types of the predetermined application media category; selection-receiving means for receiving a selection of streams to be played back, based on the playback management information, as a first combination of the main stream set and the first sub stream set or a second combination of the main stream set and the second sub stream set; reading means for reading the main stream set by referring to the main playback path and the first sub-stream set by referring to the first sub playback path in response to the selection of the first combination being received by the selection-receiving means, or the main stream set by referring to the main playback path and the second sub-stream set by referring to the second sub playback path in response to the selection of the second combination being received by the selection-receiving means; and playback means for playing back, together with the main stream set read by the reading means, the first sub-stream set or the second sub-stream set read by the reading means, wherein the main stream set, the first sub-stream set, and the second sub-stream set are included in files, the number of the files readable at one time by the reading means is a predetermined number, and the playback management information satisfies, in addition to the first condition, a second condition that one or more of the first and second sub playback paths are determined so that the number of the files readable at one time does not exceed the predetermined number.