Patent ID: 7437055

Claim:
A recording apparatus comprising: means for generating, from input moving picture data, a plurality of menu thumbnail pictures representative of contents of said moving picture data, as first thumbnail data, and for generating, from said moving picture data, a plurality of mark thumbnail pictures of a picture extracted as a characteristic picture, or a thumbnail picture of a picture specified by a user, as a second thumbnail data, said first thumbnail data being generated as a first independent menu thumbnail file of only said plurality of menu thumbnail pictures of said first thumbnail data, and said second thumbnail data being generated as a second independent mark thumbnail file of only said plurality of mark thumbnail pictures of said second thumbnail data; and means for recording said first thumbnail data and the second thumbnail data, generated by said generating means, as independent groups on a recording medium, wherein said menu thumbnail file includes only one thumbnail picture per a playlist, each playlist further including a plurality of said mark thumbnail pictures and indicating a database of a group of playback domains of the input moving picture data, and wherein said menu thumbnail picture is selected from a picture of contents or a picture stored in an external device.