Patent ID: 8767122

Claim:
A method of controlling reproduction for a stream containing video data and/or audio data within a predetermined network, comprising the steps of: performing a mute process for a decoded output of the stream; performing a first decode process of decoding a partial region of the stream from a beginning thereof and obtaining attribute information from the stream; setting parameters with which the stream is reproduced on a basis of the attribute information; stopping the first decode process and the mute process immediately after the parameters have been set; and performing a second decode process of decoding the stream from the beginning thereof, in which the mute process causes a black picture to be displayed on a display screen and/or sounds not to be generated, such that during the mute process pictures corresponding to the decoded output are not displayed on the display screen and/or sounds corresponding to the decoded output are not generated, in which the second decode process is performed after a first amount of time has elapsed after (i) the first decode process is stopped, (ii) the parameters are set, and (iii) the mute process is stopped, and the pictures corresponding to the decoded output are enabled to be displayed on the display screen and/or the sounds corresponding to the decoded output are enabled to be generated after a second amount of time has elapsed after (i) the first decode process is stopped, (ii) the parameters are set, and (iii) the mute process is stopped, in which the second amount of time is larger than the first amount of time, such that the decoding performed by the second decode process is not continuous with an end of the decoding performed by the first decode process.