Patent ID: 7315686

Claim:
A time shift reproduction time controlling method for controlling a time limit in a case wherein input data is temporarily recorded and the recorded data is read out to perform time shift reproduction of information based on the recorded data, comprising the steps of: calculating a difference between time indicated by time information included in the input data and time indicated by time information included in the recorded data; and permitting time shift reproduction if the difference is within a time limit determined in advance, but inhibiting the time shift reproduction if the difference is beyond the time limit; wherein the input data is encoded data, and information used for reproduction of a decoding clock signal utilized to decode the encoded data is used as the time information included in the input data and the recorded data; and wherein discontinuity of time indicated by the time information included in the input data is detected, and the discontinuity of time indicated by the time information is corrected upon the time shift reproduction.