Patent ID: 8212922

Claim:
An information display apparatus comprising: a display device configured to display a video; a speech detection unit configured to detect a playback state of a playback speech, the playback state including at least one of a sound volume of the playback speech and a playback speed; a closed caption generating unit configured to generate a closed caption video comprising character information associated with the playback speech; a closed caption display control unit configured to display the closed caption video on the display device and to change a display state of the closed caption video depending upon the playback state detected by the speech detection unit, wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state when the sound volume of the playback speech is not more than a given level, and the speech detection unit detects that the playback speech is silent, and inputs the playback speech having no audio output to the closed caption display control unit as the playback state, and the closed caption display control unit changes the display state when the playback state is a state that the playback speech is silent; and a playback unit configured to playback a video and a speech from a recording medium and a playback control unit configured to control the playback state of the speech and a playback state of the video, the playback control unit changing the display state by making the playback speech to be silent when the playback state is a playback state other than a normal forward playback.