Patent ID: 7266288

Claim:
A video/audio playback apparatus which reads a video/audio stream recorded in a random accessible recording medium, and reproduces the video/audio stream based on a reference time and based on time management information which is embedded in each of a video stream and an audio stream which constitute the video/audio stream, comprising: a video operation switching circuit for indicating that a playback operation of the video stream is to be switched; a data reading circuit for reading the video/audio stream from the recording medium as a for-audio-play video/audio stream and for reading the audio/video stream from the recording medium as a for-video-play audio/video stream when performing trick play of the video stream according to the video operation switching circuit; a first stream buffer for storing the for-audio-play video/audio stream which is read by the data reading circuit; a second stream buffer for storing the for-video-play video/audio stream which is read by the data reading circuit; a separation circuit for separating an audio stream from the for-audio-play video/audio stream which is stored in the first stream buffer, and for separating a video stream from the for-video-play video/audio stream which is stored in the second stream buffer; a counter for outputting a predetermined clock as a reference time based on time management information embedded in the for-audio-play video/audio stream; an audio playback circuit for reproducing the audio stream separated from the for-audio-play video/audio stream based on time management information embedded in the audio stream and the reference time, during trick play of the video stream; and a video playback circuit for reproducing the video stream separated from the for-video-play video/audio stream based on time management information embedded in the video stream, which is different from the time management information embedded in the audio stream used in the audio playback circuit, when performing trick play of the video stream.