Patent ID: 7853121

Claim:
A playback device for executing playback of video composed of a plurality of frame images, comprising: a read unit operable to read a video stream from a recording medium; a frame memory; a video decoder operable to decode the video stream so as to sequentially obtain and write the frame images on the frame memory; an output unit operable to generate a video signal from the frame images sequentially written on the frame memory and output the video signal together with copy control information that defines a permitted number of copying of the video signal; a setup unit operable to accept a user operation indicating whether to allow or prohibit addition of supplemental information to the video signal; an output control unit operable to cause the output unit to output the video signal with the addition of the supplemental information, respectively when the user operation allows and prohibits the addition; and an assigning unit operable to assign one type of the copy control information to the video signal according to the user operation, and cause the output unit to output together with the video signal, the one type of copy control information defining, a larger number when the user operation allows the addition of the supplemental information, than when the user operation prohibits the addition of the supplemental information.