Patent ID: 7949225

Claim:
A playback apparatus for detecting combinations of conditions, among a plurality of conditions, that are satisfied by each of a plurality of text subtitle streams recorded on a recording medium, selecting one among the plurality of text subtitle streams in accordance with the combination of satisfied conditions, and playing back the selected text subtitle stream, wherein a first condition among the plurality of conditions is that an ability to decode and convert character codes representing a subtitle into a bit map is present in the playback apparatus, a second condition is that an ability to process a text subtitle stream corresponding to a display method unique to each language is present in the playback apparatus, a third condition is that a language code of a text subtitle stream matches a language setting in the playback apparatus, the playback apparatus comprising: a register set storing therein a flag that indicates whether or not the playback apparatus permits itself to select a text subtitle stream corresponding to a display method unique to a language that the playback apparatus does not have an ability to process; and a selecting unit operable to judge whether a text subtitle stream satisfies the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition with respect to each of the plurality of text subtitle streams, and select one among text subtitle streams that are judged to satisfy the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition, wherein the selecting unit regards, as a selection target, a text subtitle stream, among the plurality of text subtitle streams recorded on the recording medium, that satisfies the first condition and the third condition when the flag stored in the register set indicates that the playback apparatus permits itself to select a text subtitle stream corresponding to a display method unique to a language that the playback apparatus does not have an ability to process, a stream number table is recorded on the recording medium, the stream number table includes, for each text subtitle stream, a packet identifier, the register set further includes a number register, when the flag stored in the register set indicates that the playback apparatus permits itself to select a text subtitle stream corresponding to a display method unique to a language that the playback apparatus does not have an ability to process, the selection by the selecting unit is made by writing a stream number corresponding to the text subtitle stream that satisfies the first condition and the third condition, into the number register in the register set, and a packet identifier that corresponds to the stream number written in the number register is extracted from the stream number table, and the text subtitle stream is played back based on the extracted packet identifier.