Patent ID: 8112718

Claim:
A playback apparatus for playing back and providing contents to a user, the playback apparatus comprising: a menu screen display unit to display a menu screen of the contents; an input unit to detect an input operation of a selection of content displayed in the menu screen; and a control unit to cause the menu screen display unit to switch the menu screen on a basis of the input operation detected by the input unit, and to instruct a playback operation of the selected content, wherein the menu screen display unit, under control of the control unit, switches an upper layer menu screen to and from a lower layer menu screen through an intermediate layer menu screen therebetween, the upper layer menu screen shows categories of the contents, the lower layer menu screen shows some of the contents, which are classified into one of the categories displayed in the upper layer menu screen, a focused content being horizontally shifted relative to other contents shown on the lower layer menu screen, the intermediate layer menu screen displays a menu selected in the upper layer menu screen, and displays a plurality of menus displayed in the lower layer menu screen, a focused one of the plurality of menus being horizontally shifted relative to others of the plurality of menus, one or more individual pictures are displayed on the upper layer menu screen and the intermediate layer menu screen, the controller, when switching from the upper layer menu screen to the intermediate layer menu screen, causes the menu screen display unit to display an enlarging of one of the individual pictures displayed in the upper layer menu screen and a moving of the one of the individual pictures to become one of the individual pictures of the intermediate layer menu screen, the moving of the one of the pictures is independent of other objects displayed on the menu screen display unit, and each of said upper layer menu screen, lower layer menu screen, and intermediate layer menu screen displays: at least a first display switch guide configured for indicating the existence of an upper layer menu screen, at least a first scroll bar, and at least a second and third display switch guide configured for indicating that the displayed menus are scrollable.