Patent ID: 7853125

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 specified by playlist information 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 playlist information includes one or more pieces of playback section information, each piece of playback section information includes (i) information indicating a file name of stream information corresponding to an AV stream, (ii) a playback start point and a playback end point of the AV stream, and (iii) a stream number table that indicates one or more text subtitle streams that can be played back in synchronization with the AV stream, the stream information has a font identifier described therein, 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; a buffer for storing font data; a pre-load unit operable to, before the AV stream is played back in accordance with the playlist information, read, from the recording medium, font data that is specified by the font identifier described in the stream information, and pre-load the read font data into the buffer; 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 one or more text subtitle streams specified by the playback section information, and select one among text subtitle streams that are judged to satisfy the first condition, the second condition, and the third condition; and a text subtitle decoder operable to obtain a text subtitle by converting text codes included in the selected text subtitle stream into a bit map, using the pre-loaded font data, wherein the selecting unit regards, as a selection target, a text subtitle stream that satisfies the first condition and the third condition if 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.