Patent ID: 7890556

Claim:
A content playback system comprising: content inputting means for inputting content files; content storing means for storing the inputted content files; content management file storing means for storing a content management file that records hierarchical entries organized in a virtual hierarchical structure; virtual management information creating means for creating virtual management information for virtually managing each of the inputted content files, on the basis of the content file; meta data creating means for creating meta data related to each of the inputted content files, on the basis of the content file; recording control means for recording file entries, which are the hierarchical entries including the created virtual management information, into the content management file, and records meta data entries, which are the hierarchical entries including the created meta data, at a lower hierarchical level than the file entries in the content management file; extracting means for extracting a desired piece of meta data from the meta data included in each of the meta data entries recorded in the content management file, and extracting a content file stored in the content storing means on the basis of the virtual management information included in a file entry recorded at a higher hierarchical level than a meta data entry including the extracted meta data; playback control means for controlling playback of the extracted content file on the basis of the extracted meta data; and playback means for playing back the extracted content file on the basis of control by the playback control means; wherein each of the hierarchical entries is a hierarchical entry including at least one slot that are each a physically fixed-length data area; the slot is sequentially recorded into a property file included in the content management file; and an entry identifier assigned to each of the hierarchical entries to identify the hierarchical entry is an entry number assigned in accordance with an ordinal number of the slot constituting the hierarchical entry as counted from the top of the slots recorded in the property file.