WO2007042980A2

WO2007042980A2 - Method for storing information on a storage medium

Info

Publication number: WO2007042980A2
Application number: PCT/IB2006/053665
Authority: WO
Inventors: Philips S. Newton; Koen J. G. Holtman; Wiebe De Haan; Hendrik F. Moll; Petrus N. Wouters; Sander R. Kooijmans
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date: 2005-10-13
Filing date: 2006-10-06
Publication date: 2007-04-19
Also published as: WO2007042980A3; TW200737973A

Abstract

A method for recording a movie is described, the method comprising the steps of: - receiving a broadcasted video stream (10); - recording the received video stream on an information carrier (2); - receiving a modified playlist (22); - recording the received modified playlist (22) on the information carrier (2) in association with the video recording (20).

Description

Method for storing information on a storage medium

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to a method for storing information on a storage medium. Especially, the present invention relates to a method for storing a video recording on a BD-RE disc, and the invention will be explained specifically for this field, but the gist of the invention is not restricted to this field.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As is known to persons skilled in the art, an optical storage disc comprises at least one track, either in the form of a continuous spiral or in the form of multiple concentric circles, of storage space where information may be stored in the form of a data pattern.

Optical discs may be read-only type, where information is recorded during manufacturing, which information can only be read by a user. The optical storage disc may also be a writable type, where information may be stored by a user. For reading information from the disc, an optical disc drive comprises, on the one hand, rotating means for receiving and rotating an optical disc, and on the other hand optical scanning means for generating an optical beam, typically a laser beam, and for scanning the storage track with said laser beam. Since the technology of optical discs in general, the way in which information can be stored in an optical disc, and the way in which information can be read from an optical disc, is commonly known, it is not necessary here to describe this technology in more detail. The technology of optical discs has seen several disc types, such as CD, DVD.

The next generation, currently under development, is the Blu-Ray Disc. In this new type of optical disc, a read-only version (BD-ROM) will be available as known from for example the international patent application publication WO2004/025651. Also recordable discs are under development, indicated as BD-RE and known from for example the US Patent Application Publication US20040240848.

The primary application for the Blu-Ray Disc will be High Definition Television (HDTV). Basically, this involves playback and display and, in the case of a recordable disc, the function of recording a broadcast. However, the standard for BD-ROM also provides for additional functionality, such as internet-connectivity and user- interactivity. For effecting such additional functionality, a BD-ROM will contain, apart from the "normal" content (i.e. the movie(s)), one or more executable applications and/or data bases, and BD-ROM players will be designed for reading such executable applications from the disc and executing the applications. Typically, the applications will be based on Java, but other languages are also possible.

A producer of the BD-ROM disc (content author) is free to decide whether or not he will add such additional functionality to the disc, but it is to be expected that many producers will. As a simple example of the possibilities, a menu can be generated allowing the user to more easily control the playback of the movie. Such menu may, for instance, enable a user to directly jump to the start of a specific scene identified in the menu.

When a user buys a movie on a BD-ROM disc, he profits from all the enhanced functionality provided by the disc producer. However, the costs of such movie are relatively high. Further, a movie may be unavailable as BD-ROM disc.

Alternatively, a user may wish to record a broadcast of a movie. As compared to buying a movie on a BD-ROM disc, the costs will be lower. However, the format for recordable Blu-Ray discs only supports very basic recording of a video transport stream; particularly, this format does not support disc navigation and/or menus and/or other enhanced functionality available in the case of BD-ROM discs. Nevertheless, the user may desire to have added functionality compared to functionality he has seen for BD-ROM discs. A special problem in this respect is the problem of commercials

(advertisements) interrupting the actual movie. When a movie is broadcasted, the broadcasting company may interrupt the movie and broadcast a commercial in the interruption; after the commercials (and possible further information broadcasted, which for the sake of convenience will simply also be indicated as "commercial"), the movie is resumed. If the broadcasting company broadcasts the movie without interruptions, the recording will of course be free from interruptions, and on playback the movie will of course still be free from interruptions. However, broadcasting companies can earn money by broadcasting commercials. Actually, consumers (viewers) profit because the money allows the broadcasting companies to buy the broadcasting licenses for interesting movies, which would otherwise be too expensive so such movie would not be available for television. Or, consumers profit because the fee they have to pay to the broadcasting companies can be reduced. So, in practice, many broadcasting companies will broadcast the movies interrupted by commercial breaks. Such commercial breaks will unavoidably be present in the recording, and on playback the movie will be interrupted. Although some viewers find the commercials interesting, there are also viewers who find the commercial breaks annoying and wish to skip the commercials. As mentioned, the format for recordable Blu-ray discs only supports very basic recording of the entire video transport stream, which unavoidably includes the commercials. If a user wishes to prevent recording of a commercial, he has to watch the movie being received, manually issue a stop command at the beginning of the commercial, and manually issue a record command at the end of the commercial; this requires the user to stay present during the entire broadcast, while further the chances on errors are high. If, during playback, a viewer wishes to skip a recorded commercial, he has to manually find the end of the commercial, either by fast-forward trickplay or by trial-and-error jumping, or a combination; this is uncomfortable and takes time, and in any case is still an interruption of the movie.

If the viewer wishes to avoid this, he can edit the movie. As will be known to a person skilled in the art, a movie consists of a collection of video clips, supplemented by a playlist (metadata) containing information as to the order and timing of the playing of the clips.

Stated briefly, if a viewer wishes to skip a video clip, an adapted playlist is generated, wherein this clip is omitted from the list. If the original playlist contains clips C(i-l), C(i), C(i+1), to be played in this order, and if the viewer removes clip C(i) from the list, then playback of the movie on the basis of the amended playlist will result in clip C(i+1) being played directly following clip C(i-l). Since the technology of video clips and playlists is known per se, a further explanation is not necessary here.

By editing the movie, the viewer can make an adapted playlist with all clips of the commercials removed, so that such adapted playlist, on playback, will result in a player automatically skipping the commercials. The adapted playlist can be stored on the disc for later use in any player. Although the result is satisfactory, the editing task is rather cumbersome, because the viewer has to browse through the entire movie looking for possible commercials, and then he has to find the exact begin and end of such commercial and to define these points as entry points in a playlist.

The present invention aims to solve the above problems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In an important aspect, the present invention provides a method for adding metadata to a movie recorded from a broadcast. On playback, a player will not just play the recorded video stream but will consult the metadata also recorded on the disc. The metadata will typically be provided by the producer of the movie, against payment of a small fee.

In a possible embodiment, the metadata define an adapted playlist skipping the commercials. The viewer profits, because instead of having to edit the movie himself, which will take a long time, he can now obtain the required information at a relatively small price.

In a possible embodiment, a disc drive has internet-connectivity, and is capable of visiting a website with available metadata. The website may for instance be a website maintained by the producer of the movie, or a website maintained by a third commercial party. The disc drive downloads metadata, possibly after payment has been arranged, and stores the metadata into a memory, so that it can be used for playing the corresponding movie. The metadata to be downloaded can be selected by the user, but it is also possible that the disc drive recognizes the viewer's video movie on the disc and automatically selects the corresponding metadata.

Instead of obtaining the metadata after the movie has been broadcast and recorded, it is also possible that the required metadata is already stored on the (empty)

BD-RE disc. The recording capacity of such disc is large enough to contain metadata relating to a large number of movies. The idea is that such BD-RE disc with pre-recorded metadata will be somewhat more expensive than blank discs, so that with the added price the user pays for the automatic feature of commercial- free playback. This applies, of course, only if the user records a broadcast of one or more movies of which the associated metadata is prerecorded. There may even be a function warning the user if he tries to record a movie not having any associated metadata pre-recorded; there may even be a function preventing such recording.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be further explained by the following description with reference to the drawings, in which same reference numerals indicate same or similar parts, and in which: figure 1 schematically illustrates transmission of a movie broadcast; figure 2 schematically illustrates details of a movie broadcast; figure 3 schematically illustrates a "normal" playlist; figure 4 schematically illustrates playback of a movie from a disc; figure 5 schematically illustrates a commercial-skip playlist; figure 6 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a first implementation of the present invention; figure 7 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a second implementation of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Figure 1 schematically shows a movie broadcast 10 being transmitted by a broadcaster 5 and received by a recording device 1 , recording the received broadcast data to a disc 2. The recorded broadcast is schematically indicated at 20. When the movie is finished, the recording device 1 generates a normal playlist 21, for "normal" playback of the entire movie.

Figure 2 schematically shows the movie broadcast 10 as a longitudinal ribbon of individual images 9, representing a continuous video stream, having a start 11 and an end 12. From start 11 to a first interruption time tl, a first movie segment 13 is broadcast, and then the movie is interrupted by a commercial 14 until time t2. Then, a second movie segment 15 is broadcast until a second interruption time t3, when the movie is interrupted by a commercial 16. From time t4 to the end 12, a third movie segment 17 is broadcast. Thus, while the actual movie only involves segments 13, 15, 17, the broadcast 10 also involves the two commercial segments 14 and 16. It should be clear that figure 2 is for illustrational purposes only; in reality, a movie can be interrupted more than two times, or only one time.

Figure 3 schematically illustrates an example of a very elementary "normal" playlist 21, containing only a pointer to the start 11 and a pointer to the end 12. When playback is based on this elementary playlist 21, display will start at start 11 and continue until end 12, i.e. resulting in a successive display of all images 9 from start 11 to end 12. It is noted that an actual playlist may be more detailed and may have more entries pointing to smaller video fragments (clips), but this is not important for explaining the present invention.

Figure 4 shows the disc 2 being played by a player device 3. First, the player 3 reads the playlist 21 from the disc 2, and stores it in an operation memory 6. Then, on the basis of the information (playback "instructions") contained in the playlist 21, the player 3 reads the data of the recording 20 from the disc 2, and generates a display signal for a display device 4, for instance a monitor. In the case of a normal playlist, playback results in the entire recording 20 being displayed. When the broadcast 10 is recorded in a conventional way, for instance on magnetic tape, the player 3 can only play the recording continuously from start 11 to end 12, thus also showing possible undesired commercial fragments 14 and 16. The same applies if the broadcast 10 is recorded on BD-RE and accompanied by a normal playlist 21. For the recorder device 1, the data of commercials 14 and 16 is undistinguishable from the data of the actual movie segments 13, 15, 17, so all data are recorded. Likewise, on playback, for the player device, the data of commercials 14 and 16 is undistinguishable from the data of the actual movie segments 13, 15, 17, so all data are played. Whether or not the images displayed belong to the actual movie or to a commercial is something only the viewer will know on the basis of interpretation, i.e. "understanding", which is a mental act.

In the case of a recording on a disc 2, the player 3 bases the playback of the recording 20 on information in a playlist associated with the recording 20. Instead of using the normal playlist 21 mentioned above, it is possible that a modified playlist is used. Figure 5 schematically illustrates an example of a modified playlist 22, identifying three clips, i.e. a first clip from start 11 to time tl, a second clip from time t2 to time t3, and a third clip from time t4 to end 12. When a player 3 consults this adapted playlist 22, the player 3 will first start reading at start 11 and will continue reading until reaching the image with timestamp tl. Then, the player 3 will jump to the image with timestamp t2, and will continue reading until reaching the image with timestamp t3. Again, the player 3 will make a jump, now to the image with timestamp t4, and will continue reading until reaching end 12. Thus, even if the recording 20 contains the commercial fragments 14 and 16, playback on the basis of this modified playlist 22 will result in display of the actual movie only, the commercial fragments 14 and 16 being skipped.

A playlist, which is based on a broadcast being received and recorded, i.e. a normal playlist 21, will typically have the features illustrated in figure 3 and discussed above. Disc drives with an editing facility allow a user to generate a modified playlist 22, such as illustrated by way of example in figure 5, resulting, on playback, in parts of the recording 20 being skipped. However, in accordance with the present invention, a technical metadata source is provided where the user can obtain metadata defining a suitably modified playlist. Figure 6 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a first implementation of the present invention. A disc drive 3 with Internet connectivity is, via Internet 30 or another network, connected to a web site 31 of a playlist provider. Although the playlist provider may be any commercially operating company, for the sake of discussion it will be assumed that the playlist provider is the broadcaster of the broadcast 10; after all, the broadcaster knows when a movie is going to be or has been interrupted by a commercial. Alternatively, the playlist provider may also be the producer of the movie 13, 15, 17.

Connection to the website 31 can be made manually by the user. However, in a preferred embodiment, this is done automatically by the player 3. As will be known to persons skilled in the art, every movie contains data regarding title, producer, etc. After receiving a suitable command from the user, the disc drive 3 is capable of consulting this data in the recording 20, recognizing the movie involved, and recognizing which playlist provider provides a suitable playlist for the recording 20. The disc drive 3 is further capable of accessing the website of this playlist provider and, possibly after having performed an internet payment in a manner known per se and not important for understanding the present invention, downloading a commercial-skip playlist 22 and storing it into its operation memory 6. Then, the disc drive 3 uses this downloaded playlist 22 as operative playlist for playing the associated recording 20, effectively skipping the commercials, as explained above. Preferably, the disc drive 3 is capable of recording the downloaded playlist 22 onto the disc 2, in association with the recording 20, for future use and/or repeated use. In a preferred embodiment, the disc drive 3 is capable of generating, on playback, bridge clips that bridge the skipped commercial clip (e.g. 14) and thus effectively form a transition from the last frame of a video clip (e.g. 13) to the first frame of the next video clip (e.g. 15). Such bridge clip may have a length in the order of, for instance, about 10 frames. For instance, the bridge clip may be generated on the basis of a combination of the image content of the last frame of a previous video clip (e.g. 13) and the image content of the first frame of the next video clip (e.g. 15). Thus, a smooth transition may be effected, wherein the contribution of the image content of the last frame of the previous video clip gradually decreases while the contribution of the image content of the first frame of the next video clip gradually increases. Other visual effects are, however, also possible, such as wipe or fade-out and fade-in.

Figure 7 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a second implementation of the present invention. An empty recordable disc 2 already contains a commercial-skip playlist 22 pre-stored thereon, which is preferably copy protected so that this commercial- skip playlist 22 can not be copied. The disc 2 may contain only one such commercial-skip playlist 22, associated with only one movie, but the disc 2 may also contain a collection of such playlists associated with a plurality of movies. In a practical example, a broadcasting company may sell such discs, containing commercial-skip playlists associated with all movies this broadcasting company is going to broadcast within a certain time period of, for instance, one year. It is also possible that the disc contains commercial- skip playlists associated with all movies of a certain series. It is also possible that the broadcasting company issues a program guide, and that, which each issue of the guide, he provides such disc to all subscribers of the program guide, the disc containing commercial-skip playlists associated with all movies this broadcasting company is going to broadcast within the week corresponding to the specific issue of the guide. By paying for this disc, the buyer obtains permission to record those movies; the disc may contain an application which, on execution, will check that the movie which is to be recorded corresponds to an "allowed" movie mentioned in a list on the disc or corresponds to one of the commercial- skip playlists.

In use, the user needs to do nothing more than select this specific disc for introduction into the recorder apparatus, and then, as always, instruct the apparatus to record the movie of his choice. The recorder apparatus receives the broadcast movie 20 and records it on the disc 2 (see figure 7), as usual. Although it is possible that the disc drive generates a "normal" playlist 21, the disc drive may skip this step.

On playback, a player will use the pre-stored commercial-skip playlist 22 corresponding to this movie, thus skipping the commercials. If desired, after having played the movie, the user may delete the movie and record another one instead, corresponding to another pre-stored commercial- skip playlist.

Thus, the present invention succeeds in providing a method for receiving a video broadcast of a movie that is interrupted by commercials, and providing a playlist which, on playback of the recording, results in the commercials being skipped. The playlist can be added to the recording after the broadcast, and can be provided via Internet. The playlist can also be pre-stored on a record medium, in which case the recording is added to the playlist.

It should be clear to a person skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments discussed above, but that several variations and modifications are possible within the protective scope of the invention as defined in the appending claims.

For instance, in the case of downloading a playlist from a website, it is possible that the playlist is downloaded before the movie is recorded. In the above, the present invention has been explained with reference to block diagrams, which illustrate functional blocks of the device according to the present invention. It is to be understood that one or more of these functional blocks may be implemented in hardware, where the function of such functional block is performed by individual hardware components, but it is also possible that one or more of these functional blocks are implemented in software, so that the function of such functional block is performed by one or more program lines of a computer program or a programmable device such as a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, etc.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. Method for recording a movie, the method comprising the steps of:

- receiving a broadcasted video stream (10);

- recording the received video stream on an information carrier (2);

- receiving a modified playlist (22); - recording the received modified playlist (22) on the information carrier (2) in association with the video recording (20).

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the information carrier is an optical disc, specifically a BD-RE disc.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein the modified playlist (22) is received through a communication network, for instance internet (30).

4. Method for adding metadata to a video recording (20) recorded on an information carrier (2); the method comprising the steps of receiving the metadata (22) through a communication network, for instance internet (30), and recording the received metadata on the information carrier (2) in association with the video recording (20).

5. Method according to claim 4, wherein the metadata (22) defines a modified playlist (22), specifically a commercial-skip playlist.

6. Method for playing a movie (20) recorded on an information carrier (2), the method comprising the steps of: - through a communication network, for instance internet (30), receiving a modified playlist (22) associated with the movie;

- storing the modified playlist (22) in an operation memory (6);

- on the basis of the modified playlist (22), reading the video clips from the information carrier (2), and displaying the corresponding images on a display (4).

7. Method according to claim 6, wherein the modified playlist (22) is recorded on the information carrier (2) in association with the movie (20).

8. Method according to claim 6, wherein the modified playlist (22) results in at least one video fragment being skipped; the method further comprising the steps of generating and displaying a bridge clip bridging the skipped video fragment.

9. Method for recording a movie, the method comprising the steps of:

- providing a recordable information carrier (2) with at least one playlist (22) pre-recorded thereon;

- receiving a broadcasted video stream (10);

- recording the received video stream on the information carrier (2) in association with the said playlist (22).

10. Method according to claim 9, the method further comprising the step of recognizing the video stream (10) received and checking for a match between this video stream (10) and said playlist (22).

11. Empty recordable information carrier (2) with at least one playlist (22) prerecorded thereon.

12. Information carrier (2) according to claim 11, wherein the information carrier is an optical disc, specifically a BD-RE disc.

13. Information carrier (2) according to claim 11, wherein the said at least one prerecorded playlist (22) is copy-protected.

14. Apparatus (1) for recording data on an information carrier (2), the apparatus being capable of:

- receiving a broadcasted video stream (10);

- recording the received video stream on an information carrier (2);

- receiving additional metadata (22); - recording the received additional metadata (22) on the information carrier (2) in association with the video recording (20).

15. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the apparatus is an optical disc drive, specifically a Blu-Ray disc recorder.

16. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the apparatus is capable of communicating, through a communication network, for instance internet (30), with a source (31) for metadata.

17. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the metadata (22) defines a modified playlist (22), specifically a commercial-skip playlist.

18. Apparatus (1) for recording data on an information carrier (2) in accordance with claim 11, the apparatus being capable of:

- receiving a broadcasted video stream (10);

- recording the received video stream on the information carrier (2) in association with at least one of said playlists stored on the carrier (2).

19. Apparatus according to claim 18, the apparatus being designed to identify the video stream (10) received and to check for a match between this video stream (10) and said playlist (22).

20. Apparatus (3) for playing a video recording (20) from an information carrier (2) and displaying a movie content of said recording on a display device (4), the apparatus comprising an operation memory (6); the apparatus being capable of communicating, through a communication network, for instance internet (30), with a source (31) for metadata; wherein the apparatus is designed to, through said communication network, receive a modified playlist (22) associated with the movie and store this modified playlist (22) in the operation memory (6); wherein the apparatus is further designed, on the basis of the modified playlist (22) in its operation memory (6), to read the video clips from the information carrier (2), and to display the corresponding images on said display (4).

21. Apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the apparatus is further designed to record the received modified playlist (22) on the information carrier (2) in association with the movie (20).

22. Apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the modified playlist (22) results in at least one video fragment being skipped, and wherein the apparatus is further designed to generate and display a bridge clip bridging the skipped video fragment.