Patents

U.S. Patent 6,208,805 ("Control")
Issued: Mar. 27, 2001
Title: Inhibiting A Control Function From Interfering With A Playing Of A Video

Abstract:
An apparatus capable of, and a method of, playing an optical disc storing (1) a video program including within, and not provided by an alternative program source, at least one parallel video segment for variably playing a scene of the video program; (2) segment information, not created by a user of the video program, directly defining a plurality of video segments; and (3) at least one segment code for inhibiting a control function (e.g., segment skip and/or fast-forward functions) from interfering with a playing of a video segment; the apparatus comprising processing, random accessing, and buffering means for, and the method comprising the steps of: inhibiting, responsive to the segment information and a segment code, a control function from interfering with a playing of a video segment (e.g., a commercial video segment); selecting, responsive to the segment information, video segments from within the video program; and playing, without requiring an alternative program source, the selected video segments as a seamless version of, from within, and less in length than the length of, the video program, the playing comprising a video buffering for seamlessly skipping over a retrieval of at least a portion of a parallel video segment included within the video program.

Claims:

1. An apparatus capable of playing an optical disc storing (1) a video program including within a plurality of video segments for variably playing a scene of the video program; (2) segment information directly defining a plurality of video segments; and (3) at least one segment code for preventing a control function from interfering with a playing of a video segment; said apparatus comprising processing, random accessing, and buffering means, and:

• means responsive to the segment code for preventing a control function of the apparatus from interfering with a playing of at least one video segment;


• means responsive to the segment information for selecting video segments from within the video program; and


• means for playing the selected video segments as a seamless version of, and from within the video program, the playing comprising a video buffering for seamlessly skipping over non-selected video segments included within the video program.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control function is a segment skip function.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the control function is a fast-forward function.

4. An apparatus capable of playing an optical disc storing (1) a video program including within a plurality of video segments; (2) a commercial video segment; (3) segment information directly defining the video segments; and (4) at least one segment code for inhibiting preventing a control function from interfering with a playing of a video segment; the apparatus comprising processing, random accessing, and buffering means, and:

• means responsive to the segment code for preventing a control function of the apparatus from interfering with a playing of the commercial video segment;


• means responsive to the segment information for selecting video segments from within the video program; and


• means for playing the selected video segments as a seamless version of, and from within, the video program, the playing comprising a video buffering for seamlessly skipping over a retrieval of non-selected video segments included within the video program.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the control function is a segment skip function.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the control function is a fast-forward function.

7. A method of playing an optical disc storing (1) a video program including within a plurality of video segments for playing the video program; (2) a commercial video segment; (3) segment information directly defining the video segments; and (4) at least one segment code for preventing a control function from interfering with a playing of a video segment; the method comprising the steps of:

• responding to the segment code for preventing a control function from interfering with a playing of a commercial video segment;


• responding to the segment information for selecting video segments from within the video program; and


• playing the selected video segments as a seamless version of, and from within, the video program, the playing comprising a video buffering for seamlessly skipping over a retrieval of non-selected video segments included within the video program.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the control function is a segment skip function.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the control function is a fast-forward function.