Recording medium and reproducing apparatus thereof

Claim 2

A recording medium having two opposite sides, either or both of which are selective as recording sides, comprising: a data region in which data is recorded; and a management region including number-of-recording-sides identifying information that represents the number of recording sides of the recording medium and recording side identifying information that represents the recording side.

Claim 3

A recording medium, comprising: a data region in which data is recorded; a management region in which management information is recorded, the management information being adapted for managing data recorded in said data region; and a plurality of spare management regions in which management information with the same content as the management region is recorded, values representing the positions in the spare management regions being represented with relative distance from the top addresses thereof.

Claim 4

The recording medium as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of spare management regions in which management information with the same content as the management region is recorded, values representing the positions in the spare management regions being represented with relative distance from the top addresses thereof.

Claim 5

The recording medium as set forth in claim 2, further comprising a plurality of spare management regions in which management information with the same content as the management region is recorded, values representing the positions in the spare management regions being represented with relative distance from the top addresses thereof.

Claim 6

A recording medium on which data is recorded as a file, the file comprising: a first region in which a group of a data unit that is a group of a plurality of types of data that are synchronously reproduced; a second region in which at least one cell information table that is a program cell composed by selectively linking at least one data unit recorded in said first region; and a third region in which at least one chain information table that is a program chain composed by selectively linking at least one cell information table recorded in said second region.

Claim 7

The recording medium as set forth in claim 6, wherein the positions of the data unit, the cell information table, and the chain information table are defined with relative distances from the top address of the file thereof.

Claim 8

The recording medium as set forth in claim 6, the chain information table comprising: a cell number sequence that represents a plurality of program cell numbers composing the program chain and the order of reproduction of the program cell; and reproduction control information that defines reproduction method of the program chain for each program cell.

Claim 9

The recording medium as set forth in claim 8, wherein the types of the reproduction control information includes at least: first reproduction control information that represents the reproduction of a second program cell after a first program cell to be controlled is reproduced; second reproduction control information that represents the reproduction of a second program cell with waiting time after a first program cell to be controlled is reproduced; and third reproduction control information that represents the stop of the reproduction after a program cell to be controlled is reproduced.

Claim 10

The recording medium as set forth in claim 6, wherein the chain information table further includes: a cell number sequence that represents a plurality of program cell numbers composing the program chain and the order of reproduction of the program cell; and mode information that represents whether or not each program cell represented by the cell number sequence is a program cell that can be selectively reproduced along with another program cell in the same time on the same time axis.

Claim 11

The recording medium as set forth in claim 6, wherein the chain information table further includes: type information that represents an application type of the program chain; and a specific code that represents detailed content of said type information and a specific code that represents detailed content of said information, the detailed content corresponding to the code being defined uniquely to each of the application type.

Claim 12

The recording medium as set forth in claim 6, wherein the file includes at least one cell information table that composes a menu screen on which any data item to be displayed is selected; and wherein the cell information table that composes the menu screen includes identifying information that represents that the cell information table composes the menu screen.

Claim 13

The recording medium as set forth in claim 12, wherein the chain information table that composes the program chain with the cell information table that composes the menu screen includes block mode information that defines a cell information group that composes the menu screens that correlate as one block.

Claim 14

The recording medium as set forth in claim 12, wherein the cell information table that composes the menu screen further includes language type information that represents a language type of characters displayed on the menu screen.

Claim 15

A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recording medium having a data region in which data is recorded as a file corresponding to a predetermined data recording format, and a management region including medium identifying information that represents the type of the data recording format and file identifying information that represents the type of the data recording format of the file, comprising: first determining means for reading medium identifying information recorded in the management region and determining a type based on a data recording format of the recording medium corresponding to the medium identifying information; and second determining means for reading the file identifying information of each file recorded in the management region and determining a type based on the data recording format of each file recorded on the recording medium corresponding to the file identifying information.

Claim 16

A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recording medium having two opposite sides, either or both of which are selective as recording sides, including a data region in which data is recorded, and a management region including number-of-recording-sides identifying information that represents the number of recording sides of the recording medium and recording-side identifying information that represents the recording side, comprising: number-of-recording-sides determining means for reading the number-of-recording-sides identifying information recorded in the management region and determining the number of recording sides of the recording medium; and recording-side determining means for reading the recording-side identifying information recorded in the management region and determining the recording side of the recording medium to be reproduced.

Claim 17

A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recording medium on which data is recorded as a file, the file including a first region in which a group of a data unit that is a group of a plurality of types of data that are synchronously reproduced, a second region in which at least one cell information table that is a program cell composed by selectively linking at least one data unit recorded in said first region, and a third region in which at least one chain information that is a program chain composed by selectively linking at least one cell information table recorded in said second region, comprising: first searching means for searching any chain information table recorded in the third region; second searching means for searching at least one cell information table that composes the program chain from the second region corresponding to the searched chain information table; and third searching means for searching at least one data unit that composes the program cell from the first region corresponding to the cell information table searched by said second searching means.

Claim 18

A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recording medium on which data is recorded as a file, the file including a first region in which a group of a data unit that is a group of a plurality of types of data that are synchronously reproduced, a second region in which at least one cell information table that is a program cell composed by selectively linking at least one data unit recorded in said first region, and a third region in which at least one chain information that is a program chain composed by selectively linking at least one cell information table recorded in said second region, the file including at least one cell information table that composes a menu screen on which any data item to be displayed is selected, the cell information table that composes the menu screen including identifying information that represents that the cell information table composes the menu screen, comprising: first searching means for searching any chain information table recorded in the third region; second searching means for searching at least one cell information table that composes the program chain from the second region corresponding to the searched chain information table; determining means for determining whether or not the cell information table is a cell information table that composes the menu screen corresponding to the identifying information of the cell information table searched by said second searching means; third searching means for searching at least one data unit that composes the program cell from the first region corresponding to the cell information cell when said determining means has determined the cell information table that composes the menu screen; and menu reproducing means for reproducing at least one data unit searched by said third searching means as the menu screen.

Claim 19

A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recording medium on which data is recorded as a file, the file including a first region in which a group of a data unit that is a group of a plurality of types of data that are synchronously reproduced, a second region in which at least one cell information table that is a program cell composed by selectively linking at least one data unit recorded in said first region, and a third region in which at least one chain information that is a program chain composed by selectively linking at least one cell information table recorded in said second region, the file including at least one cell information table that composes a menu screen on which any data item to be displayed is selected, the cell information table that composes the menu screen includes identifying information that represents that the cell information table composes the menu screen, the chain information table that composes the program chain with the cell information table that composes the menu screen including block mode information that defines a cell information group that composes the menu screens that correlate as one block, comprising: first searching means for searching any chain information table recorded in the third region; second searching means for searching at least one cell information table that composes the program chain from the second region corresponding to the searched chain information table; determining means for determining whether or not the cell information table is a cell information table that composes the menu screen corresponding to the identifying information of the cell information table searched by said second searching means; third searching means for searching at least one data unit that composes the program cell from the first region corresponding to the cell information cell when said determining means has determined the cell information table that composes the menu screen; menu reproducing means for reproducing at least one data unit searched by said third searching means as the menu screen; recognizing means for recognizing correlation among a plurality of menu screens included in the chain information table corresponding to the block mode information in the chain information table searched by said first searching means; and menu screen switching means for reproducing a second menu screen after a first menu screen is selected, when said recognizing means has determined that there is correlation between the first menu screen that is being reproduced and the second menu screen.

Claim 20

A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a recording medium on which data is recorded as a file, the file including a first region in which a group of a data unit that is a group of a plurality of types of data that are synchronously reproduced, a second region in which at least one cell information table that is a program cell composed by selectively linking at least one data unit recorded in said first region, and a third region in which at least one chain information that is a program chain composed by selectively linking at least one cell information table recorded in said second region, the file including at least one cell information table that composes a menu screen on which any data item to be displayed is selected, the cell information table that composes the menu screen including identifying information that represents that the cell information table composes the menu screen, the cell information table that composes the menu screen further including language type information that represents a language type of characters displayed on the menu screen, comprising: first searching means for searching any chain information table recorded in the third region; second searching means for searching at least one cell information table that composes the program chain from the second region corresponding to the searched chain information table; first determining means for determining whether or not the cell information table is a cell information table that composes the menu screen corresponding to the identifying information of the cell information table searched by said second searching means; language type selecting means for pre-selecting a language type of the menu screen; second determining means for determining whether or not a language type of the menu screen composed of the cell information table on the menu screen matches a language type selected by said language type selecting means corresponding to the language type information in the cell information table when said determining means has determined the cell information table that composes the menu screen; third searching means for searching at least one data unit that composes the program cell corresponding to the cell information table when said second determining means has determined that the language types match; and menu reproducing means for reproducing at least one data unit searched by said third searching means as the menu screen.