Thomson Licensing

Thomson Licensing S.a.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Deutsche Thomson-brandt Gmbh

Interdigital Ce Patent Holdings

Harald Schiller

Ralf Ostermann

Hartmut Peters

Dirk Gandolph

Jobst Hörentrup

Jobst Hoerentrup

Dirk Adolph

Marco Winter

Hui Li

Axel Kochale

Wolfgang Klausberger

Stefan Kubsch

Uwe Janssen

Jobst Hoerentrop

Heinz-Werner Keesen

Meinolf Blawat

Seong-jin Moon

Sung-Wook Park

Carsten Herpel

Jobst Horentrup

Young-Nam Oh

Edgar Peters

Marco Wiinter

Optical storage media often contain data structures for a menu suitable for selection of a title, a chapter, a parameter or others. Such menus usually comprise a number of buttons to be displayed, with each button having a state. Possible states of buttons are 'unselected', 'selected' or &#x201c;activated&#x201d;. According to the invention, the representation of a menu button may vary, depending on its state. An image or an image sequence, e.g. cartoon, may be associated to a buttons state, providing user animation. Further, a sound or sound sequence, e.g. melody or click, may be associated to a buttons state, and may be played back when the button enters this state. A data structure is disclosed which allows storage of such menu data e.g. on a Blu-ray disc.

Method for representing animated menu buttons

Embodiments of the invention include a subtitling format encompassing elements of enhanced syntax and semantic to provide improved animation capabilities. The disclosed elements improve subtitle performance without stressing the available subtitle bitrate. This will become essential for authoring content of high-end HDTV subtitles in pre-recorded format, which can be broadcast or stored on high capacity optical media, e.g. the Blue-ray Disc. Embodiments of the invention include abilities for improved authoring possibilities for the content production to animate subtitles. For subtitles that are separate from AV material, a method includes using one or more superimposed subtitle layers, and displaying only a selected part of the transferred subtitles at a time. Further, colors of a selected part of the displayed subtitles may be modified, e.g. highlighted.

Method and apparatus for composition of subtitles

Embodiments of the invention include an apparatus including a processor for retrieving subtitle layer data, wherein the subtitle layer data contains a graphic subtitle elements. The processor extracts from retrieved subtitle layer data, subtitle display region information for defining a subtitle display region, a cropping flag, and subtitle display region cropping information, for cropping the display region, the subtitle display region cropping information including a parameter for horizontal position of the cropped subtitle display region, a parameter for vertical position of the crossed subtitle display region, a parameter for width of the cropped subtitle display region, and a parameter for height of the cropped subtitle display region. The apparatus includes a renderer for enabling automatic cropping of parts of the subtitle elements to be displayed in the cropped subtitle display region, where the cropped parts of the subtitle elements to be displayed are defined by subtitle display region cropping information.

Several data streams contain video, audio and/or other data. Some of the data streams are pre-recorded in a multiplex on a storage medium while other data streams are located out of the data stream multiplex on the storage medium. The data streams are synchronized using a navigation file (List_of_PlayItems), which comprises descriptors (PlayItems, SubPlayItems) pointing to parts of said data streams, wherein said descriptors define the arrangement in time for said data streams by means of data sub stream paths.

Method and apparatus for synchronizing data streams containing audio, video and/or other data

Optical storage media often contain data structures for a menu suitable for selection of a title, a chapter, a parameter or others. Such menus usually comprise a number of buttons to be displayed, with each button having a state. Possible states of buttons are; e.g., 'unselected', 'selected' or &#x201c;activated&#x201d;. According to the invention, the menu may contain buttons that can be selected through the keys on the remote control, but that don't have any images or text associated. This allows creating &#x201c;invisible buttons&#x201d; that automatically execute commands upon selection. Further, a sound or sound sequence; e.g., melody or click, may be associated to a buttons state, and may be played back when the button enters this state. Such menu data may be stored; e.g., on a Blu-ray disc.

Method for decoding a menu data segment

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Hannover, Germany

Harald Schiller