Abstract: A method for generating an on-screen menu comprising menu buttons and other menu items, e.g. help text, comprises one or more groups of menu buttons or menu items are defined, wherein a group comprises one or more menu buttons or menu items and has associated a defined area on the screen. A state is assigned to a button, the state being “enabled” or “disabled”, wherein only an enabled button or item may be displayed, and wherein within a group not more than one button or item may be enabled. The state of a button can be changed by commands associated with other buttons.

Abstract: Playback devices, e.g. DVD players, for removable mass storage media used for the distribution of multimedia content contain a lot of firmware to control its functions. Typically, such firmware may be updated several times during the lifetime of the device. For playback devices that are already at a consumer's site and cannot be updated online, it is possible to update the firmware without using separate media, such as update-CDs, by storing firmware update data on removable storage media such as DVDs or Blu-ray discs that contain primarily audio-visual contents. Thus, it is possible to utilize unused storage space on e.g. optical discs, and to distribute and install firmware updates easily without requiring separate media or technical knowledge of the user.

Abstract: Optical disc players are today connectable to the Internet, and may contain local storage capability, e.g. ADD. Additional post-production content can be downloaded and locally stored. It is difficult to include downloaded additional post-production material in menus for keeping a menu always consistent with the actually available data. Ideally, the menu should reflect the available data even if certain content is deleted or replaced with e.g. Another version. A ‘linked-list’ approach for menu pages generates a dynamic menu structure. The menu consists of basic menu pages, which are retrieved from the disc, and additional pages that are downloaded together with the additional content. Page ranges may be reserved for e.g. audio, video or subtitles. The linked-list is implemented by an implicit link from each page to the next higher or lower page number.

Abstract: A method for generating an interactive electronic menu on a display, the menu comprising menu items, wherein a menu item may be in a deselected, selected or activated state, and the menu being coded into a menu data segment, comprises that at least a first and a second menu item are connected by a parent-child relationship, wherein the second menu item being a child of the first menu item can only be selected when the first menu item is selected, and further comprises that the first and the second menu item are coded into the same data segment. The method is preferably usable for menus relating to content of digital storage media, such as optical discs, in particular read-only Blu-ray discs.

Abstract: A method for modifying data read from read-only media during playback time comprises logically merging the on-disc directory tree and an associated off-disc directory tree. A logical directory tree is constructed from the data retrieved from the read-only medium, wherein the structure of the logical directory tree is identical with the structure of the directory tree of the medium. The method allows replacing content on the disc through downloaded content, e.g. replacing an out-dated trailer stored on the disc through a downloaded trailer for a new movie. The method further allows complementing or upgrading content on the disc, e.g. by downloading a new subtitle track from the internet.

Abstract: Removable media such as optical discs may carry valuable audio-visual data representing movies or the like, which are sold by content providers or studios. To prevent pirate copies, data on these media are often encrypted for copy protection. This copy protection may use a disc specific electronic decryption key, which is stored on the disc itself. Supplementary data such as games, subtitle or audio streams that are regarded as being closely related to disc contents, but are not stored on the disc itself, are encrypted so that decryption is only possible with a decryption key retrieved from the disc, or in particular the same decryption key that is used for the disc contents. The method is particularly effective for copy protection or cross usage exclusion of supplementary data when the decryption key is prevented from being accessible to the user.

Abstract: 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 “activated”. 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 “invisible buttons” 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.

Abstract: Optical discs may support “Out Of Multiplex” formats, meaning that different presentation components, like video, audio and subtitles, are stored on different files on the disc, e.g. Blu-ray discs. The different data streams are read by a single pick-up, requiring frequent pick-up jumps and extensive data buffering. The method for operating a scheduler for an optical pick-up reduces the number of pick-up jumps while optimizing the required buffer space. The scheduler is based on a static schema, meaning that the buffer for the data stream with the highest data rate is of minimal size, and therefore refilled in short periods while the buffers for the lower rated streams are dimensioned such that they can be refilled in multiples of the short period. Deviations from the static schema may be allowed, e.g. due to multi-angle video technique. Afterwards the scheduler returns to the original schedule.

Abstract: Subtitling aims at the presentation of text information and graphical data, encoded as pixel bitmaps. The size of subtitle bitmaps may exceed video frame dimensions, so that only portions are displayed at a time. The bitmaps are a separate layer lying above the video, e.g. for synchronized video subtitles, animations and navigation menus, and therefore contain many transparent pixels. An advanced adaptation for bitmap encoding for HDTV, e.g. 1920×1280 pixels per frame as defined for the Blu-ray Disc Prerecorded format, providing optimized compression results for such subtitling bitmaps, is achieved by a four-stage run length encoding. Shorter or longer sequences of pixels of a preferred color, e.g. transparent, are encoded using the second or third shortest code words, while single pixels of different color are encoded using the shortest code words, and sequences of pixels of equal color use the third or fourth shortest code words.