Convergence-enabled DVD and web system
A system integrates a DVD system and a WWW web browser. Universal Resource Locator (URL) information corresponding to sites accessible by the browser are stored in fields within the DVD data. When a user actuates a DVD element that has a corresponding URL, the web browser displays information from that site. When the user actuates an HTML menu or other browser-implemented feature, the DVD system accesses a portion of the DVD data specified in the menu. This arrangement provides for two-way communication, i.e., HTML in the browser is able to control DVD content and vice-versa. Having the WWW information embedded in the DVD brings a number of benefits, the foremost of which is the ability to write a “one size fits all” template web page that can interrogate the DVD for URL information and present WWW content corresponding to the URL synchronized with the DVD information.
1. A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate one or more General DVD Parameter Registers (GPRMs), the system comprising:
a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating information representative of the contents of a DVD and, upon receiving a certain command embedded in the information, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the one or more GPRMs;
a media unit adapted to receive the information and extract a TXTDT_MG data structure associated with the DVD, and further adapted to display video content extracted from the information; and
a browser for displaying content designated by Universal Resource Locators (URLs), the URLs being derived by using the GPRMs to index into the TXTDT_MG data structure.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein URLs are derived using a DVD Text Data parser and the indicia to index into the DVD Text Data Structure to obtain the URL.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein:
the media player is for displaying a menu button specified by the information from the DVD, the menu button being associated with the URL, the association between the menu button and the URL being responsive to the positional playback data in the GPRMs; and
the browser is for displaying the content specified by the URL responsive to user actuation of the menu button.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein
the media player is for generating a button number message responsive to the user actuation of the menu button, the system further comprising an event script for receiving the message and responsive thereto calling the DVD Text Data parser.
5. The system of claim 3 , wherein:
the DVD Text Data parser is further for receiving a DVD Text Data Structure from the DVD each time the DVD is initialized, the DVD Text Data Structure including the URLs; and
the DVD Text Data parser is for using the button number message to index into the DVD Text Data Structure to obtain the URLs.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content designated by the URL is HTML-coded.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content designated by the URL is streaming media content.
8. A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Register (GPRM) with positional playback data, the system comprising:
a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating the information and, upon receiving a certain embedded command, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM;
a DVD Text Data parser for receiving the information and parsing a TXTDT_MG data structure in the information to derive data containing a Universal Resource Locator (URL) therefrom;
a browser for displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the URL and, responsive to actuation thereof, content designated by the URL; and
a media player adapted for receiving the information, extracting video content from the information, and displaying the video content.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the content designated by the URL is HTML-coded.
10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the content specified by the URL is streaming media content.
11. A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Registers (GPRM) with positional playback data, the system comprising:
a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating the information and, upon receiving a certain embedded command, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM;
a DVD Text Data parser for parsing a DVD Text Data Structure based on content of the GPRM to derive a Universal Resource Locators (URL) therefrom;
a browser for displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the URL and, responsive to actuation thereof, for displaying content designated by the URL; and
a media player adapted for receiving the information, extracting the DVD Text Data Structure from the information, extracting video content from the information, and displaying the video content, the video content including a button associated with the URL;
wherein the browser is further for displaying content designated by the URL responsive to an actuation of the button.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the information from the DVD includes positional information associated with the URL.
13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the positional information indicates a position of the button within the DVD content.
14. A system for generating information representative of the contents of a DVD, the DVD having been authored such that the information includes embedded commands to populate a plurality of elements of a General DVD Parameter Registers (GPRM) associated with the DVD with positional playback data, the system comprising:
a DVD unit for playing the DVD and generating the information and, upon receiving a certain embedded command, writing indicia of a current position of play within the DVD into the GPRM;
a DVD Text Data parser for deriving a data structure from the information and, based on the content of the GPRM, parsing the information to derive a plurality of URLs therefrom; a browser for displaying content designated by any one of the plurality of URLs, wherein the browser displays content upon actuation of the any one URL; and
a media player adapted for receiving the information, extracting video content from the information, and displaying the video content, the media player being further adapted to display a plurality of buttons, wherein each button is associated with at least one of the plurality of URLs, the association between the each button and the at least one URL being responsive to the positional playback data in the GPRM.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein:
the information includes a DVD Text Data Structure; and
the DVD Text Data parser uses the positional playback data to index into the DVD Text Data Structure to obtain a selected URL from the plurality of URLs.
16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the browser displays the designated content designated at the same time as the media player displays video content.
17. The system of claim 14 , wherein the browser is further for displaying a hyperlink corresponding to the any one URL.