Abstract: A record carrier has at least two parallel substantially co-extending information layers that are suitable for scanning by a single scanning head. Each information layer has a control block for storing information for controlling the scanning of user information stored in the respective information layer. The control blocks are placed in the record carrier such that they can be sequentially read by a scanning device, with minimum displacement of a scanning head. The user information may be stored in a first format in the first information layer, and user information for the same contents may be stored in a second format in a second information layer. The first format may be a low-density structure and the second format may be a high-density structure.