Abstract: The invention concerns a method (200) and system (100) for detecting defects in a recordable storage medium including the steps of: accessing (212) a segment of multimedia data that has been recorded onto a first portion of the recordable storage medium; selectively examining (214) the segment to determine whether the first portion contains a defect; and taking (222) corrective measures if a defect is detected, wherein the corrective measures are one or more of the corrective measures selected from the group including: generating a defect message; storing the address of the first portion of the recordable storage medium in a table; writing the segment of multimedia data onto a second portion of the recordable storage medium; or modifying the selectively examining step.

Abstract: A phase change optical information recording medium including: a substrate; and a recording layer which is located overlying the substrate and in which marks are to be formed to store information, wherein the substrate includes plural sessions including a first session in which pits are formed and which includes a RAM region including a groove and a wobble signal, and a program memory area in which pits are formed and which includes position information of the first session and does not include disc ID information of the phase change optical information recording medium.

Abstract: This invention relates to an optical disc recording apparatus, an optical disc recording method, and an optical disc, and the present invention is applied to, for example, apparatus for recording on a compact disc, compact discs, and compact disc players, and sub-data strings are recorded so that the main data strings is reproducible by an optical pickup for reproducing the main data string and the main data strings. are protected from being copied illegally without any adverse effect on reproduction of the pit-and-land main data strings The sub-data string ED is recorded by locally changing the reflectance of the reflection film in the form of irregularity such as pit or mark at the timing which does not affect the position information of the edge.

Abstract: There are provided an information recording medium, and a method and system for reading and writing information thereon, which make it possible to facilitate recording by rewriting in use of the rewritable DVD repeatedly by rewriting. When one piece of or a plurality of pieces of program data VRO having already been recorded in a real-time data recording area A3 is reproduced, history management information indicating that the program data has been reproduced is recorded in a predetermined management information recording area A2 of the rewritable DVD, corresponding to the aforementioned one piece of or the aforementioned plurality of pieces of the program information. Moreover, when other program data is recorded, the other program data is adapted to overwrite automatically the program data VRO, having been already recorded, corresponding to the history management information recorded in the management information recording area A2.

Abstract: One aspect of the invention is a method for detecting the border of recorded video data. The method comprises analyzing a plurality of video frames. The plurality of video frames comprise recorded video data and undesired data. The method also includes determining whether at least one of the plurality of video frames comprises substantially all undesired data, and identifying the at least one of the plurality of video frames as a border of the recorded video data if the at least one of the plurality of video frames comprises substantially all undesired data.

Abstract: An information recording apparatus for recording record information onto a record medium, on which (i) a plurality of information groups each comprising one series of the record information and (ii) management information including positional information indicating a recorded area of each of the information groups are recordable, is provided with: a detecting device for detecting the management information, which is recorded in advance on the record medium, from the record medium; a recording device for newly recording the record information onto the record medium; an outputting device for outputting an identification information to identify the information groups, which are recorded in advance on the record medium, on the basis of the detected management information while the recording device is newly recording the record information; a specifying device for specifying an erasable information from among the information groups which are identified by the outputted identification information while the recordin

Abstract: An optical read/write drive such as a DVD+RW drive writes a block of new data to a read/write medium by locating an edit bit in the block of data that has already been written to the medium, and writing the block of new data to the medium, beginning or ending at the edit bit. The edit bit may be chosen to avoid errors arising from polarity conflicts between data already written to the disc and the new data. The edit bit could be, for example, a differing transition bit in a sync codeword of a modulation-encoded block.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for recording control for a recording medium having a data recording region for recording data such as audio data, speech data, and a control data region for recording control data for the data recording region. The method and apparatus includes identifying a non-silent recorded portion and a silent recorded portion of the data recorded in the data recording region based upon the signal level of the data recorded in the data recording region, and recording control data for separating the data recorded in the data recording region into temporally former and temporally latter portions at a boundary portion between the non-silent recorded portion and the silent recorded portion based upon the results of the identification after recording of the data in the data recording region has ended.

Abstract: A drive unit connecting system for connecting a drive unit for an optical information/data recording medium to a reproducing apparatus serving as a destined host apparatus through the medium of a general-purpose interface is designed to inhibit normal operation when the drive unit is connected to other apparatus than the destined one without employing expensive IC chips dedicated for authentication. The drive unit connecting system enables a drive unit to be connected to only a proper reproducing apparatus through a general-purpose interface by performing software-based processing on either one of command(s) or parameter(s) or alternatively on both of the command(s) and the parameter(s).

Abstract: An optical read/write drive such as a DVD+RW drive writes a block of new data to a read/write medium by locating an edit bit in the block of data that has already been written to the medium, and writing the block of new data to the medium, beginning or ending at the edit bit. The edit bit may be chosen to avoid errors arising from polarity conflicts between data already written to the disc and the new data. The edit bit could be, for example, a differing transition bit in a sync codeword of a modulation-encoded block.

Abstract: This invention relates to a recording apparatus for recording a plurality of pieces of data into a recording medium is characterized in that the recording apparatus including a specifying means for specifying that a write operation over a combination of the pieces of data is prohibited, a judgment means for forming a judgment on what is specified for a predetermined piece of data by the specifying means in response to a command to perform a recording operation over the piece of data, and a control means for controlling an operation to record the pieces of data into the recording medium in accordance with a result of a judgment formed by the judgment means; and relates to a recording method adopted in a recording apparatus for recording a plurality of pieces of data into a recording medium is characterized in that the recording method including a specifying step of specifying that a write operation over a combination of the pieces of data is prohibited, a judgment step of forming a judgment on what is specifie

Abstract: A method and apparatus to simplify work to edit sub data by: recording one or a plurality of main data, recording management data for controlling the main data, recording one or a plurality of sub data related to the main data and sub management data for controlling the sub data on a recording medium; and linking the sub data and the sub management data so that they can be referenced from the management data.

Abstract: The size of the blocks of information recorded in fixed-sized fragment areas on a record carrier are controlled to enable simultaneous reading and writing of real-time information, such as a digital video signal, from/onto a disc-like record carrier. Also, one or more bridging blocks are recorded in the fixed-size fragment areas on the record carrier to enable reproduction and seamless editing.

Abstract: This invention related to an optical disc recording apparatus, an optical disc recording method, and an optical disc, and the present invention is applied to, for example, apparatus for recording on a compact disc, compact discs, and compact disc players, and sub-data strings are recorded so that the main data strings is reproducible by an optical pickup for reproducing the main data string and the main data strings are protected from being copied illegally without any adverse effect on reproduction of the pit-and-land main data strings. The sub-data string ED is recorded by locally changing the reflectance of the reflection film in the form of irregularity such as pit or mark at the timing which does not affect the position information of the edge.

Abstract: A program clock reference and a transport packet are extracted from an input stream. A clock signal generated by the extracted program clock reference is generated; and a time stamp is generated in synchronization with the generated clock signal. File information representing the continuity of time stamps also is generated. Hence, the input stream can be played back correctly and continuously even if there is a discontinuity in the time stamps.

Abstract: In order to keep the continuity in time of a reproducing operation, it is necessary to have contiguous physical recording of the data having over a predetermined quantity. However, there was a problem that the data fragmentation might be generated in copy type recording medium when the copy and that superscription continuity in time was not maintained. When judged whether the reproduction of the data with continuity in time is possible or not, before reproducing the data, and in the case of not, the data which was discontiguous is rearranged to be contiguous. According to this invention, the failure does not occur in the reproducing operation, even though the data fragmentation may be generated by the copy.

Abstract: An information recording/reproducing apparatus is capable of recording the video information on an optical disk and reproducing the video information which has been recorded on the optical disk in accordance with a play list. The apparatus includes the detecting unit which detects an unnecessary portion of the video information not to be reproduced by any play list, and the erasing unit which erases the video information with respect to the detected unnecessary segment, which has been recorded on the optical disk.

Abstract: Audio-centered information is stored on a unitary medium by using a Table-of-Contents (TOC) mechanism that specifies an actual configuration of various audio items on the medium. In particular, each one of a set of one or more Track Areas gets at least two mutually logically conforming Sub-TOCs assigned. This allows to retrieve any constituent Sub-TOC part from at least any correct copy of the Sub-TOCs. Furthermore, one or more Master-TOCs are provided for specifically pointing to each of the Sub-TOCs.

Abstract: A reproducing and recording apparatus, a decoding apparatus, a recording apparatus, a reproducing and recording method, a decoding method and a recording method are provided in which a computation for changing acoustic characteristics of compressed digital data is effected on a scale factor of each divided band in the compressed digital data including spectrum data band-divided into a plurality of bands on a frequency axis and the scale factor of every divided band.

Abstract: A signal recorder/reproducer comprising an integrated buffer memory 22 having a memory area for a recording system and a memory area for a reproduction system, the allocation of the memory areas being variable, and a system controller 5 to control, via a recording control signal input unit 2 or reproduction control signal input unit 4, the allocation of the memory areas in the integrated buffer memory 22 depending upon which is designated by the user, a recording or reproduction mode.

Abstract: A recording apparatus comprising a means for reading and reproducing a program recorded on a first recording medium such as a CD; a means for recording the reproduced program on a second recording medium such as an MD having at least a program area to record programs and a management area to manage the positions of the recorded programs and the program names; a means for inputting character data representative of the program name; a means for settling the program of one unit inputted by the character input means; a means for generating a partition code; a means for storing the program name as a character string after attaching a partition code to the program name inputted by the character input means; and a control means for extracting, from the character strings stored in the storage means, the program name of the relevant program with reference to the partition code, and updating the data in the management area of the second recording medium.

Abstract: When a program reproduced from a reproducing apparatus such as a CD player is recorded to a recording apparatus such as an MD recorder/player, a character string that is received from the reproducing apparatus and that corresponds to a program is edited. The edited character program is recorded to the recording apparatus in such a manner that the edited character string corresponds to the program.

Abstract: An information recording method which can record audio and/or video information on a recording medium, while protecting previously recorded information from being overwritten. When recording new information on the record medium, the information recording method checks whether an intended recording position for new information corresponds to a start position of a previously recorded information region. If so, the method moves the recording position of new information into a recording termination position of the previously recorded information region.

Abstract: An editing apparatus divides a data file including main data and management data into a first file and a second before and after a divide position. The divide position is first determined. Then, a recording data block containing the divide position is copied into a data space of the first file. The management information of the first file is edited. Then, the management information for the second file is created and edited.