Abstract: A method for recording address information to an optical disc (5) by forming a wobbled groove is provided. The method includes steps S1 to S3. In step S1, there is generated address information composed of a sync signal, address data and an error correction code for the address data. In step S2, a carrier signal is multiplied by the address information to generate a phase modulation signal. In step S3, there is formed on the optical disc (5) a spiral groove wobbled adaptively to the phase modulation signal.

Abstract: An optical record carrier (1) is provided with tracks having a groove (4) wobbled in a transverse direction and predetermined positions (18) along the track. The wobble comprises a substantially monotonous undulation (15). Local excursions (16) of the groove superposed on the undulation at the predetermined positions represent position information, such as addresses. The spatial frequency of the undulation is lower than that of the excursions.

Abstract: A method for determining the format of an optical recording medium (1) comprising one or more data or audio tracks or both types of tracks is proposed, the method being robust against partially corrupted data on the recording medium. The method comprises the steps of: reading (101) the table of contents (TOC); storing information from the table of contents; checking (102, 103, 105) whether all tracks are indicated as audio tracks or as data tracks or whether both audio tracks and data tracks are present; if one or more data tracks are present, checking (104, 106, 107) whether the first indicated data track contains any audio information; and determining the format according to the results of the checking steps (102-107).

Abstract: A detector for detecting information carried by a wobble signal having a sawtooth-like shape with a base frequency of fwob. The detector includes a first band-pass filter having a center frequency close to 2*fwob for filtering the wobble signal and generating a first filtered signal, a second band-pass filter having the center frequency close to fwob for filtering the wobble signal and generating a second filtered signal, first and second comparators for respectively comparing the first and second filtered signal with a reference voltage and generating first and second compared signals, a delay unit for delaying the second compared signal by a time period, and then outputting a delayed signal, and a sampling unit for sampling the first compared signal using the delayed signal as a sampling clock, and for outputting a sampled value representing the information carried by the sawtooth wobble.

Abstract: In step S1, the address generator generates address information composed of a sync signal which is recorded on an optical disc, address data and an error correction code for the address data, pre-encodes and supplies it to a modulator. At the same time, a carrier signal generator generates a carrier signal which is to carry the address information, and supplies it to the modulator. In step S2, the modulator makes MSK modulation of the carrier signal supplied from the carrier signal generator on the basis of the pre-encoded address information supplied from the address generator, and supplies a resultant MSK modulation signal to a wobbling unit. In step S3, the wobbling unit forms, on the optical disc, a spiral groove wobbled adaptively to the MSK modulation signal supplied from the modulator. In this optical disc, a given address can be accessed quickly and accurately.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for recording and/or reproducing data on a disc are provided using padding information, and a corresponding information storage medium. The recording method includes recording a recording unit block in which invalid data is padded in part of the block and recording padding information indicating that the invalid data is included. According to the method, a disc drive becomes able to distinguish valid data from invalid data in an error correction block such that reliability of reproduction increases and stability of the system is improved.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for recording and/or reproducing data on a disc are provided using padding information, and a corresponding information storage medium. The recording method includes recording a recording unit block in which invalid data is padded in part of the block and recording padding information indicating that the invalid data is included. According to the method, a disc drive becomes able to distinguish valid data from invalid data in an error correction block such that reliability of reproduction increases and stability of the system is improved.

Abstract: There is provided an optical disc having preformed thereon a spiral wobbled track as a grove and/or land along with data is to be recorded. The track is wobbled for a series of predetermined signal units each composed of an FSK information bit part based on a waveform resulted from FSK modulation of information bit and a singe-frequency part based on a waveform of a single frequency. The FSK modulation uses two different frequencies of which the one is the same as the single frequency and the other is different from the single frequency. These different frequencies are in such a relation that each of them has an even number of wobbles and an odd number of wobbles alternately in a predetermined cycle.

Abstract: A method for reading address information from an optical disc with a wobbled track groove includes the steps of: obtaining a sine wave address signal, a first address signal representing a first groove region with sine wave wobbled portions and an inverted phase portion, and a second address signal representing a second groove region with steep inward or outward displacements; multiplying a first reference signal, being phase-locked to, and having the same frequency as, the sine wave address signal, and the first address signal together to obtain a first multiplied signal; multiplying a second reference signal, being phase-locked to, and having a frequency twice as high as, the sine wave address signal, and the second address signal together to obtain a second multiplied signal; integrating the first, multiplied signal and the second multiplied signal separately to obtain a first integral and a second integral, respectively; and adding the first and second integrals together.

Abstract: A write-once optical disc, and a method and apparatus for recording management information on the write-once optical disc, are provided. The optical disc includes at least one recording layer, and at least one SRR entry. Each SRR entry corresponds to an SRR and includes at least one status field for indicating a recording status of the corresponding SRR. The status field includes a session start flag for indicating whether the corresponding SRR is a start of a session, the session being formed by a group of the SRRs. Each SRR entry further includes a start address field indicating where the corresponding SRR starts, and a last address field indicating the last recorded address of the corresponding SRR.

Abstract: An optical disk medium includes a track groove thereon. On the optical disk medium, information is recorded along the track groove on a block unit basis. The block unit has a predetermined length. The block unit having the predetermined length includes a number of sub-blocks that are arranged along the groove. A sub-block mark is provided within each of the sub-blocks and used to identify the sub-block.

Abstract: An optical disk having an increased data storage capacity and accessible randomly, the positional shift of which can be quickly detected. An optical disk access device and access method are also disclosed. The optical disk (1) has a track (T1) constructed of two kinds of the first sector (S1) having an ID portion (12) and succeeding sectors (S2) having only a sector mark portion (13), and sector marks of the tracks are different from one another. The data area is increased by compressing the ID portion, and the different marks of the tracks enable quick detection of access positional shift.

Abstract: There are provided a wobble signal reading unit configured to read a signal corresponding to a wobble formed at a predetermined track from an optical disk on which address information is recorded by applying phase modulation to the wobble formed at the track, an address information reproducing unit configured to reproduce the address information by applying phase detecting processing to the wobble signal read at the wobble signal reading unit, and binarizing an amplitude of an obtained phase detection signal by being compared with a predetermined threshold value, and a correcting unit configured to correct asymmetry of the amplitude generated in the phase detection signal obtained by the address information reproducing unit with respect to the predetermined threshold value at the time of reading the wobble signal from the predetermined track by the wobble signal reading unit.

Abstract: An optical recording medium and method of formatting the optical recording medium is disclosed. In the present invention, the location information of the supplementary spare area, if assigned, is reset when the optical recording medium is formatted. The resetting of the location information results in consistency between a file system and a driver of the optical recording medium with respect to the supplementary spare area.

Abstract: The present invention is made to improve the conventional analog processing that is easily affected by variations in semiconductor processing. This invention provides a wobble signal processing apparatus that can reduce the circuit scale and the power consumption as well as improve the quality of signal processing. The wobble signal processing apparatus of the present invention digitally processes a part that has conventionally been processed by an analog system, and a PRML circuit is further provided to implement error detection, whereby the circuit scale and the power consumption is reduced. This improves the detection of a signal that is inputted to the wobble signal processing apparatus.

Abstract: At the time of heterodyne detection, information is reproduced constantly in the optimum condition. A method reproduces information recording medium including a reference wobble block which has a first wobble pattern representing a first information content; and an information wobble block which follows the reference wobble block and which has at least one of the first wobble pattern and a second wobble pattern representing a second information and different from the first wobble pattern. The method includes reading the reference wobble block and the information wobble block; comparing a wobble pattern read from the information wobble block with the first wobble pattern of the reference wobble block; judging that information recorded in the information wobble block is the first information or the second information according to the wobble pattern read from the information wobble block; and outputting one of the first and the second information based on the judging result.

Abstract: A high-definition optical disk device for recording and reproducing data with respect to lands and grooves of an optical disk. The grooves and the lands of the optical disk are wobbled, and address information is embedded in gray code. In the grooves and the lands, both groove track address systems and land track address systems are embedded and form redundant systems. When detecting the address of a land, in addition to demodulation of the address data from the land track address system, the address data is also extracted from the groove track address system. The address data thus extracted is used for verification to detect an error in the demodulated address data.

Abstract: An optical disc having track grooves formed in a radial direction of the disc, and with the disc being divided into a plurality of zones, wherein track grooves are formatted into waved patterns, based on a predetermined modulation rule, in the radial direction of the disc to record zone address information for each of the divided zones. The waved pattern may overlap over recorded user data. Each zone has a recording capacity in which an arbitrary recording capacity is added to a data recording capacity needed for each divided zone.

Abstract: An optical medium storage device improves the usable life of re-writable optical storage mediums, such CD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM disks, by adjusting write parameters to compensate for time between an initial write on the optical storage medium and the current time, with adjusted write parameters fine-tuning signal-to-noise ratios and improving the number of reliable overwrites for the optical storage medium.

Abstract: Disclosed is a disk-like recording medium, a disk recording apparatus and a disk recording method, and a disk playback apparatus and a disk playback method. Disk ID is recorded over a circle of a burst cutting area on an optical disk. The circle is divided into n blocks, each of the blocks is divided into m frames, and ID information is recorded in each of the frames with k channel bits.

Abstract: An apparatus and method detecting synchronization of address in pre-groove (ADIP), allowing an optical storage device to write data to an accurate location of a disc includes a bit synchronization detecting unit and a word synchronization detecting unit. The bit synchronization detecting unit determines synchronization of bits of the ADIP to be in a bit synchronization locked state when synchronization of raw bits is detected within a bit synchronization window having a first predetermined period a first predetermined number of consecutive times. The word synchronization detecting unit determines synchronization of words of the ADIP to be in a word synchronization locked state when synchronization of raw words is detected within a word synchronization window having a second predetermined period the first predetermined number of consecutive times.

Abstract: In a read-in area on the ROM disc, there are two control-data areas, and the Disc Information recorded in each control-data area comprises a error correction code (ECC (Error Correcting Code) block that has the same contents times, and the control-data area where reproduction-control data is recorded is separated from the other control-data area by a distance greater than the width than the width in the radial direction of the largest black dot.

Abstract: In step S1, the address generator generates address information composed of a sync signal which is recorded on an optical disc, address data and an error correction code for the address data, pre-encodes and supplies it to a modulator. At the same time, a carrier signal generator generates a carrier signal which is to carry the address information, and supplies it to the modulator. In step S2, the modulator makes MSK modulation of the carrier signal supplied from the carrier signal generator on the basis of the pre-encoded address information supplied from the address generator, and supplies a resultant MSK modulation signal to a wobbling unit. In step S3, the wobbling unit forms, on the optical disc, a spiral groove wobbled adaptively to the MSK modulation signal supplied from the modulator. In this optical disc, a given address can be accessed quickly and accurately.

Abstract: An ADIP (address in pre-groove) signal detection circuit is capable of correctly and quickly detecting discontinuous points in a wobble signal, and has a simple configuration in a wobble detection system of an optical disc device such as a DVD+R/RW, and an ADIP signal detection method thereof. The ADIP signal detection circuit performing the ADIP signal detection method includes one or two window comparators, two edge detection circuits each consisting of an exclusive OR circuit and an AND circuit, and two discontinuous point determination circuits each consisting of a flip-flop and a counter. Therefore, the ADIP signal detection circuit has a simple configuration so that it can be easily implemented. Also, since the ADIP signal detection circuit has a fast operation speed, the ADIP signal detection circuit detects discontinuous points correctly and quickly.

Abstract: A method of controlling recording of data with respect to each track of a once-writable optical disc, includes: detecting whether a shock error occurs during recording of track information; if the shock error is detected, stopping the recording of the track information and estimating a position where the recording of the track information has stopped; recording dummy data from a backward position behind the estimated position as much as a predetermined period of time, for a predetermined period of time; and defining an error track from a start position of a track to a position where the recording of the dummy data has ended.

Abstract: A DVD audio data structure following high-sound-quality specifications is realized, making the best use of the audio data structure standard in DVD video. A first sample data string created by digitizing a first channel audio signal at a first sampling frequency in a first number of quantization bits, a second sample data string created by digitizing a second channel audio signal at a second sampling frequency in a second number of quantization bits, and header data including timing data to synchronize the first sample data string with the second sample data string are recorded on a recording medium.

Abstract: When encoded data is divided every predetermined length, a header is added, the data is packetized, a header is further added to thereby form pack data, and the data is recorded onto a recording medium which is divided into sectors and can be accessed on said sector unit basis, encode units are stuffed and recorded into each packet and a position of a complete encode unit existing at the head of the sector is indicated by a pointer. If the pointer is used, the position of the encode unit serving as a complete encode unit is known, so that the decoding can be immediately started from the head of the encode unit. A length up to the head of the complete encode unit can be specified by the sector number if the encode unit is determined by a fixed length.

Abstract: An information recording apparatus encodes distributed information, which is inputted via a network, in an encoding scheme for allowing decode by a plurality of types of players to obtain encoded distributed information, and when the distributed information is distributed including reproduction control information, the apparatus generates applicable reproduction control information for controlling reproduction aspects on actual reproduction based on the reproduction control information so as to record the applicable reproduction control information and encoded distributed information on an optical disk DK. Furthermore, when the distributed information is recorded, the apparatus records attribute information indicating that together with the encoded distributed information.

Abstract: A method for recording address information to an optical disc (5) by forming a wobbled groove is provided. The method includes steps S1 to S3. In step S1, there is generated address information composed of a sync signal, address data and an error correction code for the address data. In step S2, a carrier signal is multiplied by the address information to generate a phase modulation signal. In step S3, there is formed on the optical disc (5) a spiral groove wobbled adaptively to the phase modulation signal.

Abstract: A controller for an optical disk drive includes a modulator configured to modulate a record data to be recorded on a optical disk based on a record clock that is a reference clock in recording, and to generate a modulation data and an address information of the modulation data. A prepit decoder is configured to generate a prepit clock from a prepit signal detected from the optical disk, and a decision circuit is configured to determine whether or not recording in accordance with a standard is performed, from phase characteristic based on the address information and the prepit clock, and to control a frequency of the record clock.

Abstract: The disk recording apparatus and method are arranged to specify a recording address and a recording position on an optical disk with a wobble PM (phase modulation) format through the use of a wobble reproduced signal and a track reproduced signal. The recording apparatus operates to detect address information and a synchronous signal on the optical disk that correspond with the wobble reproduced signal and the track reproduced signal sent from the optical disk respectively. Then, the address information required for specifying a disk recording track and the synchronizing timing required for specifying a linking position are selected from the detected states.

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.

Abstract: The present invention provides an information recording method and an information recording apparatus, which are capable of recording reproduction controlling information in information recording medium such as DVD. An operation portion designates a division timing in the audio information in case of dividing continuous audio information to record it in the DVD. A pickup records the audio information before the designated division timing and the audio information after the designated division timing in the DVD. A system controller repeats generating object recording sequence information in associated with the audio information before and after the division timing, respectively, to record them in the DVD every time when the division timing is designated.

Abstract: An information recording apparatus is provided with: a receiving device for receiving record information of a first format; a converting device for converting the first format of the received record information into a second format that is different from the first format; and a recording device for recording the record information of the second format on a recording medium.

Abstract: A pre-pit signal decoder includes a shift register, a pattern comparator, a counting unit, an in-sync signal generating unit and a protection unit. The register receives serial pre-pit bits and converts them into a parallel pre-pit byte. The comparator generates an odd sync bit, an even sync bit, a low bit, and a high bit according to the pre-pit byte and receives a disable signal to operate when the disable signal is not enabled. The counting unit generates a counting value, which marks oddness/evenness of frames of the pre-pit bits and sequence of wobble signals in the frames, according to the odd sync, even sync, low and high bits. The signal generating unit generates an in-sync signal according to the odd sync, even sync, low, and high bits. The protection unit receives the counting value and the in-sync signal to thereby enable the disable signal at positions where the pre-pit bits impossibly exist according to the counting value.

Abstract: A method of identifying a mechanically readable medium is described. The medium, for instance a gramophone record, a magnetic tape or a celluloid film, contains information which is contained in a continuous sequence on the medium and is intended for optical or acoustic reproduction. A sequence of markings which individualizes the medium, and which can be read out together with the acoustic or optical information, is formed in the area of this acoustic or optical information.

Abstract: A wobbling signal demodulation method is disclosed that is capable of fast and precisely demodulating a wobbling signal without increasing cost of the circuit. The wobbling signal is obtained based on light reflected from a recording surface of an optical disk having a wobbling track formed thereon, and includes a carrier portion having a predetermined basic period and a phase demodulated wave portion including predetermined information.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for providing digital quality transmission of audio and non-audio information using low cost components and arrangement. The present invention provides for the transmission of the audio and non-audio transmission by first converting the data to conform to the CD standard format and conditioning the converted signal to thereby generate a conditioned EFM signal. The conditioned EFM signal is used to frequency modulate a carrier. By converting the audio and non-audio information to conform to the CD standard format, the present method provides a low cost means of transmitting the data with error detection and correction. Another aspect of the present invention relates to embedding the non-audio information in the SUBCODE block of the data frame according to the CD standard. The non-audio information may be unrelated to the audio information, and the audio and non-audio information may be transmitted to separate devices.

Abstract: In a disc drive device (10) described as a specific embodiment of the present invention, AC0 to AC12 of ADIP cluster address are associated with AU6 to AU18 of an address unit. A high-order digit of a sector address that has a value of 0 in the case of a former-half cluster (sectors FC to 0D) and 1 in the case of a latter-half cluster (sectors 0E to 1F) is associated with AU5. An address bit ABLG for identifying recording areas of a disc having plural recording areas for land/groove recording or the like is set at 0. These bits of Au to AU18 and ABLG are associated with 15 bits s0 to s14 from the lower side of a 16-bit shift register for generating a pseudo-random number. Moreover, 1 is associated with the most significant bit s15. Thus, the error correction capability for high-density recording data can be improved.

Abstract: The present invention provides an optical recording medium capable of detecting groove start signals and groove end signals with an inexpensive detection circuit and allowing quick, stable clock detection and tracking pull-in, which optical recording medium is constructed in such a way that the depth DG of the grooves satisfies DG/(?/N)<0.16, where ? is a wavelength of a light beam and N is an index of refraction of a substrate, and that the distance Ls between the groove edge and the pit closest thereto satisfies Ls>1.2 FWHM, where FWHM is a full width at half maximum of the light beam in the track direction.

Abstract: An optical disk physical has a recording region divided into zones, each zone including physical tracks adjacent to each other. An integer number of sectors are provided in each physical track. The angular recording density is higher in the more outward zones such that the linear recording density is substantially constant throughout the recording region, and logical tracks are formed of a predetermined number of sectors, independent of the physical tracks. The conversion between the logical track and sector addresses read from the disk and the linear logical addresses supplied from a host device is easy. The addresses written in headers of the sectors in the logical track in which data are actually recorded, including substitute sectors used in place of defect sectors, are preferably consecutive to further facilitate the conversion between the logical track and sector addresses read from the disk and the linear logical addresses supplied from the host device.

Abstract: Conventionally, as in the case of switching between a DVD-R and a DVD-RAM, when the method of record mark arrangement in a track is changed, the physical format of the disk is also changed. This makes it difficult to ensure compatibility between pieces of data recorded by a plurality of different methods of record mark arrangement. According to the present invention, sector address data and block address data are recorded in each sector by using wobbling or deformation of a recording groove. Then, depending on which address is used, sector data structure is modified, thereby making it possible to select an address data detection and a data structure on a disk in a single physical format depending on the purpose.

Abstract: There is provided an optical disc having preformed thereon a spiral wobbled track as a grove and/or land along with data is to be recorded. The track is wobbled for a series of predetermined signal units each composed of an FSK information bit part based on a waveform resulted from FSK modulation of information bit and a singe-frequency part based on a waveform of a single frequency. The FSK modulation uses two different frequencies of which the one is the same as the single frequency and the other is different from the single frequency. These different frequencies are in such a relation that each of them has an even number of wobbles and an odd number of wobbles alternately in a predetermined cycle.

Abstract: Disclosed is a disk-like recording medium, a disk recording apparatus and a disk recording method, and a disk playback apparatus and a disk playback method. Disk ID is recorded over a circle of a burst cutting area on an optical disk. The circle is divided into n blocks, each of the blocks is divided into m frames, and ID information is recorded in each of the frames with k channel bits.

Abstract: The present invention writes location information on representative audio sections, each being specified within an audio track by a user, for audio tracks recorded in a high-capacity storage medium, and, if requested, reproduces representative audio sections only using the written location information, thereby helping a user find a desirable audio track easily and quickly among a lot of recorded audio tracks.

Abstract: For mapping sampled digital audio information onto a linear physical mapping space that is partitioned in a string of uniform-sized blocks, in particular, for variable-rate coded audio information that is distributed over successive audio units which are each composed from one or more audio packets, each block is supplemented with a block header for indicating an actual content of the block in question with respect to any constituent packet of the audio information.

Abstract: On a data recording medium which is divided into sectors and can be accessed on the sector unit basis, when encoded data is divided every predetermined length, a header is added, the data is packetized, a header is further added to the packet to thereby form the pack data, and the resultant data is recorded, if the stuffing is necessary, the stuffing data is inserted to the last of a data area of the packet. Thus, a length of pack header can be fixed. There is no need to provide a padding packet. A situation such that a PES header is encrypted is prevented and no problem occurs when encryption is performed.

Abstract: An information recording apparatus includes a pickup which irradiates a recording light to a disc on which prepits are formed and which outputs return light quantity data, a period determination circuit which determines a data obtaining period in which return light quantity is not affected by the prepit, a sample-hold circuit which obtains the return light quantity in the data obtaining period, and a microcomputer which controls a recording power based on the return light quantity data. The microcomputer obtains the return light quantity data in the data obtaining period in which the return light quantity is not affected by the prepit, and executes control including the recording power control based on the return light quantity data. As a sample-hold circuit detects a pit level and the like in a 9T to 11T period which is hardly affected by the LPP and controls the recording power based on the result, proper recording power control can be executed.

Abstract: A recording medium is provided, which maximizes the recording capacity and simplifies the configuration of an information recording/reproducing apparatus including a pickup. In the medium, different types of wobbling signals are preformatted in each of the adjacent land and groove signal tracks. A same-phase wobbling signal provided by wobbling each side of the respective land and groove signal tracks in the same phase, and a different-phase wobbling signal provided by wobbling each side of the respective land and groove signal tracks in a different phase are used as the different types of wobbling signals. The physical positions of all the land and groove signal tracks are indicated by the same-phase wobbling signal.

Abstract: An optical disk having an increased data storage capacity and accessible randomly, the positional shift of which can be quickly detected. An optical disk access device and access method are also disclosed. The optical disk (1) has a track (T1) constructed of two kinds of the first sector (S1) having an ID portion (12) and succeeding sectors (S2) having only a sector mark portion (13), and sector marks of the tracks are different from one another. The data area is increased by compressing the ID portion, and the different marks of the tracks enable quick detection of access positional shift.