Disk recording and reproduction

Claim 2

A disk-shaped recording medium (2) according to claim 1, comprising at least one recording track, and in which said cluster addresses and said sector addresses are prerecorded by radially offsetting at least a portion of the or a recording track.

Claim 3

An optical disk recording apparatus in which data to be recorded on an optical disk (2) are divided into sectors (B0 ... B31) of a predetermined length and are arrayed into clusters (C k , C k+1 ) each comprising a predetermined number of the sectors (B0 ... B31), and in which cluster addresses for specifying the clusters (C k , C k+1 ) and sector addresses for specifying the sectors (B0 ... B31) in each cluster (C k , C k+1 ) are prerecorded on said disk (2), the apparatus comprising: memory means (14) for transiently storing input digital data representing a bit compressed continuous signal; signal processing means (7, 15) for reading said input digital data from said memory means (14) as a plurality of said sectors (B0 ... B31), arraying said input digital data into said clusters (C k , C k+1 ) each comprising a predetermined number of said sectors, appending to connecting portions of said clusters (C k , C k+1 ) cluster-linking sectors (L1 ... L5) and interleaving said digital data in said clusters, wherein said cluster-linking sectors are longer than the interleaving length for said digital data; address reproducing means (3, 5) for reproducing said pre-recorded cluster addresses and said pre-recorded sector addresses from said disk (2); controlling means (7, 6) for controlling the position of recording on said disk (2) based on said cluster addresses and said sector addresses reproduced by said address reproducing means (3, 5); and recording means (3, 16) for recording the digital data from said signal processing means (7, 15) on address positions on said disk specified by said controlling means (7, 6).

Claim 4

An optical disk recording apparatus according to claim 3, comprising: abnormal condition detection means (5) for detecting detracking and/or defocusing during a recording operation, thereby detecting an abnormal condition in the recording operation; resetting controlling means for inhibiting said recording operation when an abnormal condition is detected by said abnormal condition detection means, and for resetting said memory means from said abnormal condition to a normal condition; and memory controlling means (7) for controlling data readout from said memory means (14) by reading a predetermined amount of said data on a cluster-by-cluster basis from said memory means (14) when the volume of said input digital data stored in said memory means (14) exceeds a first preset volume (K) thereby maintaining a writing space more than a second preset volume in said memory means (14); wherein said controlling means (7, 6) controls the position of recording so that said data intermittently read out on a cluster-by-cluster basis from said memory means (14) under control of said memory controlling means (7) are recorded on a recording track of said disk (2) on the basis of said pre-recorded cluster addresses and said sector addresses.

Claim 5

An optical disk recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said second preset volume is sufficient to store that data entered into said memory means (14) during the time taken for restoration from an unrecordable state to a recordable state.

Claim 6

An optical disk recording apparatus according to claim 4 or claim 5, wherein said first preset volume (K) corresponds to the data volume of one of said clusters (C k , C k+1 ).

Claim 7

An optical disk recording apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 6, wherein said cluster-linking sectors (L1 ... L5) comprise dummy data.

Claim 8

An optical disk recording apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 7, wherein each of said sectors corresponds to a block of 98 EFM frames of a compact disk.

Claim 9

An optical disk recording apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 8, further comprising processing means (7) for calculating the recording time available on a disk (2) in response to cluster addresses pre-recorded on said disk (2).

Claim 10

An optical disk reproducing apparatus for use with a disk (2) on which compressed digital data recorded on said disk (2) are divided into sectors (B0 ... B31) of a predetermined length and are arrayed into clusters (C k , C k+1 ) each comprising a predetermined number of the sectors (B0 ... B31), on which cluster-linking sectors (L1 ... L5) longer than the interleaving length of the data are added at connecting portions of neighbouring clusters (C k , C k+1 ), and on which cluster addresses for specifying said clusters (C k , C k+1 ) and sector addresses for specifying said sectors (B0 ... B31) are prerecorded, said apparatus comprising address reproducing means (3, 5) for reproducing said cluster addresses and said sector addresses from said disk; memory means (22) for sequentially storing compressed digital data reproduced from said disk; expanding means (23, 27) for expanding compressed digital data read from said memory means and outputting the expanded data; memory controlling means (7) for monitoring the data volume stored in said memory means (22) for controlling writing to and readout from said memory means (22) so that data writing in said memory means is terminated before an overflow of said memory means occurs and data writing is re-started when the data volume stored in said memory means is less than a predetermined volume (L); and controlling means (7, 6) for controlling the playback position on said disk (2) at the time of re-starting data writing in said memory means (22), on the basis of the cluster addresses and the sector addresses reproduced by said address reproducing means (3, 5), so that data contiguous to data stored in said memory means (22) are reproduced.

Claim 11

An optical disk recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein each of said sectors (B0 ... B31) corresponds to a block (98 EFM frames) of a compact disk.

Claim 12

An optical disk recording apparatus according to claim 10 or claim 11, further comprising processing means for calculating the playback time available on a disk (2) in response to the cluster addresses recorded on said disk (2).