JPH09219053A - Medium reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten the time from medium insertion until it becomes actually readable by gaining ungained medium information from a storage part for a medium information database. SOLUTION: The medium information read in a medium information storage part 13 is simultaneously recorded also on the storage part 14 for the medium information database by a control part 12. When an optional medium 16 is inserted into a read-in device 15, the device 15 reads the initial read-in area of the medium 16. Then, at the point of time that the information capable of discriminating a medium is gained, whether or not the medium information exists in the storage part 14 is confirmed. When the existence is confirmed, the medium information is transferred from the storage part 14 to the storage part 13. Thus, the reduction of mechanical operation such as reading from the medium 16 is expected, and the time from the medium insertion until it becomes really readable is shortened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a medium reproducing apparatus for reproducing data recorded on a medium such as a CD-ROM, and more particularly to a medium reproducing apparatus for reproducing a write-once medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 8, a conventional medium reproducing apparatus 51 generally comprises a control section 52, a medium information storage section 53, and a reading section 54. Music CD in the reading section 54
When an arbitrary medium 55 such as a CD-ROM or the like is inserted, the control unit 52 gives an instruction to the reading unit 54, acquires medium information from the medium, and transfers it to the medium information storage unit 53.

Thereafter, the information in the medium information storage section 53 is held until the medium is exchanged or the power is turned off, and it is referred to for reading the information in the medium.
Therefore, in the example shown in FIG. 8, normal reproduction processing cannot be performed until the acquisition of the medium information is completed.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 01-271968 discloses a method in which a plurality of media are loaded in a cartridge and used. This is a method of storing the medium information of a plurality of mediums loaded in the cartridge to speed up the time until the start of reproduction.

[0005]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention
According to the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1968, if only the medium in the cartridge is used, the time until the reading (reproduction) can be actually performed becomes shorter than the medium exchange, but the medium is exchanged from the cartridge. Since the medium information is initialized at the point of time when the medium is exchanged, the time required to start reproduction cannot be shortened when the medium is exchanged.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 04-205967 discloses a method of incorporating a directory structure (file arrangement structure) of a CD-ROM medium into a buffer. This is only related to the step of accessing the file in the inserted medium, and at the time of inserting the medium, there is no difference from the conventional device. Further, since the buffer is initialized when the medium is exchanged, it is not possible to shorten the time required for medium exchange.

As described above, in the conventional example, there is a disadvantage that it takes time from the time when the medium is inserted into the medium reproducing device to the time when the medium is actually readable. Especially in the case of the write-once type, this time will be longer. This means that even if the user inserts the used medium, the medium cannot be used immediately and the user must wait.

The reason is that medium information such as track information that is different for each medium is recorded on each medium, and normal reproduction operation can be performed only after reading this medium information. Therefore, in order to make an arbitrary medium usable, the medium reproducing apparatus always reads the medium when inserting the medium and acquires all the medium information from the medium.
This operation takes time because it involves mechanical operations such as focus operation and servo operation.

In particular, in the case of the write-once type, since the medium information is added for each recording, if the medium is recorded a plurality of times, the operation is performed for that number of times. As a result, the medium is recorded. It will take more time from the insertion of to the actual readability.

[0010]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a medium reproducing apparatus capable of improving the disadvantages of the conventional example, and particularly shortening the time from the medium insertion until the medium is actually usable. Is the purpose.

[0011]

Therefore, in the present invention, as a first means, a reading section for reading data recorded on a medium such as a CD-ROM and a medium information read by the reading section are stored. And a control unit that controls the operation of the reading unit according to the medium information recorded in the medium information storage unit. Moreover,
The control unit is provided with a medium information database storage unit that stores a plurality of medium information of a plurality of media together with identification information of the medium. Further, the control unit has a database use function of outputting the medium information corresponding to the identification information stored in the medium information database storage unit to the medium information storage unit when the reading unit reads the medium identification information. It is equipped with the structure.

Originally, the medium information is obtained from the medium by the medium reproducing device accompanied with mechanical operations such as focus operation and servo operation when the medium is inserted. However, in the first means, a non-volatile medium information database storage unit for newly storing medium information is prepared in the medium reproducing device, and this storage unit stores the medium information read out before the previous time. I keep it. Therefore, after the medium is inserted,
When the medium information can be replaced by the information in the storage device, the use of the information in the storage device reduces the mechanical operation steps.

By using the database utilization function to obtain unobtained medium information from the medium information database storage unit, mechanical operations such as focus operation and servo operation that occur when acquiring from the medium are reduced. As a result, the time from the insertion of the medium to the actual reading becomes shorter.

The present invention aims to achieve the above-mentioned object by each of these means.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a medium reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. The medium reproducing apparatus includes a reading unit 15 that reads data recorded on a medium 16 such as a CD-ROM, and a medium information storage unit 13 that stores the medium information read by the reading unit 15.
And a control unit 12 for controlling the operation of the reading unit 15 according to the medium information recorded in the medium information storage unit 13.

Moreover, the control unit 12 is additionally provided with a medium information database storage unit 14 for storing a plurality of medium information of a plurality of media together with identification information of the medium.

Further, as shown in FIG.
Is a database utilization function 12A for outputting medium information according to the identification information stored in the medium information database storage unit 14 to the medium information storage unit 13 when the reading unit 15 reads out the identification information of the medium 16. Is equipped with.

The control unit 12 updates the medium information stored in the medium information storage unit 13 with the identification information of the medium in the medium information database storage unit 14 every time the medium information of the medium 16 is changed. The update function 12B is provided.

Further, the control unit 12 reads the additionally recorded portion for controlling to retrieve a newly additionally recorded portion on the medium 16 based on the medium information output from the medium information database storage unit 14 to the medium information storage unit 13. Control function 12C
It has.

This will be described in detail.

The configuration of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 has a medium information database storage section newly added to the configuration shown in FIG. The medium information read into the medium information storage unit 13 is simultaneously recorded in the medium information database storage unit 14 by the control unit 12. The medium information database storage unit is non-volatile, and
Media information for a plurality of media is stored.

When the arbitrary medium 16 is inserted into the reading device 15, the reading section 15 first reads the first lead-in area on the medium 16. Then, when the information that allows the medium to be identified is acquired, the medium information of the inserted medium 16 is stored in the medium information database storage unit 1.
Check whether it exists in 4. When the presence is confirmed, the medium information is not acquired from the medium 16 via the reading unit 15 and transferred to the medium information storage unit 13, but rather from the medium information database storage unit 14 to the medium information storage unit 13.
Transfer to

As a result, the mechanical operation of reading from the medium 16 is expected to decrease, and the time from the insertion of the medium to the actual reading of the medium can be shortened.

When the inserted medium 16 is in the form of a write-once medium, there is a possibility that there are a plurality of lead-in areas, so normally all the lead-in areas are required to obtain the medium information. Need to be sequentially searched, and then the information needs to be read. When the information of the write-once medium 16 inserted in the reading unit 15 exists in the medium information database storage unit 14, the information of the medium information database storage unit 14 is transferred to the medium storage unit 13, and the medium information is transferred. On the other hand, whether or not there is a newly added portion is searched from the medium.

As a result, it is possible to reduce the portion that involves mechanical operation as compared with the case where all medium information is read. In this case, the time from the medium insertion until the actual read becomes possible. Greatly reduced against.

Next, the operation of the medium reproducing apparatus will be described with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS. FIG.
The outline of the processing procedure for shortening the time taken from when the medium is inserted until the medium becomes actually readable is shown. The processing contents of (step S25) and (step S26) in the outline of the processing procedure are shown in FIGS.

First, the power is turned on, or the medium 16
Is inserted (step S21). It is detected whether or not the medium is actually inserted (step S22), and if there is no medium, this processing ends there.

When the medium 16 is present, the medium information of the medium is present in the medium information database storage unit 14 when the information capable of discriminating the medium is obtained by reading the lead-in area at the head of the medium. It is searched whether or not (step S23).

If the medium information exists (step S24), the transfer of the medium information from the medium information database storage unit 14 to the medium information storage unit 13 is mainly ended (step S25).

On the other hand, if it is confirmed that the medium information does not exist (step S24), the medium information is read from the medium 16 as in the conventional case, and the medium information is created in the medium information storage unit 13 (step S26). The medium information created here is also transferred to the medium information database storage unit 15 that can manage the medium information as a database (step S27), and is prepared for the next time and thereafter (database updating function 12B).

FIG. 4 shows the processing within (step S25) in FIG.

First, the medium information about the inserted medium 16 is transferred from the medium information database storage unit 14 to the medium information storage unit 13 (step S31). If this medium 16 is the same as the medium 16 included immediately before, it is considered unlikely that additional recording will be performed even if it is a write-once medium (step S32). The step S25) is ended.

If the medium is not the one immediately before it, it is confirmed whether or not there is information indicating the medium position at which recording is possible next at the end of the medium information (step S33). If there is no information indicating the position of the additionally recordable medium, it is not possible to additionally record even the ordinary medium or the additionally recordable medium, and there is no additional matter in the medium information, so this processing part (step S25) is ended.

When the information indicating the position of the recordable medium exists, it indicates that the recordable medium is a recordable part and therefore whether or not there is a recordable part is searched. (Step S34). At this time, the additional write portion is searched based on the data already stored in the medium information database storage unit 14 (the additional write portion read control function 12C).

In the search by the additional write portion read control function, all lead-in areas created for each recording are searched from the lead-in area at the beginning, and different from the conventional processing, which is already stored as medium information. Alternatively, it is not necessary to detect a portion that has been additionally written in the past, and it is only necessary to detect a portion that has been additionally written as compared to the portion that has medium information. You can

When the additional write portion is not detected in the detection operation of step S3), this processing portion (step S2)
5) is ended. On the other hand, when the additional write portion is detected by the detection operation of (step S34), the medium information is acquired based on the lead-in area of the additional write portion (step S36).

Next, steps S33, S34 and S3
The process of S5 and S36 is repeated until the newly added portion does not exist, and the finally updated medium information is transferred to the storage unit for medium information database to prepare for the next use (step S37, database update). function).

FIG. 5 shows the processing within (step S26) in FIG.

This process is a process performed by the current medium reproducing apparatus. The process in (step S26) is executed starting from the information of the lead-in area read in step S23.

First, the process is branched depending on whether or not the information indicating the additionally recordable medium position exists in the last portion of the medium information obtained from the lead-in area obtained up to that point (step S41). . If the information indicating the recordable medium position does not exist, there is nothing recorded in the subsequent part, so this processing part (step S2).
6) can be ended.

On the other hand, the information indicating the position of the recordable medium is
If it exists in the last part of the medium information obtained from the lead-in area acquired up to that point, it indicates that there is a write-once medium and there is a write-once part, so it was added. Since it is necessary to search whether or not there is a portion, the search is performed as in the conventional process (step S4).
2).

If the additional write portion is not detected in the detecting operation in step S42, this processing portion (step S
26) can be ended. On the other hand, when the additional write portion is detected, the medium information is acquired based on the lead-in area of the additional write portion (step S44).

Thereafter, steps S41, S42, S43,
The process of S44 is repeated until the additionally written portion does not exist.

As described above, according to this embodiment, it is possible to shorten the time from the insertion of the medium to the actual reading of the medium. This can improve the requirement for unnecessary waiting time for the user.

The reason is that the operation time is shorter in the case of acquiring the information from the storage device than in the case of the conventional information acquisition involving the mechanical operation of reading from the medium state. Normally, it is necessary to read the lead-in area at the beginning of the inserted medium, so it is not necessary to read from the medium at all, but particularly in the write-once medium, many reading operations need to be performed. Because it will disappear.

Next, an embodiment in which the medium exchange detector 17 is added will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

Although the configuration and processing procedure are almost the same as those of the medium reproducing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the reading section 5 is used in the example shown in FIG.
The medium exchange detection unit 17 is set in the region of 5.

The medium exchange detection unit 17 is a device capable of detecting whether or not a medium may have been exchanged while the power was cut off. The presence of the medium exchange detection unit 17 enables the determination of exchange (or possibility of exchange) of the medium 56 during power-off when the power is turned on. Therefore, in the device configuration shown in FIG. 1, before reading the lead-in area at the head, which is required in the process of FIG. 3 (step S23), the medium information database storage device 54 is stored in the medium information storage unit 53. It is possible to transfer the medium information of the medium inserted immediately before the power is cut off.

As a result, when the power is turned on, the time until the medium is actually ready to be read is currently required, which is accompanied by means for sequentially acquiring the medium information from the lead-in area at the beginning, and in FIG. Even in the method shown, even the reading of the lead-in area at the beginning, which is required, can be omitted, so that it can be performed in an extremely short time.

As described above, in this embodiment, by using the medium exchange detector, it is possible to greatly reduce the time until the medium inserted immediately after the power is turned on can be read. The reason for this is that if it is possible to determine that the medium has not been replaced during power shutdown, it is possible to transfer the medium information stored in the storage device immediately before power shutdown to the medium information storage unit immediately after power on. This is because the medium information can be created in the medium information storage unit without reading the inserted medium at all.

[0051]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to this, the medium information database storage unit stores a plurality of medium information of a plurality of media together with identification information of the medium, Since the control unit outputs the medium information corresponding to the identification information stored in the medium information database storage unit to the medium information storage unit when the medium identification information is read by the reading unit, It is possible to obtain the medium information used for controlling the reading operation of the medium without reading from the medium, and therefore, a part of the mechanical operation of reading the medium information becomes unnecessary,
Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time from the insertion of the medium until the medium is actually readable.
It is possible to provide an excellent medium reproducing apparatus that has not been available so far, which can improve the requirement of the user for the unnecessary waiting time. The reason is that the operation time is shorter when the information is acquired from the medium information database storage unit than when the information is conventionally acquired by mechanical operation of reading from the medium state. Normally, it is necessary to read the lead-in area at the beginning of the inserted medium, so it is not necessary to read from the medium at all, but particularly in the write-once medium, many reading operations need to be performed. Because it will disappear.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a control unit shown in FIG.

3 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of acquiring medium information having the configuration shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing details of step S25 (obtaining medium information from a database) shown in FIG.

5 is a flowchart showing details of step S26 (obtaining medium information from a medium) shown in FIG.

6 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which a medium exchange detecting unit is added to the medium reproducing device shown in FIG.

7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional medium reproducing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 medium reproducing apparatus 12 control section 13 medium information storage section 14 medium information database storage section 15 reading section 16 medium 17 medium exchange detection section

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A reading unit for reading data recorded on a medium such as a CD-ROM, a medium information storage unit for storing medium information read by the reading unit, and a medium information storage unit for recording the medium information. In a medium reproducing device including a control unit that controls the operation of the reading unit according to medium information, a medium information database storage that stores a plurality of medium information of a plurality of the medium in the control unit together with identification information of the medium. And the control unit controls the medium information storage unit to store the medium information according to the identification information stored in the medium information database storage unit when the medium identification information is read by the reading unit. A medium reproducing apparatus having a database use function for outputting to a unit. 2. A database in which the control unit updates the medium information stored in the medium information storage unit with the identification information of the medium in the storage unit for medium information database every time the medium information of the medium is changed. The medium reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an updating function. 3. A write-once portion read control for controlling the control unit to search for a newly added portion on the medium based on the medium information output from the medium information database storage unit to the medium information storage unit. The medium reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a control function. 4. The read unit is provided with a medium exchange detecting unit for detecting the presence or absence of medium exchange during power interruption, and the control unit determines that the medium has not been exchanged by the medium exchange detecting unit. The medium reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an exchange detection and utilization function for outputting the medium information last stored in the medium information database storage unit to the medium information storage unit when the power is turned on.