Sony Corporation

Mitsutoshi Terada

Shoei Kobayashi

Tomotaka Kuraoka

Yoshikazu Takashima

The present invention allows the usability of a write-once recording medium to be enhanced. The write-once recording medium is provided with an ordinary recording/reproduction area, an alternate area, a first alternate-address management information area (DMA) and a second alternate-address management information area (TDMA). In addition, written/unwritten state indication information (a space bitmap) is also recorded. The second alternate-address management information area is an area allowing alternate-address management information recorded therein to be renewed by adding alternate-address management information thereto. In addition, the written/unwritten state indication information indicates whether or not data has been recorded in each data unit (cluster) on the recording medium. Thus, it is possible to correctly execute management of defects and properly implement renewal of data in the write-once recording medium.

Recording medium, recording apparatus, reproduction apparatus, recording method and reproduction method

In a write-once media, by using a selected area such as an area starting from a postscript-recording point in the main data area as an alternate area, by determining whether or not an address specified in a request such as a write request is an address at which data has been recorded on the basis of information on a sequential recording range and by recording pieces of alternate-address management information for replacing defective locations on the media and for renewing data recorded on the media in a table by letting the pieces of information coexist in the table, defective locations on the media can be replaced with other locations and data already recorded on the media can thus be renewed even without providing pre-allocated alternate area on the media. In addition, if the media is provided with an alternate area and the alternate area becomes insufficient for alternate-address processing, a selected region in the main data area can be used as a region supplementary to the insufficient alternate area. An example of the region is an area starting from a postscript-recording point mentioned above.

An information-recording apparatus is disclosed wherein FSes can be optimized. The information-recording apparatus includes an FS extraction section for extracting a plurality of FSes from a plurality of FS-recording areas on a recording medium; an FS synthesis section for synthesizing the FSes extracted by the FS extraction section into one FS; and an FS-recording section for recording the FS produced by the FS synthesis section as a result of synthesis into a new area on the recording medium.

Information-recording apparatus, information-recording method, program storage medium and program

An information-recording apparatus is disclosed wherein an area to be allocated to a new FS can be set when an area allocated to FSes has been all consumed. The information-recording apparatus includes a track division means. When a track set on a recording medium as a track allocated to FSes no longer has a free area, on the basis of a command, the track division means divides a track allocated on the recording medium in advance to files into an area to be used as a track allocated to FSes and an area to be used as a track allocated to files.

The present invention enhances the usability of a write-once recording medium having a plurality of recording layers. The write-once recording medium has a plurality of recording layers each including a regular recording reproduction area, an alternate area, a first alternate-address management information area and a second alternate-address management information area (a TDMA). In addition, written unwritten state indication information (a space bitmap) is recorded therein. Typically, the written unwritten state indication information is recorded in the second alternate-address management information area. By additionally recording alternate-address management information related to an alternate-address process in the second alternate-address management information area, the second alternate-address management information area can be used as an area for implementing renewal of the alternate-address management information. In addition, for every data unit (each cluster) on each of the recording layers on the write-once recording medium, written unwritten state indication information is used as information indicating whether or not data has been written into the data unit. On top of that, the second alternate-address management information areas (TDMAs), which are each provided on one of recording layers, are used sequentially one after another each as an area for updating alternate-address management information and written unwritten state indication information.

In a write-once recording medium, an optimum updating of the management information and a simple matching processing are to be achieved. To this end, in a system of a write-once medium, rendered accessible at random by employing the write/non-write indicating information, the management information, including a space bitmap and the last recording position information (LRA) indicating the last position of the recorded user data, is updated on the disc responsive to the generation or extinction of a gap (unrecorded area) in a region ahead of the LRA. The state of matching between the management information on the disc and the recording state of the user data is confirmed, responsive to the updating of the management information on the disc by the generation or extinction of the gap in the management information, by detecting whether or not the gap in the management information (gap indicated by the space bitmap) or the LRA is coincident with the gap or the LRA on the actual disc. Lacking the matching, the management information is updated to match the space bitmap or the LRA.

Recording and/or reproducing method and apparatus

A recording medium that is a write-once recording medium with data rewritability, thereby increasing the usability of the write-once recording medium, is provided. In a write-once recording medium, a main data area has a normal record and playback sub-area (a user data section), a rewriting replacement sub-area (an OSA), and a replacement management sub-area (an ISA). In response to a request to write data to an address at which data has been recorded, the rewritten data is recorded in the rewriting replacement sub-area (the OSA), and replacement management information that associates the original address with the address in the rewriting replacement sub-area is recorded into the replacement management sub-area (the ISA). Thus, data rewriting is achieved. Accordingly, a write-once recording medium can be substantially used as a data rewritable recording medium.

Write-once recording medium on which portion of the data is logically overwritten

In order to enhance the usability of a write-once recording medium, the recording medium is provided with an ordinary recording/reproduction area, an alternate area, a first alternate-address management information area and a second alternate-address management information area. In addition, written/unwritten state indication information is recorded in a predetermined area. The second alternate-address management information area is an area allowing alternate-address management information recorded therein to be renewed by adding alternate-address management information to the area. Alternate-address management information recorded in the second alternate-address management information area includes information recorded in a first information format and information recorded in a second information format. The first information format shows an alternate source address and an alternate destination address for each data unit. On the other hand, the second information format shows an alternate source address and an alternate destination address for a group of a plurality of physically continuous data units. The second information format is used as a format for effectively carrying out an alternate-address process on such a group of data units. All alternate-address management information is recorded in the first alternate-address management information area in the first information format.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Mitsutoshi Terada