Sony Corporation

Nobuko Fujii

Keiji Kanota

Shunji Okada

Noriyuki Yamamoto

Shinichi Suenaga

An information recording method and apparatus and an information reproducing method and apparatus in which AV data can be recorded or reproduced temporally continuously without producing fragmentation. To this end, the apparatus includes a storage unitat least including a management information region and a user data region made up of plural logical blocks, and a recording unitfor continuously recording information signals from a recording start logical block to a recording end logical block in the user data region of the storage unitand again recording information signals from the recording start logical block.

Information recording method and apparatus, information reproducing method and apparatus

Video data and audio data inputted respectively from a camera system and a microphone are compressed and encoded in a video compressor/expander-encoder/decoder and an audio compressor/expander-encoder/decoder respectively, and then are multiplexed in a multiplexer. Subsequently the multiplexed data are supplied to a hard disk drive via an AV interface, a host bus, an interface adaptor and an interface. Information representing the kind of the data is written in a register. The data supplied to the hard disk drive are recorded in a disk, on the basis of such information, by a method conforming with the data. And in a reproduction mode, the data are reproduced, on the basis of such information, by a method conforming with the data. Thus, the data can be recorded or reproduced efficiently by the relevant method conforming with the kind of the data.

Data recording apparatus and method, data reproducing apparatus and method, data recording/reproducing apparatus and method, and transmission medium

An information recording method and apparatus and an information reproducing method and apparatus in which AV data can be recorded or reproduced temporally continuously without producing fragmentation. To this end, the apparatus includes a storage unit at least including a management information region and a user data region made up of plural logical blocks, and a recording unit for continuously recording information signals from a recording start logical block to a recording end logical block in the user data region of the storage unit and again recording information signals from the recording start logical block.

In an information recording device, variable-speed reproduction by software control is to be enabled. To this end, the information recording device has an HDD for recording an audio/visual digital data stream with a logical sector as an accessing unit, and an AV micro-computer system This AV micro-computer system has, as a recording data unit, a fixed length of the audio/visual digital data stream corresponding to an integer number multiple of a frame length. The AV micro-computer system allocates the recording data unit to a minimum number of the logical sectors that can record the recording data unit in its entirety, while stuffing dummy data in the remaining portion of a logical sector of the digital data stream.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Nobuko Fujii