System and method for controlling tracking and seeking in an optical disc drive

Abstract

A control system for controlling tracking and seeking in an optical disc drive for optical media with a pitted premastered area that cannot be overwritten and a grooved user-writeable area that can be overwritten. The control system determines whether an optical pickup unit is over the premastered or the writeable areas of the optical media by measuring peak to peak amplitude of a tracking error signal. Gains and calibration values are selected based on whether an optical pickup unit is over the premastered or the writeable areas of the optical media. Reading from and writing to the optical media is disabled while jumping tracks. Control of jumping tracks on the optical media includes controlling: jumping a single track on the optical media; jumping a specified number of tracks every specified number of revolutions of the optical media; auto jumpbacks, and jumping in forward or reverse directions. Parameters for controlling jumps include at least one of: jump type, number of tracks to jump, time delay between track jumps, number of revolutions of the optical media between jumps, and whether it is not safe to read from or write to the optical media. The control system performs long seeks by predicting whether the tracking actuator arm will be positioned over the premastered area or the writeable area at the end of the long seek, and to load calibration parameters corresponding to the type of media over which the tracking actuator arm will be positioned at the end of the long seek.