Optical Disk Control Apparatus

This invention relates to an optical disk control apparatus which controls the recording and playback of the data of an optical disk, and more particularly to an optical disk control apparatus which uses signals recorded at the heads of sectors to indicate the starts of the respective sectors.

A conventional apparatus of the type described above is shown in FIG. 1. Referring to the figure, numeral 1 designates an optical disk device including an optical disk (not shown), and numeral 2 designates an optical disk control apparatus. Numeral 3 designates a sector signal obtained by reproducing a signal written at the head of each sector of the optical disk, numeral 4 designates a playback gate signal, numeral 5 designates a playback data signal, numeral 6 designates a recording gate signal, and numeral 7 designates a recording data signal. A control circuit 8 for the optical disk device 1 is included in the optical disk control apparatus 2.

In operation, the optical disk device 1 detects a signal written in a sector of the optical disk and delivers a sector signal 3 indicative of the start of the sector. The optical disk control apparatus 2 is triggered by the sector signal 3, and it sends a recording data signal 7 along with a recording gate signal 6 to the optical disk device 1 in the recording mode, and it sends a playback gate signal 4 to the optical disk device 1 and receives a playback data signal 5 therefrom in the playback mode.

Since the conventional optical disk control apparatus has been constructed and operated as described above, it has has the disadvantage that when the sector signal 3 cannot be reproduced due to a defect of the optical disk or other apparatus, the recording and playback of the corresponding sector are impossible.

This invention has been made in order to eliminate the disadvantage of the conventional apparatus as mentioned above, and has for its object to provide an optical disk control apparatus in which a simulation signal is produced in place of a sector signal which is judged to be missing from the preceding sector signal, thereby making it possible to record and play back the data of a sector of the missing sector signal.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional optical disk control apparatus; and

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an optical disk control apparatus according to one embodiment of this invention.

An embodiment of this invention is shown in FIG. 2, and will now be described. Referring to FIG. 2, numeral 20 designates an optical disk control apparatus. A timer 9 detects an overtime in the intervals between sector signals 3 due to the omission of a sector signal and produced an output representative thereof. Upon detection of this output signal, one-shot circuit 10 generates a simulation sector signal similar to the sector signal 3 generated from the optical disk device 1 under normal operating conditions. A combining circuit 11 is connected to receive, as imputs, the sector signals normally produced by the optical disk reader device and the simulation sector signals produced by the one-shot circuit 10 when a sector signal is missing. The other portions of the control apparatus according to the present invention are the same as in the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and their further explanation is deemed to be unnecessary.

Next, the operation of the apparatus will be described. In the arrangement of FIG. 2, under normal operating conditions the optical disk reader device 1 produces a sector signal 3 representative of the start of a sector and this sector signal is sent to the combining circuit 11. At the same time, the timer 9 monitors the sector signal 3 and takes no action since no omission of the sector signal 3 is detected. As a result, no simulation sector signal is produced by the one-shot circuit 10 and the combining circuit 11 simply receives the sector signal 3 and delivers it to the control circuit 8. When the sector signal 3 is omitted due to a defect of an optical disk (not shown), for example, the timer 9, which is monitoring an overtime in the time intervals between sector signals 3, detects the omission and triggers the one-shot circuit 10 then. The one-shot circuit 10 supplies the combining circuit 11 with a simulation sector signal similar to the sector signal 3, and the combining circuit 11 delivers it to the control circuit 8 so as to enable the control circuit 8 to operate.

In the embodiment, although the time interval with respect to the directly preceding sector signal has been monitored, similar effects are attained even when a time interval with respect to an even earlier sector signal is monitored.

As set forth above, according to this invention, when a sector signal is missing, a simulation sector signal is produced for delivery to the control circuit in place of the sector signal normally produced by the optical disk reader device so as to permit the recording and playback of the corresponding sector. This produces the effects that the recording density of an optical disk increases, and that the data of the sector which has become incapable of playback after the recording thereof can be played back.

It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that this invention may be practiced or embodied in still other ways without limiting it to the embodiments as described and illustrated and without departing from the spirit or essential character thereof.