Optical disc drive and method of examining the optical disc drive

Abstract

An optical disc drive for recording and playing back a recordable-type optical disc includes a driving mechanism for rotating the optical disc, an optical pick-up for writing and reading data to and from the optical disc, signal processor for processing signals read out from the optical disc by means of the optical pick-up, a CPU for controlling the driving mechanism, the optical pick-up and the signal processor. The optical disc drive is further equipped with a detecting device for detecting an ATIP error and a counter for counting the number of ATIP errors. The optical disc drive counts the number of ATIP errors caused in a predetermined time based on the synchronization signal (SUBCODE-SYNC) produced by a clock provided in the optical disc drive after the synchronization signal (SUBCODE-SYNC) has been synchronized with a synchronization signal (ATIP-SYNC) obtained from a reference optical disc. The recording performance of the optical disc is examined based on the counted number of the detected ATIP errors.

Description

[0001]This application is a reissue application of U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,306 which issued Oct. 31, 2000. U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,306 claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 9-283072 filed Sep. 30, 1997, which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]This invention relates to an optical disc drive for playing back or recording and playing back an optical disc and a method of examining the optical disc drive.[0004]2. Description of the Prior Art[0005]There are known optical disc drives for recording and playing back a recordable-type optical disc such as a CD-R (CD-Recordable), examples of which include CD-R drives.[0006]In optical disc drives such as CD-R drives, data is newly written onto an optical disc. Therefore, in such optical disc drives, an examination or inspection for checking a writing performance of the optical disc drive and a condition of the written data (as to whether the ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides an optical disc drive that can easily count the number of errors that occur when recording and playing back data on a recordable-type optical disc. This is accomplished by detecting and counting the errors using a driving mechanism, optical pick-up, signal processing means, control means, detecting means, and counting means. The optical disc drive can also include a memory for storing the counted value of the errors and transmitting means for transmitting the information to a computer. The invention also provides a method for examining the performance of the optical disc drive by recording and playing back a reference optical disc, driving it, and counting the errors. The optical disc drive can be connected to a computer with a monitor for displaying the counted errors. The invention simplifies the equipment in the assembly line and enables easier examination of the recording performance of the optical disc drive.

Problems solved by technology

Here, the ATIP error means an error in the ATIP information which is previously recorded in an optical disc in the form of pre-groove (WOBBLE), and the number of ATIP errors means the number that could not acquire ATIP time information within a predetermined time at the time when WOBBLE is being reproduced.

In order to provide such a connector to the optical device, it is required to disassemble the optical disc drive, thus leading to a problem in that such disassembling operation and subsequent assembling operation are quite troublesome.

In addition, when the number of ATIP errors is counted during the manufacturing process, it is necessary to install the error rate counter for counting the number of ATIP errors in the assembly line, thus leading to another problem in that equipments of the assembly line increase.

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