System for recording/reading information on/from a disc, comprising a disc cassette and an apparatus

A system for recording/reading information on/from a disc and comprising

• a cassette comprising a rotatable disc, an external sleeve having a front opening, and a disc holder receivable in said sleeve and having a shutter for closing said front opening and having a pair of retaining jaws which retain the disc to form a disc-holder/disc unit inside the sleeve, said jaws being connected to the shutter at opposite ends thereof and being movable relative to each other between a retaining position in which the disc is retained and a free position in which the disc is free to move relative to the disc holder, said disc holder further comprising elastic means which elastically urge the jaws toward the retaining position so that outside the sleeve the jaws can be moved to the free position only by external means, said shutter having at least one hinge axis perpendicular to the disc surface and about which said opposite ends of said shutter are pivoted to move the jaws between the retaining position and the free position, and
• apparatus comprising disc holder release means for releasing the disc holder of an introduced disc cassette, an extraction mechanism for extracting the disc-holder/disc unit from the sleeve and retaining said unit inside the apparatus during withdrawal of the sleeve, and disc release means which cooperate with the disc holder to pivot the opposite ends of the shutter about said at least one hinge axis so that said retaining jaws move from the retaining position to the free position.