Power saving system for optical disc recording/reproducing apparatus

An optical recording apparatus comprising:

• a temporal memory which stores therein a signal to be recorded on an optical disc which is compressed at a given compression rate;
• a data storage monitoring circuit which monitors the amount of the compressed signal stored in said temporal memory and provides a signal indicative thereof;
• a pickup which emits light onto the optical disc to record the compressed signal read out of said temporal memory and receives a return of the light from the optical disc to output a signal;
• a first servo circuit which produces servo error signals based on the signal outputted from said pickup;
• a second servo circuit which is responsive to the servo error signals from said first servo circuit to subject said pickup to focus, tracking, and traverse control;
• a power saving circuit which is responsive to the signal from said data storage monitoring circuit to save power supplied to a preselected circuit component of at least one of said first and second servo circuit during a time interval in which the amount of the compressed signal stored in said temporal increases from a first level to a second level;
• and
• a single type specifying circuit which specifies a type of the signal to be recorded on the optical disc, and wherein said power saving circuit performs a power saving operation based on the type of the signal specified by the said signal type specifying circuit and determines a timing with which supply and power to the preselected circuit component is resumed based on the type of the signal.