Information reproducing method and apparatus

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an information reproducing apparatus and method for reproducing AV (audio Visual) data recorded on an information recording medium rotationally driven, such as a CD-ROM disc, a CD-R disc or a CD-RW disc.

#2. Description of the Related Art

#Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an optical disc drive according to an embodiment of the present invention;

#FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a read process control of the optical disc drive shown in FIG. 1;

#A description will now be given, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 3, of an embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a structure of an information reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of thee present invention. The apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 is an optical disc drive 2, which may be installed integrally with or separate from a host 1 such as a personal computer. An information recording medium 3 stores AV data and may, for example, be a CD-ROM for storing data, a music CD (CD-DA), a video CD, or AV data recorded on a CD such as a WAV file or MP3 file. The optical disc drive 2 is configured as a system capable of reproducing the AV data as audio through USB speakers installed in the host 1 or as video on a display and ripping data from a memory.

#The information recording medium 3 is rotationally driven by a spindle motor 4. An optical pickup 5 condenses a laser light and projects it onto the information medium 3 driven by the spindle motor 4. The optical pickup 5 is provided in such a way as to be free to seek in the radial direction of the medium 3 by means of a coarse motion motor 6. The optical pickup 5 includes a semiconductor laser emitting a laser light, an objective lens for condensing the laser diode, and a light-receiving/sensing system for receiving a reflected light from the information medium 3 and sensing a reproduced signal and various signals. The reproduced signal (read signal) sensed by the light receiving/sensing system of the optical pickup 5 is processed by a signal processing system 7, and is then stored in a cache memory 8 temporarily. Then, the reproduced signal is transferred to the host 1 via an external interface 9. The spindle motor 4, the optical pickup 5 and the coarse motion motor 6 are respectively equipped with control systems 10, 11 and 12, which are controlled by a controller 13 having a microcomputer configuration. The cache memory 8 is also controlled by the controller 13. In addition to the above control, the controller 13 is responsible for various controls including analyzing of a user's read request received via the host 1 and the data transfer rate, and realizes various functions that will be described later.