Data recording and reproducing apparatus having a data transfer device selectively transferring data between multiple data recording and reproducing devices

A data recording and reproducing apparatus comprising:

• a housing;
• a data transfer means provided in said housing;
• a first input/out means connected to said data transfer means for receiving a first analog audio-visual signal, converting said first analog audio-visual signal to a digital format, and providing the converted first digital audio-visual signal to the data transfer means, and for receiving digital audio-visual data from said data transfer means, converting said digital audio-visual data to an analog format, and outputting said converted analog audio-visual data as a second analog audio-visual signal;
• a second input/output means connected to said data transfer means for receiving third audio-visual data and providing said third audio-visual data to said data transfer means, and for receiving fourth audio-visual data transferred from said data transfer means and outputting said fourth audio-visual data;
• a tape recording and reproducing means provided in said housing for recording and reproducing either or both of audio data and video data of a digital format, the tape recording and reproducing means being connected to said data transfer means so that data may be transferred from the data transfer means and recorded by the tape recording and reproducing means in a tape recording medium, and audio-visual data reproduced from said tape recording medium by said tape recording and reproducing means may be provided to the data transfer means;
• and
• a disc recording and reproducing means provided in said housing and connected to said data transfer means so that audio-visual data may be transferred from said data transfer means to said disc recording and reproducing means and recorded in a disc recording medium which may be randomly accessed, and so that audio-visual data reproduced from said disc recording medium by disc recording and reproducing means may be provided to the data transfer means;
• said data transfer means including buffer control means for controlling recording and reproduction of said disc recording and reproducing means according to remaining capacity of at least one buffering means for buffering audio-visual data;
• wherein the data transfer means includes an input buffering means performing the buffering of said audio visual data input from said disc recording and reproducing means, an output buffering means performing the buffering of said audio-visual data that is transferred to said disc recording and reproducing means, and a recording and reproducing control means controlling each of the reproducing operation and recording operation of said disc recording and reproducing means in accordance with respective remaining recording capacities of the input buffering means and said output buffering means;
• wherein the data transfer means selectably transfers audio-visual data among any of the tape recording and reproducing means, the disc recording and reproducing means, the first input/output means, and the second input/output means;
• and
• wherein the disc recording and reproducing means is a magneto-optic disk.