Apparatus and method for reproducing replacement data recorded on a disc

Abstract

An apparatus and method are provided for reproducing replacement data recorded in a spare area of a disc, such as a DVD-RAM. The replacement data is temporarily stored in a memory provided in a disc reading or player apparatus or a RAM provided in a PC connected to the disc reading or player apparatus so that the temporarily stored data can be read without movement of an optical pickup to the spare area during a subsequent data reproducing operation. The replacement data is thereby reproduced along with data recorded in a data area of the disc, in a successive manner. Accordingly, it is possible, for example, to efficiently prevent reproduced pictures from being discontinuously outputted due to a delayed data reading operation caused by a searching operation for the spare area in which the replacement data is recorded.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.