Method for reproducing compressed information data from a disk using a spatial frequency less than the track pitch

Apparatus for reproducing data from an optical disk having a diameter less than 140 mm, a thickness of 1.2 mm±0.1 mm and a recording area divided into a lead-in area, a program area and a lead-out area, and wherein said data is recorded as embossed pits representing modulated, error-correction encoded user information including MPEG-compressed video data and compressed audio data in sectors in user tracks in said program areas representing modulated, error-correction encoded table of contents (TOC) information in sectors in at least one TOC track in said lead-in area with said TOC information including addresses of respective start sectors of said user tracks, and representing application table of contents (ATOC) information in sectors in at least one track in said program area related to said MPEG-compressed video and, compressed audio data;

• the tracks having a track pitch in the range of 0.646 μm to 1.05 μm;
• said apparatus comprising means for rotating said disk to obtain a constant linear velocity;
• pickup means for projecting a pickup light beam through a lens to optically read the data recorded on the rotating disk, said pickup light beam having a spatial frequency 1=λ/2NA, where the spatial frequency 1 is less than the track pitch, λ is the wavelength of the pickup light beam and NA is the numerical aperture of the lens;
• demodulating means for demodulating the data read from said disk;
• error correcting means for error correcting the demodulated data;
• means for separating the error corrected data into TOC information, ATOC information and user information;
• and control means responsive to said TOC information to access and read selected user tracks in response to access instructions from a user and responsive to said ATOC information to reproduce selected video and audio data from said disk.

A method of reproducing data from an optical disk having a diameter less than 140 mm and a recording area divided into a lead-in area, a program area and a lead-out area, and wherein said data is recorded as pits representing modulated, error-correction encoded user information including MPEG-compressed video data encoded in a selected one of plural video compression formats and compressed audio data in sectors in user tracks in said program area, representing modulated, error-correction encoded table of contents (TOC) information in sectors in at least one TOC track in said lead-in area, and representing application control information in sectors in at least one track in said program area related to said MPEG-compressed video and compressed audio data, said application control information including addresses of the respective start sectors of respective application content data;

• the tracks having a track pitch of 0.646 μm to 1.05 μm, said method comprising the steps of rotating said disk;
• protecting a pickup light beam through a lens for optically reading the rotated disk, said pickup light beam having a spatial frequency 1=λ/2NA, where the spatial frequency 1 is less than the track pitch, λ is the wavelength of the pick up light beam and NA is the numerical aperture of the lens;
• demodulating the data read from said disk;
• error correcting the demodulated data;
• separating the error corrected data into TOC information, application control information and user information;
• and using said application control information to access and read selected application content data in response to access instructions from a user.

Apparatus for reproducing data from an optical disk having a diameter less than 14 mm and a recording area divided into a lead-in area, a program area and a lead-out area, and wherein said data is recorded as pits representing modulated, error-correction encoded user information including MPEG-compressed video data encoded in a selected one of plural video compression formats and compressed audio data in sectors in user tracks in said program area, representing modulated, error correction encoded table of contents (TOC) information in sectors in at least one TOC track in said read-in area, and representing application control information in sectors in at least one track in said program area related to said MPEG-compressed video and compressed audio data, said application control information including addresses of respective start sectors of application content data;

• the tracks having a track pitch in the range 0.646 μm to 1.05 μm, said apparatus comprising means for rotating said disk;
• pickup means for protecting a pickup light beam through a lens to optically read the rotating disk, said pickup light beam having a spatial frequency 1=λ/2NA, where the spatial frequency 1 is less than the track pitch, λ is the wavelength of the pick up light beam and NA is the numerical aperture of the lens;
• demodulating means for demodulating the data from said disk;
• error correcting means for error correcting the demodulated data;
• means for separating the error corrected data into TOC information, application control information and user information;
• and control means responsive to said application control information to access and read selected user tracks in response to access instructions from a user.