Patent ID: 6122239
Filing Date: 2000-09-19
Classification: G11B,H04M

Abstract:
A pre-mastering, optical recorder comprising:an input-signal conditioning-circuit for electronically conditioning an analog signal received by an input-channel of the pre-mastering, optical recorder thereby producing a conditioned analog signal adapted for conversion into digital data;a coder and decoder (""CODEC"") that is coupled to said input-signal conditioning-circuit for receiving the conditioned analog signal from said input-signal conditioning-circuit and for converting the conditioned analog signal into digital data;a random access memory (""RAM"") that is coupled to said CODEC for receiving and temporarily storing digital data produced by said CODEC;a buffer for receiving from said RAM and semi-permanently storing digital data;an optical-disk recorder that is coupled to said RAM and that is adapted for recording pre-mastered digital data onto optical recording media; anda central processing unit (""CPU"") that is coupled to said CODEC, said RAM, said buffer, and said optical-disk recorder, said CPU executing a digital computer program that:supervises operation of the pre-mastering, optical recorder for transferring from said CODEC to said RAM digital data produced by said CODEC responsive to the presence of the analog signal on the input-channel of the pre-mastering, optical recorder, and for subsequently transferring the digital data from said RAM to said buffer for semi-permanently recording the digital data therein;periodically retrieves from said buffer digital data that has been semi-permanently recorded therein, processes the retrieved digital data to prepare pre-mastered digital data in a format that permits recording at least twenty (20) input-channel-hours of the analog signal received by said input-signal conditioning-circuit onto optical recording media; andtransfers to said optical-disk recorder the pre-mastered digital data for recording the pre-mastered digital data onto optical recording media then present in said optical-disk recorder.