Disc player with manual search function

Abstract: A disc player performing a manual search mode in which the play and jump operations are alternately repeated, in response to a manual search command while keeping (S4) the reproducing level at a level lower than the level at the initiation of the manual search command as long as no change command appears. If the change command appears (S2) the reproducing level is shifted (S3) to a level which is designated by an operator so as to adjust the reproduced sound level to an adequate level to listen to the reproduced sound for the music select.

Description: The present invention relates to a disc player for playing a disc such as a digital audio disc, video disc, or the like, which is provided with the so-called manual search function for the so-called music select. US-A-4,301,480 describes an audio playback apparatus having a manual search function. In general, the disc player can perform the manual search mode in which the playing operation and jumping operation are alternately executed as long as a manual search command is generated by manual switch operation whereby a user can search for a desired program in a disc mounted therein. Each playing operation during the manual search continues during a short period, for instance, about a few seconds. The reproducing level during each playing operation during the manual search is set at such a reduced level that the content of a program can be approximately discriminated since the sound quality is not always good during such operation. In the conventional disc player, the reproduced sound level is reduced during the manual search mode to a level lower than the reproduced sound level when the manual search command is manually initiated by means of, for example, a keyboard. However, it has been a problem that the reproduced sound level during the manual search mode becomes too low to listen to the reproduced sound when the reproduced sound level is relatively low upon the initiation of the manual search command. It is an object of the present invention to provide a disc player in which the reproducing level thereof during the manual search can be adjusted to a level generated to distinguish the content of the sound information represented by the reproduced sound. According to the present invention, so long as a change command is not generated during the manual search operating mode to alternately execute the playing operation and jumping operation, the reproducing level in the manual search operating mode is set to a level lower than the reproducing level immediately before the initiation of the manual search command, and when the change command is generated, the reproducing level in the manual search operating mode is changed to a designated level. According to an additional feature of the present invention, the reproducing level immediately before the initiation of the manual search command and a predetermined level are compared with each other and the reproducing level in the manual search operating mode may be set to the level which is equal to the smaller one of the particular reproducing level and the predetermined level. Certain embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of a processor in the apparatus of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the processor in the apparatus of Fig. 1. In. Fig. 1, a CD player is shown in which a disc (called CD) 1 on which a plurality of programs have been recorded is rotated by a turntable 2a driven by a spindle motor 2. The signal recorded on the disc 1 is read by a pickup 3 in association with the rotation of the disc 1. The pickup 3 is supported by a carriage (not shown) which is moved in the radial direction of the disc 1 by a carriage motor 4. An information reading point, for example, a light spot to read information, of the pickup 3 is freely positioned in the radial direction of the disc 1. In addition, although various servo systems such as spindle servo system, focusing servo system, tracking servo system, carriage servo system, and the like are provided, since they have already been well known, they are not shown in the drawings. The spindle motor 2 and carriage motor 4 are controlled by a playing section control circuit 5 as well as the spindle servo system and carriage servo system (not shown). In accordance with commands from a system controller 7, the control circuit 5 drives the spindle motor 2 and carriage motor 4 and executes the on/off controls of the various servo system in known manners. A so-called RF (radio frequency) signal which is output from the pickup 3 is amplified by an RF amplifier 8 and, thereafter, it is supplied to an EFM (eight-to-fourteen modulation) demodulator 9. The EFM demodulator 9 demodulates pulse signals which are obtained by slicing the RF signal and forms PCM data, that is, digital data including a main code representing time-division multiplexed audio signals of both of the right and left channels and also a subcode. The digital data including the audio information signal which is issued from the EFM demodulator 9 is supplied to a deinterleave interpolation circuit 10. The deinterleave interpolating circuit 10 deinterleaves the digital data whose order is rearranged in accordance with the original interleave which has been executed before recording on the disc in cooperation with a RAM 11 and also transmits the digital data to an error correcting circuit 12. When a signal indicating that the digital data is uncorrectable is output from the error correcting circuit 12, the circuit 10 interpolates the erroneous data in the output data of the error correcting circuit 12 by a mean value interpolating method or the like. On the other hand, the error correcting circuit 12 executes the error correction by using a CIRC (Cross Interleave Reed Solomon Code) and supplies the digital data to the deinterleave interpolating circuit 10. If the erroneous data cannot be corrected, a signal indicative of the uncorrectable stage is output. The output data of the deinterleave interpolating circuit 10 is supplied to a digital attenuator 13. The attenuator 13 attenuates the input data by using a divider and the like by only the value corresponding to the attenuation factor indicated by the data which is output from the system controller 7. Output data of the digital attenuator 13 is supplied to a D/A (digital/analog) converter 14. The D/A converter 14 has a demultiplexer for separating every channel of the digital data including the time-sharingly multiplexed audio information of the right and left channels. The audio signals of both of the right and left channels are reproduced. Unnecessary components are eliminated from the reproduction audio signals of both of the right and left channels by LPFs (low pass filters) 15 and 16. Thereafter, the audio signals are supplied to audio output terminals. On the other hand, the subcode which was output from the EFM demodulator 9 is supplied to the system controller 7. The system controller 7 is constructed by a microcomputer comprising, for instance, a processor, a ROM, a RAM, a timer, and the like. In response to a command corresponding to the key operation which is supplied from a manual operating section 18 such as a keyboard, the system controller 7 executes the arithmetic operation on the basis of the data or program stored in the ROM, RAM, etc. and, thereafter, supplies a command signal to play, search, jump, or the like to the playing section control circuit 5 and also supplies the data indicative of the attenuation factor to the digital attenuator 13. The operation of the processor in the system controller 7 in the above construction will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 2. If a manual search command is given from the manual operation section when the operating mode has been set into the playing mode during the execution of the main routine, playing mode control routine, or the like, the processing routine of the processor advances to step S1. In step S1, the data A which indicates the attenuation factor corresponding to the reproducing level designated by the key operation of the operating section 18 in the playing mode and which is supplied to the digital attenuator 13 is transferred to and stored into a predetermined address in the RAM by the processor. Next, the processor checks to see if a command to change the reproducing level has been generated by the key operation of the operating section 18 or not (step S2). If NO in step S2, the processor supplies data E which is smaller than the data A stored in the predetermined address in the RAM by only a predetermined value to the digital attenuator 13 as data ATT indicative of the attenuation factor (step S4). If the command to change the reproducing level is determined to have been generated in step S2, the processor supplies the digital attenuator 13 with data ATT indicative of the attenuation factor corresponding to data B representative of a reproduction level which has been newly designated by the manual key operation to the digital attenuator 13 (step S3). After completion of the execution in step S3 or S4, the processor accesses and executes a subroutine for performing the manual searching operation in which the jump command and play command are alternately supplied to the playing section control circuit 5 (step S5). A check is then made to see if a release command has been generated by the key operation of the operating section 18 or not (step S6). If the release command has been generated in step S6, the processor transmits the data A stored in the predetermined address in the RAM to the digital attenuator 13 as the data ATT (step S7). The execution of the routine which was being executed just before the processing routine advanced to step S1 is restarted. So long as the command to change the reproducing level is not generated during the manual searching mode in steps S2 and S4 in the above operation, the attenuation factor of the digital attenuator 13 is smaller than that determined in the operating mode at the initiation of the manual search command. On the other hand, if the command to change the reproducing level has been generated during the manual searching mode in steps S2 and S3, the attenuation factor of the digital attenuator 13 is set to the value corresponding to the reproducing level which is manually newly designated by the operation section 18. Therefore, during the manual searching mode, if the reproducing level is too much decreased to listen to the reproduced sound the user can set the reproducing level into a desired level while listening to the reproduced sound. Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the processor in the system controller 7 in the apparatus of Fig. 1. Since steps S15 to S17 in the flowchart of Fig. 3 are substantially similar to steps S5 to S7 in the flowchart of Fig. 2, only the operations at steps S11 to S14 will now be described hereinbelow. If the manual search command is generated when the operating mode has been set into the playing mode by the execution of the main routine, playing mode control routine, or the like, the processing routine of the processor advances to step S11. In step S11, the data A which indicates the attenuation factor corresponding to the reproducing level designated by the key operation of the operating section 18 in the playing mode and which is supplied to the digital attenuator 13 is transferred to or stored into a predetermined address in the RAM. Next, the processor compares the attenuation A with a predetermined data D and moves to step S14 if relatively little attenuation A is in effect. If the attenuations are expressed in the decibel system, for example, the absolute value |A| of the data A may be compared with the absolute value |D| of the predetermined data D which has previously been stored in a predetermined address in the ROM, thereby determining whether |A| is larger than |D| or not (step S12). If NO in step S12, that is, |A| is not larger than |D| as relatively little attenuation is in effect, the processor supplies the data D to the digital attenuator 13 as the data ATT indicative of the attenuation factor (step 14). Then, step S15 follows. To the contrary, if YES in step S12, namely, |A| is larger than |D| , the processor supplies the data A as data ATT to the digital attenuator 13 (step S13). Then, step S15 follows. If it is assumed that the value of the data D which has previously been stored in the predetermined address in the ROM is -12 dB and that the actual reproducing level in the operating mode at the initiation of the manual searching command is -6 dB, the value of |-12| is larger than the value |-6|, so that the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is set to -12 dB by the operation performed by the steps S12 to S14. If, on the other hand, the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initiation of the manual search command is -20 dB, the value |-12| is smaller than the value |-20|, so that the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is set to -20 dB. As mentioned above, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is equalized to the smaller one of the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initiation of the manual searching command or mode and the desired or predetermined reproducing level. Therefore, if the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initial phase of the manual searching mode is larger than the predetermined reproducing level, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode can be set to a predetermined small value. If, moreover, the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initial phase of the manual searching mode is smaller than the predetermined reproducing level, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is kept at the same as the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initial phase of the manual searching mode. Consequently, it is possible to prevent a situation such that the reproducing level in the manual searching mode decreases to a too low level to listen to the reproduced sound. As described in detail above, in the disc player according to the invention, so long as the command to change the reproducing level is not generated in the manual searching mode, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is set to a level smaller than the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initiation of the manual searching mode or command. If the change command is generated, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is changed to the designated level. Therefore, when the manual searching mode is set, and the reproducing level is reduced too low to listen to the reproduced sound, the user can set the reproducing level to a desired level while listening to the reproduced sound. Thus, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode can be preferably set. According to another feature of the present invention, the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initiation of the manual searching command or mode is compared with a predetermined level and the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is equalized to the smaller one of the reproducing level at the initiation of the manual searching mode and the predetermined level. If, therefore the reproducing level at the initiation of the manual searching mode is larger than the predetermined level, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode can be set to the predetermined small value. Further, if the reproducing level at the initiation of the manual searching mode is smaller than the predetermined level, the reproducing level in the manual searching mode is set to the same value as the reproducing level in the operating mode at the initiation of the manual searching mode. Thus, it can be avoided that the reproducing level during the manual searching mode is too decreased to listen the the reproduced sound.

Claims: A disc player which comprises means for performing alternately either one of a play and a jump operation in response to a manual search command (18), and sound level adjust means for adjusting a reproducing level of the disc player, wherein said sound level adjust means includes a first means (54) for keeping the reproducing level at a level (E) lower than a reproducing level (A) immediately before the initiation of said manual search command as long as a change command does not appear, and a second means (53) for changing the reproducing level established by said first means to a designated level (B) in response to said change command. A disc player which comprises means for performing alternately either one of a play and a jump operation in response to a manual search command (18), and sound level adjust means for adjusting a reproducing level of the disc player, wherein said sound level adjust means includes means (512) which compares a predetermined level (D) with the reproducing level (A) immediately before the initiation of said manual search command and adjusts the reproducing level to a level which is equal to the lower one of the predetermined level and the reproducing level immediately before the initiation of said manual search command.

Inventors: FUKUDA TATSUYA C O PIONEER TOK, ISHII HIDEHIRO C O PIONEER TOK, MIURA CHIHARU C O PIONEER TOKO, TAKEYA NORIYOSHI C O PIONEER T, FUKUDA, TATSUYA C/O PIONEER TOKOROZAWA PLANT, ISHII, HIDEHIRO C/O PIONEER TOKOROZAWA PLANT, MIURA, CHIHARU C/O PIONEER TOKOROZAWA PLANT, TAKEYA, NORIYOSHI C/O PIONEER TOKOROZAWA PLANT
Applicants: PIONEER ELECTRONIC CORP, PIONEER ELECTRONIC CORPORATION
Application year: 1989
Main classification: G11B19
IPC codes: G11B19, G11B21