Magnetic reproducing apparatus

Abstract: The characteristic of a regenerative signal from a magnetic head 11 is compensated by a filter 14 serving as an equalizer. The regenerative signal thus compensated is then decoded at a decoder 15. An adaptive control unit 17 adjusts (modifies) the characteristic of the filter 14 on the basis of a decode error (residual) at the decoder 15 and an input to the filter 14. A servo control unit 18 sends a servo lock signal to the adaptive control unit 17 when a servo control operation at the time of reproduction is stabilized to start an automatic adjustment operation of the filter characteristic. Thus, it is possible to prevent in advance bad influence or effect on a compensating operation of the equalizer resulting from the fact that an adaptive adjustment operation of the filter characteristic might be carried out at the time when the servo control operation is unstable like at the time of building up of a reproducing operation.

Description: Generally, in magnetic recording/reproduction, in order to compensate an amplitude distortion or a phase distortion, etc. resulting from the recording/reproducing characteristic with respect to a magnetic recording medium, an equalizer is used. In recent years, an adaptive equalizing system as used in communication has been adopted also in such magnetic recording/reproduction. The adaptive equalizing has been conventionally developed as a technology to carry out high speed data transmission utilizing a telephone line. In the telephone line, the transmission path characteristic varies depending upon connection state of the line. For this reason, since the transmission path characteristic can not be sufficiently corrected with a fixed equalizer, there occurs the necessity of adaptively adjusting the characteristic of the equalizer. In such a communication system, there is known a method in which a signal of which the waveform, etc. is known in advance is transmitted to examine the transmission path characteristic thereafter to transmit a necessary signal (automatic equalizing), and a method in which a signal itself desired to be transmitted is used to examine the transmission path characteristic (adaptive equalizing). In either case, the object of the equalizer is to automatically eliminate distortion from a received signal waveform which was distorted in passing through a transmission path to faithfully restore the transmitted signal waveform. In order to consider application to magnetic recording/reproduction of adaptive equalizing as described above, a digital VTR (Video Tape Recorder) adapted to convert a video signal to a digital signal to record the digital signal onto a magnetic tape (video tape) or reproduce it therefrom by using the so-called partial response system is assumed as a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus. This partial response system is a system of shaping a spectrum of code positively utilizing interference between codes due to the transfer characteristic of the transmission path (or recording medium). For example, NRZI code, Interleaved NRZI code, and the like belong to the partial response. On the recording side, there is provided a so called precoder to convert input data to an intermediate series in order to avoid propagation of code error at the time of reproduction (at the time of discrimination). An example of the configuration on the reproducing side in the case where the above-mentioned adaptive equalizing system is adopted for a digital VTR for carrying out magnetic recording/reproduction by making use of such a partial response system is shown in Fig. 7. In Fig. 7, a magnetic signal recorded on a recording tape (not shown) is converted to an electric signal by using a magnetic head 101. The electric signal thus obtained is then amplified by means of a reproducing amplifier 102. The signal thus amplified is sent to a detection characteristic circuit 103. This detection characteristic circuit 103 has a detection characteristic (encode characteristic) of the partial response, and a characteristic of (1+D) in the case of the class IV. An output signal from the detection characteristic circuit 103 is delivered to an equalizer 104 comprising a so called FIR (Finite Impulse Response) or a transversal filter, at which adaptive equalizing processing is implemented. The output signal thus processed is then delivered to a decoder 105, at which discrimination between "1" and "0" by level comparison, etc. is carried out. Thus, decoding of the data series at the time of recording is conducted. An output d from the decoder 105 is sent to an adder (error detector) 106, at which an output y from the equalizer 104 is subtracted from the output d. Thus, an error (residual) e is derived. The error e thus obtained is sent to an adaptive control unit 107. To this adaptive control unit 107, an output x from the detection characteristic circuit 103 is delivered as a so called reference input. The adaptive control unit 107 adjusts the filter characteristic of the equalizer 104 so as to minimize the signal power of the error (residual). In the case where a so called transversal filter is used as the equalizer 104, multiplication coefficients (tap coefficients) of the taps are adaptively modified (corrected) and updated. Thus, the characteristic of the transversal filter is adjusted so that a characteristic close to an inverse characteristic of the electromagnetic conversion characteristic in the magnetic recording/ reproduction is provided. An output from the encoder 105 is sent to a signal processing circuit 108, at which reproduction of a synchronous block and/or error correction, etc. are carried out. The signal thus processed is sent to a video signal processing circuit 109, at which restoring of original image data is carried out. In addition, although not shown, output data from the signal processing circuit 108 is sent to an audio signal processing circuit and a sub-code signal processing circuit, etc. In these circuits, respective processing operations are carried out. Meanwhile, generally, at the time of building up of a servo when the operation of the capstan servo or the rotary drum servo is initiated, like at the time of starting of reproduction by the VTR, the regenerative signal becomes unstable. As a result, there are instances where updating of the adaptive filter coefficients is not correctly carried out for such an unstable signal, giving rise to inconvenience in that the series of the tap coefficients may diverge depending upon circumstances. Further, generally, in a VTR, etc., at the time of a variable speed reproduction such that reproduction is carried out at a tape speed different from the tape speed at the time of recording, a locus such that the reproducing head traverses a plurality of tracks is described. For this reason, for a time period during which scanning is carried out at a position between tracks, or scanning is carried out on a track of which the azimuth angle is different from that of the reproducing head, the reproduction level is remarkably lowered. As a result, if a signal at such aportion is used to carry out modifying/updating of the adaptive filter tap coefficients, the operation may frequently become unstable. In addition, in a magnetic reproducing apparatus using a rotary head, there is proposed a system in which reproduced data obtained without implementing accurate tracking of recording tracks on a magnetic tape is written into a memory together with track addresses to read out, from this memory, data in accordance with the order of those track addresses. In this case, even at the time of a reproducing mode of an ordinary speed, the scanning locus of the reproducing head may traverse tracks. At this time, the production level is lowered to such an extent that no effective regenerative signal is provided. For this reason, if the adaptive equalizing is caused to be carried out, there is the possibility that the operation may become unstable. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, pages 520-526 August 1989, no. 3, New York, "An Adaptive Equalizer for R-DAT", S. Kato et al, discloses magnetic reproducing apparatus in accordance with the precharacterising portions of claims 1 and 2. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a magnetic reproducing apparatus for reproducing magnetic data recorded on a magnetic recording medium, the apparatus comprising: a filter serving as an equalizer for compensating the characteristic of a regenerative signal from a magnetic head; a decoder for decoding an output signal of said filter; and an adaptive control unit for adaptively adjusting the characteristic of said filter on the basis of an input signal of said filter and input and output signals of said decoder; characterised by means for outputting a servo lock signal indicating that a servo control operation performed on reproduction of data has become stable, wherein said adaptive control unit starts the adaptive adjustment of the filter characteristic in response to said servo lock signal. In embodiments of this magnetic recording apparatus, at the time when the servo operation is unstable like at the time of building up of the servo on starting reproduction, the adaptive adjustment operation of the filter characteristic is not carried out. When the servo operation is stabilized, the adjustment operation of the filter characteristics is started for the first time. For this reason, any bad influence or effect on the adjustment operation of the filter characteristic by an unstable regenerative signal can be avoided. Thus, a rapid adaptive operation (equalizing) can be carried out. For example, the problem of the tap coefficients diverging is eliminated. Thus, the tap coefficients can rapidly converge into respective optimum tap coefficients. In accordance with a further aspect of the invention there is provided a magnetic reproducing apparatus for reproducing magnetic data recorded on a magnetic recording medium, the apparatus comprising: a filter serving as an equalizer for compensating the characteristic of a regenerative signal from a magnetic head; a decoder for decoding an output signal of said filter; and an adaptive control unit for adaptively adjusting the characteristic of said filter on the basis of an input signal of said filter and input and output signals of said decoder; characterised by means for outputting a reproducing mode instruction signal indicating whether or not the current operational mode of the apparatus is a variable speed reproducing mode in which the reproducing speed is different from the speed at the time of recording said data, said reproducing mode instruction signal being supplied to said adaptive control unit to inhibit adjustment of the filter characteristic during the variable speed reproducing mode. Embodiments of this invention thus provide magnetic reproducing apparatus capable of preventing in advance bad influences or effects on an adaptive equalizing processing resulting from an unstable regenerative signal like at the time of building up of a servo. Embodiments of this invention also provide magnetic reproducing apparatus capable of preventing a phenomenon such that the operation of the adaptive equalizing becomes unstable resulting from a change of the reproduction level during a variable speed reproducing mode. In embodiments of this magnetic reproducing apparatus, since the reproduction level varies at the time of a variable speed reproduction, a technique is employed to inhibit the adaptive adjustment operation of the filter characteristic for that time period to thereby prevent the adaptive adjustment operation of the filter characteristic from becoming unstable. Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a circuit diagram showing, in a block form, the outline of the configuration of a portion of the reproducing system of a digital VTR as a first embodiment of a magnetic reproducing apparatus according to this invention. Fig. 2 is a circuit diagram showing, in a block form, an actual example of the internal configuration of an adaptive equalizer (adaptive filter) used in the above-mentioned embodiment. Fig. 3 is a circuit diagram showing, in a block form, the outline of the configuration of a portion of the reproducing system of a digital VTR as a second embodiment of a magnetic reproducing apparatus according to this invention. Fig. 4 is a circuit diagram showing, in a block form, the configuration of the essential part of a third example of a reproducing system. Fig. 5 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the above-mentioned example. Fig. 6 is a circuit diagram showing, in a block form, the configuration of the essential part of a fourth example of a reproducing system. Fig. 7 is a circuit diagram showing, in a block form, the outline of the configuration of a digital VTR used for explanation of a previously proposed system. Fig. 1 is a circuit diagram showing, in a block form, the outline of the configuration of the reproducing system of a digital VTR as previously described as a first embodiment of a magnetic reproducing apparatus according to this invention. In Fig. 1, a magnetic signal recorded on a magnetic tape (not shown) is converted to an electric signal by means of a magnetic head 11 within a mechanical block (mechanism unit) of VTR. The electric signal thus obtained is amplified by a reproducing amplifier 12, and is then sent to a detection characteristic circuit 13. This detection characteristic circuit 13 has a detection characteristic (encode characteristic) of the previously described partial response, and has a characteristic of (1+D) in the case of class IV. An output signal from the detection characteristic circuit 13 is delivered to a filter serving as the main part of the equalizer. As this filter 14, a so called FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter or a transversal filter is generally used. Its filter characteristic is adaptively adjusted by an adaptive control unit 17 (which will be described later). An output signal from the filter 14 is delivered to a decoder 15, at which discrimination between "1" and "0" by level comparison, etc. is carried out. Thus, decoding of the data series at the time of recording is carried out. An output signal from the decoder 15 is taken out through an output terminal 15 OT , and is then sent to the previously described signal processing circuit 108, etc. shown in Fig. 7. An adder (error detector) 16 subtracts an output y of the filter 14 of the equalizer from an output d of the decoder 15 to thereby obtain an error (residual) e which is supplied to the adaptive control unit 17. At this time, the adaptive control unit 17 is supplied with an output x from the detection characteristic circuit 13 as a so called reference input. As the result of the fact that the adaptive control unit 17 modifies/updates coefficients (tap coefficients) of the filter 14 so as to minimize the signal power of the error (residual), the equalizer characteristic is adjusted in such a manner that it becomes close to a characteristic opposite to that of the electromagnetic conversion characteristic in the magnetic recording/reproduction. Namely, the filter 14 and the adaptive control unit 17 constitute an adaptive filter. In other words, the adaptive equalizer can be considered as a circuit element in which an adaptive filter is used as an equalizer. A servo control unit 18 of Fig. 1 is a circuit section to carry out the servo control operation such as capstan servo or rotary drum servo, etc. of the digital VTR, and is supplied with a FG (Frequency Generator) output pulse signal or a PG (Pulse Generator) output pulse signal, etc. from, e.g., a capstan motor or a rotary drum motor (not shown), etc. within the mechanical block (mechanism unit) 10. This servo control unit 18 monitors rotational speeds or rotational phases of respective motors, e.g., by means of the FG, PG pulse signals, to compare them with respective target or objective values, thus to send, to respective motors, etc. of the mechanical block (mechanism unit) 10, servo control signals to control those motors so that their rotational speeds or their rotational phase are in correspondence with predetermined target rotational speeds or rotational phases. Further, the servo control unit 18 outputs a servo lock signal such that when the servo control operation is unstable at the time of building up of the servo, etc., that lock signal is in an OFF state, and when servo is effectively applied so that the servo control operation becomes stable, that lock signal is in an ON state, and sends this servo lock signal to the adaptive control unit 17. The adaptive control unit 17 carries out ON/OFF control of the adaptive processing operation itself such as modification or updating, etc. of coefficients of the filter 14 in accordance with such a servo lock signal, thus to carry out the adaptive processing, i.e., the adaptive adjustment operation of the filter characteristic, only when the servo is locked, so a stable servo control operation is being carried out. Thus, when a regenerative input signal is unstable, the adjustment of the filter characteristic by the adaptive processing is not carried out. For this reason, errors in the adaptive process, and bad influences or effects such as divergence of tap coefficients of the filter, or the like can be avoided. In addition, since the adjustment operation of the filter characteristic by the adaptive processing is carried out at the portion where a regenerative input signal is stable, rapid convergence into optimum tap coefficients can be achieved. An example of an actual configuration of an adaptive filter comprised of the filter 14 and the adaptive control unit 17 will now be described with reference to Fig. 2. In Fig. 2, a reference input x from an input terminal 14 IN is sent to a series circuit comprising delay elements corresponding to the number of taps, e.g., four delay elements 21a, 21b, 21c and 21d. An input x 0 from the input terminal 14 IN and outputs x a , x b , x c and x d from the delay elements 21a, 21b, 21c and 21d are sent to coefficient multipliers 22a, 22b, 22c, 22d and 22e, respectively. At these multipliers, those outputs are multiplied by filter coefficients W 0 , W 1 , W 2 , W 3 and W 4 , respectively. Then, corresponding multiplied results or values are subjected to the following additive operation. Namely, respective outputs from the coefficient multipliers 22a and 22b are added at an adder 23a, and an output from the coefficient multiplier 22c and an output from the adder 23a are added at an adder 23b. Additive operation similar to the above is applied to outputs from the remaining coefficient multipliers. Namely, an output from the coefficient multiplier 22d and an output from the adder 23b are added at an adder 23c. In addition, an output from the coefficient multiplier 22e and an output from the adder 23c are added at an adder 23d. Thus, an output y is provided as an output from the adaptive filter. This output y is sent to the above-mentioned decoder 15. It is to be noted that respective filter coefficients W 0 , W 1 , W 2 , W 3 and W 4 are modified by a coefficient modifying (updating) control signal from the adaptive control unit 17. As the adaptive algorithm used in the adaptive control unit 17, many techniques have been proposed. Explanation will now be given in connection with the LMS (Least Mean Square) algorithm as an example. Here, the number of delay elements is generalized so that it is equal to L, and delay elements are assumed to be designated at 21 1 , 21 2 , ···, 21 L . At this time, the further assumption is made that the above-mentioned first input x 0 and outputs x -1 , x -2 ···, x -L from the delay elements 21 1 , 21 2 , ···, 21 L are sent to coefficient multipliers 22 0 , 22 1 , 22 2 , ···, 22 L , and are then multiplied by filter coefficients W 0 , W 1 , W 2 , ···, W L , respectively. The values thus obtained are sent to adders, at which additive operation similar to the above is implemented thereto. When input data at the k-th sample period time (time k) of the data series of an input x and delayed output data from the delay elements 21 1 , 21 2 , ···, 21 L are assumed to be designated at x k , x k-1 , x k-2 , ···, x k-L , an input vector X k subjected to the FIR filtering is defined as follows: X k = [x k x k-1 x k-2 ··· x k-L ] T In the above formula (1), T indicates a transposition symbol. When respective filter coefficients (weighting coefficients) are assumed as W k0 , W k1 , W k2 , ···, W kL with respect to this input vector X k , and a FIR filter output is assumed as y k , the relationship of input/output is expressed by the following formula (2) y k = w k0 x k + w k1 x k-1 + ··· + w kL x k-L Further, if a filter coefficient vector (weighting vector) W k is defined as follows: W k = [w k0 w k1 w k2 ··· w kL ] T the input/output relationship is described as follows: y k = X k T W k = W k T X k If a desired response is d k , an error ε k between the desired response and the output y k is expressed as follows: ε k = d k - y k = d k - X k T W k Since W k is updated so that ε k becomes equal to zero, the following formula is used: W k+1 = W k - µ▿ k In this formula, µ is a gain factor determining the speed and the stability of the adaptive processing, and ▿ k indicates gradient. in the LMS algorithm, ▿ k is not estimated from a short-time mean of ε k 2 , but is obtained by directly partially differentiating ε k 2 . ▿ k = δε k 2 /δW = -2ε k X k By substitution of the formula (7) into the formula (6), the coefficient updating formula is expressed as follows: W k+1 = W k + 2µε k X k In the first embodiment of this invention which has been described, the adaptive control operation of the filter characteristic is initiated in accordance with a servo lock signal at the time of reproduction to carry out the adjustment operation of the filter characteristic when the servo is stabilized to thereby avoid bad influences or effects. Explanation will now be given in connection with an embodiment of a magnetic reproducing apparatus adapted to prevent instability of the adaptive equalizing operation at the time of a so called variable speed reproducing mode in which reproduction is carried out at a speed different from that at the time of recording. Fig. 3 shows the outline of the configuration of a second embodiment of a magnetic reproducing apparatus according to this invention. In Fig. 3, since magnetic head 11, reproducing amplifier 12, detection characteristic circuit 13, filter 14, decoder 15, adder 16 and adaptive control unit 17 are similar to the above-described respective components of Fig. 1, their explanation is omitted. In Fig. 3, a system controller 28 outputs a variable speed reproducing mode instruction signal such that when the reproducing mode is a so called variable speed reproducing mode, it represents "H" (high level) and when otherwise, it represents "L" (low level), to supply this variable speed reproducing mode instruction signal to the adaptive control unit 17. At the adaptive control unit 17, when the variable speed reproducing mode instruction signal represents "H", the adaptive adjustment operation of the filter characteristic is inhibited so that no modifying/updating operation of filter tap coefficients is carried out. Accordingly, at the time of variable speed reproduction when the reproducing level varies, the adaptive adjustment operation of the filter characteristic is inhibited, whereby the adaptive filter characteristic adjustment operation is prevented from becoming unstable. In such a second embodiment, updating of coefficients of the adaptive filter (filter 14 and adaptive control unit 17) as described with reference to Fig. 2 is carried out only at times except for the time of the variable speed reproducing mode, and updating of coefficients is inhibited during the variable speed reproducing mode, thus preventing the adaptive operation from becoming unstable due to lowering of the reproduction level. It is here noted that the adaptive operation could be carried out with respect to the portion where the reproduction level appears to be high even during the variable speed reproducing mode. For this reason, it is conceivable to carry out the updating operation of coefficients at the portion where the reproduction level is high and to inhibit the coefficient updating operation only at the portion where the reproduction level is low. An example based on the above idea will now be described. Namely, Fig. 4 shows the example in the case of detecting an envelope of a regenerative signal so as to carry out the coefficient updating operation only at the portion where that signal level is above a predetermined level. In Fig. 4, an envelope detector 19 envelope-detects a regenerative signal (a so called regenerative RF signal, see A of Fig. 5) from the reproducing amplifier 12 to obtain an envelope detected output signal as shown at C of Fig. 5 to level-discriminate it by a predetermined threshold level Lth to thereby output an adaptive operation permission (enable) pulse signal as shown at D of Fig. 5. The adaptive operation permission pulse signal shown at D of Fig. 5 is sent to the adaptive control unit 17 to permit execution of the above-described filter characteristic adjustment operation, i.e., the updating of filter tap coefficients at the portion where that pulse signal represents "H" (high level), i.e., the reproduction level is above the threshold level Lth. It is to be noted that since other components of Fig. 4 are similar to those of Fig. 1 previously described, the same reference numerals are used for corresponding components, and their explanation is omitted here. In this case, symbol A of Fig. 5 represents amplitude of a regenerative RF signal at the time of a variable speed reproducing mode. Since the scanning locus of the reproducing head traverses a plurality of tracks at the time of a variable speed reproducing mode, changes in the amplitude as shown at A of Fig. 5 take place. Moreover, symbol B of Fig. 5 represents a so called RF switching pulse for switching of the reproducing head. In the envelope detector 19 of Fig. 4, the regenerative RF signal shown at A of Fig. 5 is envelope-detected to obtain a waveform as shown at C of Fig. 5 to level-discriminate it by a predetermined threshold level Lth, thus to obtain a pulse signal as shown at D of Fig. 5. When the above-mentioned reproduction level is above a threshold level Lth, the pulse signal shown at D of Fig. 5 is at "H" (high level) and an effective regenerative signal is provided. Accordingly, at the time of a variable speed reproducing mode, even if the adaptive filter coefficient updating operation is carried out at the portion of "H" of the pulse signal shown at D of Fig. 5 by means of the adaptive control unit 17, there is no possibility that the operation of the adaptive equalizing circuit may become unstable. Meanwhile, the above-mentioned example may be applied to a magnetic reproducing apparatus of a system in which reproduction data, obtained without carrying out precise tracking with respect to recording tracks on a magnetic tape is written into a memory together with track addresses to read out data in accordance with the order of those track addresses from the memory. In such a magnetic reproducing apparatus of this system, a change in the reproduction level occurs even at the time of an ordinary speed reproducing mode, resulting in the possibility that the above-mentioned adaptive equalizing operation may become unstable at the portion where the reproduction level is low. However, by carrying out the above-mentioned adaptive filter coefficient updating operation only at the portion where the reproduction level is above a predetermined threshold level Lth as in the above-described example, a stable adaptive equalizing operation can be realized in a magnetic reproducing apparatus as mentioned above. Fig. 6 shows the configuration of the essential part of a further example of a magnetic reproducing apparatus. By taking into consideration the fact that when the reproducing speed (what multiple of a basic or reference reproducing speed a current or present speed is) and the timing of a RF switching pulse for switching of the head at the time of a variable speed reproduction mode are known, the timing and the time period for the portion where the level of a regenerative signal is high will be determined, an adaptive operation permission pulse signal is formed on the basis of the head switching pulse and the reproducing speed information to carry out ON/OFF control of the updating operation of filter coefficients of the adaptive equalizing in accordance with this pulse signal. Namely, in Fig. 6, a pulse generator 20 forms an adaptive operation permission pulse signal shown at E of Fig. 5 on the basis of a RF switching pulse for switching of the head as shown at B of Fig. 5 delivered from an input terminal 21 and reproducing speed information (information indicating what multiple of a basic or reference reproduction speed a current or present speed is) delivered from an input terminal 22. The adaptive operation permission pulse signal shown at E of Fig. 5 is formed as follows. Namely, since when the (e.g. rise) timing of the switching pulse and the reproduction speed information are known, the level change pattern of a regenerative signal as shown at A or C of Fig. 5 is uniquely determined in accordance with the above-mentioned timing and the reproducing speed information, an adaptive operation permission pulse signal is formed so that it is at "H" (high level) at the portion where the reproduction level in the level change pattern is high, so an effective regenerative signal is provided. In more precise terms, the pulse generator 20 generates a pulse rising when a time t 1 has passed from the rise of the RF switching pulse for switching of the head shown at B of Fig. 5, and having a width t 3 repeating at a period of time t 2 wherein the times t 1 , t 2 and t 3 are uniquely determined by the reproducing speed information. While these times t 1 , t 2 and t 3 may be obtained by making a calculation on the basis of reproducing speed information as described above, a ROM table having the reproducing speed information as an input and the respective times t 1 , t 2 and t 3 as outputs may be used to readily realize values of such times t 1 , t 2 and t 3 . Further, in the case where the scanning starting position of the reproducing head relative to recording tracks shifts or changes with time, like at the time of a variable speed reproducing mode which is not an integral multiple of the basic speed, or the like, the level change pattern also varies with time. For this reason, a technique may be employed to send scanning starting position information for the reproducing head with respect to recording tracks of the tape, or the like to the pulse generator 20 to obtain an adaptive operation permission pulse signal with a pulse pattern corresponding to an actual level change pattern. Since such an adaptive operation permission pulse signal from the pulse generator 20 is sent to the adaptive control unit 17 to cause the updating operation of filter tap coefficients to be permitted (enabled) only at the "H" portion, the adaptive equalizing operation is carried out only at the portion where the reproduction level is high, so an effective regenerative signal is obtained. For this reason, the adaptive equalizing operation is stabilized. It is to be noted that since other components of Fig. 6 are similar to those of Fig. 1 previously described, the same reference numerals are used for corresponding parts, and their explanation is omitted here. It should be noted that this invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, the actual configuration of the filter 14 and/or the algorithm used in the adaptive control unit 17, etc. are not limited to the FIR filter and the LMS algorithm, respectively. In addition, applications are not limited to a digital VTR, and this invention may be applied to a digital tape recorder, an analog VTR, or the like.

Claims: A magnetic reproducing apparatus for reproducing magnetic data recorded on a magnetic recording medium, the apparatus comprising: a filter (14) serving as an equalizer for compensating the characteristic of a regenerative signal from a magnetic head (11); a decoder (15) for decoding an output signal of said filter (14); and an adaptive control unit (17) for adaptively adjusting the characteristic of said filter on the basis of an input signal of said filter (14) and input and output signals of said decoder (15); characterised by means (18) for outputting a servo lock signal indicating that a servo control operation performed on reproduction of data has become stable, wherein said adaptive control unit (17) starts the adaptive adjustment of the filter characteristic in response to said servo lock signal. A magnetic reproducing apparatus for reproducing magnetic data recorded on a magnetic recording medium, the apparatus comprising: a filter (14) serving as an equalizer for compensating the characteristic of a regenerative signal from a magnetic head (11); a decoder (15) for decoding an output signal of said filter (14); and an adaptive control unit (17) for adaptively adjusting the characteristic of said filter on the basis of an input signal of said filter (14) and input and output signals of said decoder (15); characterised by means (28) for outputting a reproducing mode instruction signal indicating whether or not the current operational mode of the apparatus is a variable speed reproducing mode in which the reproducing speed is different from the speed at the time of recording said data, said reproducing mode instruction signal being supplied to said adaptive control unit (17) to inhibit adjustment of the filter characteristic during the variable speed reproducing mode. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the regenerative signal from said magnetic head (11) is supplied to said filter (14) via a detection characteristic circuit (13) having a detection characteristic of the partial response. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said filter (14) is a finite impulse response filter. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said decoder (15) level-discriminates an output signal of said filter thereby to output a binary signal. Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein said adaptive control unit (17) modifies tap coefficients of said filter (14) so as to minimise an error between the input and output signals of said decoder (15). Apparatus as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a least mean square algorithm is used as the adaptive algorithm of said adaptive control unit (17).

Inventors: INOUE HAJIME, SEKI TAKAHITO, TAKIZAWA CHIHOKO, INOUE, HAJIME, SEKI, TAKAHITO, TAKIZAWA, CHIHOKO, INOUE, HAJIME C/O PATENTS DIVISION, SEKI, TAKAHITO C/O PATENTS DIVISION, TAKIZAWA, CHIHOKO C/O PATENTS DIVISION
Applicants: SONY CORP, SONY CORPORATION
Application year: 1992
Main classification: G11B5
IPC codes: G11B5, G11B20