Abstract:
A recording apparatus includes: recording means having a drive part including rotational drive means for rotating an optical recording medium in order to record data onto the optical recording medium; data coding means for coding data; and recording control means for storing the coded data into storage means and controlling the recording means to record the data stored in the storage means onto the optical recording medium. The recording control means includes overall control means for controlling the recording control means overall and servo control means for servo-controlling the drive part of the recording means. In the recording-standby state standing by to store the coded data, the overall control means stops operation of the servo control means, and at the same time, servo-controls the rotational drive means.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application JP 2005-046170 filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Feb. 22, 2005, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for recording compressed data onto an optical recording medium, a method of controlling the recording apparatus, a reproduction apparatus for reading compressed data recorded on an optical recording medium, and a method of controlling the reproduction apparatus.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0005]     Among known AV (Audio-Video) apparatuses, there are AV apparatuses for performing compression processing, for example using MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group), on input audio-video data to record the compressed audio-video data onto an optical recording medium such as a DVD, etc. In such an AV apparatus, a recording method called intermittent recording is used in order to match the timings of the time necessary for compression processing and the time necessary for recording processing. The intermittent recording is a recording method in which a “recording” state and a “recording-standby” state are repeated alternately. That is to say, the compression of the audio-video data is waited in the “recording-standby” state, and the compressed audio-video data is recorded onto the optical recording medium in the “recording” state.  
         [0006]     A general procedure of the intermittent recording is described below by taking a digital camera as an example. In a digital camera, (1) audio-video data converted into electronic signals by an imager such as CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices) and a microphone is input. (2) The audio-video data is subjected to compression processing using MPEG, etc., and is temporarily stored into a memory. (3) When a certain amount of the audio-video data is stored, the data stored in the memory is read in accordance with the recording speed of the optical recording medium to be recorded onto the optical recording medium. (4) When the recording of the audio-video data stored in the memory is completed, the processing is waited until the audio-video data is stored in the memory once again. The sequence from (1) to (4) is repeated in the recording processing of the digital camera.  
         [0007]     The processing of (1) and (2) are operated in real time for the audio-video data to be captured. In the recording processing of (4), the bit rate is higher than that of the compression processing of (3), and thus standby time is necessary for the processing of (3). Accordingly, in the data recording of an optical recording medium, intermittent recording, in which a “recording” state and a “recording-standby” state are repeated alternately, is performed.  
         [0008]     In the “recording” state of (3), a recording-reproduction system such as a laser emitting part, a reflection-light receiving part, etc., and a servo system such as a tracking servo, a thread servo, etc., are activated. In the “recording-standby” state of (4), electric power consumed in the recording-reproduction system and the servo system is wasteful, and thus it is desirable to reduce the electric power consumed at this time as little as possible. Accordingly, in the “recording-standby” state, the recording-reproduction system and the servo system are set to a power-saving state.  
         [0009]     When the spindle servo for controlling the rotational speed of a disc is set to a power-saving state, it becomes difficult to maintain an appropriate rotational speed. When the rotational speed changes, problems arises in that (1) the sound of the spindle motor is generated, and is recorded in the audio data as noise even by a slight change of the speed, (2) it takes time until the disc attains an appropriate speed at the next “recording”, and the standby time becomes short as a result, and thus the power-saving effect becomes little, and (3) in case that the rotation stops, it becomes necessary to have a large current at starting time, and thus an adverse effect to the power saving is produced.  
         [0010]     In a known technique, in order to handle these problems, first, a target voltage is determined by measuring a drive voltage applied to the spindle motor at the time when servo control is performed during recording or during reproduction. Thereafter, the determined target voltage is given to the spindle motor as an alternative voltage, and thus an appropriate rotational speed is maintained (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-93032).  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0011]     However, known spindle control is performed by open loop control. Thus, when some factor that causes the alternative voltage to change during the “recording-standby” or immediately before the “recording-standby” arises, there is no feedback capability against this change. Accordingly, it sometimes becomes difficult to maintain an appropriate rotational speed. The factors that cause the alternative voltage to change include, for example, the change of load on the spindle by vibration, impact, force of inertia, etc., applied to the camcorder. Although, a description has been given of the intermittent recording, the same description will be given of the intermittent reproduction.  
         [0012]     The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems. It is desirable to provide a recording apparatus which maintains a state suitable for starting the recording operation at recording standby time of an optical recording medium and a control method of the recording apparatus. Also, it is desirable to provide a reproduction apparatus which maintains a suitable state for starting a reading operation at reading standby time of the optical recording medium and a control method of the reproduction apparatus.  
         [0013]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a recording apparatus including: recording means having a drive part including rotational drive means for rotating an optical recording medium in order to record data onto the optical recording medium; data coding means for coding data; and recording control means for storing the coded data into storage means, and controlling the recording means to record the data stored in the storage means onto the optical recording medium, wherein the recording control means includes overall control means for controlling the recording control means overall and servo control means for servo-controlling the drive part of the recording means, and in a recording-standby state standing by to store the coded data, the overall control means stops operation of the servo control means, and at the same time, servo-controls the rotational drive means.  
         [0014]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a recording apparatus having a drive part including rotational drive means for rotating an optical recording medium in order to record data onto the optical recording medium, the method including the steps of: coding data; controlling the rotational drive means for storing by overall control means controlling the recording apparatus overall in a recording-standby state to store the coded data; and servo-controlling the drive part by servo control means for drive-controlling the recording apparatus to record the coded data onto the optical recording medium when storing the coded data is completed.  
         [0015]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a reproduction apparatus including: reading means having a drive part including rotational drive means for rotating an optical recording medium in order to read coded data recorded in the optical recording medium; read control means for controlling the reading means; storing means for storing the read coded data; and decoding means for decoding the stored coded data, wherein the read control means includes overall control means for controlling the read control means overall and servo control means for servo-controlling the drive part of the reading means, and in a reading-standby state standing by to decode the coded data stored in the storing means, the overall control means stops operation of the servo control means, and at the same time, controls the rotational drive means.  
         [0016]     According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a reproduction apparatus having a drive part including rotational drive means for rotating an optical recording medium in order to read coded data recorded onto the optical recording medium, the method including the steps of: reading coded data recorded in the optical recording medium of the reproduction apparatus; storing the read coded data into the storing means; and controlling the rotational drive of the optical recording medium by overall control means controlling the reproduction apparatus overall in a reading-standby state standing by to decode the coded data stored in the storing means.  
         [0017]     In a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied, the operation of the servo control means is stopped in the “recording-standby” state in which the storing of the coded data is stood by, and the servo control of the rotational drive means is alternated with the overall control means. Thus, it is possible to reduce the power consumption necessary for the servo control of the entire drive part, and to continue the servo control of the rotational drive means in order to maintain the rotational drive means at a suitable state for starting the recording operation.  
         [0018]     In a reproduction apparatus to which the present invention is applied, the operation of the servo control means is stopped in a “reading-standby” state in which the decoding of the coded data stored in the storing means is stood by, and the servo control of the rotational drive means is alternated with the overall control means. Thus, it is possible to reduce the power consumption necessary for the servo control of the entire drive part, and to continue the servo control of the rotational drive means in order to maintain the rotational drive means at a suitable state for starting the reading operation. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a recording-reproduction apparatus;  
         [0020]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an AV interface;  
         [0021]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating an audio-video data flow in intermittent recording;  
         [0022]      FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a drive controller and a disc drive;  
         [0023]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the recording-reproduction apparatus;  
         [0024]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a microcomputer and a DSP when the processing moves from a “recording operation” state to a “wait recording” state; and  
         [0025]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating the operation of a microcomputer and a DSP when the processing moves from the “wait recording” state to the “recording operation” state. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0026]     In the following, a description will be given of a recording-reproduction apparatus  1  to which the present invention is applied with reference to the drawings.  FIG. 1  shows the configuration of the recording-reproduction apparatus  1 . The recording-reproduction apparatus  1  includes a user interface  2  for receiving a user&#39;s input and informing the user of the state of the apparatus, a system controller  3  for controlling the entire apparatus, an AV (audio-video) interface  4  for relaying an input/output device such as a camera  11 , an unillustrated display, etc., and the recording-reproduction apparatus  1 , a CODEC  5  for compressing and expanding audio-video data, a data controller  6  for controlling data flow, a disc drive  8  for recording and reproducing to and from an optical recording medium, a drive controller  7  for controlling the disc drive  8 , a display  14  for outputting video data, and a speaker  13  for outputting an audio signal.  
         [0027]     The user interface  2  receives input from the user through an input part, such as a key-input button, a switch  75 , etc., and informs the user of the state of the apparatus through an output part, such as a light emitting element, an acoustic element, etc.  
         [0028]     The system controller  3  loads a system control program and a file system into a program memory  31  as a working memory, and outputs control signals to each block of the recording-reproduction apparatus  1 . The system controller  3  uses a system control bus  9  for the transmission of the control signals.  
         [0029]     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the AV interface  4  includes a video input part  41 , an audio input part  42 , a video output part  43 , and an audio output part  44 . The video input part  41  receives input of video data from the camera  11 , an external device, etc., and the audio input part  42  receives input of sound from the microphone  12 , an external device, etc. The video output part  43  outputs video data to a liquid crystal panel, a view finder, etc., and the audio output part  44  outputs an audio signal to the speaker  13 , etc. The AV interface  4  outputs the video data captured by the camera  11  and the audio signal obtained by the microphone  12  to the view finder and the speaker  13  in real time. When an image is output to the view finder, the AV interface  4  superimposes a screen image on the output image. The screen image is stored in a screen memory  45 . Characters and icons are drawn on the screen image.  
         [0030]     Next, a description will be given of the CODEC  5 , the data controller  6 , the drive controller  7  at data recording time. The AV interface  4  outputs the audio-video data obtained from the camera  11  and the microphone  12  to the CODEC  5 . The CODEC  5  compresses the input audio-video data. Here, MPEG (Moving Picture Expert Group) is used as a compression method of the audio-video data. A CODEC memory  51  is a work area of the CODEC  5 . The CODEC memory  51  stores differential signal compression between frames or fields of the video data.  
         [0031]     The data controller  6  controls the data flow between the CODEC  5  and the drive controller  7 . The data controller  6  and the drive controller  7  transmit and receive audio-video data in accordance with a discontinuous handshake protocol. In this protocol, the data controller  6  stores the data input from the CODEC  5  into a data memory  61 , and transfers the data stored in the data memory  61  to the drive controller  7  when a certain amount of the data is stored in the data memory  61 .  
         [0032]     The data controller  6  transfers the data to the drive controller  7 , and determines the state transition between the “recording” state and the “recording-standby” state of the drive controller  7 . The drive controller  7  writes the audio-video data stored in the drive memory  71  onto the optical recording medium in response to the instruction from the data controller  6 .  
         [0033]     The drive controller  7  repeats the “recording-standby” state in which data from the data controller  6  is waited and the “recording” state in which data is written into the optical recording medium. Such a recording method is called intermittent recording. A description will be given of the intermittent recording using  FIG. 3 . The audio-video data compressed by the CODEC  5  is output to the data controller  6 . The video data transmitted to the data controller  6  is temporarily stored in an original picture area  62  in the data memory  61  contained in the data controller  6 . The CODEC  5  performs MPEG compression on the video data stored in the original picture area  62 , and stored the data into a CODEC buffer  63 . The CODEC  5  stores the compressed audio-video data into the buffer area for each compression of the audio-video data. When the data stored in the CODEC buffer  63  reaches a certain size, the data controller  6  transfers the audio-video data stored in the CODEC buffer  63  to the drive controller  7 . The transfer rate at this time is sufficiently higher than the storage speed of the audio-video data into the CODEC buffer  63 .  
         [0034]     The drive controller  7  stores the audio-video data output from the data controller  6  into a drive buffer  72  of the drive memory  71 . The drive controller  7  controls the disc drive  8  to record the audio-video data stored in the drive buffer  72  onto an optical recording medium. The recording speed at this time is sufficiently higher than the storage speed of the audio-video data into the CODEC buffer  63 . Thereafter, the compression processing of the audio-video data and the recording processing of the compressed audio-video data are repeated until the completion of the recording. During this period, the “recording” state onto the optical recording medium and the “recording-standby” state of waiting the storage of the audio-video data are repeated alternately.  
         [0035]     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the drive controller  7  includes a drive memory  71 , a DSP  73 , a microcomputer  74 , and a switch  75 . The DSP  73  controls the recording operation of the disc drive  8 .  
         [0036]     The disc drive  8  includes a laser emitting part  81  for emitting laser onto the optical recording medium, a reflection-light receiving part  82  for receiving reflection light from an optical recording medium, a focus motor  83  for adjusting a focal depth of the lens, a tracking motor  84  for causing the laser to follow the tracks, a thread motor  85  for moving the pickup in the diametrical direction of a disc, a tilt motor  86  for adjusting the tilt of the lens, a spindle motor  87  for rotating the disc, and a motor drive  91  for driving each motor. The motor drive  91  includes a focus controller  92  for controlling the focus motor  83 , a tracking controller  93  for controlling the tracking motor  84 , a thread controller  94  for controlling the thread motor  85 , a tilt controller  95  for controlling the tilt motor  86 , and a spindle controller  96  for controlling the spindle motor  87 .  
         [0037]     The DSP  73  performs closed-loop control on the laser emitting part  81 , the focus controller  92 , the tracking controller  93 , the thread controller  94 , the tilt controller  95 , and the spindle controller  96  of the disc drive  8 . Specifically, the DSP  73  controls the output of the laser emitting part  81  through an RF (Radio Frequency) amplifier  88  of the laser emitting part  81 , controls the focus controller  92 , the thread controller  94 , and the tilt motor  86  based on the tracking error signal from the reflection-light receiving part  82 , and controls the focus controller  92  based on the focus error signal from the reflection-light receiving part  82 . Also, the DSP  73  receives input of a rectangular wave indicating a rotational frequency of the spindle motor  87  from a frequency generator  89  of the spindle motor, and controls the spindle controller  96  based on this rotational frequency.  
         [0038]     The microcomputer  74  controls the drive controller  7  overall, and performs processing for changing the disc drive  8  between the “recording” state and the “recording-standby” state in accordance with an instruction from the data controller  6 .  
         [0039]     The microcomputer  74  performs stop processing of the operation of the DSP  73  and the control of the spindle motor  87  as the processing of changing the disc drive  8  to the “recording-standby” state. When the operation of the DSP  73  is stopped, the operations of the laser emitting part  81 , the reflection-light receiving part  82 , and the RF amplifier  88  are stopped. Also, the operations of the focus controller  92 , the tracking controller  93 , the thread controller  94 , and the tilt controller  95  are stopped, and thus the operations of the focus motor  83 , the tracking motor  84 , the thread motor  85 , and the tilt motor  86  are stopped.  
         [0040]     A switch  75  is provided between the microcomputer  74  and the motor drive  91 . The microcomputer  74  controls to change the switch  75  to an A-terminal in the “recording” state, and change the switch  75  to a B-terminal in the “recording-standby” state. When the microcomputer  74  changes the switch  75  to the A-terminal, the microcomputer  74  is connected to the motor drive  91 . The microcomputer  74  outputs a control signal to the motor drive  91  to control the spindle motor  87 . The microcomputer  74  is connected to the frequency generator  89  of the spindle motor  87 . The frequency generator  89  outputs a rectangular wave indicating the number of revolutions of the spindle motor  87 . The microcomputer  74  controls the spindle motor  87  while monitoring the rectangular wave output from the frequency generator  89 .  
         [0041]     In the “recording-standby” state, the four motors, that is to say, the focus motor  83 , the tracking motor  84 , the thread motor  85 , and the tilt motor  86  are stopped. It is possible to reduce power consumption by stopping unnecessary motors in the “recording-standby” state.  
         [0042]     Also, at this time, the laser emitting part  81  and the reflection-light receiving part  82  are also stopped. It is possible to reduce power consumption by stopping the laser emitting part  81  and the reflection-light receiving part  82  in the “recording-standby” state.  
         [0043]     When having received the instruction to move to the “recording” state from the data controller  6 , the microcomputer  74  changes the disc drive  8  to the “recording state”. The microcomputer  74  restarts the operation of the DSP  73  and changes the switch  75  to the B-terminal as the processing for changing to the “recording state”. When the microcomputer  74  has restarted the operation of the DSP  73 , the microcomputer  74  controls the output of the laser emitting part  81  through the RF amplifier  88  of the laser emitting part  81 , and generates control signals for controlling the focus controller  92 , the tracking controller  93 , the thread controller  94 , the tilt controller  95 , and the spindle controller  96  based on the signals from the reflection-light receiving part  82 . The microcomputer  74  changes the switches of the focus motor  83 , the tracking motor  84 , the thread motor  85 , and the tilt motor  86  to ON to restart the recording operation. The disc drive  8  records the audio-video data stored in the drive memory  71  onto the optical recording medium under the control of the DSP  73 .  
         [0044]     When the microcomputer  74  receives the instruction to move to the “recording-standby” state from the data controller  6 , the microcomputer  74  changes the disc drive  8  from the “recording” state to the “recording-standby” state. In the “recording-standby” state, the operations other than the operation of the spindle motor  87  are turned OFF in order to reduce the power consumption.  
         [0045]     Next, a description will be given of the entire operation of the recording-reproduction apparatus  1  with reference to  FIG. 5 . A description will be given of the operation of the transition of the disc drive  8  from the “recording” state to the “recording-standby” state with reference to  FIG. 6 . A description will be given of the operation of the transition of the disc drive  8  from the “recording-standby” state to the “recording” state with reference to  FIG. 7 .  
         [0046]     As shown in  FIG. 5 , the CODEC  5  compresses the audio-video data input from the camera  11 , an external device, etc., (step C 1 ), and outputs the compressed audio-video data to the data controller  6  (step C 2 ). When the CODEC  5  receives the input of a recording-stop instruction from the system controller  3  (step C 3 ; YES), the CODEC  5  terminates the compression processing of the audio-video data. On the other hand, when the CODEC  5  does not receive the input of a recording-stop instruction from the system controller  3  (step C 3 ; NO), the CODEC  5  repeats the processing of step C 1  to step C 2 .  
         [0047]     The data controller  6  stores the input audio-video data into the data memory  61  (step D 1 ). The data controller  6  checks the amount of storage of the audio-video data. If the amount of storage exceeds a certain amount (step D 2 ; YES), the data controller  6  outputs the data stored in the data memory  61  into the drive controller  7  (step S 3 ), and instructs the microcomputer  74  to change the disc drive  8  to the “recording” state (step D 4 ).  
         [0048]     The microcomputer  74  stores the audio-video data input from the data controller  7  into the drive memory  71  (step M 1 ), and changes the disc drive  8  to the “recording” state (step M 2 ) by receiving the instruction from the data controller  6 . On the other hand, when the amount of the storage in the data memory  61  does not exceed a certain amount (step D 2 ; NO), the data controller  6  instructs the microcomputer  74  to change the disc drive  8  to the “recording-standby” state (step D 4 ), and the microcomputer  74  changes the disc drive  8  to the “recording-standby” state by receiving the instruction (step M 3 ).  
         [0049]     The data controller  6  also checks the data memory  61  in the “recording” state (step D 5 ). If it is confirmed that all the audio-video data stored in the data memory  61  has been transferred to the drive controller  7  (step D 6 ; YES), an inquiry is conducted subsequently on whether all the data transferred to the drive memory  71  has been recorded onto the optical recording medium (step D 7 ). If that confirmation is made (step D 8 ; YES), the data controller  6  instructs the microcomputer  74  to change the disc drive  8  to the “recording-standby” state (step D 9 ). The microcomputer  74  receives the instruction, and changes the disc drive  8  to the “recording-standby” state (step M 3 ). If the audio-video data that has not been recorded onto the optical recording medium remains stored in the data memory  61  and the drive memory  71  (step D 6 ; NO, D 8 ; NO), the “recording” state is kept.  
         [0050]     The flowchart in  FIG. 6  illustrates the operation of the microcomputer  74  and the DSP  73  when the processing moves from the “recording operation” state to the “wait recording” state. In the “recording” state, the DSP  73  controls all of the laser emitting part  81 , the reflection-light receiving part  82 , the focus motor  83 , the tracking motor  84 , the thread motor  85 , the tilt motor  86 , and the spindle motor  87  of the disc drive  8 , and records the data onto the optical recording medium (step S 11 ).  
         [0051]     The DSP  73  receives the input of the rectangular wave in accordance with the number of rotations of the spindle motor  87  from the frequency generator  89  of the spindle motor  87 . The DSP  73  counts the edges of the rectangular wave by an edge-counting function to calculate the rotational cycle of the spindle motor  87  (step S 12 ). The DSP  73  calculates the optimum drive voltage of the spindle motor  87  based on the calculated rotational cycle (step S 13 ), and outputs the voltage to the motor drive  91  (step S 14 ).  
         [0052]     The microcomputer  74  waits for the instruction from the data controller  6  to move to the “recording-standby” state while the DSP  73  is recording the data onto the optical recording medium (step S 15 ). When the microcomputer  74  receives the instruction from the data controller  6  to move from the “recording” state to the “recording-standby” state (step S 16 ; YES), the microcomputer  74  starts the processing to change the disc drive  8  from the “recording” state to the “recording-standby” state (step S 17 ). On the other hand, if the microcomputer  74  does not receive the instruction from the data controller  6  in step S 15  (step S 16 ; NO), the microcomputer  74  continues to wait for the instruction from the data controller  6 .  
         [0053]     For the processing to move to the “recording-standby” state, the microcomputer  74  controls the switch  75  to connect the motor drive  91  and the microcomputer  74  (step S 18 ), and stops the focus motor  83 , the tracking motor  84 , the thread motor  85 , the tilt motor  86 , the RF amplifier  88 , the laser emitting part  81 , the reflection-light receiving part  82 , and the DSP  73  (step S 19 ). Thus, the recording operation of the DSP  73  is stopped (step S 20 ), and the control of the spindle motor is changed from the DSP  73  to the microcomputer  74 .  
         [0054]      FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the microcomputer  74  and the DSP  73  when the processing moves from the “wait recording” state to the “recording operation” state. In the “recording-standby” state, the microcomputer  74  controls the spindle motor  87 . The microcomputer  74  starts supplying voltage to the spindle motor  87  using the optimum drive voltage immediately before changing to the “recording-standby” state as an initial value (step S 22 ). For the supply source of the voltage, a method of smoothing the output of PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) contained in the microcomputer  74  and using it is considered. Next, the microcomputer  74  receives the input of the rectangular wave in accordance with the number of rotations of the spindle motor  87  from the frequency generator  89  of the spindle motor  87 . The microcomputer  74  counts the edges of the rectangular wave to calculate the rotational cycle of the spindle motor  87  (step S 23 ). The microcomputer  74  calculates the optimum drive voltage of the spindle motor  87  based on the calculated rotational cycle (step S 24 ), and supplies the optimum voltage to the spindle motor  87  (step S 25 ).  
         [0055]     The microcomputer  74  waits for the instruction to move to the “recording” state from the data controller  6  during the “recording-standby” state (step S 26 ). When the microcomputer  74  receives the instruction to move to the “recording” state (step S 27 ; YES), the microcomputer  74  starts the processing to move the disc drive  8  from the “recording-standby” state to the “recording” state (step S 28 ). For the processing to move to the “recording” state, the microcomputer  74  controls the switch  75  to connect the motor drive  91  and the DSP  73  (step S 29 ), and outputs the control signal to the DSP  73  and the motor drive  91  (step S 30 ). The DSP  73  returns itself from the stop state in response to the control signal from the microcomputer  74 , and restarts the recording operation of the motor drive  91 , the focus motor  83 , the tracking motor  84 , the tilt motor  86 , the RF amplifier  88 , the laser emitting part  81 , and the reflection-light receiving part  82  (step S 31 ).  
         [0056]     As described above, the recording-reproduction apparatus  1  to which the present invention is applied performs intermittent recording in which the “recording” state and the “recording-standby” state are alternately repeated. During the “recording-standby” state, the operations other than the operation of the spindle motor  87  are stopped, and thus power consumption is reduced. Also, the control of the spindle motor  87  is performed by the microcomputer  74 , and thus it is possible to keep the spindle motor  87  to run at an appropriate number of rotations even if the load on the spindle motor  87  temporarily changes due to impact, vibration, force of inertia, etc.  
         [0057]     Next, a description will be given of the reproduction processing. The recording-reproduction apparatus  1  performs intermittent reproduction. In the intermittent reproduction, a “reading” state and a “reading-standby” state of an optical recording medium are repeated alternately. In the “reading-standby” state, the recording-reproduction apparatus  1  performs processing to reduce power consumption in the same manner as in the “recording-standby” state.  
         [0058]     A description will be given of the operations to the CODEC  5 , the data controller  6 , and the drive controller  7  at reproduction time. The DSP  73  of the drive controller  7  drives the laser emitting part  81  through the RF amplifier  88  to emit laser onto the optical recording medium. The reflection-light receiving part  82  outputs the signal based on the reflection light from the optical recording medium to the DSP  73 .  
         [0059]     The DSP  73  converts the signal from the reflection-light receiving part  82  into digital data. This data is compressed audio-video data. The DSP  73  stores this data into the drive memory  71 . The microcomputer  74  transfers the audio-video data stored in the drive memory  71  to the data controller  6 . The data controller  6  stores the audio-video data input from the drive controller  7  into the data memory  61 . The CODEC  5  reads the compressed audio-video data from the data memory  61 , and expands the audio-video data that has been read.  
         [0060]     The data controller  6  controls the data flow between the CODEC  5  and the drive controller  7 . When the data controller  6  stores a certain amount of the audio-video data read by the drive controller  7 , the data controller  6  outputs the control signal to stop the reading of the data to the drive controller  7 . While the drive controller  7  stops the reading of the data, the data controller  6  outputs the stored audio-video data to the CODEC  5 . While the CODEC  5  is expanding the audio-video data, the disc drive  8  goes into the “reading-standby” state. When the disc drive  8  is in the “reading-standby” state, the microcomputer  74  of the drive controller  7  stops the operation of the DSP  73  and a part of the operation of the motor drive  91 , and performs the control of the spindle motor  87  in place of the DSP  73 .  
         [0061]     When the data controller  6  outputs the audio-video data stored in the data memory  61  to the CODEC  5 , the data controller  6  outputs the control signal to restart the reading of the data to the drive controller  7 . Thus, the disc drive  8  becomes the “reading” state. The microcomputer  74  of the drive controller  7  restarts the operations of the DSP  73 , the laser emitting part  81 , a laser receiving part, the focus motor  83 , the tracking motor  84 , the thread motor  85 , the tilt motor  86 , the spindle motor  87 , and the motor drive  91 .  
         [0062]     As described above, the recording-reproduction apparatus  1  to which the present invention is applied performs intermittent recording in which the “reading” state and the “reading-standby” state are alternately repeated. During the “reading-standby” state, the operations other than the operation of the spindle motor  87  are stopped, and thus power consumption is reduced. Also, the control of the spindle motor  87  is performed by the microcomputer  74  in the “reading-standby” state, and thus it is possible to keep the spindle motor  87  to run at an appropriate number of rotations even if the load on the spindle motor  87  temporarily changes due to impact, vibration, force of inertia, etc.  
         [0063]     It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occur depending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they are within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.