Patent ID: 8214567

Claim:
An optical storage driving device for use as a built-in or external device to a computer system, utilizing a bus switch to release/resume a standard interface between the computer system and the optical storage driving device, the optical storage driving device comprising: a video/audio input/output selector which inputs/outputs video and audio signals; a video/audio encoder/decoder which encodes inputted video and audio signals before storing and decodes stored video and audio signals before outputting to the computer system, via said video/audio input/output selector; a microprocessor which controls the operation of the optical storage driving device; an optical storage device which stores encoded video and audio signals and data from said microprocessor, via said bus switch; a memory card reader which reads/writes the encoded video and audio signals and data from said microprocessor; a status display which displays an operation status of said memory card reader, said optical storage device and a basis input/output system (BIOS) of the computer system; and a power-on detector which detects at least one of a voltage on a main power supply unit of the computer system and a host reset signal (HRST) on the standard interface between the computer system and the optical storage driving device so as to determine whether the computer system is powered “ON” or “OFF”; wherein, when the power-on detector determines that the computer system is powered “OFF”, said microprocessor controls said bus switch to release the standard interface between the computer system and the optical storage driving device so as to process encoded or decoded video and audio signals from said video/audio encoder/decoder and to operate the optical data storage driving device independently from the computer system without booting an operating system (OS) of the computer system, and wherein, when the power-on detector determines that the computer system is powered “ON”, said microprocessor controls said bus switch to resume functions of the standard interface between the computer system and the optical storage driving device so as to operate the optical storage driving device through the computer system.