Patent ID: 7860374

Claim:
An information recording method for recording video and/or audio data on a recording medium in accordance with a first format, the information recording method comprising: a data length calculation step of calculating a data length which is sufficient both for recording, on the recording medium, volume structure information of the first format, file structure information of the first format and management information of the first format for managing all the video and/or audio information recorded on the recording medium, and for recording, on the recording medium, volume structure information of a second format, file structure information of the second format and management information of the second format for managing all the video and/or audio information recorded on the recording medium; a data area saving step of saving a data area having the data length calculated by the data length calculation step in advance at a predetermined position of the recording medium; a video and/or audio data recording step of recording the video and/or audio data in accordance with the first format, in an area of the recording medium other than the data area saved by the data area saving step; a second format management information recording step of recording the management information of the second format or data necessary for creating the management information of the second format, in an area of the recording medium other than the data area where the video and/or audio data is recorded and other than the data area saved by the data area saving step, as information for changing the first format into the second format; and a second format information recording step of recording the volume structure information, the file structure information and the management information of the second format in the data area saved by the data area saving step.