Patent ID: 7961576

Claim:
An optical disc apparatus comprising: a light source that is configured to irradiate an optical disc, loaded in the apparatus, with light beams having different wavelengths; an objective lens that focuses the light beams from the light source on an information recording layer of the optical disc; a photo detecting portion that receives reflected light from the optical disc to perform photoelectric conversion; an actuator that moves the objective lens in a focusing direction; a signal processing portion that processes a signal that is output from the photo detecting portion to generate a summed up signal; and a discriminating portion that discriminates kind of the optical disc by asserting a detection signal at a time point when a signal level of the summed up signal exceeds a prescribed threshold value, wherein when the detection signal is asserted two times, a time interval for a focal position of the objective lens to move from a surface of the optical disc to the information recording layer is decided as a moving time interval, the kind of the optical disc is discriminated by comparing the moving time interval with the prescribed threshold value, when the detection signal is asserted three times or more, a time interval from a first beginning of assertion to a second beginning of assertion, and a time interval from the second beginning of assertion to a third beginning of assertion are compared to decide a longer time interval, such that the kind of the optical disc is discriminated by comparing the longer time interval with the prescribed threshold value.