Patent ID: 8203919

Claim:
An optical disc apparatus which reads information from an optical disc using a laser beam, the apparatus comprising: a laser diode; a current supply portion which supplies an electrical current for emitting the laser beam from the laser diode; and an emission controller which controls an amount of the electrical current that the current supply portion supplies to the laser diode in order to control a level of emission power at which the laser diode emits the laser beam; the emission controller having a function to set the level of the emission power at a time of at least one of the following transition processings: a transition processing after a read processing and before a write processing, a transition processing after a write processing and before a read processing, a transition processing between two read processings for respective areas, and a transition processing between two write processings for respective areas, wherein the optical disc has a plurality of layers having respective levels of resistance to a laser beam emitted for reading, and the emission controller sets the emission power at the time of the at least one transition processing at a level not higher than a read power level for the layer that has the lowest resistance.