Patent ID: 7218843

Claim:
A recording apparatus comprising: a video-data supply means for supplying video data that originated from a plurality of source mediums; a compression means for compressing said video data; a setting means for setting a compression rate used in said compression means; a control means for controlling a travel speed of a recording medium so that said recording medium should be traveled at a speed corresponding to said compression rate set by said setting means; a recording means for recording said video data compressed by said compression means on said recording medium, wherein said control means controls a speed of said recording medium so that a value of the compression rate set by said setting means and the speed of said recording medium are proportional to each other, wherein said control means controls the speed of said recording medium so that, when the compression rate set by said setting means is an inverse number of N, where N is an integer greater than 1, the speed of said recording medium is set to a speed multiplied by an inverse number of N, said recording means further recording on said recording medium compression rate data indicating said compression rate of said video data compressed by said compression means; and wherein the recording media is tape-type media.