Patent ID: 7133344

Claim:
A disk recording-playback device wherein a disk is irradiated with a laser beam from an optical head to record signals on the disk or to reproduce signals from the disk, the disk recording-playback device comprising a laser drive circuit for feeding a drive signal to the optical head and adjusting the power of the laser beam irradiated by the optical head, an evaluation data detecting circuit for detecting evaluation data representing quality of a signal reproduction state, a control circuit for controlling operation of the laser drive circuit based on an output of the evaluation data detecting circuit, the control circuit comprising reproduction power optimizing means for optimizing the laser power for signal reproduction, recording power optimizing means for optimizing the laser power for signal recording after the optimization processing by the reproduction power optimizing means is completed, and laser power control means for preparing a laser power control signal so as to make the optimum recording power obtained by the recording power optimizing means or the optimum reproduction power obtained by the reproduction power optimizing means a target value and feeding the signal to the laser drive circuit, the recording power optimizing means comprising: calculation processing means for setting the laser powers to at least three different values successively, obtaining evaluation data for each laser power and approximating the relationships between the laser powers and the evaluation data at the three points which uniquely determine a quadratic curve, and thereby deriving an optimum recording power corresponding to a vertex of the quadratic curve, the reproduction power optimizing means comprising: retrieving means for retrieving a lower limit value having a smaller value from two limit values of the laser power wherein evaluation data is beyond a predetermined allowable value, and optimum reproduction power determining means for determining the optimum laser power by adding, to the retrieved lower limit value, a value which is approximately one half of the difference between a maximum reproduction power and a minimum reproduction power within the range wherein the reproduction power is not dependent on the recording power in the relationship between the laser power for signal reproduction and the laser power for signal recording wherein each evaluation data is in the allowable range, wherein the evaluation data is the frequency of occurrence of a bit error included in the reproduced signal.