Patent ID: 8601293

Claim:
A recording/reproduction apparatus comprising: an encoder configured to encode an information signal to generate encoded data, and write the encoded data on a recording medium, to record the information signal; a decoder configured to read out the encoded data from the recording medium, and to decode the encoded data, to reproduce the information signal; a plurality of signal processors connected to the encoder and the decoder through an internal bus, and configured to execute signal processing associated with the encoding of the information signal or the decoding of the encoded data; a process controller connected to the encoder, the decoder, and the plurality of signal processors through the internal bus, and configured to generally control the signal processing of each unit in a unified manner; and a power source controller configured to control the power level of each of the encoder, the decoder, the recording medium, the plurality of signal processors, and the process controller, wherein the power source controller comprises: a determination unit configured to determine whether or not an event associated with at least one of recording and reproduction of the information signal occurs at start-up time; a stand-by mode execution unit configured to execute a stand-by mode in which the power level of each of the encoder, the decoder, the recording medium, and the plurality of signal processors is controlled to be lower than a predetermined level, when no event occurs as a result of the determination carried out by the determination unit; and a pause mode execution unit configured to execute a pause mode in which the power to each of the encoder, the decoder, the recording medium, and the plurality of signal processors is turned off, and the power level of the process controller is controlled to be lower than the predetermined level, when no event occurs within a preset time during the execution of the stand-by mode; wherein the pause mode execution unit is further configured to: notify a user that the pause mode execution unit is to shift to the pause mode when no event occurs within the preset time during the execution of the stand-by mode; and shift to the pause mode when the user inputs an instruction to execute the pause mode in response to the notification.