Patent ID: 7113460

Claim:
An optical disk reproducing apparatus for irradiating a surface of an optical disk with an optical beam and for reproducing information recorded on said surface of said optical disk by the formation of a string of a plurality of pits each having one of at least two different depths in said surface of said optical disk, said apparatus comprising: a photoreceptor element for detecting a quantity of said optical beam reflected from said optical disk; a pit depth detecting unit for detecting a depth of each said pit based on said quantity of said optical beam detected by said photoreceptor element; a servo signal generating unit for generating a tracking servo signal for controlling said optical beam to track said pit string according to a detected deviation between said optical beam and said pit string based on said quantity of said optical beam detected by said photoreceptor element; and an output control unit for controlling an output tracking servo signal generated by said servo signal generating unit based on the result of said detection by said pit depth detecting unit; wherein said output control unit controls the output of said servo signal generating unit such that a tracking servo signal is output by said servo signal generating unit for causing said optical beam to track said pit string when a pit having a depth that is to be reproduced is being tracked, and said output tracking servo signal also is stored and later output for causing said optical beam to track said pit string when a pit of a different depth is being tracked, based on the result of detection by said pit depth detecting unit.