Patent ID: 8023381

Claim:
An information reproducing apparatus comprising: an offset adding device for adding a first offset value which can be set to be variable, to a read signal read from a recording medium; a correcting device for correcting waveform distortion occurring in a read signal corresponding to at least a long mark, of the read signal to which the first offset value is added by said offset adding device; an offset subtracting device for subtracting a second offset value which can be set to be variable, from the read signal in which the waveform distortion is corrected; and a waveform equalizing device for performing a waveform equalization process on the read signal in which the second offset value is subtracted, wherein the first offset value is greater than the second offset value by a magnitude corresponding to a value set on the basis of at least one of (i) an asymmetry value which indicates a shift amount between an amplitude center of a read signal obtained by reading record data with the shortest run length of the read signal and an amplitude center of a read signal which provides a maximum amplitude of a read signal; (ii) an entire β value which indicates an average value of the amplitude center of the read signal; and (iii) a partial β value which indicates deviation between the amplitude center of the read signal obtained by reading the record data with the shortest run length of the read signal and the amplitude center of the read signal obtained by reading the record data with the second shortest run length of the read signal.