Patent ID: 8406614

Claim:
A recording apparatus for recording video data and audio data corresponding to the video data onto a disc-shaped recording medium, comprising: data forming means for forming second video data which is data based on first video data and whose transmission rate and resolution are lower than those of said first video data forming second audio data by compression encoding first audio data, said second audio data having a plurality of channels which is data based on said first audio data having zero, one, or a plurality of channels corresponding to said first video data, the number of channels of said second audio data being set to a fixed value independent of change of the number of channels of said first audio data during recording process, and whose transmission rate is lower than that of said first audio data, and outputting data of a low rate in which said second video data and said second audio data have been multiplexed, wherein the number of channels of said second audio data is not less than the number of channels of said first audio data; and recording means for recording said first video data, said first audio data, said low-rate data comprised of multiplexed second video data and second audio data, and meta data corresponding to the first video data and first audio data onto the disc-shaped recording medium, wherein said first video data, said first audio data, said low-rate data, and said meta data form first video annual ring data, first audio annual ring data, low-rate annual ring data, and meta annual ring data on the disc-shaped recording medium, respectively, and the first video annual ring data, the first audio annual ring data, the low-rate annual ring data, and the meta annual ring data are recorded in continuous areas on the disc-shaped recording medium and are recorded in a particular sequence from an inner rim side of the disc-shaped recording medium, and wherein said data forming means forms audio data showing silence to the channels which do not correspond to the channels of said first audio data among said plurality of channels of said second audio data and outputs said low-rate data in which said second video data and said second audio data including the channels of the audio data showing said silence have been multiplexed.