Patent ID: 7362948

Claim:
A video copying apparatus comprising: a first recording and reproducing unit that records video and audio on an optical disk and reproduces video and audio recorded on the optical disk; a second recording and reproducing unit that records video and audio on a videotape and reproduces video and audio recorded on the videotape; a first copying unit that controls the first recording and reproducing unit to reproduce the video and audio recorded on the optical disk and controls the second recording and reproducing unit to record the video and audio reproduced by the first recording and reproducing unit on the videotape; a second copying unit that controls the second recording and reproducing unit to reproduce the video and audio recorded on the videotape and controls the first recording and reproducing unit to record the video and audio reproduced by the second recording and reproducing unit on the optical disk; a first recording mode determination unit that, when execution of the first copying unit is instructed, detects remaining amount of the videotape and reproduction time of the video and audio to be copied onto the videotape by fast-forwarding the videotape to the end, and determines whether to record the video and audio onto the videotape in a standard mode or in a longer-recording mode based on the remaining amount of the videotape and the reproduction time of the video and audio to be copied onto the videotape; a second recording mode determination unit that, when execution of the second copying unit is instructed, detects free space of the optical disk and reproduction time of video and audio to be copied onto the optical disk by fast-forwarding the videotape to the end, and determines a compression ratio of the video and audio to be used in recording the video and audio on the optical disk from among a plurality of preset compression ratios; and an input unit having a first button for instructing execution of the first copying unit and a second button for instructing execution of the second copying unit.