Patent ID: 7606472

Claim:
An apparatus for recording image data comprising: a recording unit which records the image data encoded by a predetermined encoding method on a recording medium as recording data having a format including a succession of fixed length packets each having a predetermined data size; a file management unit which manages, by a file system, recording data recorded on the recording medium; and an editing control unit which controls editing for combining first recording data and second recording data recorded on the recording medium, wherein the editing control unit includes: a first detection unit which detects an offset from an end of one of the first and second recording data to a sector boundary determined depending on the recording medium; a first recording control unit which generates one or more dummy packets of a same size as the fixed length packet to adjust a positional relationship between the end of one of the first and second recording data and the sector boundary, and records, by the recording unit, the generated dummy packets fully into the offset detected by the first detection unit; a second detection unit which detects a data size of an excess portion of the dummy packets recorded by the first recording control unit, if the recorded dummy packets exceed the offset; and a second recording control unit which generates third recording data having a data size N (N being an integer) times as large as the sector size to adjust a positional relationship between the sector boundary and a packet boundary, by adding one or more newly-generated dummy packets, of the same data size as the fixed length packet in accordance with the file system, to the dummy packets of the data size detected by the second detection unit, and records the generated third recording data by the recording unit so that the generated third recording data is combined with said first and second recording data recorded on the recording medium, wherein the file management unit registers, in the file system, recording data combining information on the basis of a result of the editing, so that information of the first recording data, information of the second recording data, information of the dummy packets recorded by the first recording control unit, and information of the third recording data recorded by the second recording control unit are registered in the file system.