Patent ID: 7423559

Claim:
A reproduction apparatus comprising: reproduction means for reproducing a plurality of information data encoded using mutually different encoding systems from a recording medium; program storage means for storing a plurality of kinds of decoding programs corresponding to the different encoding systems; a program loading memory into which a part of the plurality of kinds of decoding programs can be loaded; decode means for decoding information data reproduced by said reproduction means using a decoding program loaded into said program loading memory; instruction means for instructing start of reproduction of the information data; and control means for, before reproduction start is instructed by said instruction means, selecting a decoding program corresponding to an encoding system most frequently used to encode the plurality of information data recorded on the recording medium from among the plurality of kinds of decoding programs stored in said program storage means, reading out the selected decoding program from said program storage means, and loading the read-out decoding program into said program loading memory.