Patent ID: 8274873

Claim:
An optical recording method for recording information by irradiating an optical disc medium with a modulated write pulse train of laser light variable over a plurality of power levels such that a plurality of marks are formed on the optical disc medium, edge positions of each of the marks and a space between adjacent two of the marks being utilized for recording of the information, the optical disc medium having stored thereon a recording compensation value representing change amount of a leading end edge position, a trailing end edge position, and a pulse width of the write pulse train, the method comprising the steps of: encoding record data to generate encoded data which is a combination of marks and spaces; classifying the encoded data according to a combination of a mark length of a mark, a space length of a first space that immediately precedes the mark, and a space length of a second space that immediately succeeds the mark; reading the recording compensation value from the optical disc medium; generating a write pulse train for forming the mark, in which at least one of the leading end edge position, the trailing end edge position, and the pulse width of the write pulse train is changed by the change amount as represented by the recording compensation value, according to a result of the classification; and irradiating the optical disc medium with the generated write pulse train to form the plurality of marks on the optical disc medium, wherein the space length of the first space is classified in M space length classes (M is an integer equal to or greater than 1) and the space length of the second space is classified in N space length classes (N is an integer equal to or greater than 1), wherein the recording compensation value includes: a reference value representing at least one of change amounts of the leading end edge position, the trailing end edge position, and the pulse width of the write pulse train for a first class that is at least one of: a class among the M space length classes; and a class among the N space length classes, and difference information for the reference value, representing at least one of change amounts of the leading end edge position, the trailing end edge position, and the pulse width of the write pulse train for at least one class that is different from the first class, and wherein: in the case of one of the leading end edge position and the pulse width is changed, the step of generating the write pulse train changes one of the leading end edge position and the pulse width by the change amount as represented by the recording compensation value according to the result of the classification so that M is greater than N; and in the case of the trailing end edge position is changed, the step of generating the write pulse train changes the trailing end edge position by the change amount as represented by the recording compensation value according to the result of the classification so that N is greater than M.