Patent ID: 8335141

Claim:
An optical disc discrimination method for discriminating, from a plurality of types of optical discs having recording densities different from each other, the type of an optical disc loaded in an optical disc device for reading information recorded on the optical disc or for recording information on the optical disc by irradiating a light beam onto the optical disc, the optical disc having a user data area and a physical information area having formats different from each other, the optical disc discrimination method comprising: a first seeking step of performing a seek operation to a predetermined reference address in the user data area; a second seeking step of performing a seek operation from the reference address sought in the first seeking step to a predetermined target address in the physical information area; an address reading step of reading a current address at a position sought in the second seeking step; and an optical disc type determination step of determining the type of the optical disc loaded in the optical disc device, based on the current address read in the address reading step.