Patent ID: 7623309

Claim:
Apparatus for use in transferring information from a storage medium comprising: a data transfer head having at least two information transfer elements, each for producing, by accessing the medium, a respective information transfer signal having a distortion characteristic dependent on a property of said storage medium; a processor for: receiving the transfer signals produced from the at least two transfer elements, determining an appropriate compensation value to apply to said transfer signal for one of said transfer elements so as to at least partially compensate for effects on said signal caused by said distortion characteristic, accessing stored compensation information which relates to said distortion characteristics of said information transfer elements over a range of storage medium for which said property is different, referencing said accessed compensation information using said determined compensation value for said one transfer element to establish an appropriate compensation value for said other information transfer element, and applying said appropriate compensation values to the transfer signals outputted by said transfer elements so as to at least partially compensate for effects on said transfer signals caused by the respective distortion characteristics.