Patent ID: 8228769

Claim:
An optical disc apparatus, comprising: a recording and reproducing unit configured to record and/or reproduce data by irradiating an optical disc with a laser beam; wherein the optical disc apparatus is configured to determine an optimal write strategy, by performing steps including: writing predetermined data to the optical disc by irradiating the optical disc with the laser beam under a plurality of write strategies, each of the plurality of write strategies having a different parameter value for light emission timing, and reproducing data written to the optical disc under the plurality of write strategies, wherein the optical disc is irradiated with the laser beam under a write strategy used to record the data; and wherein the optical disc apparatus is further configured to determine an optimal write strategy, by performing steps further including: a first step for determining a first strategy, with steps including: (a) writing, to the optical disc, data to be used to measure data asymmetry and modulation degree, under a write strategy having parameters for writing a shortest mark, aside from parameters for a write power, being set to predetermined values, (b) reproducing the data in order to measure data asymmetry and modulation degree, (c) determining the write power based on a result of the measurement of data asymmetry and modulation degree, (d) writing to the optical disc, with said write power, data to be used to measure a mark edge position or a mark length, (e) reproducing the data in order to measure the mark edge position or mark length, (f) determining pulse timings based on a result of the measurement of the mark edge position or mark length, excluding the parameters relating to the shortest mark recording, so that a first strategy may be determined that meets a modulation degree condition and is able to measure a record quality which indicates variations in mark length and space length; and a second step for determining a second strategy, with steps including: (g) recording random data with write strategy parameters being changed to values in the vicinity of values of the strategy parameters of the first strategy, (h) reproducing the random data in order to measure record quality values that indicate variations in the mark length and space length, and (i) determining parameter changes based on a result of the measurement, in order to thereby determine a second strategy, said second strategy being made the optimal recording strategy.