Patent ID: 6946633

Claim:
An optical disc apparatus comprising: a pickup head which has a four-split photodetector, two photodetector elements being arranged in each of vertical and lateral directions, and in which reflected light of an optical beam irradiating an optical disc that is set to a main unit is detected by said four-split photodetector, to read data recorded on said optical disc; a focus control section which controls an objective lens disposed in said pickup head to be moved, in an optical axis direction of the optical beam irradiating said optical disc, to maximize an amount of reflected light from said optical disc and detected by said four-split photodetector; and a reproduction section which outputs a reproduced signal based on the data that are read from said optical disc by said pickup head, wherein said focus control section controls said objective lens to be moved in said optical axis direction, and measures, as a focus error signal, a differential signal indicative of a difference between a sum of amounts of reflected light detected by two of upper right and lower left ones of said photodetector elements, and a sum of amounts of reflected light detected by two of upper left and lower right ones of said photodetector elements, a level of the measured focus error signal at a timing when the amount of reflected light from said optical disc and detected by said four-split photodetector is at a maximum is set as a reference level, under a focus off state in which the movement of said objective lens is restricted, a first gain for the sum of amounts of reflected light detected by said two of upper right and lower left photodetector elements, and a second gain for the sum of amounts of reflected light detected by said two of upper left and lower right photodetector elements are adjusted, so that a balance of the focus error signal is adjusted to cause maximum and minimum values of the focus error signal with respect to the reference level to be substantially symmetrical about the reference level, and the movement of said objective lens is controlled by using the balance-adjusted focus error signal.