Patent Application
20080273442
The present invention relates in general to a method for writing information on a multiple-layer optical storage disc, and to a device for executing the method.
As is commonly known, an optical storage disc comprises at least one track, either in the form of a continuous spiral or in the form of multiple concentric circles, of storage space where information may be stored in the form of a data pattern. Optical discs are very successful, and several different types have been developed. One such type is DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), and the present invention relates particularly to DVD discs. However, the gist of the present invention is also applicable to other types of discs; therefore, the following description is not to be understood as limiting the scope of the present invention to DVD discs only.
Optical discs may be read-only type, containing information which can only be read by a user. The optical storage disc may also be a writeable type, where information may be stored by a user. Such discs may be a write-once type, indicated as writable (R), but there are also storage discs where information can be written many times, indicated as rewritable (RW). In the case of DVD, a distinction is made between two formats, i.e. the “minus”-format (DVD-R, DVD-RW) and the “plus”-format (DVD+R, DVD+RW).
For writing information in the storage space of the optical storage disc, a storage track is scanned by an optical write beam, typically a laser beam, of which the intensity is modulated to cause material changes which can later be read out by scanning the storage track by an optical read beam. Since the technology of optical discs in general, and the way in which information can be stored in an optical disc, is commonly known, it is not necessary here to describe this technology in more detail. However, it is noted that a storage track defines a range of storage locations having unique addresses.
Typically, an optical storage system comprises an optical disc as a record medium, and further comprises a disc drive apparatus and a host apparatus. The disc drive apparatus is a device, comprising optical means for actually writing data, capable of accessing all storage blocks where it is physically possible to store information. The unique addresses of all these physical storage locations are indicated as physical addresses. The host apparatus, which may be a PC running a suitable program, or an application of a consumer apparatus such as a video recorder, is a device which communicates with the disc drive, and sends commands to the disc drive instructing the disc drive to write certain data to a certain storage location. In contrast to the disc drive apparatus, the host apparatus only has access to a part of the physical storage space, this part being indicated as logical storage space, and the storage blocks in the logical storage space also have logical storage addresses. Although the logical storage space does not need to be a physically contiguous storage space, the storage blocks in the logical storage space have consecutive logical addresses, which are usually not identical to the physical addresses.
Conventionally, an optical disc has only one storage layer containing a storage track. More recently, optical discs have been developed having two or even more storage layers, each storage layer containing a storage track in the shape of a spiral or multiple concentric circles. In such case, the logical storage space extends over multiple storage layers, hence the range of logical addresses extends contiguously over multiple storage layers. The transition from the last block of one storage layer to the first block of the next storage layer is such that the logical address is incremented only by 1.
The present invention relates particularly to optical discs having two storage layers. However, the gist of the present invention is also applicable to discs having three or more layers; therefore, the following description is not to be understood as limiting the scope of the present invention to double-layered discs only.
It is noted that the present invention relates to optical discs where at least two storage layers are approached by a laser beam from the same side. The disc has a main surface which is directed towards the laser; this main surface will be indicated as entrance surface. For access to a specific storage layer, the laser beam enters the disc at the entrance surface, and travels the depth of the disc until it reaches the specific storage layer. Selection of a specific storage layer involves focussing the laser beam at the corresponding depth. In the following, the storage layer which is located closest to the entrance surface will be indicated as first storage layer, and the corresponding logical space will be indicated as L0; the next storage layer will be indicated as second storage layer, and the corresponding logical space will be indicated as L1. Thus, in the case of a dual layer disc, the entire logical space of the disc will be L0+L1.
In the case of a dual layer disc, the first layer L0 extends from an inner radius to an outer radius. In other words, logical address zero corresponds to a certain physical address (30000) relatively close to the centre of the disc, while increasing logical addresses correspond to increasing track radius, such that the highest logical address corresponds to a radius relatively close to the perimeter of the disc.
For the second layer L1, there are two possibilities. In one possibility, the logical addresses are numbered in the same way as L0, i.e. increasing from the inner track radius to the outer track radius; this arrangement is indicated as Parallel Track Path (PTP). In another possibility, indicated as Opposite Track Path (OTP), the logical addresses are numbered from the outer track radius to the inner track radius.
When a disc is written according to the PTP arrangement, the laser beam scans L0 in a direction from centre to perimeter. After a jump to L1, writing continues at the innermost track of L1, in the same direction from centre to perimeter. In such case, the storage capacity of L1 is independent from the location of the last block of the first track. In an OTP case, however, after a jump from L0 to L1, writing continues at the location of the jump, in the opposite direction from perimeter to centre; in such case, the size of the available logical space in L1 is clearly dependent on the location of the last block of the first track.
The present invention relates specifically to a disc of OTP type, i.e. a disc having at least one pair of successive storage layers with mutually opposite track direction. However, the gist of the present invention is also applicable to a disc of PTP type.
A typical problem occurs in case the information being written is real-time video information. During writing, the host organizes DVD Video data in cells, and a transition from one layer to the next is only allowed at a cell boundary; this is related to the fact that, on reading video data from disc, it is desirable to have seamless continuation of video image display. On the other hand, the disc drive continues writing in L0 until a predefined logical end address is reached; after having written information at the end address, the disc drive jumps to L1 and continues writing at the next logical address in L1 (at the inner radius in a PTP case, or at the radius of the end address of L0 in an OTP case). Usually, this transition from L0 to L1 does not correspond to a video cell boundary. As a result, on playing the recording, display is not seamless: display may show a delay, a freeze-image, or a “hick-up”, or the disc drive may even crash.
It is usually not known in advance where the cell boundaries will be located. The disc drive, receiving the video data from the host, has no means for generating such boundaries when approaching the end of L0 (in fact, the disc drive does normally not even “know” that it is writing video information). On the other hand, the host device is not capable of instructing the disc drive to use a specific physical address, and is not capable of instructing the disc drive to make a transition to L1 before having reached the end of L0 (a transition to L1 can only be made at the end of L0).
An important objective of the present invention is to overcome the above difficulties.
More specifically, an objective of the present invention is to assure that the last logical address of a storage layer corresponds to a video cell boundary, in order to assure seamless image reproduction on reading.
In the above, objectives of the present invention have been explained in the context of video cell boundaries in the case of writing video data. However, it may be desirable for other reasons to organize data in cells, and to have a transition from L0 to L1 correspond to a data cell boundary.
According to an important aspect of the present invention, a host has a buffer memory for the data to be sent to the drive. Normally, the host determines the size of a video cell on the basis of certain predefined considerations; the size of said buffer is at least equal to the size of the largest video cell to be expected. In normal operation, the end of L0 is far away and the video data may be streamed to the disc drive. It is noted that the host has information on the end address of L0. On approaching the end of L0, the video data is stored in the buffer memory. If the user issues a stop command before the end address of L0 is reached, the entire contents of the buffer memory is coded as a cell and sent to the disc drive. If the user does not issue a stop command and the data amount in the buffer memory exceeds the remaining storage capacity in L0, the host generates a video cell having a size corresponding to the remaining storage capacity in L0, and this cell is sent to the disc drive.
These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be further explained by the following description with reference to the drawings, in which same reference numerals indicate same or similar parts, and in which:
A host/drive communication link between host device 20 and disc drive 10 is indicated at 5. Likewise, a drive/disc communication link between disc drive 10 and disc 2 is indicated at 6. The drive/disc communication link 6 represents the physical (optical) read/write operation as well as the physical addressing of the disc 2. The host/drive communication link 5 represents a data transfer path as well as a command transfer path.
It is noted that disc drives are known, and that the present invention can be implemented using an existing disc drive; therefore, it is not necessary here to describe the design and operation of the disc drive 10 in great detail.
The optical disc 2 has a storage space 3, which has the form of two or more continuous spiral-shaped tracks or tracks in the form of multiple concentric circles, where information can be stored in the form of a data pattern. Since this technology is commonly known to persons skilled in the art, this technology will not be explained in further detail.
The several tracks of the storage space 3 are located in different storage layers of the optical disc 2.
It is noted that in
The storage locations in the storage layers 40 and 41 have logical addresses; these logical addresses define a logical space. The logical space of the first storage layer 40 is indicated L0, while the logical space of the second storage layer 41 is indicated L1.
In the first logical space L0, logical address 0 is located closer to the centre of the disc 2, and logical end address N is located closer to the perimeter of the disc 2. In the second logical space L1, in the case of an OTP disc, the first logical address N+1 is located closer to the perimeter of the disc 2, substantially aligned with logical end address N of L0, and the logical end address M is located closer to the centre of the disc 2. When information is recorded, the disc drive starts at logical address 0, following the first logical space L0 from the centre to the perimeter, as indicated by arrow 51. After writing in the end address N, a transition is made to the second logical space L1, as indicated by arrow 52, and then the second logical space L1 is followed from the perimeter to the centre, as indicated by arrow 53.
The host 20 has an input 21 for receiving the video from a video source (
In the following, individual cells are distinguished by adding an index between square brackets. Likewise, individual cell boundaries are distinguished by adding an index between square brackets. The index x of a cell boundary 34[x] corresponds to the index of the cell 35[x] immediately before that cell boundary 34[x]. Further, each cell 35[x] has a length L[x]. Normally, the cells will have equal lengths, but this is not essential; by way of illustrative example, the following will assume that all lengths are equal to a standard length Ls. As will be known to persons skilled in the art, each cell 35[x] contains information (in NAVPACKS) indicating the length L[x] of that cell as well as a pointer to the logical address A[x] of the end of that cell; this information is schematically indicated in
Assume that a data storage system not implemented in accordance to the present invention is to store the video sequence 30. The host device 20 transfers the video sequence 30 to the disc drive 10 over host/drive communication link 5, and the disc drive 10 writes the video sequence 30 to disc 2 over drive/disc communication link 6, wherein the start of the video sequence 30 is written at a block in L0 having a certain logical address which may be determined by the host device 20, or which may be the first available block after a previous recording. As writing continues, the logical addresses increase.
In the case of a data storage system implemented in accordance to the present invention, the host 20 is designed, at least at the start of a cell 35 [i], to calculate the size of the remaining space R in L0 [step 101].
It is noted that the host 20 receives video information at its input 21, and also receives user command signals from a user input device 22, for instance a key board, a remote control, etc. The user may input a stop command, or the video source may stop providing video signals. In both cases, the host 20 may generate a cell boundary and then stop the recording, but as long as this does not happen the host does not know how much video there is to be expected. So, although the host knows the standard size Ls of a cell, the host does not know whether or not it will receive sufficient video data to fill the current cell. Consequently, the host does not yet know the length L[x] nor the end address A[x] of the current video cell 35[x], which implies that the host can not yet send the video data to the disc drive 10. Therefore, the host 20 receives video data at its input 21 [step 110], and stores this data in a buffer memory 23 [step 111].
In step 121, the host checks whether the amount of video data received is equal to (or larger than) the predetermined standard cell size Ls. If not, then the host checks in step 122 whether the amount of video data received is equal to (or larger than) the size of the remaining space R in L0. If not, and if the host also has not received a stop command [step 123], the host returns to step 110 for further receiving video data.
If a stop command is received before reaching end address N of L0, the host calculates [step 131] the length L[x] and the end address A[x] of the current video cell 35 [x] on the basis of the amount of video data received and stored in buffer memory 23, organizes the video data as a cell [step 132], defines (as known per se) the information INFO[x] regarding the length L[x] and the end address A[x] of the current video cell 35[x] and incorporates this information INFO[x] in the video data [step 133], sends the current cell 35[x] to the disc drive [step 134], and ends the recording process [step 135].
It is noted that if the video input stream is interrupted, the host may stop recording and branch to step 131, but this is not shown in
If in step 121 the host finds that it has received an amount of video data corresponding to the predetermined size Ls of a video cell, the host decides that it can now write the cell to the disc 2. Thus, the host jumps to step 141 to calculate the length L[x] of this video cell, and calculates the end address A[x] of the current video cell. The video data is organised as a cell [step 142], the information INFO[x] regarding the length L[x] and the end address A[x] of the current video cell 35[x] is defined (as known per se) and incorporated in the video data [step 143]. Then, the cell is ready to be sent to the disc drive [step 144]. The host is now ready to receive video data for a next video cell [step 145], so the host returns to step 101 and the process described above is repeated.
It is noted that steps 141 to 144 correspond to the steps 131 to 134, and relate to the steps necessary for defining a video cell from a certain amount of video data. Since this is known per se, these steps do not need to be described in more detail here.
The above process is repeated for as long as the host receives video data. The video data is accumulated in the memory 23, until sufficient video data has been received for filling a video cell. Then, a new video cell is generated, and sent to the disc drive for recording to the disc. Only when the end of the first storage space L0 approaches, the host deviates from the above process. This is achieved by step 122. If the amount of video data received and stored in buffer memory 23 does not yet correspond to the predetermined length Ls of a standard video cell, but corresponds to the remaining space R in L0, the host also decides to generate a video cell on the basis of the amount of video data stored in the buffer memory 23, so the host also branches to step 141.
In other words, the host defines a video cell if it considers that the amount of video data corresponds to a predetermined cell length or if it finds that the amount of video data corresponds to the size of the remaining free portion of the first storage space. The result is illustrated in
After this, the host makes a transition to the second storage space L1.
If in step 220 it is found that the size of the remaining space R in L0 is insufficient for recording two complete video cells having standard cell size Ls, the host decides to write one larger video cell 35[i] having a size L[i] larger than the standard cell size Ls in the remaining space R. To this end, the host bypasses step 221, i.e. the step where the host checks whether the video data corresponds to a standard cell, and jumps directly to step 222, where the host checks whether the amount of video data received corresponds to the size of the remaining space R. Thus, if the user does not issue a stop command earlier (step 223), the host continues collecting video data until it has sufficient data to fill the entire remaining space R, and then it jumps to step 241 for completing the cell and writing the cell.
When comparing this second recording method 200 with the first recording method 100, the main difference is that the number of video cells written by the second method 200 is one less than the number of cells written by the first method 100. When looking at
The first method 100 allows a video cell 35[i] with a relatively small size to be written at the end of the first storage space L0. This is prevented by the second method 200. When the factor 2 in step 220 is used, the second method 200 prevents video cells having a size smaller than the standard size Ls to be written at the end of the storage space L0. However, this factor may also be chosen smaller. For instance if this factor is replaced by a factor 1.9, the method allows video cells having a size in the range between 0.9•Ls and 1.0•Ls but prevents cells having a size smaller than 0.9•Ls. Thus, depending on design considerations, the factor 2 may be replaced by a factor α selected in the range from 1.0 to 2.0.
It is noted that in both cases, in the first method 100 as well as in the second method 200, it is assumed that the host 20 attempts to make all video cells having the same size Ls. However, this is not essential; for instance, it may be that the standard size Ls changes as a function of the radius of the storage space. It is only essential that the host 20 has two considerations for deciding the length of the current video cell, one consideration relating to the available space in the first storage space (steps 122 and 222), and another consideration which is independent of the remaining size of the current storage space (steps 121 and 221).
It is noted that the above example relates to the transition from the first storage space L0 to the second storage space L1. Similar considerations would play a roll when a disc has three or more storage layers, and a transition is to be made from the second storage space L1 to a third storage space L2, or from the third storage space L2 to a fourth storage space L3, etc.
It should be clear to a person skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments discussed above, but that several variations and modifications are possible within the protective scope of the invention as defined in the appending claims.
In the above, the present invention has been explained with reference to block diagrams, which illustrate functional blocks of the device according to the present invention. It is to be understood that one or more of these functional blocks may be implemented in hardware, where the function of such functional block is performed by individual hardware components, but it is also possible that one or more of these functional blocks are implemented in software, so that the function of such functional block is performed by one or more program lines of a computer program or a programmable device such as a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, etc.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 05300471.9 | Jun 2005 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB06/51751 | 6/1/2006 | WO | 00 | 12/5/2007 |
