1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical recording and reproduction (recording/reproduction) of video and/or audio data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a recording medium for storing identification information of a manufacturer of a recorder which modifies the contents of the recording medium, and a recorder and/or a player which have the manufacturer specific information and a method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows a one dimensional structure of a general recording medium. As shown in FIG. 1, a volume space, which is the entire recording medium, is comprised of a volume and file structure area and areas in which real data is recorded (used blocks #1, #2, and #3). Real data can be recorded in a physically scattered state by editing in a predetermined unit, such as a program or a title. General information on the disc and information on the structures of a file and a directory, as shown in FIG. 2, are recorded in the volume and file structure area.
FIG. 2 shows files existing on a file system used for an apparatus for recording and reproducing audio and/or video (A/V) data on a rewritable recording medium. A bitstream file is a file in which real A/V data is recorded. An information file is a file containing information on the bitstream file. The file system may also include a resource file.
FIG. 3 shows the contents of the information file shown in FIG. 2. The contents can be classified into formatted bitstream information having a common format among manufacturers, and manufacturer (specific) information having an individual format which is not compatible between manufacturers. The formatted information, which includes information for having a common function regardless of the manufacturer, is necessary to maintain compatibility. For example, the formatted information includes information on the starting position of a specific title in the bitstream file and information on a position corresponding to a specific time interval. The recorder and/or player obtains information on which position in the bitstream file is to be recorded and which position is to be reproduced through the formatted information and records/reproduces the bitstream file on the basis of the obtained information.
The manufacturer information that is used by each manufacturer to support specific functions of the respective manufacturer does not need to be compatible. For example, a function of recording information on the finally reproduced position in the bitstream file as the manufacturer information item and automatically reproducing from a position next to the finally reproduced position when the recording medium is reproduced later is an example of a specific function using manufacturer information. The specific function is supported only in the recording medium recorder/player which can support the manufacturer information.
In detail, as shown in FIG. 3, the contents of the manufacturer information are comprised of a manufacturer information header, for example, having information on the number of items (n) of the manufacturer information; the same number (n) of manufacturer information search pointers having information on the positions of the respective item of the manufacturer information (manufacturer information search pointer #1, . . . , manufacturer information search pointer #n); and the respective manufacturer information items (manufacturer information item #1, . . . manufacturer information item #n). A recorder/player of each manufacturer is expected to have at least one manufacturer information item.
The contents of the manufacturer information items can be understood and utilized only in the recorder/player of the specific manufacturer which generated the manufacturer information items, and are not compatible with the recorders/players of other manufacturers.
As described above, since the information for the specific function of the individual manufacturer is not compatible with information of other manufacturers, if additional recording/deleting processes are performed by a recorder/editor manufactured by a manufacturer B on a recording medium having the manufacturer information generated by a manufacturer A, the manufacturer information of the manufacturer A may not be effective any longer. Since the manufacturer information is unique to the manufacturer A, only the manufacturer A can analyze and modify the information. Thus, the manufacturer B cannot modify or manage manufacturer A's information. When a recording medium of which the contents are modified is returned to the recorder/player of the manufacturer A for more recording or reproducing, a mis-operation can occur since the information item containing the information for the specific function set by the manufacturer A may no longer be effective. Therefore, a check should always be made as to whether the manufacturer information is effective before using the manufacturer information made by the manufacturer A when a recording medium is newly loaded into a recorder/player of the manufacturer A. Verification processes are complicated and it can take a long time to perform the processes when there is a large amount of recorded A/V data.