Recording/reproducing apparatus and method for determining and generating a focus offset valve to focus at an optical storage medium

摘要

The invention provides a recording and/or reproduction apparatus and a recording and/or reproduction method by which information can be recorded or reproduced accurately onto or from any of a plurality of record layers of an optical disk. In the recording and/or reproduction method, after an optical disk is started, an optimum focus offset position for a predetermined record layer of the optical disk is searched for. This searching is performed by varying an offset value stepwise and searching for an offset value with which the amplitude of a tracking error signal exhibits a maximum value. After an optimum focus offset position is searched out, the value of it is stored. Similar processing is performed also for any other record layer. When an instruction to reproduce a predetermined record layer is developed in step, focus jumping to the record layer is performed. Then, an optimum focus offset value searched out and stored in advance is read out and added to a focus error signal.