Disk player having automatic control based upon audio disk...

Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Information location or remote operator actuated control – Selective addressing of storage medium

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C369S047110, C369S053220

Reexamination Certificate

active

06388960

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk player, and more particularly, to a disk player which can play both an audio disk and a memory disk.
2. Description of Background Information
A disk player, adapted to be mounted in a vehicle, to play a digital audio disk (hereafter referred to simply as “audio disk”) or a so-called CD (compact Disk) is designed to function as follows. After the disk is loaded into a play position, various types of servo systems will be invoked to provide playable circumstances. It is then determined, for example, whether or not the disk to be played this time is the same as the previous one. If the disk is the same, it will be played starting at the last address of the previous playing; if not, the disk will be played beginning with the first piece of music.
While the disk player is installed in a vehicle as one of on-vehicle devices, a so-called navigation system has recently been developed. The navigation system has a so-called CD-ROM having map data stored therein. This system reads map data of the desired map from the CD-ROM, and supplies the data as a display information signal to a display. As a result, the map is shown on the display so that a user can acknowledge or confirm the present location of the vehicle. Since the CD-ROM (hereafter referred to as “memory disk”), a medium to store map data, has the same signal format as the CD, both the audio disk and memory disk are playable by a single disk player.
With the memory disk in use, when the disk player receives a read command for the map data of the desired map from a system controller, the player, responding thereto, needs to shift to an operation to read map data at the designated address. Therefore, if the memory disk, when loaded to the play position, is accessed to immediately start playing with the first music piece or at the last address as in the case of the audio disk, a pickup position will change before the read command is received from the system controller. It therefore inconveniently takes time to search for the head address of the required map data after reception of the read command.
An on-vehicle multisource reproducing device with multiple audio sources, such as audio disk player and AM/FM tuner, is designed to give priority to the display player such that when a disk is loaded into the disk player while another source other than the CD is being played, a reproduction signal of the disk player is automatically selected upon completion of the loading of the disk to the play position, and is then fed to a loudspeaker.
Suppose the disk player for both audio and memory disks is installed as one of the multiple audio sources in the on-vehicle multisource reproducing device. Then, if the reproducing signal of the disk player is selected immediately after the memory disk is loaded to a play position to display the map during playing a source other than the CD, as per the prior art as mentioned above, there will arise a problem that if one has been listening to the AM/FM tuner, the reproduced tone will pant.
On-vehicle single disk players to play the audio disk are so designed as to execute auto-repeat play. In other words, in sequential play mode where the disk player sequentially plays pieces of music from the first piece, when all pieces are played, the operation will automatically return to the first piece to repeat the playing. There is a so-called multidisk player which stores multiple CDs (six CDs, for example) and selectively plays one of them. In sequential play mode, this multidisk player changes a disk with another when each disk is played through to start with the first piece of the new disk. In random play mode, on the other hand, when one music piece is played through, the multidisk player produces the disk number and track number of the next music piece to be played using random numbers, to start playing that piece.
As described earlier, with the memory disk in use, when the disk player receives a read command for the map data of the desired map from a system controller, the player should execute an operation to read map data at the designated address. Therefore, in an audio/memory disk player, when a special play mode, such as auto-repeat play or random play is set, a pickup position will change before the read command is received from the system controller if the special play mode is executed in playing the memory disk in the same way as done for the audio disk. When another piece of map data is to be read out after reading the map data of one map, therefore, it inconveniently takes time to search for the head address of the desired map data after reception of the read command.
A so-called magazine-disk player is known which selectively plays one of multiple (six, for example) CDs stored in a retractable/protrudable manner in a case called “magazine” that is loaded detachably in the player.
There is a system already known which selectively plays one of multiple disks by remotely controlling the magazine-disk player arranged in a suitable location in a vehicle (e.g., in the trunk).
Accordingly, when the magazine-disk player is installed in a vehicle with audio CDs and memory disks loaded in the magazine, reproduction of musical tones and map display can selectively be performed.
In such an audio disk/memory disk player, if no muting is executed at the time of playing a memory disk, the map data on the memory disk will be released as noise from a loudspeaker. Even if the muting process is carried out, when a user erroneously acknowledges the memory disk as an audio disk and gives an operation command for audio disks such as random play, the moving of the pickup will be executed in the same manner as done for audio disks with no sounds generated from the loudspeaker. The user may therefore feel strange.
A disk player, which can play both an audio disk for sound reproduction and a CD-ROM (memory disk) having map data or the like for the navigation system recorded thereon, includes a D/A converter to convert a decoded digital signal into an analog signal when the audio disk is played. When the memory disk is played by such a disk player, the digital signal is supplied to a loudspeaker through a signal processor including the D/A converter, thus producing unpleasant noise. To prevent this shortcoming, a mute circuit may be provided to inhibit the supply of the signal from the D/A converter to the next stage.
If this measure is taken to prevent noise generation, the supply of the digital signal to the D/A converter will not be stopped, causing wasteful power dissipation due to the continuing conversion operation of the D/A converter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Considering the above, it is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide an audio disk/memory disk player capable of rapidly searching for the specified address in a case of the memory disk being played.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an on-vehicle multisource reproducing device which can properly control the supply of a reproduction signal to a loudspeaker in accordance with the type of a disk to be played.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved audio disk/memory disk player which overcomes the above-described problems of the conventional magazine-disk player.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a disk player which saves electric power to be wastefully consumed in a D/A converter when the memory disk is played.
An audio disk/memory disk player according to the present invention comprises: means for performing such control as to start playing a disk in response to a command; discriminating means for determining if a disk to be played is an audio disk or a memory disk; and means for performing such control as to play a music starting with a predetermined piece of music when the discriminating means judges that the disk to be played is the audio disk, and to set a pause mode when the disk to be played is judged as the memory disk.
This audio disk/memory disk player o

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