A digital information recording apparatus includes a recording circuit for recording information of a retention period included in the digital information and indicating a period for permitting the digital information to be held in the recording medium, starting with a time at which the digital information is recorded on the recording medium; and information of a playback permission period included in the digital information and indicating a period for permitting the digital information to be played back starting with a time at which the information is reproduced initially following recording of the digital information on the recording medium, permitting temporary recording or copying for the information permitted for copy never or copy one generation.

A data storage device is disclosed comprising a first disk surface comprising a plurality of data tracks, and a first head actuated over the first disk surface. First data is written to the first disk surface based on a first format. At least part of the first disk surface is reformatted based on a second format, wherein the second format defines a lower recording density for the first disk surface as compared to a recording density defined by the first format. After reformatting the at least part of the first disk surface, second data is written to the first disk surface based on the second format and the first data is read from the first disk surface based on the first format.

Provided is an image encoding device including circuitry configured to generate a file with clean random access (CRA) information, which identifies CRA pictures in the image and which is set in a header region of a file that includes the header region and a data region within which a series of encoded image data associated with actual data of the image is stored, wherein the file is an MP4 format file, wherein the CRA information is sample group information grouping a plurality of CRA pictures, wherein the CRA information includes previous picture information used to identify a previous picture which is previous to each CRA picture in a presentation order and is not encoded normally at a time of random access to the CRA picture, and wherein output of the previous picture from the image encoding device is skipped based on the previous picture information.

Provided is an image encoding device including circuitry configured to generate a file with clean random access (CRA) information, which identifies CRA pictures in the image and which is set in a header region of a file that includes the header region and a data region within which a series of encoded image data associated with actual data of the image is stored, wherein the file is an MP4 format file, wherein the CRA information is sample group information grouping a plurality of CRA pictures, wherein the CRA information includes previous picture information used to identify a previous picture which is previous to each CRA picture in a presentation order and is not encoded normally at a time of random access to the CRA picture, and wherein output of the previous picture from the image encoding device is skipped based on the previous picture information.

Example systems, data storage devices, testers, and methods for storage device configuration using mutual information are described. A data storage device may include channel circuit configuration settings for the encoding and decoding of data written to a non-volatile storage medium. Mutual information metrics may be calculated based on a multi-bit symbol size to compensate for inter-symbol interference and compared to mutual information thresholds to determine the configuration settings, such as bit and track densities, error correction codes, and modulation codes. Mutual information metrics may be used to characterize heads and media independent of the configuration settings.

A method is provided for judging whether a double-sided optical disc is placed reversely. Firstly, the disc is loaded. Then, a first optical pickup head emits a first laser beam to a first specified area of the disc and receives a first reflected laser beam. A second optical pickup head emits a second laser beam to a second specified area of the disc and receives a second reflected laser beam. If the first reflected laser beam generates an alternate brightness and darkness change and the second reflected laser beam does not generate the alternate brightness and darkness change, the disc is not placed reversely. If the first reflected laser beam does not generate the alternate brightness and darkness change and the second reflected laser beam generates the alternate brightness and darkness change, the disc is placed reversely.

Provided is an image decoding device including an acquisition unit configured to acquire clean random access (CRA) information used to identify one or more CRA pictures in an image sequence inserted into a data region from a header region of a file format including the header region and the data region, a control unit configured to specify one CRA picture in the image sequence as a decoding start picture using the CRA information when an instruction of random access is detected, and a decoding unit configured to decode the image sequence from the decoding start picture specified by the control unit.

Provided is an image decoding device including an acquisition unit configured to acquire clean random access (CRA) information used to identify one or more CRA pictures in an image sequence inserted into a data region from a header region of a file format including the header region and the data region, a control unit configured to specify one CRA picture in the image sequence as a decoding start picture using the CRA information when an instruction of random access is detected, and a decoding unit configured to decode the image sequence from the decoding start picture specified by the control unit.

Provided is an image decoding device including an acquisition unit configured to acquire clean random access (CRA) information used to identify one or more CRA pictures in an image sequence inserted into a data region from a header region of a file format including the header region and the data region, a control unit configured to specify one CRA picture in the image sequence as a decoding start picture using the CRA information when an instruction of random access is detected, and a decoding unit configured to decode the image sequence from the decoding start picture specified by the control unit.

A method is provided for judging whether a double-sided optical disc is placed reversely into an optical disc drive. The optical disc drive includes a first control module and a second control module. The first control module includes a first optical pickup head. The second control module includes a second optical pickup head. Firstly, the double-sided optical disc is loaded. Then, the first optical pickup head of the first control module emits a laser beam to a specified area of the double-sided optical disc and receives a reflected laser beam from the specified area. If the reflected laser beam generates an alternate brightness and darkness change, the double-sided optical disc is not placed reversely. If the reflected laser beam does not generate the alternate brightness and darkness change, the double-sided optical disc is placed reversely.