Reproducing apparatus

Claim 1

A reproducing apparatus for reproducing a program from a recording medium (1) which has recorded thereon, as segment management data which are used to reproduce unit program data each recorded on a single continuous segment or a plurality of discrete segments, for each of the recorded programs, management data including a plurality of part tables each having a start address and an end address of a segment and link information indicative of another part table in which a start address and an end address of another segment to be linked to the end address of the former segment are stored and corresponding table indicating data indicating a stored position of one or a head one of a plurality of ones of the part tables of the management data for each of the recorded programs, comprising: data read-out means (3, 7) for reading out data from the recording medium (1); means (8) for producing reproduction advancement data from the segment management data read out by said data read-out means; control means (11, 12) for controlling an ordinary reproducing oration or a irregular reproducing operation based on the reproduction advancement data; and storage means (13) for storing the reproduction advancement data therein; the reproduction advancement data being produced such that segment numbers are indicated in order of reproduction so that the segments can be accessed successively in the forward or reverse reproducing direction.