A recording/reproducing apparatus capable of recording music composition data (voice signal) acquired by reproducing a CD (Compact Disc), etc., on an MD (Mini Disc), etc., is known.
An MD is provided with a U-TOC (User's Table Of Contents) as an area for recording title information composed of track titles, etc., for each disc title and music composition data piece.
After recording music composition data on the MD, the recording/reproducing apparatus can register disc titles and track titles, etc. (title information) entered by the user in the U-TOC of the MD.
On the other hand, a service of providing information on commercially available music CDs for users who access over the Internet is becoming a common practice. A disc information database for providing such a service prestores detailed information (attribute information) on various kinds of commercially available music CDs in a database system and supplies the attribute information at the request from a requesting device.
The user can easily acquire information on music CD titles, music titles, artists, etc., (attribute information) using the disc information database through a music-related site. However, when the information acquired from the disc information database is registered in the U-TOC of an MD, the user needs to operate a predetermined operation section (operation keys and remote control, etc.) of the recording/reproducing apparatus to enter characters of information one by one. Such an operation is troublesome to the user.
Furthermore, after the user registers information such as an album title and music title in the U-TOC of the MD, the recording/reproducing apparatus can display the album title and music title, etc., on a display section during reproducing of the MD.
However, it is often the case that the user cannot easily grasp the image of the music or artist through the album title and music title, etc., displayed on the display section alone.
Thus, if an image related to the disc (e.g., picture on the jacket or artist image, etc.) can be displayed simultaneously with the reproduction of the disc such as MD, it is to be expected that this will allow the user to easily grasp the image of the music or artist and thereby enjoy the music in a more profound way.
When using the above-described disc information database, the requesting device sends TOC information for identifying a music CD to a music-related site, etc. In this case, generally, the requesting device only sends a minimum portion of the TOC information that can identify the music CD instead of sending the full TOC information acquired from the music CD.
This may cause a plurality of attribute information pieces to be searched from the disc information database. In such a case, the requesting device will be presented a message that a plurality of attribute information pieces has been searched or part of each attribute information piece (album title, etc.) sent from the music-related site, etc. on the display section and requested to select at least one attribute information piece. Then, the requesting device continues communicating with or remains connected to the Internet until the user selects the attribute information, which results in extra communication charges.
That is, until the requesting device finishes acquiring the attribute information, the user needs to stay and check the requesting device and if a plurality of attribute information pieces has been searched, the user needs to immediately instruct the requesting device to select some attribute information.
Especially when acquiring attribute information on a plurality of music CDs, the user needs to check the requesting device over a long time until the requesting device finishes acquiring the attribute information.
As stated above, to access the music-related site, the requesting device needs to get connected to the Internet using some communication apparatus. When this communication apparatus is a wireless communication apparatus (mobile wireless communication device) such as a portable phone, a strong electric field generated during a communication may cause some influence on the requesting device or the operation thereof.
For example, when the requesting device is a recording apparatus (recording/reproducing apparatus), it is affected by a strong electric field and the recording quality may deteriorate. That is, while the recording apparatus (recording/reproducing apparatus) is recording music composition data if the portable phone, etc., is used to communicate with the music-related site, etc., noise or a noise signal may be mixed in the data.
To avoid the influence of such a strong electric field, the recording apparatus (recording/reproducing apparatus) may be protected with an electromagnetic shield material, etc., but this is not quite realistic because it would involve a cost increase.
The present invention has been implemented taking into account the actual situations described above and it is an object of the present invention to make it possible to acquire attribute information of music composition recorded on a reproducing medium from an information providing site and easily record it in a recording medium, etc.
Furthermore, it is another object of the present invention to easily acquire attribute information of music composition and provide an available system and method.
Furthermore, it is a further object of the present invention to easily acquire attribute information of music composition and provide an available apparatus.
Furthermore, it is a still further object of the present invention to make it possible to appropriately provide attribute information on music composition recorded on a reproducing medium.
The present invention has been implemented taking into account the actual situations described above and it is a still further object of the present invention to provide a recording/reproducing apparatus capable of appropriately recording music composition data, etc., taking into account influences of communications by communication apparatuses.