Patent 7830762 was granted and assigned to Sanyo on November, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A laser power which is lower than an optimum reproduction laser power is set as an initial value. The reproduction laser power is increased from the initial value while trial reproduction is performed until a quality level of a reproduction signal is not lower than a reference level. At the time the quality level of the reproduction signal is not lower than the reference level, the reproduction laser power is set as the reproduction laser power with respect to an optical disk which is of a reproduction target.