Audio signal recording apparatus and method for use with VTR
 An audio signal recording apparatus and method for recording an video signal (e.g., a half field) and at least four channels of audio signals corresponding to the video signal to a plurality of tracks on a tape. The audio signals are recorded to recording blocks in an audio recording area which are separated from a recording area for the corresponding video signal in accordance with a priority rating. More specifically, the at least four channels of audio signals are divided into groups each having a plurality of channels. The audio signal recording area is divided into a plurality of recording blocks in the longitudinal direction of the tracks and each group of audio data is recorded to one of the audio signal recording blocks. Each group of audio data is assigned a priority rating depending on the importance of the data contained therein. Audio data having a high priority are recorded to blocks that are located further away from the track ends than those for audio data having a low priority. Since the contact fit between the tape and a recording head at the track ends is unstable, by recording the audio data of high priorities in blocks located relatively for away from the track ends where the tape-to-head contact fit is more stable, deterioration in sound quality is minimized for the important data upon reproduction. 
Sony Corporation
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Kenji Keitaro Ichiro
Fukumoto Yamashita Okamoto