An objective lens of an optical pickup is made to move from far position
to near position with respect to DVD with constant speed, and a timer
counts time taken for the movement of a focus of a laser beam between
recording layers of the DVD on the basis of a focus error signal obtained
from this movement. In the case of the DVD of the single-layer, since the
recording layer is one-layer, and there is no interlayer, count value
becomes small value. While, in the case of DVD of the multi-layer, the
recording layer consists of a plurality of layers, thus one or
plural-interlayer exists, therefore, count value becomes large value.
Accordingly, if small count value is obtained, its DVD is discriminated
as DVD of the single-layer. While, if large count value is obtained, its
DVD is discriminated as DVD of the multi-layer.