A rotary head type reproducing apparatus capable of displaying each data code indicative of date, time and frame number, without interruption even during reproduction from a recording track on which a recording is made with such data code absent. In the apparatus, a recording track having a data code signal recording area in which a search marker is recorded is scanned by a rotary head, and when the search marker is reproduced and outputted, the search marker is demodulated by a search marker demodulating circuit and, simultaneously, the output of a data interpolating circuit is selected at the input of a switch. Each time a variation point of an SWP (head switching pulse) is detected by an SWP detecting circuit, the data interpolating circuit increments the respective count values of a frame counter, a time counter and a date counter decoded from a data code, on the basis of a data code obtained immediately before the demodulation of the search marker, and outputs the result to a system control circuit. The system control circuit displays the respective count values on a display.

A magnetic recording and reproducing device according to the present invention operates with steps of moving a magnetic tape having a plurality of tracks per frame and a plurality of control signals recorded thereon, keeping count of the pulses of a frequency generator signal corresponding to the rotation of a capstan motor by a frequency generator counter, resetting the count of the frequency generator pulses by the control signal reproduced by a fixed magnetic head, detecting the track number by the control signal counter reset by a frame reference signal, controlling, at the start, the start timing on the basis of the tape stop position detected by the frequency generator pulse counter and control counter and the reference frame signal from the reference frame signal generator. The device prevents thinning of tracks at the editing point in after-break recording and the disturbance of images immediately after the start. The device does not require a special circuit or complicated software-wise processing, and provides a stabilized slow-reproduced image. Further, in a magnetic recording and reproducing device for intermittent recording, there is no danger of causing thinning to recorded tracks. Thus, a reproduced image of high quality can be obtained.

A tape transport servo system and method that do not make use of tachometers and/or encoders to derive tape velocity and position are provided. The tape transport servo system and method derive velocity and position of the tape from a primary and direct manner and also a secondary or alternative manner, especially when the primary or direct manner cannot be used. The tape transport servo system and method control a tape drive and moves a tape between one reel driven by one motor to another reel driven by another motor. The tape is read by a recording head composed of data readers, data writers and a dedicated set of servo read elements. A position and a velocity of the tape are determined from a primary velocity source when the tape is being read by the head. The position and the velocity of the tape are determined from a secondary velocity source when the tape is not being read by the head. The velocity of the tape is compared to a desired programmed reference velocity for the tape. The velocity of the tape is driven to the desired programmed reference velocity if the velocity is not equal to the desired velocity. The velocity of the tape is controlled by regulating the velocity and the driving currents of the motors. The tape transport servo system comprises a digital signal processor and a servo motor control system. The servo motor control system comprises a servo logic system, sensors, PWM motor drivers, power amplifiers, DACs, counters, computation systems, and a timing-based servo pattern monitoring system.