PURPOSE: To enable tracking control without being influenced by a frequency characteristic by detecting a tracking error with one kind of pilot frequency and reducing redundancy for an information signal of a pilot signal in simple constitution.

CONSTITUTION: The level of the pilot signal is detected from a regenerative signal from a read head 1 by a level detecting circuit 13. Then, a difference between a memory output signal (c) of a pilot detecting signal delayed by 2-scan period by a memory 5 and its output is obtained by a difference circuit 8, and a tracking error signal (d) is obtained in periods 2b and 2d. Now, when the tracking control is performed based on the output of the circuit 8, the redundancy of the pilot signal for the information signal is reduced, and the tracking control without being influenced by a frequency characteristic can be attained in simple constitution.