To make uniform recording of message information.
An encoding method deciding part 22 specifies a track where audio signal data encoded by the encoding method of a new standard are recorded, and counts a number of tracks to which specified character information is added, and a number of tracks to which the specified character information is not added. A system controller 18 compares the numbers of tracks counted by the encoding method deciding part 22 and discriminates whether or not the number of tracks to which the specified character information is added is greater than the number of tracks to which the specified character information is not added. On the basis of the discriminated result, the system controller 18 carries out either character information deleting processing for deleting the specified character information added to title information or character information adding processing for adding the specified character information to the title information.