PURPOSE: To provide a start signal decision device capable of performing the accurate program searching of music, by extracting a start identification signal of 1 or 0 from a digital reproducing signal, and deciding a case where the number of the start signals 1 exceeds a prescribed number as the completion of fast searching.

CONSTITUTION: To perform fast feeding, a microcomputer issues a command to rotate at high speed to a reel controller, and a tape starts to be fed at speed faster than that in ordinary feeding. An area where oblique lines are drawn is the one where a start ID is written judging from the position relation of a pattern in which a head locus at the time of performing FF (fast feeding) and the start ID recorded on the tape. The start ID is inputted to a first-in/first- out (FiFo) register, and when the start IDs of a certain number of registers exceeding the prescribed number out of plural registers with a prescribed number of scan are set (1)s, the fact is judged as the completion of the searching, then, the tape is stopped.