APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REPRODUCING CHARACTER INFORMATION RECORDED ON A RECORDING MEDIUM

At a first step, a disc is mounted on a playback apparatus. Subsequently, at a second step, CD-TEXT data recorded in the lead-in area of the disc is read out and decoded before being stored into a memory unit. Then, the CD-TEXT data containing character information is searched for a string of characters. The second step is followed by a third step to form a judgment as to whether or not a string of characters representing address information has been found in the search. If found, then at a fourth step, the string of characters found in the search is recognized as address information and displayed in a format for a string of characters representing a URL or an electronic-mail address. As a result, CD-TEXT data can be searched for a string of characters which is recognized as address information.