Patent ID: 7171677

Claim:
A broadcast storing and displaying apparatus which comprises: a network; a network management apparatus for managing said network; and plural types of video apparatuses connected to said network, each of said video apparatuses being capable of inquiring about state information of all others of said video apparatuses by sending an inquiry to said network management apparatus, wherein each of said plural types of video apparatuses transmits the state information relating to functions or application program interfaces, service-availability and stored programs thereof to said network, said network management apparatus stores the state information of said plural types of video apparatuses, and when one of said plural types of video apparatuses inquires about the state information of the other video apparatuses to said network management apparatus, said one of said video apparatuses determines and selects, based solely on the state information of the other video apparatuses provided by said network management apparatus, a video apparatus to be a communication partner on the basis of the state information of the other video apparatuses, wherein said one of said video apparatuses makes a sole determination as to the communication partner of said one of said video apparatuses based on the state information that said network management apparatus received from the other video apparatuses and forwarded to said one of said video apparatuses, said sole determination being made without an input by a user, and wherein said sole determination includes determination of an apparatus storing a designated program on the basis of information relating to programs stored in storing apparatuses.