Patent ID: 8209716

Claim:
A video audio setting information management apparatus comprising: a setting information storing portion associating a first plurality of pieces of recommended setting information used to output a video signal or an audio signal with first corresponding viewing conditions and storing the associated information, the first corresponding viewing conditions comprising at least a piece of personal information of a user independent of the video signal or audio signal; a setting information receiving portion receiving via a network a second plurality of pieces of recommended setting information and second corresponding viewing conditions; an adequacy determining portion determining that the second plurality of pieces of recommended setting information are adequate when the second plurality of pieces of recommended setting information falls within a predetermined range in a distribution of the first plurality of pieces of recommended setting information stored in the setting information storing portion; a setting information registering portion registering the second plurality of pieces of recommended setting information and the second corresponding viewing conditions in the setting information storing portion based on the determination results of the adequacy determining portion; a recommendable setting information request receiving portion receiving a request for recommendable setting information and a user viewing condition; a condition extracting portion extracting a third plurality of pieces of recommended setting information from the plurality of stored pieces of recommended setting information on the basis of the user viewing condition; a recommendable setting information deriving portion deriving recommendable setting information from the extracted third plurality of pieces of recommended setting information; and a recommendable setting information providing portion providing the derived recommendable setting information via the network.