Patent ID: 7433576

Claim:
A video data recording/reproducing apparatus comprising: an input device that inputs video data item to be recorded; a data storage unit that stores the video data item input by the input device; a communication unit that communicates with an external unit via a network; means for moving one of a plurality of video data items stored in the data storage unit to the external unit by communication between the communication unit and the external unit, to increase a free memory space in the data storage unit, the moving means including means for adding identification information for identifying the video data recording/reproducing apparatus to a video data item that is to be moved to the external unit; means for determining whether a to-be-reproduced video data item is stored in the data storage unit or in the external unit; means for reproducing the to-be-reproduced video data item from the data storage unit, if it is determined that the to-be-reproduced video data item is stored in the data storage unit; means for executing a verification process for determining whether a to-be-reproduced video data item stored in the external unit is the video data item that is moved from the video data recording/reproducing apparatus, based on identification information that is added to the to-be-reproduced video data item stored in the external unit; means for executing a streaming process to reproduce a stream of the to-be-reproduced video data item that is transferred from the external unit while the stream of the to-be-reproduced video data item is being received by the communication unit, if it is determined that the to-be-reproduced video data item is stored in the external unit and is the video data item that is moved from the video data recording/reproducing apparatus; and means for prohibiting execution of the streaming process if it is determined that the to-be-reproduced video data item is not the video data item that is moved from the video data recording/reproducing apparatus.