Patent ID: 8428757

Claim:
A reproducing apparatus comprising: interface means for connecting with a plurality of portable players, each of the portable players including a storage medium, a reproducing unit, and an operating unit, said storage medium being configured to store files of content data and content management data for managing said files, and said reproducing unit being configured to reproduce said files; integrated content management data creation means for identifying the portable players connected to the reproducing apparatus via said interface means, reading said content management data from said storage medium of each of the identified portable players into a memory, and integrating a plurality of groups of said content management data into a single group within said memory in order to create integrated content management data, wherein said integrated content management data includes device identification data, attribute data, file names, and a reproduction status flag that are associated with a plurality of contents constituted by said content data; reproduction content designation means for designating one of the contents to be reproduced in accordance with said integrated content management data and a current playback mode of the reproducing apparatus, the current playback mode designating an order in which the contents are designated; content access means for gaining access through said interface means to the designated content found on said storage medium of one of said portable players based on said device identification data and on a file name corresponding to the designated content; reproduction means for reproducing the accessed content; and a controller that searches within the integrated content management data for an entry that references a file that includes content that is identical to the accessed content, and that updates the reproduction status flag for the entry in the integrated content management data to indicate that the file referenced by the entry has been reproduced because of the reproduction of the accessed content.