Patent ID: 7933485

Claim:
An audio-video output device connected, via a network, to an audio-video reproduction device which reproduces audio data and video data, and to an audio output device capable of outputting the audio data reproduced by the audio-video reproduction device, said audio-video output device being capable of outputting the audio data and the video data reproduced by the audio-video reproduction device, wherein, in the network: (i) the audio data and the video data are unidirectionally transmitted from any given data transmission device to any given data reception device; (ii) a control message is bidirectionally transmitted between all of the devices; and (iii) a connection between the devices for transmitting and receiving the audio data and the video data becomes valid when unidirectional transmission of audio reproduction capability information of the data reception device from the data reception device to the data transmission device becomes available, said audio-video output device comprises: an audio reproduction capability inquiry unit configured to inquire, from the audio output device, audio reproduction capability information of the audio output device, and to acquire the audio reproduction capability information; and a control message transmission unit configured to transmit, to the audio-video reproduction device, the control message including the audio reproduction capability information of the audio output device and information setting whether audio reproduction capability indicated by the audio reproduction capability information is used or not, in the case where, (i) in the network, the audio-video reproduction device and said audio-video output device are connected in such a manner that the audio data and the video data are unidirectionally transmitted from the audio-video reproduction device to said audio-video output device, and where (ii) said audio-video output device and the audio output device are connected in such a manner that the audio data is output from said audio-video output device to the audio output device through a network different from the network, said control message transmission unit is configured to prohibit re-transmitting the audio reproduction capability information to the audio-video reproduction device using unidirectional transmission when transmitting the control message.