Patent ID: 8280233

Claim:
A playback apparatus for reading an audio stream in an encoded state from a recording medium and playing back the read audio stream, the playback apparatus comprising: a judging unit operable to judge whether or not a connection partner apparatus has a decode capability; an inquiring unit operable to, if the judging unit judges that the connection partner apparatus has the decode capability, inquire to a user which of a decoder embedded in the playback apparatus and a decoder embedded in the connection partner apparatus is to be used in decoding of the audio stream; a status register; a selection unit operable to set the decode capability of the connection partner apparatus into the status register, and select an audio stream to be played back, in accordance with the decode capability set in the status register and an attribute of the audio stream, if, in response to the inquiry, the user determines to use the decoder of the connection partner apparatus; and a transfer unit operable to read the selected audio stream from the recording medium, and transfer the read audio stream to the connection partner apparatus by keeping the audio stream in the encoded state.