In a video recording/playback apparatus, when recording a series of packets transmitted over an IEEE 1394 bus, a relative value is taken between a requested time of arrival written in a header portion and a cycle time at the time of reception, and then the requested time of arrival is replaced with the relative value. When playing back the series of packets, the relative value is added to a cycle time at the time of transmission, and the relative value is replaced by the obtained value which will be used as a requested time of arrival for playback.