The invention provides an image processing apparatus and method by which a network can be used efficiently and playback and so forth with a favorable responsibility can be achieved. If a user operates an operation panel to input an instruction for normal playback, then a control circuit of a digital television monitor determines a frame to be played back at present as a noticed frame and requests the hard disk recorder for image data of successive 15 frames forwardly and backwardly adjacent the noticed frame and image data at positions of time intervals of 0.5 seconds within a range of 2 minutes forwardly and backwardly of the noticed frame through an IEEE 1394 cable. Then, when image data of the object of the request are received from the hard disk recorder, the control circuit stores the image data into a buffer which can store image data for several hours. The image data stored in the buffer are read out when necessary and displayed on a display unit.