An information recording/playback apparatus capable of recording and playing back data on and from a magnetic tape through a network. A monitoring unit 15 regularly monitors the state of the data stored in a temporary storage unit 14. A first controlling unit 13 controls data transfer between a tape magnetic-storage medium 11 and the temporary storage unit 14 based on a result a of monitoring. A second controlling unit 16 controls information transfer between the temporary storage unit 14 and a network 21 based on the result a of monitoring. The first controlling unit 13 and the second controlling unit 16 do not interfere with each other and they independently operate asynchronously with each other. This asynchronous structure permits asynchronous data transfer to other apparatuses through an interface unit 17 and the network 21. The present invention can be applied to a digital VTR.