An electric appliance 1 has a code correspondence data table that accommodates the correspondence among the control signals of the remote control units belonging to recording medium drive apparatuses 2-1 to 2-m and signal reception apparatuses 3-1 to 3-n and a code correspondence data table that accommodates the correspondence between those control signals and the various operations performed by the electric appliance 1 to select contents. With reference to these code correspondence data tables, contents are selected and reproduced according to control signals transmitted from any remote control unit 6.