Entry points are managed so they are easy for users to understand. The data recording apparatus has a receiver unit that receives a stream of encoded digital data; an analyzer that detects change in an attribute of the received stream and that outputs the detection information; a controller that generates management information containing the detection information output by the analyzer and time information indicating detection time of the change as a first entry point; a drive that records the management information and the received stream to a data storage medium; and an input unit that defines a second entry point. This second entry point is set relative to the playback path of the stream and is used to access and read from a particular point in the stream. The controller further generates the management information containing the first entry point and the second entry point separately identified.