The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for accomplishing a requested operation selectively based upon features of other equipment between equippments connected through a digital interface such as the IEEE 1394. The feature-dependent operating apparatus consists of a connector sending and receiving data through the digital interface; a memory storing feature information of a connected equipment received through the connector; a pickup detecting video and/or audio data from a data storage medium; a controller controlling the pickup to detect data from the data storage medium based on the stored feature information, converting the format of the detected data into a format specified in the stored feature information, and generating an advisory message informing a mismatch between the format of data to offer and the format specified in the feature information; and a data sender transmitting data detected by the pickup or the generated message to the connected equipment through the digital interface. This feature-dependent operating apparatus is able to adjust functions and processing capacity of a equipment to the maximal or universal capacity of the connected equipment automatically, or to inform a viewer of the cause of possible malfunction if the features of the connected equipment are not same, when data by a requested operation are to be transmitted to the connected equipment, thereby improving the convenience of a viewer.