The invention provides an electronic equipment controlling apparatus and method and an electronic equipment controlling system by which functions of an electronic equipment can be utilized effectively. AV equipments are connected to a PC module by an IEEE 1394 cable. Each of the AV equipments includes a ROM in which information of function units built in the AV equipment is stored. Upon initialization, the PC module receives transmission of and stores the information of the function units of the AV equipments from the AV equipments. When an instruction to record data reproduced from a first one of the AV equipments onto a second one of the AV equipments is received, the PC module transfers data in accordance with the information of the function units stored therein and automatically searches for function units to be processed.