A digital broadcast media recording apparatus has means for determining if a program which is scheduled to be broadcast has already been recorded, and, if it has been, for deciding if the program which is scheduled to be broadcast should be recorded based on a comparison of the attributes of the digital signal representing the scheduled program and corresponding attributes of the digital signal representing the recorded program. If it is determined that the scheduled program should be recorded, a control means gives an instruction which causes a recording unit to record the broadcast digital system representing the scheduled program when it is broadcast. Optionally, the digital signal representing the recorded program can be deleted once the digital signal representing the scheduled program is recorded. An identifier is used to determine whether the scheduled program is the same as a recorded program. This means that if the attributes of the digital signal representing the scheduled program are considered to be more desirable than the attributes of the digital signal representing the recorded program, the scheduled program can be stored on a storage media instead of, or as well as, the recorded version of the program.