The portable electronic device 200 creates (step 805) a persistent connection to the intelligent multimedia playback device 250 whose device status is online. The persistent connection is different from a non-persistent connection. The non-persistent connection means that a connection is broken after devices are connected and complete data exchange. The persistent connection means that a connection is maintained after devices are connected and complete data exchange. For example, a period in which the intelligent multimedia playback device 250 synchronizes the playback information to the portable electronic device 200 is 30 minutes. If the smart television 111 is forcibly powered off at a moment within 30 minutes, and the mobile phone 407 is always in a control center interface 353, it takes approximately 30 minutes to determine that the smart television 111 is offline. Establishing the persistent connection from the portable electronic device 200 to each intelligent multimedia playback device 250 can speed up determining. For example, after the smart television 111 generates the playback control card 409, the mobile phone 407 establishes a persistent connection to the smart television 111. The mobile phone 407 sends first persistent connection information to the smart television 111 every 15 seconds. After receiving the first persistent connection information, the smart television 111 returns second persistent connection information to the mobile phone 407. If the mobile phone 407 does not receive the second persistent connection information within a specific time period, it indicates that the persistent connection is interrupted. In this case, it is considered that the smart television 111 is offline, and a device status of the smart television 111 is changed to offline. In some possible implementation solutions, content of persistent connection information is a status code. For example, content of the first persistent connection information is “1”, and content of the second persistent connection information is “2”. In this manner, an amount of transmitted data can be reduced. In some other implementation solutions, optionally, content of the first persistent connection information is a playback information obtaining request, and content of the second persistent connection information is playback information.