Patent ID: 7751477

Claim:
A transcoder, comprising: an input that receives a first signal having a first signal type; a transcoder functional block that transforms the first signal having the first signal type thereby generating a second signal having a second signal type, wherein the transcoder functional block includes: a satellite receiver that is operative to decode the first signal having the first signal type, wherein the first signal including information encoded by a selected code of a plurality of codes, the satellite receiver including a plurality of decoding functionalities for respectively decoding in accordance with each of the plurality of code types, and the satellite receiver employing a selected decoding functionality of the plurality of decoding functionalities that corresponds to the selected code of the plurality of codes for decoding the first signal; a modulator, connected to an output of the satellite receiver, that is operative to encode and modulate decoded output from the satellite receiver; and a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter), connected to an output of the modulator, that is operative to transform the second signal having the second signal type from a digital signal into an analog signal; an output that transmits the second signal having the second signal type; a microcontroller or a state machine, external to and connected to each of the satellite receiver and the modulator, that is operative to direct operation of the transcoder functional block in transforming the first signal having the first signal type thereby generating the second signal having the second signal type; wherein the first signal type includes a first modulation, a first code rate, a first symbol rate, and a first data rate; and wherein the second signal type includes a second modulation, a second code rate, a second symbol rate, and a second data rate.