Patent ID: 7995896

Claim:
A television receiver comprising: a source of digital data comprising a plurality of data streams each representing one of a standard definition television signal and a high definition television signal and encoded in such a manner that it may be decoded at full resolution to produce an image substantially without visible decoding artifacts or decoded at partial resolution to produce an image possibly including visible decoding artifacts; a decoder, coupled to the digital data source, having a maximum decoding bandwidth less than that required to simultaneously decode two high definition television signals at full decoding resolution; a controller, coupled to the decoder, for selecting two respective ones of the data streams to be simultaneously decoded for non-picture-in-picture use responsive to user input, and if both represent a high definition television signal, requesting user input for specifying one of the two respective data streams to decode at partial resolution such that another one of the two respective data streams is decoded by said decoder at full resolution; and a first output terminal and a second output terminal, each configured to allow any single one of a first simultaneously decoded data stream and a second simultaneously decoded data stream to be independently and interchangeably output there from without subsequent demultiplexing with respect to the first and second simultaneously decoded data streams.