Patent ID: 8548373

Claim:
An apparatus for identifying a digital audio signal, comprising: an input to receive the digital audio signal, wherein the digital audio signal includes data from a broadcast or a stored digital program signal; a detector to receive the digital audio signal from the input and to determine whether the received digital audio signal is uncompressed as received at the input; a decoder to receive the digital audio signal from the detector when the digital audio signal is compressed as received at the input and to identify a first program-identifying code in an auxiliary field of the compressed digital audio signal; and a code reader to receive the digital audio signal from the detector when the digital audio signal is uncompressed as received at the input and to receive the digital audio signal from a decompressor when the digital audio signal is compressed as received at the input, wherein the code reader is to identify a second program-identifying code in a decompressed or uncompressed portion of the digital audio signal when the first program-identifying code is not identified in the auxiliary field or when the digital audio signal is uncompressed as received at the input.