Patent ID: 7490340

Claim:
A method of user-controlled censoring of a media signal, said method comprising: receiving the media signal for a single television program, the media signal including first censorship level data and second censorship level data, the first censorship level data including a first set of pixel numbers for a specific frame included in the single television program and the second censorship level data including a second set of pixel numbers for the specific frame included in the single television program, wherein the first set of pixel numbers are different than the second set of pixel numbers; retrieving control settings from a storage area; identifying an applicable censorship level using the retrieved control settings; selecting either the first censorship level data or the second censorship level data based upon the identified applicable censorship level; in response to selecting the first censorship level data, selecting the first set of pixel numbers and de-scrambling pixels within the specific frame that correspond to the first set of pixel numbers; in response to selecting the second censorship level data, selecting the second set of pixel numbers and de-scrambling pixels within the specific frame that correspond to the second set of pixel numbers; and displaying the frame with the de-scrambled pixels.