Patent ID: 6937618

Claim:
An apparatus for receiving, separating and decoding a data stream, comprising: a receiver operable to produce an initial data stream containing multiplexed data packets representing a plurality of data programs from at least one signal received over a communication channel, the multiplexed data packets each including an original packet identifier; a separating device operable to produce an intermediate data stream containing multiplexed data packets representing one or more selected ones of the data programs chosen from the initial data stream, the separating device including: a multiplexer operable to produce a multiplexed data stream including the initial data stream, a separator operable to extract the selected data programs from the multiplexed data stream, and an interchange unit operable to change the original packet identifier of a first multiplexed data packet to a unique packet identifier when the original packet identifier of the first multiplexed data packet is identical to the original packet identifier of a second multiplexed data packet, and to rewrite the unique packet identifier of the first multiplexed data packet back to the original packet identifier of the first multiplexed data packet prior to the separating device producing the intermediate data stream; and a decode processor operable to decode the intermediate data stream such that the multiplexed data packets representing the selected data programs are associated with one another.