Patent ID: 7529277

Claim:
An apparatus for receiving, separating and decoding a plurality of data streams, comprising: a receiver operable to produce an initial data stream containing multiplexed data packets representing a plurality of data programs from a plurality of transmitted data streams received over a communication channel; 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 and to output the intermediate data stream as packetized data, the separating device including a multiplexer operable to produce a multiplexed data stream including the initial data stream and a separator operable to extract the selected data programs from the multiplexed data stream; an interchange unit operable to change a first packet identifier of a first data packet of the intermediate data stream produced by the separating device to a unique packet identifier in the event that the first packet identifier is the same as a second packet identifier of a second data packet of the produced data stream, and to output resultant data; and a decode processor operable to decode the resultant data such that the multiplexed data packets representing the selected data programs are associated with one another, the decode processor including a video decode processor operable to decode a video portion of the resultant data corresponding to the selected data programs and to generate decoded video data, an audio decode processor operable to decode an audio portion of the resultant data corresponding to one of the selected data programs and to generate decoded audio data, a display generator operable to process the decoded video data for multi-screen displaying, and an audio generator operable to process the decoded audio data for playing.