Patent ID: 7551227

Claim:
A signal processor comprising: a digital input section for separately receiving an encoded video bit stream, digital image data, an encoded audio bit stream and digital audio data; a data buffer capable of holding the encoded video bit stream, the digital image data, the encoded audio bit stream and the digital audio data, each being separately output from the digital input section; a decoding section including a video decoding section for receiving the encoded video bit stream held in the data buffer and outputting the decoded video bit stream and an audio decoding section for receiving the digital audio data and the encoded audio bit stream and outputting the digital audio data and the decoded audio bit stream; a synchronizing section for controlling an operation of the audio decoding section to synchronize an output of the encoded audio bit stream, an output of the digital audio data and a display of the digital image data; and an output section including: a picture display section for receiving the decoded video bit stream and outputting the decoded video bit stream as display data, a digital image display section for receiving the digital image data held in the data buffer and outputting the digital image data as display data, and an audio output section for outputting the decoded audio bit stream and the digital audio data, wherein the synchronizing section synchronizes an output of the digital image display section and an output of the audio output section, wherein the digital input section includes a picture input section for receiving the encoded video bit stream and a digital image input section for receiving the digital image data, and wherein the synchronizing section includes an input detection section for detecting an input of the digital image data into the digital image input section, a counter section for counting an elapsed time from a time at which the input detection section detects the input of the digital image data, a first input/output total time section for holding a time difference between a first total time, i.e., a required total time from a time at which the digital image data is received by the digital image input section to a time at which the digital image data is output from the digital image display section and a second total time, i.e., a required total time from a time at which the digital audio data is received by the audio decoding section to a time at which the digital audio data is output from the audio output section, and a first comparison section for making, if the time difference between the first and second total times and a count value of the counter section are judged equal to each other, the audio decoding section start decoding of the audio bit stream.