Patent ID: 7536080

Claim:
A signal processing apparatus, comprising: stream generating means for generating a predetermined stream; determining means for determining whether an input stream is in an insignificant state; and stream substituting means for substituting the input stream determined as being in the insignificant state with the predetermined stream generated by the stream generating means according to the result of the determining means; a memory for storing the predetermined stream in accordance with the insignificant state; an output means for outputting the result of the determining means as a control signal of a switch circuit, wherein, when a pre-input stream, which is independent from the input stream and sequentially precedes the substitution of the input stream with the predetermined stream, is completed with a sequence end code, contents of a sequence header and a sequence extension of a header portion of the predetermined stream are independent of the parameters extracted from the pre-input stream, and wherein, when the pre-input stream is not completed with a sequence end code, contents of a sequence header and a sequence extension of a header portion of the predetermined stream are the same as the parameters extracted from the pre-input stream.