Patent ID: 8467528

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a selection signal indicating a selected security level from among a plurality of security levels; booting a processor via a boot loader module within the processor in accordance with the selected security level to operate in a selected security mode; receiving by the processor operating in the selected security mode a content carrying signal that includes content protection; determining from the content carrying signal a type of content protection associated with the content carrying signal by the processor operating in the selected security mode recognizing the presence of content protection in the content carrying signal; processing the content carrying signal by the processor operating in the selected security mode in accordance with the type of content protection and the selected security level to produce an intermediate signal; encrypting at least a portion of the intermediate signal the processor operating in the selected security mode, in accordance with the type of content protection and the selected security level, to produce an encrypted signal and providing a decryption key to the host when required by the selected security mode; and outputting from the processor operating in the selected security mode the encrypted signal to the host in accordance with the selected security level.