Patent ID: 7236685

Claim:
A reproduction speed conversion apparatus, comprising: an audio decoding section for decoding compression-encoded audio data so as to output decoded audio data; an audio reproduction speed conversion section for converting a reproduction speed of the decoded audio data in response to a first reproduction speed signal representing a requested level of reproduction speed; a video reproduction speed conversion section for converting the reproduction speed of compression-encoded video data in response to the first reproduction speed signal; and a video decoding section for decoding the compression-encoded video data which is output from the video reproduction speed conversion section, wherein: the video reproduction speed conversion section determines whether reproduction speed conversion corresponding to the requested level is possible or not; when the reproduction speed conversion corresponding to the requested level is determined to be possible, the video reproduction speed conversion section performs reproduction speed conversion corresponding to the requested level; when the reproduction speed conversion corresponding to the requested level is determined to be impossible, the video reproduction speed conversion section performs reproduction speed conversion corresponding to a prescribed level lower than the requested level, and outputs a second reproduction speed signal representing the prescribed level to the audio reproduction speed conversion section, and the audio reproduction speed conversion section performs reproduction speed conversion corresponding to the prescribed level in response to the second reproduction speed signal from the video reproduction speed conversion section.