Patent ID: 8189780

Claim:
A method, the method comprising: demodulating a content composed of received digital data; invalidating demodulated packets matched with a predetermined condition among the demodulated packets contained in demodulated data on which the demodulation processing is performed; outputting the demodulated data including the invalidated demodulated packets to an external module that decodes only encrypted contents, the external module being outside of a content decoding apparatus; determining whether or not a target content is contained in the invalidated demodulated packets; passing-through the demodulated data not via the external module in cases in which the target content is contained in the invalidated demodulated packets, and receiving an output from the external module in cases in which the target content is not contained in the invalidated demodulated packets; and extracting the target content from the demodulated data and outputting the target content, wherein the method is performed by the content decoding apparatus comprising a register.