Patent ID: 6873787

Claim:
A receiving and reproducing apparatus, comprising: a control circuit operable to receive at least one operation command provided by a user; a receiver operable to receive a digital television broadcast signal when the received operation command is a command to select a digital television broadcast channel, the digital television broadcast signal being received coded in a compressed form according to a predetermined method; a reproducing device operable to reproduce an AV signal from a recording medium when the received operation command is a command to reproduce data, the AV signal being reproduced coded in a compressed form according to the predetermined method; a switching circuit operable to select the received digital television broadcast signal when the received operation command is the command to select the digital television broadcast channel and being operable to select the reproduced AV signal when the received operation command is the command to reproduce data; a decoder operable to decode the selected signal to generate at least one decoded signal and at least one copyright protection signal; and an adder operable to add the copyright protection signal to the decoded signal for limiting the copying of the decoded signal.