Patent ID: 7433424

Claim:
A signal receiving apparatus for receiving a digital satellite broadcasting signal containing a scrambled first broadcast signal in a first format or a scrambled second broadcast signal in a second format, said second format having a transport stream exhibiting a data structure including a timestamp and a transport stream packet length, said apparatus comprising: signal receiving means for receiving said digital satellite broadcasting signal; extracting means for extracting said scrambled first broadcast signal or said scrambled second broadcast signal from said digital satellite broadcasting signal; storage means for storing a user's information representing authorization of the user to access the digital satellite broadcasting signal; transmitting means for transmitting the user information from the storage means to a broadcast station; descrambling means for descrambling said scrambled first broadcast signal or said scrambled second broadcast signal extracted by said extracting means if said user information represents authorization to access said digital satellite broadcasting signal; judging means for judging whether said digital satellite broadcasting signal received by said signal receiving means is in the first broadcast signal format or in the second broadcast signal format; generating means for generating an analog signal in accordance with the descrambled first broadcast signal and for adding to the analog signal a signal for suppressing copying of the analog signal if it is determined by the judging means that the digital broadcast signal satellite is in said first format; first output means for outputting from an analog interface the analog signal generated in said generating means as the digital satellite output signal when said judging means judges that said received digital satellite broadcasting signal is in said first format; conversion means for converting the data structure of the descrambled second broadcast signal by rearranging said timestamp and said packet length of said transport stream of the second broadcast signal when it is determined by the judging means that the digital satellite broadcast signal is in said second format to generate a third broadcast signal; and second output means for outputting from a digital interface as the digital satellite output signal the third broadcast signal generated in said conversion means when said judging means judges that said received digital satellite broadcasting signal is in said second format.