Patent ID: 7720985

Claim:
A content receiving apparatus comprising: a communicating unit connecting to a server over a connection; a reception buffer receiving content data transmitted from said server through said communicating unit and storing the received content data; a content reproducing unit reproducing the content data read out of said reception buffer after a predetermined amount of the content data is stored in the reception buffer; a control unit controlling said communicating unit and said reception buffer; and an operating unit supplying an operation signal to said control unit, wherein said control unit: stops reception of said content data and stops an output of the content data to said reproducing unit from said reception buffer in response to a reproduction temporary stop instruction which is supplied from said operating unit; restarts the reception of said content data in accordance with a reproduction temporary stop cancellation instruction which is received from said operating unit and writes said received content data into said reception buffer; discriminates whether or not a signal to disconnect the connection has been received from said server after the reproduction stop cancellation instruction is received and before the predetermined amount of said content data is stored in the reception buffer; when said signal to disconnect the connection is not received, writes the predetermined amount of the content data into said reception buffer, and thereafter, starts reading from said reception buffer, outputs read-out data to said reproducing unit, and restarts the reproduction; and when the signal to disconnect the connection is received, determines whether data up to an end of a music piece of the content data has been received from the server, and, when the data up to the end of the music piece has not been received, clears the reception buffer.