Systems and methods that protect transport stream content are disclosed.
The system may include a first module and a second module, the first
module having a common interface. The second module is coupled to the
first module via the common interface. In one embodiment, the first
module is a set top box, and the second module is a conditional access
card. In one example, the first module demodulates an incoming transport
stream, copy protection encrypts the demodulated transport stream and
passes the copy protection encrypted transport stream to the second
module via the common interface. The second module copy protection
decrypts the transport stream received from the first module, conditional
access decrypts at least some of packets of the transport stream that
were conditional access encrypted, copy protection encrypts the transport
stream and passes the copy protection encrypted transport stream to the
first module via the common interface.