METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACCESSING CONTENT PROTECTED MEDIA STREAMS

A method and apparatus for recovering a content signal from media stream protected by a digital rights management (DRM) system. A content access device includes a network interface configured to receive the protected media stream from a remote content provider via a network and a plurality of distinct DRM components corresponding to DRM systems supported by the content access device. A content extraction unit is operable to select a DRM component of the plurality of DRM components and execute the selected DRM component to recover a content signal from the protected media stream. When a search engine is used to discover available content, a list of references to available content is presented to the user, the presentation being dependent upon whether or not the content is protected by a DRM system supported by the content access device.