Transmission apparatus, transmission method, reception apparatus, and reception method

A transmission method, comprising:

• a stream acquisition step of acquiring an encoded stream including a plurality of pieces of encoded data having degree-of-priority information;
• a determination step of determining whether or not a decoding ability of a reception side is equal to or greater than a decoding ability of an own apparatus based on decoding ability information of the reception side indicating a number of degree of priority to which decoding is executable;
• and
• a transmission step of causing a transmission unit to, in a case where it is determined in the determination step that the decoding ability of the reception side is equal to or greater than the decoding ability of the own apparatus, transmit the encoded stream acquired in the stream acquisition step to the reception side via a digital interface and, in a case where it is determined in the determination step that the decoding ability of the reception side is less than the decoding ability of the own apparatus, transmit a decoded stream including decoded data generated by subjecting the encoded stream acquired in the stream acquisition step to decoding processing to the reception side via the digital interface.

A reception apparatus, comprising:

• an information transmission unit configured to transmit decoding ability information of an own apparatus indicating a number of degree of priority to which decoding is executable to a transmission side via a digital interface;
• a reception unit configured to receive an encoded stream including a plurality of pieces of encoded data having degree-of-priority information or a decoded stream including decoded data generated by subjecting the encoded stream to decoding processing from the transmission side via the digital interface;
• and
• a decoding unit configured to, in a case where the reception unit receives the encoded stream, subject the encoded stream to decoding processing and generate the decoded stream including the decoded data.

A reception method, comprising:

• an information transmission step of transmitting decoding ability information of an own apparatus indicating a number of degree of priority to which decoding is executable to a transmission side via a digital interface;
• a reception step of causing a reception unit to receive an encoded stream including a plurality of pieces of encoded data having degree-of-priority information or a decoded stream including decoded data generated by subjecting the encoded stream to decoding processing from the transmission side via the digital interface;
• and
• a decoding step of, in a case where the encoded stream is received in the reception step, subjecting the encoded stream to decoding processing and generating a decoded stream including the decoded data.