A virtual communication bus for sharing information between applications is provided. When a user accesses media content on a television or content via an application on a virtual communication bus, data associated with the media content or the application content may be stored in a communal memory in a standard format, and may be accessed by one or more other applications on the virtual communication bus. The data may include data associated with interactions between the user and an application and interaction between applications. The data may be utilized to determine relevant information to provide the user. When a user accesses another application (on a same or another device), information determined to be relevant to the user may be provided. Data may be stored and shared between applications on the virtual communication bus.

A system and a method for media streaming from multiple sources are disclosed. A content requesting client device accesses a server to receive a list of available sources that may include multiple Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and independent servers. Based on a pre-set criteria, such as the source delivery performance and cost, the client device partitions the content into parts, allocates a source to each part, and simultaneously receives media streams of the content parts from the allocated sources. The server may be a Video-on-Demand (VOD) server, and the content may be a single file of a video data, such as a movie. The delivery performance of the used sources is measured during the streaming for updating the partition or the allocation. The updated measured performance may be stored locally at the client device, or at a server for use by other clients. The client actions may be implemented as a client-side script.

A method and apparatus for secure transfer and playback of multimedia content enables the secure transfer of multimedia content from a digital video recorder (DVR) to a personal computer (PC) and further to a handheld device. A DVR determines which devices on a Local Area Network (LAN) are authorized to share and/or retrieve content from the DVR. The DVR receives a connection request from a PC on the LAN, authorizes the connection request and establishes a secure connection between the DVR and the PC. Once the secure connection is established, the DVR receives a request for multimedia content from the PC, prepares the multimedia content for transfer and transfers the multimedia content to the PC.

Methods and systems of inserting image files into a container are described herein. One method includes overseeing a submission of images to containers, retrieving a job of inserting images into the container, and inserting images into the container by, for each of the plurality of images: (i) reading and analyzing source data including the image; (ii) opening the container, which includes records, where the image will be stored; (iii) determining whether the source data is valid to be entered into a record; (iv) responsive to a determination that the source of data is valid, preparing metadata; (v) writing the record into the container; and (vi) marking a status flag/mark of the record as being updated while writing the record into the container.

An apparatus for determining a set of transmit parameters capable of improving and/or optimizing data throughput to a destination device. The apparatus includes an input circuit that receives a signal containing a plurality of data blocks for use by a plurality of devices. At least one of the data blocks is associated with the apparatus and encoded using a first set of transmit parameters. A transmit parameter processor determines a signal to noise ratio value for the received signal and a block error rate value for the at least one data block and at least one other data block encoded using a different set of transmit parameters. A processor generates a request for encoding subsequent data blocks destined to the apparatus using a second set of transmit parameters. A method and system are also disclosed.

A pay television satellite broadcast includes validation data that can be used to validate authenticity of live global positioning system (GPS) data. The validation data may be included within entitlement messages and encrypted for security and selective reception by authorized receivers. A navigation system may compute checksums of received live GPS data and compare with the validation data for a match. A decision about whether or not to use the live GPS data may be taken based on whether or not the computed checksums match the validation data received via the pay television satellite broadcast signals.

Apparatus and methods for provisioning of customer premise equipment (CPE) equipped with a secure microprocessor to receive e.g., digital video content by entering unique identification of the CPE at one or more servers located at the headend or other location of a content-based network. In one embodiment, the CPE comprises a download-enabled (e.g., DCAS) host with embedded cable modem and embedded set-top box functionality, and the provisioning includes enabling DOCSIS functionality of the CPE, assigning an IP address to the CPE and providing the CPE with a client image for the conditional access system chosen by the network operator. In one variant, the network operator can deactivate a provisioned device while connected to the network, as well when disconnected from the network. The network operator can also add, delete or replace conditional access client image in a provisioned device.

A computer-implemented method is provided. The method includes executing a game application on one or more servers of a data center. The game application is for a game and the game is played by a first user of a first client device remote to the data center. The one or more servers interfaced with one or more encoders for compressing interactive video from the game application responsive to input from the first client device and streaming of the interactive video in a compressed format to the first client device for decompression and rendering to a display of the first client device. The method includes storing, at the data center, a recording of at least part of the game played by the first user using the first client device. The method includes storing, at the data center, state data for at least part of the game played by the first user using the first client device. The method includes generating a replay of the recording responsive to input from a second user device. The replay is generated with a different camera view from a camera view in the recording. The replay is executed using as input the state data.

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing live-streaming online content, including video segments married with related online information in a single online platform. In accordance with one implementation, a method is provided that includes generating, using at least one processor, a series of videos having a sequential order to display in a web browser and publishing the videos in the web browser. The method further includes determining online data that relates to each video in the series and displaying the related data in the web browser. Further, the method includes playing the videos in the web browser in a sequential order and updating the data that relates to a video while the video is playing in real-time. The related data may include user comments, social media comments, pictures, videos, webpages, or hyperlinks.

A method for transmitting a broadcast signal, includes compressing headers of Internet Protocol (IP) packets in an IP packet stream to output a compressed IP packet stream, the compressed IP packet stream including Initialization Refresh (IR) packets, a first group of IR-dynamic packets, and compressed IP packets; extracting context information from the compressed IP packet stream, wherein when the context information is extracted only from the IR packets in the compressed IP packet stream, the IR packets are converted to a second group of IR-dynamic packets; building signaling information including the context information; and encapsulating the signaling information into one or more signaling link layer packets and the compressed IP packet stream into link layer packets that are distinct from the one or more signaling link layer packets.