A system, method, and apparatus for Internet Protocol television streaming are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive encrypted television programming via a secure communication channel from a remote access point that receives the television programming via a data feed from a television service provider. The example receiver is configured to decrypt the encrypted television programming, decode the decrypted television programming, and select at least one of a channel or content of the decoded and decrypted television programming based on input received from a user via an interface. The example apparatus also includes a display device configured to receive and display the selected at least one of a channel or content of the decoded and decrypted television programming.

A method and computer readable medium for encoding data onto a channel broadcasting a program are disclosed. For example, the method selects a channel that is being used to broadcast a program, generates data having characteristics in accordance with an error burst signature and transmits the data on the channel that is being used to broadcast the program.

Described herein are systems and methods for hardware enforcement of hardware functionality in a client television receiver. An activation message containing an activation code for a specific hardware component within the client television receiver can be transmitted from a television service provider system to a host television receiver having an associated smart card. The smart card can decrypt the activation message, identify the client television receiver as the destination of the activation message, security check the activation message, encrypt the activation message with a local key, and transmit the activation message to a security processor on the client television receiver. The security processor can decrypt the activation message, security check the activation message to ensure it is from the smart card and has not been tampered with, and enable the hardware component within the client television receiver based on the activation code within the activation message.

A technique for load balancing between first and second DVRs includes receiving a customer-generated signal to enable load balancing of to-be-recorded content at a future time between at least first and second digital video recorders (DVRs). Responsive to the signal and based at least in part on a storage size of at least one content, a load balancing algorithm is executed to determine which of the first DVR or the second DVR to record content at the future time.

A server system receives a digital media asset captured by a media capture device along with a dataset associated with the digital media asset. The server system generates a modified digital media asset by overlaying or embedding a glyph that encodes information pointing to the network location of the information page onto the digital media asset. A requesting device scans the glyph from the modified digital media asset and decodes from the glyph the information pointing to the network location. The information includes a certification that the digital media and the dataset associated with the digital media asset are unaltered. The requesting device may transmit communications to the server system to indicate approval or disapproval of the digital media asset, or to edit the digital media asset. The server system receives the communication and may modify the information to reflect comments, approvals, disapprovals, or edits.

A method of processing a video stream comprises receiving a first/second set of input image frames comprising image data originating from a first/second source of input image frames; encoding the sets of input image frames into first/second sets of encoded image frames, forming a combined video stream, wherein an encoded image frame of the first set of encoded image frames exclusively references one or more other encoded image frames of the first set of encoded image frames, and an encoded image frame of the second set of encoded image frames references both an encoded image frame of the first set of encoded image frames and another encoded image frame of the second set of encoded image frames; and signing, using a first/second key, a first/second signing group comprising one or more encoded image frames of the first/second set of encoded image frames, wherein each key pertains to the respective source.

A radio frequency (RF) receives a media broadcast including media items and embedded watermarks. A watermark detection module included in the RF receiver operates in a low-power state, during which the watermark detection module does not attempt to detect the embedded watermarks. The watermark detection circuitry is activated, thereby transitioning from the low-power state to an active state, in response to receiving an attention marker. during the active state the watermark detection circuitry attempts to detect the embedded watermarks in the media broadcast, and continues to do so until an indication that watermark detection is to be discontinued is received. In response to receiving the indication that the watermark detection is to be discontinued, the watermark detection module is again placed in the low-power state.

Techniques for media content tamper protection and detection are described. In some embodiments, the protection method is performed at an encoder. The encoder obtains a first sequence of signatures within a group of pictures and a second sequence of signatures for audio frames corresponding to the group of pictures. The encoder then combines the first sequence of signatures and the second sequence of signatures to generate a combined signature, and the combined signature is then embedded in a transport stream for transmission to a client device. In some embodiments, the detection method is performed at a client device, where the client device, in response to detecting a first message in the transport stream, starts calculation of signatures for a group of pictures and corresponding audio frames. The client device then uses the calculated signatures to validate an expected signature for the group of pictures and the corresponding audio frames.

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for detecting errors that can occur in third party content presentation and verifying that third party content provided by a content provider to a content platform is actually displayed and is visible to the user when the content platform is accessed on the client device. Methods can include receiving, from an application executing on a client device, a request to generate a digitally signed token that is used to validate whether a particular content item displayed at the particular portion of the display is a third party content item. A digital watermark embedded at the particular portion of the display can be extracted and decoded to obtain data for attributes that are descriptive of the particular content item. A digitally signed token can be generated using this data, and the token can then be provided to application.

A method for providing a broadcast service is provided. The method includes transmitting a user datagram protocol (UDP)/internet protocol (IP) packet including a first message, the first message containing information about a message to be signed and transmitted, and transmitting a moving picture experts group (MPEG) media transport protocol (MMTP) packet including a second message, the second message containing information about the broadcast service and information indicating whether the information about the broadcast service is signed. The first message includes an identifier of a key used to verify a signature of the message to be transmitted and signed and an identifier of a hash algorithm used to calculate a hash value of the message to be transmitted and signed.