In an interactive network-based personal video recording system, a user interface is provided that allows viewers to search a database of program guide information according to program title, indexed program attributes such as actor and director, and key word. Viewer interaction is by way of a remote control unit.

A method of controlling a digital television, the method includes displaying content or application being executed on a display screen of the digital television, receiving a first signal requesting a menu to be displayed, and displaying the requested menu, overlaid on the display screen, wherein the menu includes a first part and a second part, wherein the first part displays at least one menu item corresponding to previously displayed content or previously executed application, and wherein the second part displays at least one menu item corresponding to content or an application executable in the digital television.

Systems and methods for facilitating caching of programming data are provided herein, including receiving two or more programming data portions, storing the respective programming data portions, managing access to a storage component or a communication component based on programming data portions stored within the storage component, merging programming data portions with a database, and generating a sleep signal based on a period of inactivity which exceeds an inactivity threshold. In one or more embodiments, caching of programming data may include determining a programming data set based on user profile data, parsing the programming data set into two or more programming data portions, converting respective programming data portions into a binary format, transmitting a first programming data portion of the respective programming data portions, and transmitting additional programming data portions of the respective programming data portions based on a sleep signal.

A system includes a control server, a data package server, a home storage device, and a set-top box. The control server is configured to provide information related to a data package. The data package server is configured to provide the data package. The home storage device is configured to receive the data package as a multicast from the data package server. Additionally, the home storage device is configured to store the data package in a storage. The set-top box is configured to receive information related to the data package from the control server and retrieve the data package from the home storage device.

A video player device obtains a run-time SDK from a CDN server when it is time to display a video Ad and makes an Ad request to an Ad server via the network interface using the run-time SDK. A video player displays an Ad on the screen that is received as an Ad response. In a first example embodiment, the device includes an SDK Native Library which, when initialized, downloads an HTML SDK from the CDN server. In a second example embodiment, the device makes a VAST request to the CDN server, where a VAST response includes a VPAID wrapper containing a run-time SDK as a VPAID creative. The VAST response is parsed and the VPAID creative is then loaded and invoked by VPAID APIs of the run-time SDK.

Provided are a set top box upgrade method and apparatus. In the method, a version number of a current batch of set top boxes is acquired. It is judged, according to the version number, whether to upgrade the batch of set top boxes in batch. When it is judged to upgrade the batch of set top boxes in batch, the batch of set top boxes is upgraded in batch according to an upgrade mode for each set top box in the batch of set top boxes. By means of the technical solution, the problem of lack of support for a batch upgrade according to an existing upgrade mode causing significant waste of resources in the related art is solved. Set top boxes can be upgraded in batch and user experience can be improved.

A near real time content streaming system can use a playlist file, in one embodiment, that includes an indicator of the type of content represented by the playlist file. The type can be indicated by a parameter, such as Video on Demand (VOD) or live, or event, that specifies the type of playlist file, and a client device can process the playlist file based upon the type of playlist file indicated by the parameter. For example, the client device, after determining the type of playlist from a playlist file can make efficiency optimizations when processing the playlist file. For example, the client, knowing the playlist file is a VOD playlist, can save the previously used variant playlist when switching to a new variant playlist rather than discarding the previously used variant playlist.

Provided herein is an audio processing apparatus including: a controller configured to determine an initialization mode for processing video and audio signals provided from an audio provision apparatus of among a plurality of initialization modes, and to perform an initialization process differently according to the result of determination; and an audio processor configured to process the audio signal and output the processed audio signal, when the initialization process is performed.

The present disclosure relates to a method for updating service information tables in a digital content decoder comprising: a reception (E1) of a service information table, a filtering (E2) the content of the table to remove or reset to zero, in the table, a table identifier and an item of information unnecessary to the execution of at least one service by the decoder, a calculation (E4) of a hash code relating to an item of information, of the filtered table, a comparison (E5) of the hash code with a hash code relating to an item of information of a previous table, a storage (E6) of said item of information of the table if the hash code of the filtered table and the hash code of the previous table are not identical.

This technique relates to a receiving device, a receiving method, a providing device, a providing method, a program and a broadcasting system that can notify the receiving side of control information such as the timing to synchronize an application program with progress of a show without using a television broadcast signal. When the application control type written in the application control descriptor is 3, the receiving device acquires application control data from a server, and, for example, acquires and starts a new information service application in accordance with the segment data forming the application control data. When an external device is designated as the command destination device, the receiving device generates a command for the external device, and outputs the command to the external device. In accordance with the command from the receiving device, the external device, for example, acquires and starts the new information service application. This disclosure can be applied in a case where the receiving device is controlled from the broadcasting side.