A method and apparatus for controlling a group of the client devices to switch at least one client device of the group of client devices from a first conditional access system to a second conditional access system is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises generating a group identifier identifying the group of the client devices, transmitting a first client device signaling message having the group identifier only to each client device of the identified group of client devices, the group identifier for storage in each client device of the identified group of client devices in non-volatile memory, and transmitting a second client device signaling message to plurality of client devices, the second client device message comprising the group identifier and signaling a switch of each of the identified group of client devices from the first conditional access system to the second conditional access system.

Video content is protected using a digital rights management (DRM) mechanism, the video content having been previously encrypted and compressed for distribution, and also including metadata such as closed captioning data, which might be encrypted or clear. The video content is obtained by a system of a computing device, the metadata is extracted from the video content and provided to a video decoder, and the video content is provided to a secure DRM component. The secure DRM component decrypts the video content and provides the decrypted video content to a secure decoder component of a video decoder. As part of the decryption, the secure DRM component drops the metadata that was included in the obtained video content. However, the video decoder receives the extracted metadata in a non-protected environment and thus is able to provide the extracted metadata and the decoded video content to a content playback application.

A display apparatus transmits a picture acquisition request for getting picture information to an external image apparatus connected through a predetermined interface to the display apparatus from the external image apparatus at predetermined intervals and gets a plurality of pieces of picture information from the external image apparatus to be displayed. The plurality of pictures may be switched at predetermined intervals, for example, to be displayed, so that the plurality of pictures may be displayed in a so-called slide show manner. A plurality of pictures for thumbnail may be produced from the plurality of pieces of picture information and be arranged together to be displayed in one picture screen of a display device.

A display apparatus transmits a picture acquisition request for getting picture information to an external image apparatus connected through a predetermined interface to the display apparatus from the external image apparatus at predetermined intervals and gets a plurality of pieces of picture information from the external image apparatus to be displayed. The plurality of pictures may be switched at predetermined intervals, for example, to be displayed, so that the plurality of pictures may be displayed in a so-called slide show manner. A plurality of pictures for thumbnail may be produced from the plurality of pieces of picture information and be arranged together to be displayed in one picture screen of a display device.

Video content is protected using a digital rights management (DRM) mechanism, the video content having been previously encrypted and compressed for distribution, and also including metadata such as closed captioning data, which might be encrypted or clear. The video content is obtained by a system of a computing device, the metadata is extracted from the video content and provided to a video decoder, and the video content is provided to a secure DRM component. The secure DRM component decrypts the video content and provides the decrypted video content to a secure decoder component of a video decoder. As part of the decryption, the secure DRM component drops the metadata that was included in the obtained video content. However, the video decoder receives the extracted metadata in a non-protected environment and thus is able to provide the extracted metadata and the decoded video content to a content playback application.

A display apparatus transmits a picture acquisition request for getting picture information to an external image apparatus connected through a predetermined interface to the display apparatus from the external image apparatus at predetermined intervals and gets a plurality of pieces of picture information from the external image apparatus to be displayed. The plurality of pictures may be switched at predetermined intervals, for example, to be displayed, so that the plurality of pictures may be displayed in a so-called slide show manner. A plurality of pictures for thumbnail may be produced from the plurality of pieces of picture information and be arranged together to be displayed in one picture screen of a display device.

A system and method for distributing content in a network architecture using a common intermediary mezzanine distribution format (CMZF). A media content asset may be processed for packaging in a CMZF container structure configured to carry each bitrate representation of the media content in a valid CMZF stream scheme, the media content encrypted in one or more encryption schemes. The CMZF formatted media content may be provided to an origin server for file-based distribution over a network which is of one of the following types; unmanaged network, managed network, or a combination thereof, and/or to a streaming network node for stream-based distribution over a over a network which is of one of the following types; unmanaged network, managed network, or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, the CMZF container structure may be based on an MPEG-TS format extended to facilitate carriage of ISOBMFF track and track metadata data objects in PES payload in additional elementary streams. In another embodiment the CMZF container structure may be based on an MPEG-TS format to facilitate carriage of sample variants in PES payload.

One or more computing devices may be configured to identify information corresponding to a program change request associated with a multi-program data transmission. The information may comprise at least a link to a desired program within the multi-program data transmission. The one or more computing devices may communicate the link to the desired program to a client device over a specified time period. After the time period, the one or more computing devices may communicate the desired program to the client device using a single program data transmission. The single program data transmission may be derived from the multi-program data transmission.

A system and method for facilitating fast channel change in a streaming media network comprises receiving media content assets packaged in a common mezzanine distribution format (CMZF) container structure, wherein the media content asset is provided as CMZF-formatted media content in a CMZF stream scheme. Upon receipt, the CMZF-packaged media content assets are transformatted into corresponding CMZF segments stored in a local cache corresponding to a plurality of media channels. Responsive to a channel change request from a user equipment (UE) device, a unicast or multicast burst is sent comprising Reliable User Datagram Protocol (R-UDP) packets or Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP)-encapsulated partial or full virtual segments (R-SEG) generated from the CMZF segments corresponding to the requested channel.

A process is provided for video processing and distribution of video data within a betting agency. The process includes receiving data streams of dynamic live betting odds and game statistics and receiving parallel TV live broadcasts of sports events as video data streams. The process further includes compressing the data streams and the video data streams yielding combined data streams, outputting each of the combined data streams via a protocol based network, receiving a combined data stream from the protocol based network pertaining to the betting on a supply of receiver servers, decompressing the combined data stream, and outputting the combined data stream displayed in any order on one or several monitors in real time. The combined data stream being continuous from allocated embedded systems, which operate as a client, wherein the clients individually provide the combined data stream from the supply of the receiver servers.