A multimedia device and controlling method thereof are disclosed, by which heterogeneous devices are controlled under at least two different communication protocols. The present invention includes displaying a guide message for controlling at least one function of the electronic device, receiving a remote control signal corresponding to a 1.sup.st function among the at least one function from a 1.sup.st remote controller of the electronic device, saving data for identifying the 1.sup.st function and the received remote control signal in a memory by mapping the data and the received remote control signal to each other, displaying a graphic image including the data for identifying the 1.sup.st function, if the data for identifying the 1.sup.st function is selected by a 2.sup.nd remote controller of the multimedia device, extracting the remote control signal mapped to the 1.sup.st function, and transmitting the extracted remote control signal to an external device.

An Intelligent Television provides unique user interfaces and user interface interactions to provide social media. The interfaces and interface are intuitive and allow the user to quickly retrieve and view social media with respect to content displayed on the Intelligent Television. Further, intuitive user interface interactions are provided to allow for the quick and efficient posting of social media from the Intelligent Television to a social media site.

A controlling device is automatically configured to issue a communication directly to a first controllable appliance to control a functional operation of the first controllable appliance in the event that the first controllable appliance is determined to be unresponsive to a command communication transmitted to the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link or to issue a communication to a second controllable appliance to control the functional operation of the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link in the event that first controllable appliance is determined to be responsive to a command communication transmitted to the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link.

A controlling device is automatically configured to issue a communication directly to a first controllable appliance to control a functional operation of the first controllable appliance in the event that the first controllable appliance is determined to be unresponsive to a command communication transmitted to the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link or to issue a communication to a second controllable appliance to control the functional operation of the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link in the event that first controllable appliance is determined to be responsive to a command communication transmitted to the first controllable appliance via a digital communications link.

Disclosed herein are remote controls with automated selection control. A remote control includes a microcontroller with a provisioned infrared remote library, which are programmed with control codes for a content device, a switch, an infrared light emitter, an indicator device, and a delay knob are connected to the microcontroller. The switch is associated with a selection function on the content device and with control codes. The microcontroller and the library, upon selection of a switch position at the switch, control the infrared light emitter to emit repetitive infrared control codes at the content device at a repetition rate responsive to a reaction time for switching the selection function at the content device, the repetitive infrared control codes automatically incrementing or decrementing the selection function at the content device. The delay knob sets the repetition rate. The indicator device indicates emissions from the infrared light emitter.

Provided is a media control device system including a media control device including: a user interface configured to receive user input; and a communication interface configured to establish communication with a separate computing device. The system also includes a computer-readable non-transitory medium including program instructions that, when executed by a processor of the separate computing device, cause the separate computing device to detect a video conferencing application being executed by the separate computing device, in response to detecting the video conferencing application, determine an input configuration of the video conferencing application, receive a plurality of signals from the media control device via the communication interface, the plurality of signals representing a plurality of different user inputs, map the plurality of signals to a plurality of video conferencing application input signals based on the input configuration, and control the video conferencing application based on the video conferencing application input signals.

An application framework includes user interface components and TV resources which facilitate development of intelligent TV applications, including third-party applications. These components and resources are complimented by one or more data services that can generally be run at a services level, to provide access to a variety of data, such as media and program metadata for one or more of local or remote sources. These data services can reside in one and more libraries within the software system components and modules. The various third-party apps are further supported by a third-party application support module, in conjunction with an app center application that supports various different views of the installed apps: a master view, a collection view, and a detail view.

An intelligent television system provides an operating system and an application framework for controlling a user interface to handle user input events from a handheld remote control. The remote control includes color keys that are configured for triggering different functions in different application panels displayed on the television.

A system and method for initiating closed captioning. The system includes a processor that can receive an instruction to add closed captioning. The system may also, upon receiving the instruction, determine a time point at which to begin the closed captioning and determining an amount of closed captioning to include, and output, for display, the closed captioning.

A system and method for enabling set up of a controlling device capable of controlling a plurality of appliances, via an interactive instruction set and associated programming. The programming is accessible by a STB or other controllable appliance and is configured to appropriately display interactive instructions and prompts to a user during a user initiated set up procedure for configuration of another controllable device (e.g., DVD, VCR, DVR, etc) available to the user.