A television and system and method for providing a remote control device are disclosed. In one embodiment of the television, the television includes a processor, a memory, a tuner, a panel, and an audio driver therein in an interconnected architecture. The television may establish a pairing with a proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable device, such as a proximate wireless-enabled interactive handheld device having a touch screen display, whereby formatted parallel audiovisual experience instructions, including virtual buttons, may be transmitted to the proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable device for display on the touch screen display to create an experience parallel to the experience on the television. The television receives and processes virtual remote control functionality input instructions from the proximate wireless-enabled interactive programmable device to control amenities associated with the television.

A set top/back box and system and method for providing a remote control device are disclosed. In one embodiment, one or more wireless transceivers are located within a housing, which also interconnectively includes television input/output, a processor, and memory. The set top/back box may establish a pairing with a programmable device, such as a proximate wireless-enabled interactive handheld device having a touch screen display, whereby formatted parallel audiovisual experience instructions, including virtual buttons, may be transmitted to the programmable device for display on the touch screen display to create an experience parallel to the experience on the television. The set top/back box receives and processes virtual remote control functionality input instructions from the programmable device to control amenities associated with the set top/back box.

A glossary may be seamless accessed using a content player to provide relevant information about an audio video series or show or movie by using search queries or scrolling an electronic list of terms to help cognitively challenged people.

A slave relay station is adapted to serve and/or host pages comprising a simplified graphic user interface (GUI) encoded in a widely recognized format such as, for example, HTML, or WML. The GUI embodies activatable links corresponding to control functions for configured appliances. A wireless phone or other device with network access and the capability to process and present such pages, for example via a Web browser, may then be utilized to effect control of such appliances by simply navigating to the network address of the slave relay station, obtaining an appropriate GUI page, and interacting with the links.

A display apparatus, a method for executing an application thereof, an external device remotely controlling the display apparatus, and a method for providing an application control screen thereof are provided. The display apparatus includes a display that displays an application execution screen, the application execution screen displaying an application; a communication unit that communicates with an external server and an external device that remotely controls the display apparatus; and a control unit that transmits to the external device a generation signal that instructs the external device to generate an application control screen in response to receiving an input command to execute the application, controls the communication unit to receive a command from the external device input through the application control screen, and operates the application according to the received command.

Advertisements in broadcast television programming are digitally replaced with different ads prior to viewing. Replacement can occur in time and/or place shifted content, and can be used to promote a particular advertisement that the viewer has not yet seen, thereby improving the reach of the ad without oversaturation. Data reporting by the playback devices is collected in a database of viewed ads. The information in the database can be used to refresh previously-viewed ads, to increase saturation of particular ads, to replace previously-broadcast but no longer relevant ads, or for other purposes as desired.

Disclosed is an over-the-air (OTA) antenna meter application (“meter app”) that wirelessly connects to an OTA antenna meter (“meter”) installed with an OTA antenna and presents information that facilitates a user in installing the OTA antenna at the premises of a customer. For example, the meter app can help the user in pointing and peaking the OTA antenna for one or more broadcast channels, e.g., those selected by the customer. The meter app can store installation information of the OTA antenna for various installations, which can be used in generating a recommendation of, or predicting, installation information for installing the OTA antenna at a specified address. The predicted installation information can include broadcast channels that would be available for reception at the specified address and their signal strength, a specific location of installation on the premises, or whether a pre-amplifier and/or filter is required.

Viewing of advertisements in broadcast television programming is electronically monitored using network communications to determine viewership of programming that is promoted in the ads. This correlation is enabled through a distributed information system that permits digital identification of ads in programming, as well as distributed tracking of ad and program viewership. Through automated gathering of viewership information and distributed data processing, advertising effectiveness can be very accurately tracked.

A method for displaying content displayed on one or more first devices on a second device is provided. The method includes receiving a request to display content currently displayed on a first device on a second device, the request including a gesture made on a screen of the first device, and pairing the first device to the second device. The method further includes transmitting instructions to the second device to display the content currently displayed on the first device, and transmitting the content currently displayed on the first device to the second device for display thereon.

A method and a related apparatus for providing a guide media presentation in media streaming are disclosed. The method include obtaining, by a client, a media presentation description (MPD) of a guide media presentation, where the MPD of the guide media presentation describes N guide units included in the guide media presentation, obtaining K guide units in the N guide units according to the MPD of the guide media presentation, and presenting the K guide units, where each guide unit in the K guide units points to one main media presentation, and presentation quality of a main media presentation to which a guide unit i in the K guide units points is higher than presentation quality of the guide unit i. Solutions support a video guide in an Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)-based media streaming service scenario and improve user experience.