Systems and methods according to the present invention provide sign on systems for devices, e.g., televisions, which balance ease of use with security and access control that is amenable to, e.g., household usage.

A method of and system for handling latency issues encountered in producing real-time entertainment such as games of skill synchronized with live or taped televised events is described herein. There are multiple situations that are dealt with regarding latencies in receiving a television signal with respect to real-time entertainment based on the unfolding games played along with the telecasts. Systemic delays, arbitrarily imposed delays of a broadcast signal and variances in the precise broadcast times of taped television programs have to be equalized so as to provide fair entertainment.

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for a window-metric rule for return path data (RPD). In some examples, a media monitor is to determine a first count of a number of devices in a first household that reported RPD for a first day, and compare the first count to a current window-metric, the current window-metric associated with a window of time for the first household, the window of time associated with a content provider and having N number of days. In some examples, the media monitor is also to exclude the RPD from the first household for the first day when the first count does not satisfy the current window-metric, and generate a media exposure report using the RPD from the first household for the first day when the first count satisfies the current window-metric, independent of if the first household has heartbeat data available.

Embodiments are related to faster provisioning of targeted advertisements at a set-top box (STB) via an Internet Protocol (IP) connection between the STB and a remote server. The disclosed IP-based advertisement distribution system enables targeted advertisements to be pulled from the remote server efficiently, causing the advertisements to be made available within a short time frame (e.g., less than one day from the time when the advertisements are available). The disclosed methods enables a STB to determine whether to retain existing targeted advertisements, discard them, or provision newly-available advertisements. The targeted advertisements can depend on various factors such as demographic information of an owner of the STB, lifestyle information of the owner of the STB, etc.

Techniques to customize a media processing system are described. A media processing system is described capable of integrating a large set of heterogeneous electronic devices into a single integrated system with enhanced navigation capabilities and automated configuration services. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Embodiments are related to faster provisioning of targeted advertisements at a set-top box (STB) via an Internet Protocol (IP) connection between the STB and a remote server. The disclosed IP-based advertisement distribution system enables targeted advertisements to be pulled from the remote server efficiently, causing the advertisements to be made available within a short time frame (e.g., less than one day from the time when the advertisements are available). The disclosed methods enables a STB to determine whether to retain existing targeted advertisements, discard them, or provision newly-available advertisements. The targeted advertisements can depend on various factors such as demographic information of an owner of the STB, lifestyle information of the owner of the STB, etc.

The disclosure provides a display apparatus including a controller and a method for displaying view history in the display apparatus. The controller is configured to cause the display apparatus to perform: after logging in to a cloud account on the display apparatus, in response to a command for watching a first video item on the display of the display apparatus, generating a first view history record corresponding to the first video item; sending the first view history record to a server; inserting the first view history record into a first place of a second history information list; in response to receiving a command for displaying a view history interface, sending a request for view history to the server; in response to receiving first history information list, displaying preset images of first view history records included in the received first history information list on the view history interface.

Disclosed are a display device and method and an advertisement sever. According to an embodiment, the display device includes a display, a communication circuit that communicates with an external electronic device, an interface circuit that receives a user input, and a processor that transmits input device information for the at least one input device to the external electronic device via the communication circuit, receives a first image for interfacing with a user through a most frequently used or most recently used input device among the at least one input device, and overlays the first image on the content, wherein the one input device is the most frequently used input device or the most recently used input device among the identified input devices.

Various arrangements for acquiring network configuration data are presented. In response to a television receiver being booted, the television receiver may determine if it can communicate with a service provider's server. If so, the television receiver may request network configuration data from the television programming broadcast network configuration server via a network interface. The television receiver may receive the network configuration data from the television programming broadcast network configuration server via the network interface. Based on the network configuration data, the television receiver may process television programming data received via the tuner.

A data processing apparatus includes a text acquisition mechanism acquiring texts to be used as keywords which will be subject to audio retrieval, the texts being related to contents corresponding to contents data including image data and audio data; a keyword acquisition mechanism acquiring the keywords from the texts; an audio retrieval mechanism retrieving utterance of the keywords from the audio data of the contents data and acquiring timing information representing the timing of the utterance of the keywords of which the utterance is retrieved; and a playback control mechanism generating, from image data around the time represented by the timing information, representation image data of a representation image which will be displayed together with the keywords and performing playback control of displaying the representation image corresponding to the representation image data together with the keywords which are uttered at the time represented by the timing information.