Importance

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Abstract

A method and mechanism for configuring a receiver as a proxy to transcode data and provide for intercommunication among secondary devices. In one embodiment, a proxy receiver in a viewer's home is configured to perform transcoding and other processing to enable use of services by secondary devices which would otherwise not be able to utilize such services. In addition, the proxy receiver may be configured to provide communication between devices which would otherwise not be able to communicate with one another. In one embodiment, the proxy receiver includes a receiver configured to receive programming signals, an I/O interface configured to communicate with a secondary device, and a transcode subsystem. The transcode subsystem is configured to detect received data, determine a target secondary device of the received data, determine a target data format corresponding to the target secondary device, and initiate transcoding of the received data to the target data format. Additionally, the transcode subsystem may be configured to detect an attempted communication from an unregistered secondary device, and either register the device if the data format of the secondary device is supported, or initiate a request for a transcode subunit which supports the data format of the unregistered secondary device if the data format is not supported.

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First Claim