Abstract: A system for providing centralized connected vehicle services includes a vehicle communicating through a communications device that is a wireless access device embedded within the vehicle and/or a mobile wireless access device, the communications device transmitting at least one of language data from the vehicle indicating a language spoken by a customer within the vehicle and a voice call from the wireless access device. A central call center is communicatively connected to at least one of the vehicle and the wireless access device. A central computer server is co-located with the central call center, communicatively connected to the central call center, facilitates the voice call with the wireless access device, and automatically routes the voice call to the central call center. The central call center automatically plays a recorded message through the central computer server to the wireless access device in the language of the customer.

Abstract: A method for setting up a voice call over an IP network is described. The method first initiates an IP voice call to a called device connected to a telephone line. The method then determines whether the called device is already connected to the IP network. If the called device is not already connected to the IP network based on the determining step, the method will initiate a telephone call with an associated telephone signal through the telephone line to the called device, to alert the called device that an IP voice call is pending.

Abstract: A method for automatically defining or learning the configuration of a television interconnected with a plurality of peripheral devices utilizes a digital control channel to define the analog interconnections. This method does not require the consumer to know the specific configuration of the system. The system functions properly whether peripheral devices are in the video chain path or not. This method enables a suser to simply connect peripheral devices to any one of the multiple inputs of the video processing apparatus. The video processing apparatus employs a systematic process of (1) commanding each of said peripheral devices via a digital bus, such as an IEEE 1394 serial bus, to transmit a signal from its analog output, (2) monitoring the analog inputs of the video processing apparatus to determine which of the inputs receives the transmitted signal, and (3) constructing a map of the analog interconnectivity of each peripheral device connected to said video processing device.

Abstract: A multimedia decoder supports a plurality of functions and communicates on at least one physical communication link. The decoder includes a first processor for decoding data packetized according to an Internet protocol data format to provide a first decoded output. The decoder also includes a second processor for encoding data according to the Internet protocol data format for return communication to a broadcast source. The decoder prioritizes received data for processing by the first processor and prioritizes data for encoding for return communication by the second processor. The received data and the data for encoding are allocated a desired hierarchical data output priority based on a function or a protocol characteristic of the data to be prioritized.