Abstract: A system (100) and method (200) for delivering conditional access information to a conditional access controlled device (120) incompatible with the conditional access transmission protocol. The conditional access information is delivered through a conditional access controlled device (110) compatible with the conditional access transmission protocol via a home network connection (130) between the conditional access controlled devices and according to a home network transmission protocol with which both conditional access controlled devices are compatible.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and system for presenting on-demand event records in such a manner as to allow the user to easily identify which on-demand event records have been viewed already. Once a user views particular on-demand content, the present invention flags the particular on-demand content as pre-viewed by incrementing a flag indicator field in the on-demand event record corresponding to the particular on-demand content. Then, the next time the user interface communicating the available on-demand content is presented, the one or more user interface items presenting previously viewed on-demand content are presented with a previously viewed identifier. The previously viewed identifier may include, but is not limited to, presenting the previously viewed on-demand content in a different color than the unviewed on-demand content, presenting the previously viewed on-demand content in a different location than the unviewed on-demand content, or presenting only the unviewed on-demand content.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and apparatus for providing a DSG to OOB transcoder in a cable television system comprising a legacy set-top device 102. In the first embodiment, a one-way DSG to OOB transcoder 202 acts as a proxy device for OOB messages to the DSG tunnel 128. Once an OOB message is generated, the OOB message is transmitted to the DSG tunnel 128. The DSG to OOB transcoder 202 of the present invention then captures the OOB message, and communicates the OOB message to the legacy set-top device 102. In a second embodiment of the invention, the legacy set-top device 102 may communicate return communications to the DSG to OOB transcoder 402 by generating a QPSK message. The QPSK message is then translated to an OOB message comprising DOCSIS content.

Abstract: A method (400) for managing a data stream (30) encoded according to a digital transmission protocol and configured for broadcasting to a consumer network device (14) within a broadband communications network (10). A message relating to the data stream is encapsulated (402) within a transport layer data packet (502). The packet has a destination port number field. A value associated with a predetermined parameter of the digital transmission protocol is created (404) within the field. Based on the value, the packet is forwarded (406) to the consumer network device according to a network layer protocol. When the forwarded message is received by the consumer network device, the consumer network device processes the data stream based on the message, and establishes an application layer communication socket based on the destination port number value. The socket is usable to receive further messages associated with the predetermined parameter of the digital transmission protocol.