Multimedia network picture-in-picture

A content server, comprising:

• means for receiving a picture-in-picture communication to initiate a picture-in-picture function;
• a video image scaler that, responsive to the picture-in-picture communication scales a secondary video image to produce a reduced size secondary video image;
• a secondary video image embedder that embeds the reduced size secondary video image into a main video image to produce a picture-in-picture video image;
• and
• a network interface that transmits the picture-in-picture video image to a target networked device.

A content server, comprising:

• a user interface receiving a picture-in-picture communication to initiate a picture-in-picture function, wherein the picture-in-picture communication specifies a location and size of the secondary video image;
• a video image scaler that, responsive to the picture-in-picture communication scales a secondary video image to produce a reduced size secondary video image;
• a secondary image embedder that embeds the reduced size secondary video image into a main video image to produce a picture-in-picture video image;
• switching means for switching a signal carrying content to the video image scaler as the secondary video image and for switching a signal carrying content representing the main video image to the secondary video image embedder;
• a packetizer and streamer that formats the picture-in-picture image into Internet protocol (IP) packets to form a packetized data stream, and that addresses the Internet protocol packets to the target networked device prior to transmitting;
• a router;
• a network interface that transmits the picture-in-picture image to the router;
• and
• wherein the router routes the picture-in-picture video image to a target networked device based upon an Internet Protocol address.