Pairing a remote control and a television
AssigneeEchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
InventorsDaniel Rudolph, Michael Dugan, Mark Gomez, Tyler Gilbert
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is a method for associating remote controls and televisions. More specifically, the present invention permits delivery of television programming to multiple televisions from a television converter device. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.
Claims21
A television converter device for receiving multiple streams of television programming and delivering television programming to multiple connected display devices, the television converter device comprising:
- a plurality of display output connections, each display output connection for attachment to a different display device;
- a remote control interface operable to receive commands from any of a plurality of remote controls and, wherein at least some of the commands are associated with a remote control identifier;
- and
- control electronics operable to associate each remote control identifier with one of the plurality of display output connections and further operable to deliver one or more streams of television programming to each display output connection as directed by commands having that display output connection's associated remote control identifier.
A system for receiving satellite signals containing television programming and displaying different television programming on different televisions, the system comprising:
- a set top box including
- a receiving device for receiving an output signal containing television programming from a satellite communication device,
- a first television output port for connection to a first television,
- a second television output port for connection to a second television,
- control electronics independently delivering television programming to each of the television output ports, and
- the remote control interface receiving commands from a first remote control and a second remote control;
- wherein the set top box delivers television programming to a first television connected to the first television output in response to commands received from the first remote control and independently delivers different television programming to a second television connected to the second television output in response to commands received from the second remote control.
A method of independently delivering television programming to televisions connected to a set top box, the method comprising:
- associating a first remote control with a first of the plurality of televisions and a second remote control with a second of the plurality of televisions;
- receiving a first command from the first remote control directing the set top box to display first television programming and a second command from the second remote control directing the set top box to display second television programming;
- delivering the first television programming from the set top box to the first television in response to first command received by the first remote control;
- and
- delivering the second television programming from the set top box to the second television in response to the second command received from the second remote control.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.