TV search

A television receiver device, comprising:

• a television receiver;
• an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) receiver;
• a decoder that receives television programming from both the television receiver and the IPTV receiver and where the decoder decodes television programming from a selected one of the television receiver and IPTV receiver;
• one or more programmed processors having one or more program modules stored on a flash memory that retrieves metadata relating to television programming, metadata relating to IPTV content, metadata relating to any installed Widgets, and metadata associated with the television (TV) receiver device's functions;
• the television programming, the IPTV content, the Widgets and the TV receiver device's functions comprising targets, where the processor retrieves or updates metadata on a periodic basis, with a different period for metadata associated with at least two types of the targets;
• the programmed processor storing tags from said metadata in a database and associates the tags with their targets;
• a search engine that runs as a functional module on the one or more programmed processors to search the database for tags in response to a search query and to retrieve associated targets as a result of the search command, and where the search engine presents potential targets for selection by a user prior to execution of the target;
• and
• the control processor executing a user selected target selected from among search results, where executing the target is carried out by tuning to television program content when the target is a television program, by playing IPTV program content when the target is IPTV content, by launching or resuming a Widget when the target is a Widget, and by launching or resuming a TV receiver device's function when the target is a TV receiver device's function.

A television receiver device, comprising:

• a television receiver;
• an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) receiver;
• a decoder that receives television programming from both the television receiver and the IPTV receiver and where the decoder decodes television programming from a selected one of the television receiver and IPTV receiver;
• one or more programmed processors having one or more program modules stored on a flash memory that retrieves metadata relating to television programming, metadata relating to IPTV content, metadata relating to any installed Widgets, and metadata associated with the television (TV) receiver device's functions;
• the television programming, the IPTV content, the Widgets and the TV receiver device's functions comprising targets, where the processor retrieves or updates metadata on a periodic basis, with a different period for metadata associated with at least two types of the targets;
• the programmed processor indexing and storing tags from said metadata in a database and associates the tags with their targets, where IPTV tags are associated with Universal Resource Locator links in the database, and where the Widget tags are associated with a command to launch the associated Widget;
• a search engine that runs as a functional module on the one or more programmed processors to search the database for tags in response to a search query and to retrieve associated targets as a result of the search command, and where the search engine presents potential targets for selection by a user prior to execution of the target;
• the control processor executing a user selected target selected from among search results, where executing the target is carried out by tuning to television program content when the target is a television program, by playing IPTV program content when the target is IPTV content, by launching or resuming a Widget when the target is a Widget, and by launching or resuming a TV receiver device's function when the target is a TV receiver device's function;
• and
• where the processor retrieves or updates all metadata on a periodic basis, and where the Widget metadata are retrieved only for Widgets loaded into the TV receiver device.

A television receiver device, comprising:

• a television receiver;
• an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) receiver;
• a decoder that receives television programming from both the television receiver and the IPTV receiver, and where the decoder is for decoding television programming from a selected one of the television receiver and IPTV receiver;
• one or more programmed processors having one or more program modules that are programmed to retrieve metadata relating to television programming, metadata relating to IPTV content, metadata relating to any installed Widgets, and metadata associated with the television (TV) receiver device's functions;
• the television programming, the IPTV content, the Widgets and the TV receiver device's functions comprising targets, where the processor retrieves or updates metadata on a periodic basis, with a different period for metadata associated with at least two types of the targets;
• the programmed processor being configured to store tags from said metadata in a database and associate the tags with their targets;
• a search engine that is configured to run as a functional module on the one or more programmed processors to search the database for tags in response to a search query and to retrieve the associated target on command, and where the search engine presents potential targets for selection by a user prior to execution of the target;
• and
• the control processor being configured to execute the target by:
• tuning to the target's program content for a television program when the target is a television program or IPTV content,
• launching or resuming a Widget when the target is a Widget, and
• executing a TV receiver device's function when the target is a TV receiver device's function.