Scripted Access to Hidden Multimedia Assets
A method according to certain embodiments involves at a digital television receiver device, receiving a triggered declarative object (TDO) that carries a script that when executed provides the digital television receiver device with access to hidden television content, where upon execution of the script, the digital television receiver device is given a location of the hidden television content. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.
1 . A method, comprising:
at a digital television receiver device, receiving a triggered declarative object (TDO) that carries an ECMAScript-based script that when executed provides the digital television receiver device with access to hidden television content;
where upon execution of the script by a viewer action, the digital television receiver device is given access to the hidden television content;
where the hidden television content is hidden by virtue of at least one of having a virtual channel “hidden” attribute set, having an ATSC standard service_type value that is not recognized by legacy television receiver devices, having a service_type value of 0x07 or where access to the hidden content is provided by directly referencing an MPEG program by a program_number or by explicit reference to the packet identifiers (PIDs) of the packets in a transport stream; and
where the TDO utilizes an Application Program Interface (API) that allows the script to effect a channel change away from a current selection to the hidden content.
2 . A method, comprising:
at a digital television receiver device, receiving a triggered declarative object (TDO) that carries a script that when executed provides the digital television receiver device with access to hidden television content;
the digital television receiver executing the script; and
where upon execution of the script, the digital television receiver device is given a location of the hidden television content.
3 . The method according to claim 2 , where access to the hidden television content is provided by referencing a virtual channel that is designated as hidden by having a “hidden” attribute set.
4 . The method according to claim 2 , where access to the hidden television content is provided by referencing a virtual channel with an ATSC standard service_type value that is not recognized by legacy television receiver devices.
5 . The method according to claim 4 , where the service_type value is 0x07.
6 . The method according to claim 2 , where access to the hidden content is provided by referencing an MPEG program by a program_number value.
7 . The method according to claim 2 , where access to the hidden content is provided by explicit reference to the packet identifiers (PIDs) of the packets in an MPEG compliant Transport Stream.
8 . The method according to claim 2 , where access to the hidden content is provided by a reference to a content identifier associated with NRT content.
9 . The method according to claim 2 , where the TDO is implemented using an extension to standardized TDO scripting to implement a function call to allow the script to request access to hidden content.
10 . The method according to claim 2 , where the script is executed conditionally based upon a user response to a survey question.
11 . The method according to claim 2 , where the script is executed by a viewer action.
12 . The method according to claim 11 , where the script is executed conditionally based upon a user entry of a registration code.
13 . The method according to claim 2 , where the hidden content comprises non-real-time (NRT) content.
14 . The method according to claim 13 , where the NRT content is pre-delivered prior to the viewer action.
15 . The method according to claim 2 , where the script is executed conditionally based upon a user's Internet access.
16 . The method according to claim 2 , where the hidden content comprises non-real-time (NRT) content.
17 . The method according to claim 2 , where the TDO defines an Application Program Interface (API) that allows the script to effect a channel change away from a currently selected program to the hidden program.
18 . The method according to claim 2 , where the script comprises an ECMAScript or ECMAScript extension.
19 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on one or more programmed processors, carry out a method according to claim 2 .
20 . A device, comprising:
a digital television receiver device adapted to receive a triggered declarative object (TDO) that carries a script that when executed provides the digital television receiver device with access to hidden television content;
the digital television receiver device having a programmed processor;
the programmed processor programmed to execute the script that gives the digital television receiver device access to the hidden television content.
21 . The device according to claim 20 , where access to the hidden television content is provided by referencing a virtual channel that is designated as hidden by having a hidden attribute set.
22 . The device according to claim 20 , where the hidden content comprises an alternate audio track.
23 . The device according to claim 20 , where access to the hidden television content is provided by referencing a virtual channel with an ATSC standard service_type value that is not recognized by legacy television receiver devices.
24 . The device according to claim 23 , where the service_type value is 0x07.
25 . The device according to claim 20 , where access to the hidden content is provided by referencing an MPEG program by a program_number value.
26 . The device according to claim 20 , where access to the hidden content is provided by explicit reference to the packet identifiers (PIDs) of the packets in an MPEG compliant Transport Stream.
27 . The device according to claim 20 , where access to the hidden content is provided by a reference to a content identifier associated with NRT content.
28 . The device according to claim 20 , where the TDO is implemented using an extension to standardized TDO scripting to implement a function call to allow the script to request access to hidden content.
29 . The device according to claim 20 , where the script is executed conditionally based upon a user response to a survey question.
30 . The device according to claim 20 , where the script is executed by a viewer action.
31 . The device according to claim 30 , where the script is executed conditionally based upon a user entry of a registration code.
32 . The device according to claim 20 , where the hidden content comprises non-real-time (NRT) content.
33 . The device according to claim 32 , where the NRT content is pre-delivered prior to the viewer action.
34 . The device according to claim 20 , where the script is executed conditionally based upon a user's Internet access.
35 . The device according to claim 20 , where the hidden content comprises non-real-time (NRT) content.
36 . The device according to claim 20 , where the TDO defines an Application Program Interface (API) that allows the script to effect a channel change away from a currently selected program to the hidden program.
37 . The device according to claim 20 , where the script comprises an ECMAScript or ECMAScript extension.