DEVICE REGISTRATION PROCESS FROM A SECOND DISPLAY
Apparatus and methods to implement a technique for using a second display with a network-enabled television. In one implementation, this feature allows the user to conveniently register and manage their IPTV device directly from a second display device instead of going to a separate registration website. A typical current situation requires the user to either leave the living room for the PC which is inconvenient or perform the registration directly on the IPTV which often has a poor input interface. The second display could be a smart phone that can often be found beside the user, or a laptop or tablet PC, a desktop PC, or the like. After registration, certain convenient follow-up features can be implemented, such as directly selecting the device for browsing, or inheritance of configurations of other available devices for the newly-registered device.
1 . A method of registering a content playback device using a second display, comprising:
i. establishing a session between a second display and a first server, the session associated with a user account;
ii. on a user interface of the second display, requesting registration information about the content playback device;
iii. on a user interface of the second display, receiving registration information about the content playback device;
iv. associating the content playback device with the user account; and
v. causing the transmission of an authentication credential associated with the content playback device to the first server.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising retrieving information about the registered content playback device from a second server.
3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving at least one additional datum associated with the content playback device.
4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the additional datum is selected from the group consisting of: a MAC address, a serial number, a device code, and a registration code.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
i. receiving a broadcasted code from a content playback device;
ii. requesting confirmation from a user that the content playback device is to be registered with the user account; and
iii. responsive to a positive confirmation that the content playback device is to be registered with the user account, then performing the requesting and receiving registration information steps.
6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the content playback device for browsing content items from a service provider through a proxy server.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising inheriting at least one registration setting and associating the inherited registration setting with the content playback device, the registration setting inherited from another content playback device.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the session established is on a registration portal.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the content playback device is an IPTV or a digital video recorder.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second display is a tablet computer, a smart phone, a laptop computer, a desktop computer, an internet appliance, or a computing device with internet access.
11 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the additional datum is a registration code, and wherein the registration code is received by the content playback device by a server.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the registration information is received by the content playback device by a server.
13 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions for causing a computing device to implement the method of claim 1 .
14 . A method of registering a content playback device using a second display, comprising:
i. establishing a session between a second display and a first server, the session associated with a user account;
ii. receiving registration information about a content playback device;
iii. associating the content playback device with the user account; and
iv. receiving an authentication credential associated with the content playback device.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the establishing, the receiving registration information, the associating, and the receiving an authentication credential is performed by a proxy server.
16 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising affiliating the user account and content playback device with a service provider, the affiliating including transmitting to the service provider at least one user account identifier and the authentication credential.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the affiliating further comprises receiving an inputted code and transmitting the received code to a service provider, such that the service provider transmits a user token and an affiliation token to a server, the tokens to be associated with the user account.
18 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising unaffiliating the content playback device from a service provider, the unaffiliating including transmitting to the service provider at least one user account identifier and the authentication credential.
19 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising receiving at least one additional datum about the content playback device.
20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the additional datum is selected from the group consisting of: a MAC address, a serial number, a device code, and a registration code.
21 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the receiving registration information further comprises receiving previously-entered registration information associated with the user account.
22 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the session established is on a registration portal.
23 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the registration information is received by the content playback device from the first server.
24 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions for causing a computing device to implement the method of claim 14 .