Abstract:
Various systems and methods allow supplemental information such as recipes, parts lists, instructions, notes, outlines or other information associated with a television program to be delivered in the same transport stream that carries the television program to the viewer. The transport stream includes at least two elementary streams, wherein the first elementary stream conveys video content associated with the television program and the second elementary stream conveys supplemental information that summarizes at least a portion of the television program. The device receiving the digital transport stream identifies the first and second elementary streams in the digital transport stream, processes the first elementary stream to present the video content associated with the television program to the viewer, and makes the supplemental information in the second elementary stream available to the viewer.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Various embodiments relate to the distribution of television or other media programming, and more particularly relate to systems, devices and/or methods for transmitting or receiving supplemental information that is associated with television programming. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Instructional television programming is becoming increasingly popular. In addition to the wide range of educational programming that is available on a variety of networks, many programs teach viewers about cooking, home repair, health, music or any number of other recreational topics. Many of the instructional programs now available provide a high level of instructional detail that allows viewers to develop relatively advanced skills or to complete relatively complex tasks without further assistance. 
     Often, however, television programs provide more information than most viewers can conveniently remember, at least without actively taking notes while viewing the program. A cooking program, for example, may have detailed lists of ingredients or instructions for preparing a particular recipe that may be difficult for many viewers to remember. Home repair programs may similarly present lists of parts or tools, or detailed instructions for completing a task that may be difficult to remember in full detail. Other programs, including non-instructional programs, may similarly provide detailed information about the programming content than the viewer may want to remember or access at a later date or time. 
     Often, Internet websites allow viewers to obtain recipes, parts lists or other information that is associated with broadcast programs. To access the website, however, the viewer typically needs to use a separate computer or other device other than the television, so the convenience and immediacy of watching a television program is lost. Moreover, if the audio or video portion of a program describes an Internet address, then the web site associated with the program typically needs to reside at that address for the entire life of the program, including syndication, reruns, etc. This can lead to administrative effort and cost to maintain websites at addresses described in programs that were originally broadcast many days, months or even years prior. 
     It is therefore desirable to create systems, devices and/or methods to provide or receive additional information associated with broadcast programming in a convenient manner. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     According to various exemplary embodiments, supplemental information associated with a television program is delivered in the same transport stream that carries the television program to the viewer. The transport stream includes at least two elementary streams, wherein the first elementary stream conveys video content associated with the television program and the second elementary stream conveys supplemental information relating to the television program. Supplemental information may provide any information related to the programming content, such as recipes, parts lists, health or fitness information, instructions, notes, summaries, outlines and/or any other information as desired. 
     Some embodiments relate to methods executable by a set top box or other television receiver that presents television programs to viewers. A digital transport stream associated with a television program is received at the receiver. The digital transport stream suitably comprises a multiplex of a first elementary stream and a second elementary stream, wherein the first elementary stream conveys video content associated with the television program and the second elementary stream conveys supplemental information that summarizes at least a portion of the television program. The first and second elementary streams are identified in the received digital transport stream. The first elementary stream is processed to thereby present the video content associated with the television program to the viewer, and the supplemental information in the second elementary stream is made available to the viewer. The information may be made available by presenting the supplemental information on the display, by extracting and storing at least some of the supplemental information for later retrieval, or in any other manner. 
     Other embodiments relate to systems that provide supplemental information associated with video content of a television program to a viewer. The system suitably comprises a programming interface configured to receive a transport stream associated with the television program, wherein the transport stream comprises a first elementary stream that conveys the video content of the television program and a second elementary stream that conveys supplemental information that summarizes at least a portion of the program, a display interface configured to provide output signals to a display that represent the video content, and a controller. The controller is configured to identify and extract the first and second elementary streams from the transport stream, to process the first elementary stream to thereby generate the output signals representing the video content for presentation to the viewer on the display, and to make the supplemental information from the second elementary stream available to the viewer. 
     Still other embodiments relate to methods of disseminating a television program. A plurality of elementary streams are created including a first elementary stream that conveys video content associated with the television program, a second elementary stream that conveys audio content associated with the television program and a third elementary stream that conveys supplemental information that summarizes at least a portion of television program. Each of the first, second and third elementary streams is associated with a unique program identifier. The first, second and third elementary streams are multiplexed to thereby create a transport stream associated with the television program. The transport stream and an index to the unique program identifiers associated with the first, second and third elementary streams are broadcasted to a plurality of viewers. 
     These and other embodiments, aspects and other features are described in more detail below. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
       Exemplary embodiments will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and: 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram of an exemplary system for providing programming with supplemental information; 
         FIG. 2  is a flowchart of an exemplary process for processing supplemental information; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram showing one example of a time multiplexed transport stream containing supplemental information; and 
         FIG. 4  is a timing diagram showing an example of chaptered supplemental information. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The following detailed description of the invention is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the invention or the application and uses of the invention. Furthermore, there is no intention to be bound by any theory presented in the preceding background or the following detailed description. 
     According to various exemplary embodiments, supplemental information that relates to a television programming content is delivered to a viewer as an elementary stream that can be transported in the same digital transport stream used to provide the video program content. The supplemental information may be delivered, for example, in an elementary packetized stream that is multiplexed with other elementary streams that convey video, audio or other data within a conventional MPEG transport stream. In such implementations, the supplemental information may be referenced within the transport stream multiplex using a conventional packet identifier (PID) similar to the other streams in the multiplex that provide audio, video or other content. Because the supplemental information is provided with the programming itself, the supplemental information is conveniently and readily available as the viewer receives the actual programming, thereby greatly improving the convenience to the viewer while reducing administrative effort by broadcaster or producer. 
     The supplemental information provided with any particular program may vary widely based upon the programming content, the intended viewer/customer, the capabilities of the receiving device, and any number of other factors. In various embodiments, the supplemental information provides summary or other useful information related to the content of the program itself. Such information may include, for example, recipes presented on a cooking show; lists of parts or tools used in a home improvement project; sheet music, chord charts, tablature, lyrics or other information presented in a musical instruction program; textual summaries or outlines of educational programs; lists of instructions or supplies needed for completing any task; health or fitness information; and/or the like. Other programs may provide any other sort of supplemental information as desired. 
     Supplemental information may be particularly useful in “how-to” or other educational programming wherein the viewer may want to remember a process or concept taught during the show. Other types of programming, however, could equivalently provide supplemental information of any kind. A sports program, for example, could provide statistics, standings, “fantasy” data, schedules of upcoming games or other information as part of a supplemental information stream. Commercials could include information about advertised products, links for additional information, coupons and/or any other information in a supplemental stream. Any type of television or other media programming could use the supplemental information stream to convey hyperlinks, formatted text (or imagery), media files and/or other information as desired. 
     An elementary supplemental information stream provided within the program transport stream can be used in various implementations and embodiments to realize any number of different benefits. For example, since the supplemental information may be conveniently received, stored and transmitted along with the audio or video programming itself, some embodiments may use the supplemental information contained within the elementary stream to facilitate convenient time and/or place shifting. Other embodiments may simply provide the supplemental information on the display along with the video programming to facilitate convenient review by the viewer. In some of these embodiments, the common timing features of the transport stream (e.g., the MPEG presentation time stamp (PTS) or program clock reference (PCR) features) can be used to synchronize the supplemental information with the presentation of the program audio/video content. Various “chapters” of supplemental information, for example, can be provided as the program progresses, thereby allowing information to be revealed to the viewer at times that it are most useful. Some implementations may also provide multiple supplemental information streams within the transport stream multiplex to facilitate different languages, varying levels of detail, or the like. Even further, the supplemental information may be formatted in some implementations to include hypertext, markup language, graphics, media files and/or the like. Other embodiments may provide additional or alternate features, as desired. 
     Turning now to the drawing figures and with initial reference to  FIG. 1 , television or other media programming is distributed in a digital transport stream  110  that is a multiplex of various elementary streams  102 - 107  containing video, audio, and supplemental content. In the illustrated example, a system  100  for delivering television programming to a viewer suitably includes a broadcaster  101  that provides the program transport stream  110  containing fundamental program streams  102 - 106  to a viewer&#39;s receiver  120  over a distribution channel  115 . The receiver  120  is able to receive, decode and render the programming on a television or other suitable display  142 . In some implementations, the supplemental information  147  is provided along with program video  145  on display  142 . Supplemental information  147  may be alternately or additionally be provided by extracting the supplemental information for storage on a portable device  144  or digital video recorder  141 , by transmitting or receiving information identified in the supplemental stream  105 ,  106  via network  146 , and/or in any other manner. 
     In various embodiments, the program transport stream no is broadcast over any conventional distribution channel  115 , such as any sort of terrestrial broadcast system, a cable television system, a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) system, or the like. In equivalent embodiments, distribution channel  115  may be transported over the Internet or another digital network  146  using any sort of file-based, stream-based, on-demand or other distribution technique. Broadcaster  101  therefore represents any source of programming represented by a transport stream  110  that is broadcast on any appropriate distribution channel  115 . Examples of “broadcasters”  101  in different embodiments may include any sorts of television broadcast stations, cable distribution systems, DBS transmission systems, network distribution systems or the like. 
     Transport stream no suitably contains any number of elementary streams  102 - 106  each conveying audio, video, or other content associated with a particular program. Transport stream no is formed as a multiplex of various elementary streams that include a video stream (e.g., stream  102 ), one or more audio streams (e.g., streams  103  and  104 ), and one or more streams (e.g., streams  105 - 106 ) that convey supplemental information. In various embodiments, multiple audio and/or supplemental information streams can be provided within the multiplexed transport stream  110  to support different languages or other features. Generally, the viewer&#39;s receiver  120  is able to extract and process the desired streams based upon user preferences or the like, and any unused elementary streams provided within the multiplex are simply discarded. Although  FIG. 1  shows transport stream no as being made up of five elementary streams  102 - 106 , plus metadata  107 , other streams not shown in  FIG. 1  may be present. These streams may represent, for example, closed caption information, electronic program guide information, or any other information as desired. Additional information about an exemplary transport stream no is described below in conjunction with  FIG. 3 . 
     The various streams  102 - 106  may be organized and formatted in any manner. In various embodiments, elementary streams  102 - 106  are formatted as packetized elementary streams in accordance with any protocols promulgated by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), including MPEG2 or H.264/MPEG4, and/or the like. In this example, transport stream no is formatted as a conventional MPEG transport stream that includes any number of packetized elementary streams  102 - 106 , as well as associated metadata  107 , as desired. Each elementary stream  102 - 106  (including streams  105  and  106  that carry supplemental information) is referenced within an MPEG multiplex by a unique MPEG packet identifier (PID) provided within every packet of the elementary stream. Many equivalent embodiments may use other standard or non-standard protocols or formats other than MPEG to create streams  102 - 106  and/or transport stream  110 , as desired. 
     Broadcaster  101  suitably multiplexes any number of elementary streams  102 - 106 , along with any sort of metadata  107  that describes the elementary streams  102 - 106 , to form transport stream  110 . In various embodiments, broadcaster  101  multiplexes streams  102 - 106  in the time domain using any sort of conventional transport stream multiplexer  108 , such as any of the various hardware or software MPEG multiplexers that are commercially available. Metadata  107  may include any information about the various elementary streams making up a particular program. Metadata  107  may include, for example, index of the identifiers associated with each elementary stream  102 - 106 . A conventional MPEG program map table (PMT), for example, could provide the PIDs or other identifiers associated with the elementary streams  102 - 106  associated with a particular program. Equivalent embodiments may additionally or alternately provide index information using supplemental information (SIP) and/or other reference data as appropriate to identify the various streams  102 - 106  or programs contained within the transport stream  110 . Still other embodiments may provide an index of program and/or stream mapping information outside of transport stream no in any manner. A cable, DBS or other television broadcaster may provide indexes of program and stream information within a separate electronic program guide (EPG) feature, for example, that is transmitted separately from the transport stream  110 . 
     Metadata  107  may also include timing information, such as an MPEG program clock reference (PCR) or other clocking data that allows the various elementary streams  102 - 106  to share a common timing scheme. This common timing information may be used in various embodiments to synchronize “chapters” or other portions of the supplemental information provided on elementary streams  105 ,  106  to video or audio content provided on streams  102 - 104 , as appropriate. 
     Streams  105 - 106  carrying supplemental information may be formatted using the same transport packet format, clocking information, PID structure and the like used to format elementary streams  102 - 104 , although each stream  102 - 106  will typically have its own unique PID, and different streams may convey different types of payload data. The supplemental information contained within each stream  105 - 106 , for example, may be formatted as ASCII text or the like within a payload data field of an elementary stream packet. This payload data may simply convey textual information that can be formatted and rendered by the receiver in some implementations. In further embodiments, the text conveyed in the payload field may be organized into higher-level formats such as HTML, XML or the like to facilitate a richer viewing experience of the supplemental information. Some implementations may include hyperlinks or the like, as described more fully below. Further, some implementations may supplement or replace conventional text provided in the supplemental information stream  105 ,  106  with other types of data (e.g., video or still images, or audio content) that may be renderable within an HTML or other web-type document, as desired. 
     As noted above, the multiplexed transport stream no is broadcast or otherwise transmitted to one or more receivers  120  via an appropriate medium  115 . Transmission may be performed by any sort of transmitter  112 , such as any satellite uplink, cable distribution system, terrestrial television broadcaster/transmitter, network distribution system, and/or the like. Since the supplemental information is provided on an elementary stream  105 ,  106  that is contained within the transport stream  110 , any techniques or equipment used to distribute MPEG or other transport streams may be readily used to transmit the same streams  110  containing supplemental information. 
     The supplemental information may be received and provided to the viewer in any manner. In the example shown in  FIG. 1 , the viewer receives the transport stream  110  carrying desired television or other programming using any sort of appropriate receiver  120  system or device. 
     Receiver  120  is any sort of system, device or other component that includes appropriate hardware, software, firmware and/or other processing logic to implement the various functions related to receiving and presenting video programming to a viewer. Receiver  120  may be a conventional television receiver, for example, such as any type of set top box (STB) or similar system that receives programming content from a terrestrial broadcast, cable or satellite distributor for presentation on a television or other display  142 . Other types of receivers  120  may receive and process programming received from network, stored media, broadcast and/or other sources as desired. 
     In the example shown in  FIG. 1 , receiver  120  suitably includes a controller  121  that interacts with a programming interface  126 , a network interface  132 , a storage interface  127  to a digital video recorder (DVR)  142  or the like, a display interface  128  to display  142 , and/or a direct connect interface  131  to an external device  144 . Various equivalent embodiments of receiver  120  may be implemented within any additional or alternate components or products or arrangements that may differ from those shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     Controller  121  suitably includes any sort of microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor or other programmable hardware  122  capable of directing the actions and functions of receiver  120 . Controller  121  typically obtains programming content received via program interface  126  and renders the video, audio and/or supplemental content contained within the demodulated transport stream  110  for output at display interface  128  and presentation on display  142 . To that end, controller  121  identifies and extracts relevant elementary streams (including supplemental information streams  105 ,  106 ) within the received transport stream  110 , generates appropriate output signal  130  to present video and/or audio content on display  142 , and also provides supplemental content to the viewer as desired. Controller  121  may further direct the storage or retrieval of programming content (including supplemental content) on a DVR  141  or the like, as well as any communications via direct interface  131  and/or network interface  132 . 
     In various embodiments, controller  121  is based upon a “system on chip” (SoC) implementation that incorporates microcontroller hardware  122  with memory  123 , input/output and other features to perform the various signal processing and other actions of receiver  120 . Various SoC and other integrated video processing implementations are available from Texas Instruments, Conexant Systems, NXP Semiconductor, Broadcom Inc., and many other suppliers as appropriate. Other embodiments may implement controller  121  and/or the other features of receiver  120  with any number of separate processing components, such as any number of separate chips that provide specific functions (e.g., decoding, demodulation, decryption, transcoding and/or the like), as well as any additional memories  123 , input/output interfaces  129  and/or other features as desired. 
       FIG. 1  shows an example that provides a stream decoder module  124 , a display processor module  125  and a control module  121  each executing on SoC or other shared processing hardware  126 . In this example, stream decoder module  124  is any hardware and/or software logic capable of decoding desired programming content from the available sources for presentation on one or more output interfaces  128 . Stream select module  124  therefore responds to viewer inputs (received, e.g., via input/output module  129 ) to obtain, decompress or otherwise decode the programming received in a transport stream  110 . Transport stream  110  may be received from any source, such as program interface  126 , storage interface  127 , network interface  132 , and/or direct interface  131 . In some embodiments, stream decoder module  124  is implemented using conventional MPEG or other decompression/decoding functions provided within SoC hardware  133 . Other embodiments may use separate decoder/decompression logic, such as a separate decoder chip, to perform similar functions. 
     Display processor module  125  includes any appropriate hardware, software and/or other logic to create desired screen displays at interface  128  as desired. In various embodiments, display processor module  125  is able to decode and/or transcode the received media to a format that can be presented at display interface  128 . The generated displays, including received/stored content and any other displays may then be presented to one or more output interfaces  228  in any desired format. In various embodiments, display processor  125  produces an output signal encoded in any standard format (e.g., ITU656 format for standard definition television signals or any format for high definition television signals) that can be readily converted to standard and/or high definition television signals at interface  128 . 
     Display processing module  125  is also able to produce on screen displays (OSDs) for electronic program guide, setup and control, input/output facilitation user interface imagery and/or other features that may vary from embodiment to embodiment. Such displays are not typically contained within the received or stored broadcast stream, but are nevertheless useful to users in interacting with receiver  120  or the like. In particular, on-screen displays can be used in some implementations to provide supplemental information  147  to the viewer on display  142 . The supplemental information  147  may be generated on the display, for example, to overlie the primary video programming  145 , as shown in the example of  FIG. 1 . Alternately, the supplemental information  147  may be presented in a separate window from the primary video content  145 , or in any other manner. Supplemental information  147  may be alternately provided in a separate screen from video content  145 , as desired. 
     In the implementation of  FIG. 1 , programming interface  126  is any tuner, demodulator and/or other interface capable of receiving broadcast television, cable, DBS and/or other media programming as desired. In various embodiments, programming interface  109  is a satellite, cable or broadcast television interface to medium  115 , although other embodiments may provide alternate or additional interfaces as desired. Programming interface  126  therefore interacts with an antenna, cable interface or other receiver hardware to receive transport stream  110  via medium  115 . Programming interface  126  may also provide tuning, demodulation, decryption and/or other functions as desired. 
     Display interface  128  is any physical and/or logical interface to a television or other display  142 . Some types of receivers  120  may incorporate a built-in display  142 , such as the display in a laptop or other portable computer, a media player, a portable television and/or the like. In other embodiments wherein receiver  120  provides video output signals  130  to an external display  142 , such signals  130  may be provided in any compatible format. In embodiments wherein display  142  is a conventional television, for example, display interface  128  may provide video and audio output signals in any conventional format, such as component video, S-video, High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), IEEE 1394, and/or any other formats as desired. 
     Various embodiments may allow the receiver to automatically or manually (e.g., in response to a viewer input) obtain additional information from a server or other system  148  that is accessible via a network  146 . Such information may be identified by uniform resource locators (URLs) or other hyperlink located within the supplemental information stream  105 ,  106  as desired. Content referenced by the hyperlinks may be obtained by a browser application or the like executing on receiver  120 . A browser program could execute within controller  121 , for example, to obtain content from a server  148  that is identified by a hyperlink contained within supplemental information provided within a stream  105 ,  106 . 
     To that end, receiver  120  may include an appropriate network interface  132  that operates using any implementation of protocols or other features to support communication on network  146 . Network  146  is any digital or other communications network capable of transmitting messages between senders (e.g., receiver  120 ) and receivers (e.g., computing system  148 ). In various embodiments, network interface  210  supports conventional LAN, WAN or other protocols (e.g., the TCP/IP or UDP/IP suite of protocols widely used on the Internet) to allow receiver  120  to communicate on network  146  as desired. Network interface  210  typically interfaces with network  146  using any sort of LAN adapter hardware, such as a conventional network interface card (NIC) or the like provided within receiver  120 . 
     Some implementations may allow downloading or transfer of supplemental information to a mobile phone, computer, personal digital assistant, memory, or other external device  144 . This feature may be useful, for example, in downloading recipes to a phone or other device that can be carried to the supermarket, or for any other purpose. To facilitate data transfers to the device  144 , receiver  120  may include a direct interface  131 , such as any physical, logical and/or other features that can be used to interface with an external computer, mobile phone, storage medium or other device  144  as appropriate. In various embodiments, direct interface  131  is a universal serial bus (USB), IEEE 1394 (“Firewire”) or other standard wired interface that allows viewers to transfer data between receiver  120  and device  144  over a cable or other physical connection. Other embodiments may additionally or alternately implement direct interface  131  with a wireless receiver, transceiver or other module capable of wirelessly exchanging data with device  144 . Examples of wireless direct interfaces  131  could include conventional IEEE 802.15.4 (“ZIGBEE”) or other wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers, including transceivers that implement other wireless signaling techniques such as IEEE 802.15.1 (“BLUETOOTH”), IEEE 802.11 (“WI-FI”) and/or the like. Other embodiments may transfer supplemental information via network interface  132 , or via other techniques as desired. 
     In operation, then, receiver  120  suitably receives the transport stream  110  that includes multiplexed elementary streams  102 - 106 , as appropriate. The various streams  102 - 106  are identified, demodulated, and provided to the viewer as appropriate. 
       FIG. 2  shows an example of a process  200  that could be executed by a receiver  120  to provide the supplemental information  147  to the viewer in any number of different ways. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the receiver  120  appropriately responds to viewer inputs to select a television or other media program (function  202 ), to receive a digital transport stream no that contains the program content of the selected program (function  204 ), to identify the elementary streams (function  206 ) to be processed (including any supplemental content streams  105 ,  106 ), and to process the audio, video and/or supplemental content contained within the identified streams as desired (functions  208 - 220 ). Providing the supplemental content  147  to the viewer may involve, in various embodiments, presenting the content  147  in a window or overlay on display  142  (function  218 ). Other embodiments may additionally or alternately extract the supplemental content for storage to an internal or external storage device (function  212 ), as desired. 
     Programs for viewing or other processing may be selected in any manner (function  202 ). In many cases, receiver  120  selects a television program, movie, media stream or other programming in response to viewer inputs received via a remote control or other user interface as desired. Such viewer inputs may be received at input/output module  129  or elsewhere in response to viewer interaction with an EPG or other interface feature, as desired. In various embodiments, viewers are able to select programming from program interface  126  (e.g., terrestrial, cable, DBS or other broadcast programming), from programs previously stored in DVR  141  via storage interface  127 , from streaming video received from a source on network  146  via network interface  132 , from a file server or storage device directly connected via direct connection  131 , and/or from any other source. 
     The selected program is then received in any manner (function  204 ). In various embodiments, a transport stream  110  that contains the program content is identified from a program guide or other table, and that transport stream is received as appropriate. Programs received via broadcast channel  115 , for example, will typically be received by controlling program interface  126  to tune an RF, cable or other receiver to a desired channel where the selected program is being broadcast. This received signal is typically demodulated, as appropriate, to extract the digital transport stream  110  containing the various elementary streams that contain the program content. As noted above, digital transport stream no may be alternately obtained from DVR  141 , network  146 , device  144  or any other source as desired. 
     The received transport stream no is then processed as appropriate to identify the desired elementary streams  102 - 106  that contain the desired program content, including any supplemental content (function  206 ). The particular streams  102 - 106  are identified though information conveyed in a PMT or other data contained with the transport stream  110 , in supplemental information otherwise transmitted via channel  115  (or another channel, such as network  146 ), and/or other information available to receiver  120  via an EPG or other source. In various embodiments, the EPG associated with receiver  120  is regularly updated to contain information that identifies the particular streams  102 - 106  of each available transport stream no according to PIDs or other identifiers, as appropriate. 
     The particular streams  102 - 106  are extracted in any manner. In various embodiments, receiver  120  identifies video content (e.g., stream  102  in  FIG. 1 ), audio content (e.g., streams  103 ,  104  in  FIG. 1 ) and/or supplemental content (e.g., streams  105 ,  106 ) according to the PIDs or other identifiers associated with each stream. Each identifier is known from a PMT or other index file provided with metadata  107 , via EPG data separate from stream  110 , or from any other source. If the transport stream no contains multiple elementary streams providing similar content, one of the available streams may be selected according to viewer preferences, inputs from the viewer, or other factors as desired. A transport stream no may include multiple streams  103 ,  104  containing similar audio tracks in different encoding formats or different languages, for example, that may be selected according to user preferences, equipment capabilities, or other factors as desired. Supplemental information streams  105 ,  106  may be similarly provided in different languages, to provide differing levels of detail, or the like. These streams  105 ,  106  may be similarly selected based upon user preferences that are previously stored within receiver  120 , that are manually obtained from the viewer, or that are otherwise available. Further, some embodiments may allow simultaneous or sequential processing of multiple supplemental content streams  105 ,  106 . To provide just one example, one stream  105  may be presented on display  142  as the video programming  145  progresses, and a second stream  106  having additional or differently-formatted information may be stored for later access by the viewer. The supplemental stream  106  may further contain media content, software, or any other information that may be stored, transferred to an external device  144 , or otherwise made available to the viewer apart from display  102 . 
     In some embodiments, a “pay per view” supplemental information service could be further provided on one or more supplemental streams  105 ,  106  by encrypting or otherwise encoding the particular supplemental information stream  105 ,  106  so that only certain viewers are able to access the stream. This feature could be used to limit access to supplemental content, or to otherwise restrict distribution of the supplemental content contained in the transport stream  110 . In various embodiments, one supplemental stream may contain advertisements that are suppressed in another stream that is only available to subscribers who have paid an additional fee or who have otherwise obtained access to the enhanced supplemental content contained in the secure stream. Encryption keys or other security mechanisms used to access the secure stream may be provided, for example, using an EPG or other feature associated with receiver  120 . EPG data transmitted via broadcast channel  115 , for example, could contain a list of receivers  120  that are approved to receive and decode the secure stream  105 ,  106 . In other embodiments, receiver  120  suitably queries a service (e.g., broadcaster  101  or a service on network  146 ) to obtain a key or other credential necessary to access the protected content  105 ,  106 . Similar concepts could be used to distribute media content, software or other information within the supplemental stream  105 ,  106 . Many embodiments will omit these features entirely, or will restrict access to elementary streams  105 ,  106  using any other techniques. 
     Receiver  120  selects packets within the digital transport stream  110  that are identified as being associated with one of the desired streams. If the transport stream  110  is a conventional MPEG stream, for example, the desired packets can be recognized from the PIDs contained within each packet. Typically, receiver  120  retains the desired packets by recognizing the PIDs or other identifiers associated with the desired elementary streams. Packets having other PIDs are simply discarded, as appropriate. In the example shown in  FIG. 1 , for example, the viewer may wish to obtain video stream  102 , audio stream  103 , and supplemental stream  105  based upon language or other preferences. These streams, along with metadata  107 , will typically be identified from their PID or other identifier for further processing in this example, whereas packets associated with streams  104  and  106  will by simply discarded. 
     If the transport stream  110  does not contain supplemental information  147 , then the video, audio and/or other streams  102 - 104  can be processed by receiver  120  using conventional techniques (function  216 ). If the transport stream  110  contains one or more streams  105 ,  106  of supplemental information (function  208 ), however, the supplemental content  147  may be made available to the viewer in any number of different ways, as represented by function  210  in  FIG. 2 . 
     In various embodiments, supplemental information  147  is simply extracted and stored for later use (function  212 ). The particular processing in function  212  used to extract and store the supplemental information will vary depending on the type of information contained within the stream  105 ,  106 . In various embodiments, the supplemental information is simply ASCII or similar text that can be readily stored in a conventional file or the like. In other embodiments, the extracted text contained within the file will be formatted in a markup language (e.g., hypertext markup language (HTML), extensible markup language (XML) or the like) to permit formatted viewing within a browser or other viewing application on receiver  120 , device  144 , or any other device as desired. In still other embodiments, some or all of the supplemental information within stream  105 ,  106  may be formatted as an executable file, media file, binary file or the like. Such files may be further encoded prior to transport and decoded by receiver  120  as needed. 
     In many embodiments, the supplemental information  147  is simply presented to the viewer on display  142  along with the audio and video content of the selected program. Supplemental information  147  may be presented as an overlay that covers a portion of the video content  145 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . Other embodiments will display supplemental information  147  in a separate window, or in any other manner as desired. In some implementations, supplemental information  147  is activated or deactivated by the viewer to avoid obscuring a portion of video content  145  when presentation of the supplemental information  147  is not desired. The imagery presented on display  142  may be rendered by display processor  125  in some embodiments to produce signals  130  that incorporate supplemental content  147  in any desired manner. 
     As noted above, some implementations may provide supplemental content  147  within a web browser or other application that is able to process hyperlinks contained within the supplemental content stream  105 ,  106  (function  220 ). Such hyperlinks may contain uniform resource locators (URLs) or other addresses associated with content on a service  148  on network  146 , for example. Hyperlinks may be traversed in response to viewer inputs, as desired. In other cases, receiver  120  may access the hyperlinks without express input from the viewer to automatically obtain additional content that may be provided on display  142  or otherwise made available to the viewer. 
     As further discussed below, various embodiments allow different “chapters” or other files contained within the supplemental content streams  105 ,  106  to be presented at times that are related to the presentation of the video and/or audio content (function  214 ). Multiple “chapters” of information may be displayed or otherwise made available as the program progresses, for example, to prevent viewers from “looking ahead” or to improve the relevance of information presented at any particular time. Coordinated timing may be achieved in some embodiments by referencing the program clock reference (PCR) within the transport stream  110  (e.g., using presentation time stamps (PTSs) contained within the program stream), or by referencing the elapsed time since the beginning of the program, or in any other manner. Additional detail about chaptered or other time-synchronized presentation of supplemental information  147  is described below with reference to  FIG. 4 . 
     The various functions, method steps and other features shown in  FIG. 2  may be performed by any hardware, software and/or firmware logic stored in any tangible storage medium within receiver  120 , including any sort of optical, magnetic or other storage hardware. In some embodiments, the various functions of process  200  are implemented using software or firmware logic that is stored within a flash memory or ROM (e.g, memory  123 ) and executed by controller  121  executing on SoC  133 , processor  122  and/or other processing hardware within receiver  120 . Other embodiments, however, will execute one or more functions on other processing servers, circuits or other logic located external to receiver  120 . The various functions shown in  FIG. 2  are exemplary, and various practical embodiments may include other functions, additional functions and/or functions organized in ways other than that shown in the example of  FIG. 2 . 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary time-multiplexed transport stream  110  that includes any number of packets  301 - 309 . As noted above, the various packets may be formatted as conventional MPEG packets, or the like, that may be sequentially transmitted in a transport stream  110  as desired. The example illustrated in  FIG. 3  shows each packet  301 - 309  having an identifier  315  (e.g., a PID or similar code) that identifies the stream  102 - 106  from which the packet  301 - 309  is created. Each packet  301 - 309  also has a payload field  310 ,  312 ,  314  that is able to carry appropriate content for a particular stream  102 - 106 . In the example of  FIG. 3 , packets  301  and  307  are packets containing metadata  107  (such as PCR or similar clock reference  316 , a program mapping information  318  and/or the like) that are identified by a common identifier  315  (“PID=1” in this example). Similarly, packets  302 ,  304 ,  306  and  308  contain video data from stream  102 , and are identified in this example with a different identifier  315  (e.g., “PID=2”), and with a payload field  310  formatted to transport video content. Audio content from stream  103  is provided within packet  303  having yet another identifier  315  (e.g., “PID=3”) and a payload  312 , and supplemental data from stream  105  is provided in packets  305  and  309 , which have yet another unique identifier  315  (e.g., “PID=4”) and a payload field  314  suitable for transporting raw text, formatted text, binary and/or other supplemental content as desired. 
     The various packets  301 - 309  may be sequenced and arranged in any manner. Typically, video content from stream  102  will consume the greatest share of bandwidth, so typically these packets  302 ,  304 ,  306 ,  308  will make up the largest share of transport stream  110 . Packets containing audio content and supplemental information may be inserted within the transport stream  110  as space is available, according to conventional MPEG or other multiplexing techniques. 
     As noted above, various embodiments may use a common timing scheme to synchronize or otherwise coordinate the presentation of supplemental information  147  with video content  145 , audio content and/or the like. In a exemplary implementation that uses MPEG constructs, for example, the various elementary streams  102 ,  103 ,  105  may be coordinated in time with each other using conventional program clock reference (PCR) and/or presentation time stamp (PTS) structures. In a conventional MPEG stream  110 , PCR data  316  is provided every 100 ms or so in a packet  307  having a known PID  315  to allow the receiver  120  to create an accurate clock. Further, each stream  102 - 106  within the MPEG multiplex no typically includes PTS data that provides an offset or other reference relative to the PCR so that the video, audio and supplemental data streams  102 - 106  can be synchronized or otherwise time coordinated as desired. 
     In some implementations, supplemental content streams  105 - 106  may contain multiple files or other data blocks that can be separately processed or otherwise made available to the viewer at different times. Such files may not be synchronized using PCR/PTS data, but may instead reference a simple clock that identifies the time since the program began, or any other reference point within the program.  FIG. 4 , for example, shows an exemplary television or other media program  400  that includes video content on elementary stream  102 , audio content on elementary stream  103 , and supplemental information  147  on elementary stream  105 . The various streams  102 ,  103 ,  105  may be extracted from a multiplexed transport stream  110 , as described above. 
     In the example of  FIG. 4 , the supplemental content  147  is provided in three separate files  411 ,  412  and  413 . Each file may be sequentially transmitted on stream  105 , and each file may be individually or separately processed as appropriate. In various embodiments, the various files  411 ,  412 ,  413  represent “chapters” of information that may be relevant to different portions of the video and audio programming. File  411  may represent introductory matter, for example, whereas file  412  may represent information more relevant to the middle portion of the program, and file  413  may represent a summary, recap or other information that is most useful toward the end of the program  400 . 
     Display of the various files  411 - 413  may be coordinated in any manner. In the example of  FIG. 4 , file  411  is available between times  401  and  402  of program  400 , file  412  is available between times  403  and  404 , and file  413  is available after time  413 . Note that the various times  401 - 405  may be identified by PCR/PTS data within the transport stream  110  in some implementations, although other implementations may identify the relevant times  401 - 405  using EPG data, metadata  107 , a file or other information contained within stream  105 , or the like. Times  401 - 405  need not be referenced to the MPEG clocking data, but may simply indicate times since the beginning of the program  400 , or since any other convenient reference. Supplemental information  147  contained within files  401 - 403  may be available after the program  400  is complete; indeed, many embodiments may store information  147  for later retrieval, as described more fully above. 
     The timing schedule for presenting files  411 - 413  may be used to enhance the viewer experience in many different ways. Supplemental information  147  may be suppressed during commercials (e.g., between times  402 - 403  and  404 - 405  in  FIG. 4 ) so that the viewer is not distracted during the commercial message. Alternately, supplemental information may be provided during commercials so that the viewer is able to review additional information or to access a hyperlink to additional information about the advertised product. 
     The above discussion therefore describes a number of exemplary embodiments for making supplementary information  147  available to a viewer using an elementary stream  105 ,  106  that is provided in the same transport stream no as the audio and visual content of the program  400 . Supplementary information  147  may be made available to the viewer by presenting the information on a display  142 , by extracting and storing the information for later retrieval by the viewer, by transferring the information to a portable device  144 , or in any other manner. 
     Further, as noted above, because the supplemental information  147  is provided within the transport stream itself, the information  147  is readily stored within a DVR  141  or the like for subsequent retrieval and playback of the program  400 . For DVRs that store the entire transport stream  110 , the supplemental information streams  105 ,  106  are simply stored with the remainder of the stream  110 . In DVRs that store rendered or otherwise processed copies of the received stream, the supplemental information  147  may be made available within the rendered imagery, or extracted and stored for subsequent retrieval just as if the program were received for live viewing on display  142 . The supplemental information  147  may be similarly placeshifted (e.g., to a portable computer, mobile phone or other device accessible on network  146 ) with the audio and video content within the transport stream  110  using equivalent concepts. 
     As noted at the outset, streams  105 ,  106  of supplemental information  147  may be particularly useful in “do-it-yourself” or other educational programming such as cooking shows, home improvement shows, how-to shows, self-improvement shows, health or fitness shows, or the like. Equivalent concepts may be used to provide supplemental information  147  associated with any other types of programming, however, including pay-per-view programs, commercials, sports programming, movies, and/or many others. 
     While several exemplary embodiments have been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of alternate but equivalent variations exist, and the examples presented herein are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. To the contrary, various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements described without departing from the scope of the claims and their legal equivalents. 
     The term “exemplary” is used herein to represent one example, instance or illustration that may have any number of alternates. Any implementation described herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations.