Patent ID: 8896413

Claim:
A method for providing proactive appliance control in a system comprised of a master routing device, a plurality of media input devices in communication with the master routing device, and a controlling device configurable to transmit command communications to the plurality of media input devices in communication with the master routing device, the method comprising: receiving at the master routing device a selection of a one of the plurality of media input devices to be used as a media input source for the master routing device; causing the master routing device to determine if the one of the plurality of media input devices that is to be used as the media input source for the master routing device is in a desired operating state and, when the master routing device determines that the one of the plurality of media input devices that is to be used as the media input source for the master routing device is not in the desired operating state causing the master routing device to display on a media rendering device coupled to the master routing device an instruction which indicates to a user at least one input element of the controlling device that is required to be activated by the user to place the one of the plurality of media input devices that is to be used as the media input source for the master routing device into the desired operating state.