Patent ID: 8352994

Claim:
A method for monitoring an output channel of a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), comprising: acquiring, at a predetermined frame rate, a selected baseband video signal output by a multimedia handling device (MHD) configured as a terminal device of the MCDN, wherein a series of frame images are generated according to the frame rate; selecting a current image and a next image in the series of frame images; when a difference between the next image and the current image is below a given threshold, detecting a video freeze event associated with the MHD; acquiring, at a predetermined sampling rate, at least one audio track generated by the MHD and corresponding to the selected baseband video signal, wherein audio data are generated according to the sampling rate; when a signal power of a portion of the audio data corresponding to the current image and the next image is below a given threshold, detecting an audio freeze event associated with the MHD; when the video freeze event and the audio freeze event are both detected, sending a first network command to power down the MHD; sending a second network command to power up the MHD; and recording a freeze alert for the MHD, including recording an indication of the video freeze event and the audio freeze event.