Patent ID: 8713625

Claim:
A method carried out at an HDMI source device, comprising: sending a handshake message from the HDMI source device via an HDMI interface to a display device; where the handshake message queries the display device as to the highest version level of HDMI that is supported by the display device so as to ascertain whether the display device can receive digital packetized closed captioning (CC) data via the HDMI interface using Internet protocol packets in an HDMI Internet Protocol channel for rendering by the display device; attempting to receive a handshake response from the display device via the HDMI interface that either affirms that the display device can receive digital CC data via the HDMI interface using Internet protocol packets and render the digital CC data at the display device or establishes that the display device cannot receive digital CC data via the HDMI interface using Internet protocol packets and render the digital CC data at the display device, where the Internet protocol packets comprise Internet protocol packets conveyed via the HDMI Internet Protocol channel; if the display device affirms that the display device can receive the digital CC data via the HDMI interface as Internet protocol packetized data and render the digital CC data by a reply that indicates that the display device can support version 1.4 of HDMI or later, then the HDMI source device sending the HDMI digital CC data to the display device for rendering when closed caption rendering by the display device is enabled at the display device via the HDMI interface using Internet protocol packets in the HDMI Internet Protocol channel; and if the display device cannot receive the digital CC data via the HDMI interface using Internet protocol packets and hence cannot render the digital CC data, then rendering the closed captioning data at the HDMI source device if closed captioning is enabled by a user setting to display closed captioning data at the HDMI source device and sending the rendered closed captioning as a rendered part of a video signal to the display device.