Patent ID: 7406706

Claim:
An electronic system comprising: a first device for accessing a multimedia bit stream; a second device coupled to said first device and for generating a command requesting a table describing information in said multimedia bit stream, said command comprising: a plurality of attribute fields comprising: a table field for specifying a table identifier; and a multi-purpose field for specifying a select attribute related to a requested table, said select attribute selected from among a plurality of possible attributes; and a flag field for identifying said select attribute from said plurality of possible attributes held by said multi-purpose field; and in response to receiving said command, wherein said first device is operable to: determine if said flag field indicates a rating region table is requested, and if so, use ratings information in said multi-purpose field to provide said rating region table; determine if said flag field indicates an event information table is requested, and if so, use event information in said multi-purpose field to provide said event information table; and determine if said flag field indicates an extended text table is requested, and if so, use extended text information in said multi-purpose field to provide said extended text table.