Patent ID: 7877779

Claim:
A host interfacing with a cable card in an open cable system, the host comprising: a plurality of High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) ports; and a controller configured to receive a request from the cable card, wherein the controller is further configured to generate HDMI status information associated with the plurality of HDMI ports in response to the request, wherein the controller is further configured to receive the request through a central processing unit (CPU) interface, wherein the CPU interface is defined by a generic diagnostic resource which allows HDMI status information to be transferred between a CPU of the host and a CPU of the cable card, wherein the HDMI status information includes audio coding format, audio sampling frequency and audio sample size associated with audio utilized on each of the HDMI ports, wherein the HDMI status information includes information indicating whether a peripheral device linked to each of the HDMI ports uses HDMI or DVI, and wherein the HDMI status information includes connect status information indicating whether a connection exists on each of the HDMI ports, host HDCP status information indicating whether a HDCP is enabled on each of the HDMI ports, device HDCP status information indicating a HDCP status of the peripheral device connected to the host, and video format information indicating a current video format used on each of the HDMI ports.