Patent ID: 7433070

Claim:
A method for providing for printout of an Internet-based print job at a home printer connected to a set top box, in which the set top box is constructed to communicate with a broadcasting station via a broadband network, and wherein the broadcasting station includes connections for connecting to the broadband network and for connecting to the Internet, comprising: providing a CHE spooler in the broadcasting station and an STB spooler in the set top box, wherein the CHE spooler and the STB spooler have substantially identical architectures; receiving a print job at the broadcasting station from an Internet-based source, the print job being received by the broadcasting station via the connection to the Internet, the print job being generated by the Internet-based source in a printer-independent format and including address information designating at least one home printer connected to a respective set top box; based on the address information, accessing a user directory so as to determine a printer driver corresponding to the home printer; loading the print driver specified by the accessing step into the CHE spooler at the broadcasting station and executing the print driver corresponding to the home printer, so as to render the printer-independent format of the print job into a printer-specific rasterized bit map image that is specific for the ultimate destination home printer; and transferring the printer-specific rasterized bit map image over the broadband network to the set top box to which the destination home printer is connected; loading a simplified print driver into the STB spooler at the set top box and executing the simplified print driver for visual printout of the printer-specific rasterized bit map image on the home printer.