Patent ID: 8490131

Claim:
A television receiver device, comprising: a television display forming a part of the television receiver device; a filter forming a part of the television receiver device that converts a stream of audio/video content that is to be displayed on the display associated with the television receiver device into a stream of PCM digital audio data, where the filter separates the audio from audio video content by use of packet identifiers to separate audio packets from other packets and produces the stream of digital audio data by removing packet overhead from the audio packets; a circular buffer forming a part of the television receiver device that stores a sample of a predetermined duration of the stream of PCM digital audio data; a modem forming a part of the television receiver device that transmits the sample of PCM digital audio data from the buffer to a content identification server and that receives metadata identifying the audio data from the content identification server; where the predetermined duration is at least as long as a time required by the content identification server to identify content; a storage device forming a part of the television receiver device, where the metadata are stored to a database or history list on the storage device; a metadata parser forming a part of the television receiver device that selects predefined elements of metadata from the metadata for display on the display; a graphics overlay processor forming a part of the television receiver device that generates a graphics overlay containing the metadata; and where the sample of PCM digital audio data is sent to the content identification server upon receipt of a first user command from a remote control and the metadata is rendered to the display upon receipt of a second user command from the remote control.