Patent ID: 7900238

Claim:
A communication system including a host device, a cable card and a content provider, the communication system comprising: a plurality of High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) ports in the host device; and the content provider that forwards a request to the host device, the host device including a controller configured to receive the request, 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 HDMI status information is received to the cable card through a CPU interface, the CPU interface including a generic diagnostic resource assigning diagnostic identifiers to corresponding diagnostic items, respectively, and wherein a single diagnostic identifier of the diagnostic identifiers is assigned to the HDMI status information, wherein when multiple diagnostics corresponding to the plurality of HDMI ports are generated, the multiple diagnostics are identified by the same diagnostic identifier, wherein the HDMI status information includes information indicating whether each of peripheral devices 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 each of the peripheral devices connected to the host device, video format information indicating a current video format used on each of the HDMI ports, and audio information.