Patent ID: 8677433

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of content processing devices, each configured to selectively receive a media signal from a media signal provider, wherein each of the content processing devices comprises customer premises equipment; a distribution device that is configured to selectively receive a media signal from at least some of the plurality of content processing devices, and to selectively provide one or more command signals to the plurality of content processing devices; and a computer that is configured to selectively receive the media signal from the distribution device, and to selectively provide test commands to the distribution device, the distribution device being further configured to provide the received media signals to a computer via a network and to provide the received one or more test commands to at least one of the plurality of content processing devices via the one or more command signals, the computer being further configured to send the one or more test commands to, and receive the media signal from, the distribution device, and to interpret instructions from a test script, wherein the computer is further configured to monitor the received media signal from the distribution device to determine if at least one of the plurality of content processing devices has experienced a failure event, and send a reboot command to the at least one of the plurality of content processing devices via the network without transmission through the distribution device if a failure event has occurred, the computer being further configured to continue the test of the at least one of the plurality of content processing devices subsequent to a reboot, wherein the test following the reboot continues from the point in the test script where the failure event occurred, and the computer being further configured to create a log entry if a failure event has occurred, the log entry comprising: a duration of the test, a sequence of previously submitted test commands, and the last command submitted to the at least one of the plurality of content processing devices before the failure event occurred.