Patent ID: 7171506

Claim:
A home entertainment network, comprising: at least one network path; at least a first component having a data bus of a first bus width; at least a second component having a data bus of a second bus width, the second bus width being different from the first bus width; and respective network interfaces connecting each component to the network path, wherein each network interface includes: at least one data stream port; at least one host bus interface communicating with a host bus of the respective component; at feast one network communication port communicating with a common network backbone; and at least one switch selectively connecting the network communication port to either the host bus interface or the at least one data stream port, wherein each network interface includes at least one packetizing/depacketizing component between the switch and the network communication port and at least one internal bus establishing at least a portion of a communication path between the host bus interface and the network communication port, whereby the host bus interface can communicate data directly to the network communication port, bypassing the packetizing/depacketizing component.