Patent ID: 8458741

Claim:
Consumer electronic (CE) device that is not a television and without a TVID comprising: display; network interface; processor controlling the display and communicating with a wide area network through the network interface; the CE device that is not a television and without a TVID including a CE device identification including a CE device serial number; the processor configured for executing instructions including: prompting a user to register to use an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) program at least in part by entering a username and password; wherein a TVID uniquely identifies a television and is formatted to indicate that a device is a television; providing the username and password in a secure fashion to an auxiliary server, the processor sending a request including data unique to the CE device; receiving from the auxiliary server, responsive to the auxiliary server verifying the data unique to the CE device, a virtual TVID, the virtual TVID being different from the CE device identification, the virtual TVID being formatted the same way as the TVID; responsive to the verification of the CE device by the auxiliary server, receiving from the auxiliary server an encrypted string including the virtual TVID; decrypting the encrypted string; in response to determining that the CE device has a virtual TVID and responsive to user input indicating a desire to access the IPTV program, sending the virtual TVID to a management server to obtain a user token and service list, wherein at least a TVID or a virtual TVID is required by the management server to access the IPTV program; in response to user selection from the server list, sending the user token to a content server that appears on the service list; receiving a content list from the content server; and providing a user interface on the display from which the user may select content from the content list to be played on the CE device.