Patent ID: 7848913

Claim:
An apparatus configured to facilitate the delivery of information from a remote source to a media decoder in a digital encoding format native to the media decoder, the apparatus comprising: a network interface configured to couple to an external network and to facilitate communications between the apparatus and the remote source; a controller in communication with the network interface and configured to couple to the media decoder; a local media source, coupled to the controller, to store media content; instruction sequences executable on the controller, the instruction sequences comprising instructions for: determining, responsive to selection of a media element, whether the selected media element is stored on the local media source; issuing a command to the local media source to deliver the selected media element to the media decoder in response to a determination that the selected media element is stored on the local media source; and responsive to a determination that the selected media element is not stored on the local media source but is stored on the remote source, (i) receiving network information corresponding to the selected media element from the remote source via the external network; (ii) determining, based on signals received from the remote source, a digital encoding format in which the network information is being received; (iii) determining the digital encoding format native to the media decoder; (iv) transcoding the network information from the digital encoding format in which the network information was received to the digital encoding format native to the media decoder; and (v) delivering the network information to the media decoder in the digital encoding format native to the media decoder wherein the instruction sequences (i) through (v) physically or logically emulate a device.