Methods and systems for broadcast data services

Abstract

The present invention provides for the collection and delivery of broadcast data. Broadcast data is captured by broadcast data sources from television broadcasts and the captured broadcast data is collected by a broadcast data source miniport. The miniport differentiates the broadcast data to separate the requested broadcast data and to separate the broadcast data that complies with a protocol from broadcast data that does not comply with a protocol. The nonrequested broadcast data is preferably discarded and the broadcast data that does not comply with a protocol is encapsulated with appropriate headers. The broadcast data is then transferred through the network or system to a common application interface such as Winsock through NDIS and a protocol such as UDP/IP. Alternatively, a RawData module is used that does not rely on sockets and is capable of communicating with the miniport. A presenter retrieves the broadcast data from either the RawData module or Winsock and prepares the broadcast data for use by an application. The application then accesses the presenter for the prepared broadcast data it requested. In another mode, an application may access unprocessed broadcast data from either Winsock or the RawData module.