A method of centralized resource management on a set-top box

The set-top box has evolved from single-user platform for digital television application to multi-user multi application platform for home digital entertainment. Historically, software and hardware stack for digital television content reproduction (DTV stack) allows only single-user, single process application to be executed. In the paper, we proposed service around software DTV stack to enable multiple applications to consume TV media content simultaneously. The service represents a proxy between client applications and DTV stack, which acts as a content provider and resource manager, allowing the DTV stack to be accessed from multiple processes. In order to support multiple clients, resource manager resolves acquisition conflicts of DTV resources.