Apparatus, systems and methods for song play using a media device having a buffer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11259094-B2
Application number	US-201916595389-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2019
Priority date	May 20, 2015
Publication date	Feb 22, 2022
Grant date	Feb 22, 2022

Abstract

Systems and methods control presentation of audio-only content that is broadcast to a media device. An exemplary embodiment receives media content that is currently received in a channel of a broadcasted media content stream; determines whether the currently received channel is a type of channel that provides audio/visual content or a type of channel that provides audio-only content; controls presentation of the received media content using at least one audio/visual content control function in response to determining that the currently received channel is the type of channel that provides audio/visual content; controls presentation of the received media content using at least one audio-only content control function in response to determining that the currently received channel is the type of channel that provides audio-only content, wherein the at least one audio/visual content control function is different from the at least one audio-only content control function.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for presentation control of media content, the method comprising:
receiving, at a media device, a media content stream containing the media content;
storing the received media content in a program buffer of the media device;
communicating the media content stored in the program buffer from the media device to a media presentation device, wherein the media content is currently presented to a user;
analyzing at least one of the currently presenting media content and electronic program guide (EPG) information to identify one of a first characteristic and a second characteristic of the currently presenting media content, wherein the first characteristic is associated with audio/visual content and the second characteristic is associated with audio-only content;
determining, based on the identified one of the first characteristic and the second characteristic, whether the currently presenting media content provides audio/visual content or provides audio-only content, wherein the audio-only content comprises a series of a plurality of songs and limited visual content in the received media content;
determining at least one of a beginning and an end for each of the plurality of songs stored in the program buffer based on metadata provided with the songs when the media device has determined that the currently presenting media content provides audio-only content; and
receiving a command from a remote control that is being used by the user, wherein the command is initiated in response to the user actuation of a predefined controller of the remote control, wherein the predefined controller is one of a plurality of predefined controllers of the remote control, wherein the predefined controller is concurrently assigned with a first function that controls presentation of the audio/visual content and a second function that controls presentation of the audio-only content, and wherein the other ones of the predefined controllers are each concurrently assigned a first unique function that controls presentation of the audio/visual content and a second unique function that controls presentation of the audio-only content;
wherein presentation of the currently presenting media content is controlled using the first function in response to receiving the command from the remote control when the media device has determined that the currently presenting media content provides audio/visual content, wherein presentation of the currently presenting media content is controlled using the second function in response to receiving the command from the remote control when the media device has determined that the currently presenting media content provides audio-only content, and
wherein the first function that controls presentation of audio/visual content is different from the second function that controls presentation of audio-only content.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata provided with each song includes at least one of an artist's name, a song title, an album name, a song label, and a recording date, and wherein determining at least one of a beginning and an end for each of the plurality of songs comprises monitoring the metadata for changes to the at least one of an artist's name, a song title, an album name, a song label, and a recording date.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a currently playing song is being accessed from the program buffer, wherein at least a beginning of a next song has been stored in the program buffer, and wherein controlling presentation of the audio-only content using the second function comprises:
performing a skip track forward operation that advances presentation from the currently presenting song to the beginning of the next song in response to receiving the command from the remote control.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a beginning of a previously received song has been stored in the program buffer, and wherein controlling presentation of the audio-only content using the second function comprises:
performing a skip track backward operation that rewinds presentation from a currently presenting song to the previously received song in response to receiving the command from the remote control.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a beginning of a currently presenting song has been stored in the program buffer, and wherein controlling presentation of the audio-only content using the second function comprises:
performing a return to song beginning operation that returns presentation of the currently presenting song to the beginning of the currently presenting song in response to receiving the command from the remote control.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
setting the first function that controls presentation of the audio/visual content to the predefined controller in response to determining that the currently presenting media content provides the audio/visual content; and
setting the second function that controls presentation of the audio-only content to the predefined controller in response to determining that the currently presenting media content provides the audio-only content.

7. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the audio-only content includes audio information corresponding to a particular song that is currently being presented from at least one speaker that is controlled by the media device,
wherein the audio-only content further includes image information that is currently being presented on at least one display that is controlled by the media device,
wherein the image information of the audio-only content that indicates the title of the particular song and the artist performing the particular song, and
wherein analyzing the currently presenting media content to identify one of a first characteristic and a second characteristic of the currently presenting media content further comprises:
identifying the title of the audio-only content from the image information to determine that the second characteristic is associated with the audio-only content.

8. The method of claim 1 ,
wherein the audio-only content includes audio information corresponding to a particular song that is currently being presented from at least one speaker that is controlled by the media device,
wherein the audio-only content further includes image information that is currently being presented on at least one display that is controlled by the media device, and
wherein the image information of the audio-only content presents at least one image of at least one artist who is performing the particular song, and
wherein analyzing the currently presenting media content to identify one of a first characteristic and a second characteristic of the currently presenting media content further comprises:
identifying the one artist who is performing the particular song from the image information to determine that the second characteristic is associated with the audio-only content.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the currently presenting media content provides audio/visual content or provides audio-only content comprises:
accessing electronic program guide information that has been stored on a memory of the media device,
wherein the EPG information includes a list of channels that are accessible by the media device, and
wherein for each one of the channels listed in the EPG information, each channel includes a descriptor that describes the media content that is currently in the stream of media content of that particular channel; and

analyzing the descriptor of a currently presenting channel listed in the EPG information to determine whether the currently received channel provides audio/visual content or provides audio-only content,
wherein the

Assignees

• Dish Tech Llc

Inventors

• Greene Gregory

Classifications

• H04N21/439 Primary

  Processing of audio elementary streams · CPC title

• H04N21/8113

  comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format · CPC title

• H04N21/482 Primary

  End-user interface for programme selection · CPC title

• H04N21/47217

  for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks (specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312) · CPC title