Systems and methods for managing personal video recordings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11350152-B2
Application number	US-201916722315-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2019
Priority date	Dec 21, 2018
Publication date	May 31, 2022
Grant date	May 31, 2022

Abstract

Systems and methods of managing personal video recordings are disclosed for providing a network personal video recorder (nPVR) that manages PVR recordings for a plurality of users. Recording scheduling information from a recording request received at the nPVR is checked against existing scheduled recordings and a new recording is scheduled in accordance with the received recording scheduling information if an existing scheduled recording does not already exist. The recording scheduling information received in respective recording requests are associated with respective users to facilitate playback of recorded content and digital rights management.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of managing personal video recordings by a network personal video recorder (nPVR), comprising:
receiving a recording request from a user's device to record content;
determining recording scheduling information from the recording request;
determining if there is an existing scheduled recording to record the content that corresponds to the recording scheduling information of the recording request, by accessing a list of existing scheduled recordings that have been scheduled in response to recording requests from a plurality of users;
upon determining that there is no existing scheduled recording corresponding to the recording scheduling information of the recording request, scheduling a recording of the content in accordance with the recording scheduling information of the recording request;
storing the recording scheduling information for the user, independent of whether there is determined to be an existing scheduled recording to record the content;
recording the content during transmission of the content in accordance with the scheduled recording; and
storing a single recording of the recorded content in association with a recording storage identifier, wherein the recording storage identifier is associated with the recording scheduling information received in the recording request from the user, and wherein the single recording of the recorded content is accessible for playback to different users that requested to record the content, and playback of the recorded content by respective users is based on recording scheduling information received in respective recording requests from the respective users to record the content.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein scheduling the recording of the content in accordance with the recording scheduling information of the recording request comprises modifying an existing scheduled recording.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein modifying the existing scheduled recording comprises modifying at least one of a start time and an end time specified in the existing scheduled recording.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein scheduling the recording of the content in accordance with the recording scheduling information of the recording request comprises scheduling a new recording.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recording scheduling information comprises a channel number, a date, a start time, and an end time.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein determining if there is a scheduled recording that corresponds to the recording scheduling information of the recording request comprises determining if the start time and the end time in the recording scheduling information of the recording request falls within a start time and an end time of a scheduled recording for the same channel number and date.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recording request comprises a device identifier of the user's device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recording request comprises information indicative of a geographic location of the user's device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein determining if there is an existing scheduled recording that corresponds to the recording scheduling information of the recording request comprises determining that an existing scheduled recording is for a geographic area comprising the geographic location of the user's device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recording storage identifier is generated after recording of the content.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recording storage identifier is generated upon scheduling the recording.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising maintaining a cache of frequently requested scheduled recordings to facilitate the determination of whether there is an existing scheduled recording that corresponds to the recording scheduling information of the recording request.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a playback request from the user's device to playback requested recorded content;
validating the playback request against recording scheduling information stored for the user;
determining a requested recording storage identifier associated with the recording scheduling information stored for the user corresponding to the requested recorded content;
retrieving, using the requested recording storage identifier, the requested recorded content according to the recording scheduling information; and
providing the requested recorded content to the user's device in accordance with the recording scheduling information stored for the user.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the user's device from which the playback request is received is a different device associated with the user than the user's device from which the recording request is received.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the requested recorded content retrieved and provided to the user's device is a portion of the recorded content stored in association with the recording storage identifier as defined by the user's recording scheduling information.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein providing the recorded content comprises encrypting the recorded content for transmission to the user's device and providing a decryption key for the user that allows for playback of the recorded content.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the decryption key for the user is generated in response to receiving the playback request.

18. A network personal video recorder (nPVR) system for managing personal video recordings, comprising:
a processing device that interfaces with one or more content delivery platforms to record content in accordance with scheduled recordings, and is communicatively coupled with a plurality of user devices over a network to receive recording requests for recording the content and playback requests for playing back recorded content;
a content storage that stores the recorded content in association with a recording storage identifier; and
a data storage that stores personal video recording (PVR) data for each of a plurality of users, the PVR data comprising, in association with respective users, recording scheduling information for content that the user has requested to be recorded, and the recording storage identifier associated with the content for retrieval of the recorded content from the content storage,
wherein the processing device is configured to:
receive a recording request from a user's device to record content;
determine recording scheduling information from the recording request;
determine if there is an existing scheduled recording to record the content that corresponds to the recording scheduling information of the recording request, by accessing a list of existing scheduled recordings that have been scheduled in response to recording requests from a plurality of users;
upon determining that there is no existing scheduled recording corresponding to the recording scheduling information of the recording request, schedule a recording of the content in accordance with the recording scheduling information of the recording request;
store the recording scheduling information for the user, independent of whether there is determined to be an existing scheduled recording to record the content;
record the content during transmission of the content in accordance with the scheduled recording; and
store a single recording of the recorded content in association with a recording storage identifier, wherein the recording storage identifier is associated with the recording scheduling information received in the recording re

Assignees

• Bce Inc

Inventors

• Snyder Chris
• Tardif Frederic
• Lavigne-Giroux Simon
• Carbonneau-Leclerc Maxime

Classifications

• H04N21/63345

  by transmitting keys (key distribution for secret or secure communication H04L9/08; network support of key management H04L63/06) · CPC title

• H04N21/274

  Storing end-user {multimedia} data in response to end-user request {, e.g. network recorder} · CPC title

• H04N21/4334

  Recording operations (recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27) · CPC title

• H04N21/25866

  Management of end-user data (customer care in data networks H04L41/5077) · CPC title

• H04N21/2747 Primary

  Remote storage of video programmes received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server · CPC title