Systems and methods for storing offsets of a recorded program in a network DVR

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11910051-B2
Application number	US-202218071824-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2022
Priority date	Dec 21, 2016
Publication date	Feb 20, 2024
Grant date	Feb 20, 2024

Abstract

Systems and methods are described to address shortcomings in the conventional network storage systems via novel techniques to store offsets of a recorded program in a network digital video recorder (DVR). Storing offsets of a recorded program may be beneficial to users that would like to record media content that is broadcast either prior to a start time of a program, or media content that is broadcast after an end time of a program. This feature may be useful when start times and end times of a program are variable (e.g., in the case of sporting events, or other real-time events). This feature may also be useful for recording content of interest that is scheduled for broadcast prior to a start time of or after an end time of the program.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for storing media assets, comprising:
determining to record a media asset for a first profile and for a second profile;
determining the first profile is associated with a first start-offset from a start time of the media asset;
determining the second profile is associated with a first end-offset from an end time of the media asset;
determining the first profile is associated with a second end-offset from the end time of the media asset;
determining the second profile is associated with a second start-offset from the start time of the media asset; and
storing media content associated with the media asset based on the first start-offset and the first end-offset in one or more storage devices, wherein storing the media content associated with the media asset based on the first start-offset and the first end-offset in the one or more storage devices comprises:
determining the first start-offset is larger than the second start-offset; and
determining the first end-offset is larger than the second end-offset.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein storing the media content comprises storing a single copy of the media content at a server, in response to receiving a first request to store the media asset from a first device associated with the first profile and a second request to store the media asset from a second device associated with the second profile.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from a first device associated with the first profile, a first request to store the media asset, wherein the first request comprises the first start-offset and the second end-offset; and
receiving, from a second device associated with the second profile, a second request to store the media asset, wherein the second request comprises the second start-offset and the first end-offset.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
in response to receiving the first request, updating a profile-content table to include a first entry associated with the first profile, wherein the first entry comprises an identifier of the media asset, the first start-offset and the second end-offset; and
in response to receiving the second request, updating the profile-content table to include a second entry associated with the second profile, wherein the second entry comprises the identifier of the media asset, the second start-offset and the first end-offset.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first start-offset comprises a positive start-offset corresponding to a time prior to the start time of the media asset, or a negative start-offset corresponding to a time after the start time of the media asset, and
the first end-offset comprises a positive end-offset corresponding to a time after the start time of the media asset, or a negative end-offset corresponding to a time before the end time of the media asset.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, from a first device associated with the first profile, a first request to store the media asset, wherein the first request comprises the first start-offset;
receiving, from a second device associated with the second profile, a second request to store the media asset, wherein the second request comprises the first end-offset;
in response to receiving the first request to store the media asset, updating an entry associated with the media asset in a content-hits table to increment a count of requests to record the media asset; and
in response to receiving the second request to store the media asset, updating the entry associated with the media asset in the content-hits table to increment the count of requests to record the media asset.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving, from the first device associated with the first profile, a request to delete the media asset;
decrementing the count of requests to record the media asset in response to receiving the request to delete the media asset;
determining whether the count of requests to record the media asset is greater than zero; and
based on determining that the count of requests to record the media asset is equal to zero, deleting the media content associated with the media asset from the one or more storage devices.

8. A method for storing media assets, comprising:
determining to record a media asset for a first profile and for a second profile;
determining the first profile is associated with a first start-offset from a start time of the media asset;
determining the second profile is associated with a first end-offset from an end time of the media asset; and
storing media content associated with the media asset based on the first start-offset and the first end-offset in one or more storage devices,
wherein storing the media content associated with the media asset based on the first start-offset and the first end-offset in the one or more storage devices further comprises:
determining the first start-offset is larger than a largest start-offset of an entry associated with the media asset in a content-hits table; and
determining the first end-offset is larger than a largest end-offset of the entry associated with the media asset in the content-hits table; and

wherein the method further comprises:
updating the largest start-offset of the entry associated with the media asset to the first start-offset based on determining that the first start-offset is larger than the largest start-offset; and
updating the largest start-offset of the entry associated with the media asset to the first start-offset based on determining that the first start-offset is larger than the largest start-offset.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein storing the media content comprises storing a single copy of the media content at a server, in response to receiving a first request to store the media asset from a first device associated with the first profile and a second request to store the media asset from a second device associated with the second profile.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving, from a first device associated with the first profile, a first request to store the media asset, wherein the first request comprises the first start-offset;
receiving, from a second device associated with the second profile, a second request to store the media asset, wherein the second request comprises the first end-offset.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
in response to receiving the first request, updating a profile-content table to include a first entry associated with the first profile, wherein the first entry comprises an identifier of the media asset and the first start-offset; and
in response to receiving the second request, updating the profile-content table to include a second entry associated with the second profile, wherein the second entry comprises the identifier of the media asset and the first end-offset.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein:
the first start-offset comprises a positive start-offset corresponding to a time prior to the start time of the media asset, or a negative start-offset corresponding to a time after the start time of the media asset, and
the first end-offset comprises a positive end-offset corresponding to a time after the start time of the media asset, or a negative end-offset corresponding to a time before the end time of the media asset.

13. A system for storing media assets, comprising:
one or more storage devices;
control circuitry configured to:
determine to record a media asset for a first profile and for a second profile;
determine the first profile is associated with a first start-offset from a start time of the m

Assignees

• Rovi Guides Inc

Inventors

• Bhattacharjee Pushpita
• Kalaria Nimit Dineshbhai
• Mave Smitha
• Panchaksharaiah Vishwas Sharadanagar
• Patel Milan Indu

Classifications

• H04N21/4334 Primary

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

• H04N21/2181

  comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers (distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097) · CPC title

• H04N21/26233 Primary

  involving content or additional data duration or size, e.g. length of a movie, size of an executable file · CPC title

• H04N21/4147

  PVR [Personal Video Recorder] (H04N5/76 takes precedence {; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40}) · CPC title

• H04N5/775

  between a recording apparatus and a television receiver · CPC title