Correlation of media metadata gathered from diverse sources

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9258610-B2
Application number	US-201414481895-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 9, 2014
Priority date	May 13, 2009
Publication date	Feb 9, 2016
Grant date	Feb 9, 2016

Abstract

A DVR, server, or other agent correlates media metadata from diverse sources, like an EPG data provider and multiple video-on-demand (VOD) service providers. Metadata sets from different sources are compared in order to attempt to identify identical programs to which the metadata sets pertain. From at least one metadata set, information about the program that the other metadata set lacks is selected. A “canonical” data structure instance for the program is created. The information that is lacking from at least one of the metadata sources is inserted into that instance. For each source from which a program is available, the DVR stores the identity of that source on the DVR's persistent storage device in association with the canonical data structure instance for that program. The DVR receives search criteria from a user and then searches the stored canonical data structure instance for programs that satisfy the criteria.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
storing first metadata describing multimedia content available via a media source;
receiving second metadata from an external media source, the second metadata describing multimedia content available from the external media source;
determining information is included in the first metadata that is not included in the second metadata;
creating a combined metadata that includes the first metadata and at least a portion of the second metadata based at least in part on the determined information;
causing to be displayed a list of multimedia content using the combined metadata, two or more of the multimedia content in the list of multimedia content displayed as available from two or more different media sources according to the combined metadata, the two or more different media sources including any combination of: broadcast source, internet source, video on demand source, or locally stored source;
wherein the method is performed by at least one device comprising a processor.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that third metadata from a second external media source includes information that refers to a particular multimedia content described by the combined metadata, and that the information that refers to the particular multimedia content is not included in the combined metadata;
in response to determining that the third metadata includes the information that refers to the particular multimedia content, updating the combined metadata with the information that refers to the particular multimedia content included in the third metadata and adding the second external media source as a source for the particular multimedia content.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that third metadata from a second external media source includes information that refers to a particular multimedia content described by the combined metadata, and that the information that refers to the particular multimedia content is included in the combined metadata;
in response to determining that the third metadata includes the information that refers to the particular multimedia content, adding the second external media source as a source for the particular multimedia content in the combined metadata.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving user input specifying search criteria;
causing the list of multimedia content to be displayed in response to the received search criteria.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving user input specifying search criteria;
causing the list of multimedia content to be displayed in response to the received search criteria;
in response to user input selecting particular multimedia content for download or viewing from the list, including data indicating that the particular multimedia content was selected in the combined metadata.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving user input specifying search criteria;
causing the list of multimedia content to be displayed in response to the received search criteria;
wherein the displayed list of multimedia content displays particular descriptive criteria for particular multimedia content;
in response to user input selecting, from the displayed list, to search for the particular descriptive criteria, of which at least one is an actor, category, genre, year, or rating, including the particular descriptive criteria in the combined metadata.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving first user input that selects the particular multimedia content;
displaying descriptive information about the particular multimedia content;
in response to second user input selecting search criteria from the descriptive information, of which at least one is an actor, category, genre, year, or rating, including the search criteria in the combined metadata.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for scheduling a recording of a broadcasted program, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:
storing first metadata describing multimedia content available via a media source;
receiving second metadata from an external media source, the second metadata describing multimedia content available from the external media source;
determining information is included in the first metadata that is not included in the second metadata;
creating a combined metadata that includes the first metadata and at least a portion of the second metadata based at least in part on the determined information;
causing to be displayed a list of multimedia content using the combined metadata, two or more of the multimedia content in the list of multimedia content displayed as available from two or more different media sources according to the combined metadata, the two or more different media sources including any combination of: broadcast source, internet source, video on demand source, or locally stored source.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:
determining that third metadata from a second external media source includes information that refers to a particular multimedia content described by the combined metadata, and that the information that refers to the particular multimedia content is not included in the combined metadata;
in response to determining that the third metadata includes the information that refers to the particular multimedia content, updating the combined metadata with the information that refers to the particular multimedia content included in the third metadata and adding the second external media source as a source for the particular multimedia content.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:
determining that third metadata from a second external media source includes information that refers to a particular multimedia content described by the combined metadata, and that the information that refers to the particular multimedia content is included in the combined metadata;
in response to determining that the third metadata includes that information that refers to the particular multimedia content, adding the second external media source as a source for the particular multimedia content in the combined metadata.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:
receiving user input specifying search criteria associated with multimedia content;
causing the list of multimedia content to be displayed in response to the received search criteria.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perform:
receiving user input specifying search criteria;
causing the list of multimedia content to be displayed in response to the received search criteria;
in response to user input selecting particular multimedia content for download or viewing from the list, including data indicating that the particular multimedia content was selected in the combined metadata.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to perfo

Assignees

• Tivo Inc

Inventors

• Kulick Todd
• Klar Michael Francis
• Chawla Vin
• Dubois Marcel
• Beach Brian
• Jobart Alain

Classifications

• G06F16/7867

  using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings · CPC title

• H04N21/24

  Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests {(monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12)} · CPC title

• H04N21/23116

  involving data replication, e.g. over plural servers (synchronization of replicated data G06F11/1658; error detection or correction by means of data replication G06F11/2053; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/10; replication in distributed file systems G06F16/27; replication or mirroring of data in data networks H04L67/1095) · CPC title

• H04N21/435

  Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream · CPC title

• H04N21/4828

  for searching programme descriptors (retrieval of video data G06F16/739) · CPC title