System and method for recording and distributing media content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9918036-B2
Application number	US-26409808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2008
Priority date	Nov 3, 2008
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a digital video recording (DVR) system having a controller to record video content supplied by an interactive television (iTV) communication system as directed by a plurality of users of the iTV communication system, receive from a communication device of one of the plurality of users a request for a portion of the recorded video content, identify a need to transcode the requested portion of the recorded video content according to one or more operating characteristics of the communication device, transcode the requested portion of the recorded video content to conform with the one or more operating characteristics of the communication device, and transmit to the communication device the transcoded video content. The DVR system can be located outside of the premises of each of the plurality of users. Other embodiments are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A first digital video recording system operating in an interactive television communication system, comprising:
a memory to store executable instructions; and
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor, responsive to executing the executable instructions, performs operations comprising:
recording video content that is supplied by the interactive television communication system to store recorded video content, wherein a portion of the video content is recorded as directed by a plurality of requests by a plurality of users of the interactive television communication system, and wherein the first digital video recording system is located outside of premises of each of the plurality of users;
receiving, from a device of a user of the plurality of users, a request for a selection from the recorded video content to identify a requested portion;
transmitting to the device the requested portion of the recorded video content;
in accordance with receiving a delete command from the device to delete the requested portion of the recorded video content:
deleting a pointer associated with the requested portion of the recorded video content to prevent the user from subsequently accessing the requested portion of the recorded video content;
determining whether the first digital video recording system comprises no additional pointers to the requested portion of the recorded video content; and
initiating a timer responsive to deleting the pointer and responsive to when it is determined that the first digital video recording system comprises no additional pointers to the requested portion of the recorded video content;

in accordance with receiving an undelete command from the device of the user to restore access to the requested portion of the recorded video content:
in response to determining by the timer that a predetermined time period has not expired, restoring the pointer or generating a first new pointer to permit the user to subsequently access the requested portion of the recorded video content; and
in response to determining by the timer that the predetermined time period has expired, generating a second new pointer that points to content at a second digital video recording system, thereby effectuating the undelete command, wherein the content at the second digital video recording system corresponds to the requested portion of the recorded video content and was not previously stored at the first digital video recording system;

transcoding the requested portion of the recorded video content to conform with an operating characteristic of the device, wherein the operating characteristic of the device corresponds to an operating parameter of a display of the device, an audio system of the device, a computing resource of the device, a receiver of the device, or a type of operating system used by the device;
determining the operating characteristic of the device by requesting parameters from the device; and
detecting a language identifier in the request for the requested portion of the recorded video content;
wherein the transcoding the requested portion of the recorded video content is further according to the language identifier.

2. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the processor comprises a plurality of processors operating in a distributed processing environment.

3. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the requested portion of the recorded video content is transmitted as streaming content.

4. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying a plurality of duplicate video recording requests initiated by the plurality of users for a video program supplied by the interactive television communication system; and
recording a single copy of the video program.

5. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the interactive television communication system corresponds to one of an interactive cable television communication system or an interactive satellite television communication system.

6. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting metadata in the requested portion of the recorded video content that includes a content usage policy; and
transmitting to the device the content usage policy or a derivative thereof.

7. The first digital video recording system of claim 6 , wherein the content usage policy corresponds to a digital rights management policy.

8. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting a lack of a usage policy in the recorded video content; and
transmitting to the device a service provider usage policy or a derivative thereof.

9. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the language identifier comprises a first request to supply subtitles with the requested portion of the recorded video content in a specified language or a second request to dub an audio portion of the requested portion of the recorded video content in the specified language.

10. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 ,
wherein the pointer is associated with a previously recorded directive of the user to record the requested portion of the recorded video content.

11. The first digital video recording system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:
generating the first new pointer to the requested portion of the recorded video content; and
associating the first new pointer with the user, wherein the first new pointer enables the user to subsequently access the requested portion of the recorded video content.

12. The first digital video recording system of claim 10 , wherein the predetermined time period is set by a service provider of the interactive television communication system.

13. The first digital video recording system of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise:
resetting the timer responsive to receiving the undelete command.

14. The first digital video recording system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
receiving a directive from one of the plurality of users to record first video content, wherein the directive is received at a time subsequent to a start time of the first video content; and
recording the first video content at or near the time the directive was received.

15. The first digital video recording system of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:
recording, in a buffer, broadcast video content from a plurality of broadcast channels distributed by the interactive television communication system; and
retrieving a missing portion of the first video content from the buffer.

16. A method comprising:
recording, by a first system comprising a processor, media content that is supplied by an interactive media communication system to store recorded media content, wherein a first portion of the media content is recorded as directed by a plurality of requests by a plurality of users of the interactive media communication system;
receiving, by the first system, from a mobile phone of a user of the plurality of users a request for a selection from the recorded media content to identify a requested portion;
detecting, by the first system, a need to transcode the requested portion of the recorded media content;
transcoding, by the first system, the requested portion of the recorded media content according to an operating characteristic of the mobile phone responsive to detecting the need to transcode the requested por

Assignees

• Yu Ke
• Hill Nicholas P
• Meuninck Troy C
• Brown William A
• Morris Scott
• Sule Ashwini
• At & T Ip I Lp

Inventors

• Yu Ke
• Hill Nicholas P
• Meuninck Troy C
• Brown William A
• Morris Scott
• Sule Ashwini

Classifications

• H04N21/4728

  for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region · CPC title

• H04N21/25833

  involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities (allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055) · CPC title

• H04N21/43622

  Interfacing an external recording device · CPC title

• H04N21/25825

  involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone (optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06) · CPC title

• H04N21/6581

  Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application · CPC title