Presentation of media content from multiple media

• US 20020078144A1
• Filed: 08/21/2001
• Published: 06/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sonic Solutions (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Lamkin, Allan B., Collart, Todd R., Gewickey, Greg
• Granted Patent: US 7,178,106 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/022 Control panels
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/12 by sensing distinguishing features of or on records, e.g. diameter end mark
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 19/16 Manual control
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00876 wherein physical copy protection means are attached to the medium, e.g. holograms, sensors, or additional semiconductor circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2545 CDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 23/36 Signals on record carriers or on containers and recorded by the same method as the main recording
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 : at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 : Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 : Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 : Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 : PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 : for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 : by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 : Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 : Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4381 : Recovering the multiplex stream from a specific network, e.g. recovering MPEG packets from ATM cells transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4408 : involving video stream encryption, e.g. re-encrypting a decrypted video stream for redistribution in a home network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 : OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 : Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 : End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/60 : Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client , e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 : IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/85406 : involving a specific file format, e.g. MP4 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 : Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 : between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 : on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9305 : involving the mixing of the reproduced video signal with a non-recorded signal, e.g. a text signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/7921 : for more than one processing mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 : using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8063 : using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 : involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8715 : involving the mixing of the reproduced video signal with a non-recorded signal, e.g. a text signal

Abstract

A media services interface for use in a readable medium playback device enables synchronization of disparate media playback, network directed playback of media, media playback control via displayed html/javascript file, logging of consumer identifier, media identifier, and playback device identifier in a cookie or log file. The media services comprises a command handler, a properties handler, an event generator, a cookie manager, a navigator state module, an identifier engine, an initialization module, and a bookmark manager. The command handler executes commands received from a connected network, a displayed html/javascript file, etc. The properties handler provides information relating to system states in response to queries including the status of any network connections. The event generator generates events in response to predetermined system occurrences. The cookie manager records information for later reading including the tracking of consumer identifier, playback device identifier, and readable medium identifier triples. The navigator state module maintains information regarding the state of the playback device and the interaction with the readable medium. The identifier engine carries out determination of the identity of the readable medium. The initialization module controls system initialization. The bookmark manager generates bookmarks which preserve positions in the playback of the readable medium for later recall. Network sources can provide media content and issue commands which synchronize the playback of both network and readable medium originated content over multiple playback devices through the use of the synchronization abilities of the media services.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a network;

a display;

a removable media; and

a computing device operably coupled to said removable media, said network, and said display, said computing device at least once accessing data on said network, said computing device comprising;

a storage device,

a browser having a presentation engine displaying content on said display,

an application programming interface residing in said storage device,

a decoder processing content received from said removable media and producing media content substantially suitable for display on said display, and

a navigator coupled to said decoder and said application programming interface, said navigator facilitating user or network-originated control of the playback of said removable media,aid computing device receiving network content from said network and combining said network content with said media content, said presentation engine displaying said combined network content and media content on said display.

2. A media services interface for use in controlling the extraction of information from a readable medium by a computing device comprising:

a command handler configured to execute received commands;

a properties handler configured to report the state of a system attribute in response to a query;

an event generator configured to provide notification of one or more system events;

a cookie manager configured to generate at least one system cookie for preserving information for later recall; and

a navigator state module operably coupled to said command handler, said properties handler, said event generator, and said cookie manager, said navigator state module configured to maintain information regarding the state of said information extraction from said readable medium.

3. A media services interface as in claim 2 further comprising:

a bookmark manager configured to generate one or more bookmarks, each said bookmark preserving playback information regarding a position in an information stream extracted from said readable medium, said bookmark enabling later return to said position in said information stream.

4. A media services interface as in claim 3 further comprising:

a command library comprising one or more commands for use with said command handler, said one or more commands comprising;

a command configured to cause said computing device to retrieve a medium identifier from said readable medium, said medium identifier comprising information unique to said readable medium.

5. A media services interface as in claim 4, said command library further comprising:

a command configured to cause said said bookmark; and

a command configured to retrieve a stored bookmark and cause a return to a position in an information playback stream as indicated by said stored bookmark.

6. A media services interface as in claim 4, said command library further comprising:

a command for connecting to a network operably connected to said computing device.

7. A media services interface as in claim 6, said command library further comprising:

a command for closing a previously established connection to a network operably connected to said computing device.

8. A media services interface as in claim 3 further comprising:

a properties library comprising one or more properties for use with said properties handler, said one or more properties comprising;

a property indicating the type of ROM data on said readable media operably coupled to said computing device.

9. A media services interface as in claim 8 further comprising:

a display for displaying visual information; and

wherein said properties library comprises a code routine for ascertaining the full screen mode state of said screen.

10. A media services interface as in claim 2 further comprising:

An identifier engine configured to receive information from said computing device regarding the identity of either said removable media or said computing device, said identifier engine operably coupled to said navigator state module and said cookie manager.

11. A method for integrating playback of disparate media sources in a device comprising:

a) waiting for a device event;

b) checking if said removable media supports media source integration responsive to a removable media insertion event;

c) checking if said removable media source is a DVD responsive to said removable media supporting source integration;

d) returning to said step (a) responsive to said determination indicating said removable media source is not a DVD. e) checking whether said device is in a movie mode or a system mode responsive to said removable media being a DVD;

f) launching standard playback and thereafter returning to said step (a) responsive to said device being in said movie mode;

g) checking if said device has a default player mode of source integration when said device is in said system mode;

h) launching standard playback and thereafter returning to said step (a) responsive to said device not having a default player mode of source integration;

i) checking if said removable media contains a device-specific executable program when said device having a default player mode of source integration;

j) executing said device-specific executable program when said device has said device-specific executable program and thereafter returning to said step (a);

k) checking whether said device has a connection to a remote media source;

l) launching a default file from said removable media when said device does not have a remote media source connection and thereafter returning to said step (a);

m) checking whether said remote media source has content relevant to said removable media;

n) displaying said relevant content when said relevant content exists and thereafter returning to said step (a);

o) otherwise launching a default file from said removable media and thereafter returning to said step (a);

p) returning to said step (g).

12. A method as in claim 11, said step (d) comprises:

d1) checking the default player mode of said device;

d2) launching standard playback and thereafter returning to said step (a) responsive to said device not having a default player mode of source integration;

d3) checking if said removable media contains a device-specific executable program when said device having a default player mode of source integration;

d4) executing said device-specific executable program when said device has said device-specific executable program and thereafter returning to said step (a);

d5) checking whether said device has a connection to a remote media source;

d6) launching a default file from said removable media when said device does not have a remote media source connection and thereafter returning to said step (a);

d7) checking whether said remote media source has content relevant to said removable media;

d8) displaying said relevant content when said relevant content exists and thereafter returning to said step (a);

d9) launching a default file from said removable media and thereafter returning to said step (a).

16. A method as in claim 15, wherein said multimedia content is received from a network via a network connection.

17. A method as in claim 16, wherein at least one of said first set of steps and said second set of steps includes the steps of:

retreiving multimedia content from said network, and presenting said retreived multimedia content on a display coupled to said platform.

20. A directory structure as in claim 19 wherein

at least one of said device specific directories is chosen from the group consisting of:

a directory for storing files specific to the MACKINTOSH (TM) operating system,

a directory for storing files specific to a WINDOWS (TM) operating system,

a directory for storing files specific to a NUON (TM) multimedia system,

a directory for storing files specific to a SONY (TM) PLAYSTATION (TM) system, and a directory for storing files specific to a Linux operating system.

13. A method for logging consumer interactions with a network resource via a computing device operably using a removable media comprising:

retrieving an identifier of said removable media type;

determining a type of said removable media;

retrieving a current title of said removable media;

retrieving an identifier of said computing device;

retrieving an identifier of said consumer;

combining said media type identifier, said type, said current title, said computing device identifier, and said consumer identifier and forming therefrom an log file; and

storing said log file on said computing device.

14. A method for determining what mode a device can start in, said device having a default playback mode, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving multimedia content by a platform;

checking, by said platform, said default playback mode;

determining, by said platform, whether said disk has additional content;

loading by said platform, responsive to said disk being determined to have said additional content, said additional content;

playing said multimedia content responsive to said disk being determined not to have said additional content; and

playing said additional content responsive to said disk being determined to have said additional content.

15. A method for determining if a platform supports a feature comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a client device, multimedia content having embedded application programming interface code;

querying, under control of said embedded application programming interface code,whether said feature is supported;

executing a first set of steps responsive to said feature being determined as supported;

executing a second set of steps responsive to said feature being determined as not supported.

18. A hybrid disk comprising:

a first information recording area having information recorded therein, said first information recording area being unsuitable for re-recording or erasing of said recorded information; and

a second information recording area for user recording of information.

19. A directory structure for storing device-common and device-specific files comprising:

A root directory;

A common directory within said root directory, and One or more device-specific directories within said root directory.

21. A method for determining a program to execute responsive to the insertion of a readable medium in a playback device, said method comprising:

a) determining the platform of said playback device;

b) determining whether said readable medium contains a platform-specific executable file suitable for execution on said determined platform;

c) executing a suitable platform-specific executable file when said determination indicates said platform-specific suitable executable file exists on said readable medium;

d) executing a default executable file when said determination indicates a suitable platform-specific file does not exist on said readable medium.

22. A method as in claim 21 wherein said step (d) of executing comprises:

d1) determining whether said playback device is connected to a network;

d2) determining whether a platform-specific content exists on said network for said determined platform;

d3) downloading and launching said platform-specific content when said platform-specific content is determined to exist on said network;

d4) executing a default executable file when said determination of step(d3) indicates said platform-specific content does not exist on said network.

24. A method as in claim 23 further comprising:

c) downloading content to said participating client devices;

d) sending combine commands to said participating client devices, said combine commands controlling said participating client devices such that said participating client devices combine said downloaded content with local content extracted from said readable mediums to produce combined content, said combine commands further controlling said participating client devices to display said combined content for human consumption.

26. A system as in claim 24 wherein said output further comprises network content provided to said participating client devices wherein said commands further control said participating client devices such that said participating client devices combine said network content with local content to produce combined content and display said combined content for human consumption in a substantially synchronous manner.

27. A system as in claim 25 wherein said local content is read from local harddisk storage.

28. A claim as in claim 25 wherein said local content is read from a removable readable medium.

23. A method for controlling the playback of a readable medium on one or more playback devices by a network source comprising:

a) allowing one or more client devices to participate in a synchronous playback event;

b) sending commands to said participating client devices, said commands controlling said participating client devices such that each said participating client devices interacts with a readable medium and presents information contained thereon for human consumption substantially in a synchronous manner with other participating client devices.

25. A systsem for controlling the playback of a readable medium on one or more playback devices by a network source comprising:

A network;

one or more participating client devices coupled to said network and comuunicatively coupled to said network source;

a network source of playback commands coupled to said network;

said network source having an output comprising one or more commands for control of said participating client devices;

said output provided to said participating client devices by said network source, wherein said commands control said participating client devices such that said participating client devices display content for human consumption in a substantially synchronous manner.

29. A method for logging consumer interactions for a consumer interacting with a network resource via a computing device operably using a removable media comprising:

retrieving an identifier of said removable media type;

retrieving an identifier of said computing device;

retrieving an identifier of said network resource;

combining said media type identifier, said computing device identifier, and said network resource identifier and forming therefrom a log file; and

storing said log file on said computing device.