Operating system shell management of video files

• US 20060271855A1
• Filed: 05/27/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Qian, Richard J., Mercer, Ian Cameron, Oakley, Randolph Bruce, Hugill, Christopher Michael, Patten, Michael J.
• Application Number:
  US11/139,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20060271855A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]

Abstract

Managing digital video files on a computer. A media file system object stores metadata representative of a video clip defined from a video file to be managed. A shell interface associated with an operating system of the computer exposes the object to enable management of the video clip directly via the operating system.

Claims

1. A method of managing one or more digital video files on a computer, said method comprising:

defining at least one video clip from each of the video files to be managed;

assigning metadata representative of the video clip;

storing the metadata in a media file system object, said object being stored in a media library on the computer; and

exposing the object with the metadata to a user via the library.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising capturing the video file from a video source.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer executes an operating system and a shell interface associated therewith, said shell interface including the media library and enabling management of the video clip directly via the operating system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein exposing the object comprises retrieving the object from the media library via the shell in response to a user query.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein exposing the object comprises permitting at least one operation on the video clip without altering the video file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the operation on the video clip comprises one or more of the following:

playback, delete, trim, and combine.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein defining the video clip comprises analyzing the video file for one or more of the following characteristics:

recording start time;

recording stop time;

time code gaps;

frame color attributes;

image steadiness; and

recording duration.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising rendering the clip to the user directly via the library.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the metadata stored in the object in response to user input independent of the video file.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said user input includes an instruction for editing the video clip.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the instruction for editing the video clip includes an adjustment to either a mark-in location of the clip or a mark-out location of the clip, or both, for trimming the video clip.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises one or more of the following:

entry-based textual description;

cover art, a thumbnail, audiovisual DSP properties; and

cross references.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the object comprises one or more of the following fields:

ID;

Stream #;

Type;

Language ID Index;

Description Size;

Description;

# of Entry Levels;

Context Size;

Context; and

Entry Lists.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the object comprises at least one entry list field, said entry list field further comprising one or more of the following fields:

# of Entries;

Entries;

Entry Title Size;

Entry Title;

Start Time;

End Time;

Start Packet Offset;

End Packet Offset;

Representative Frame Time;

# of Sub-Entries;

Sub-Entry Indices;

Description Data Size;

Description Data Type; and

Description Data.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method recited in claim 1.

16. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for managing one or more digital video files on a computer, said computer-readable medium comprising:

media file system object for storing metadata representative of a video clip, said video clip comprising a segment of a video file to be managed; and

a shell interface associated with an operating system of the computer, said shell interface exposing the object to enable management of the video clip directly via the operating system.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising a query component for retrieving the object via the shell thereby exposing the object.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising an editing component for performing at least one operation on the video clip without altering the video file, said operation comprising one or more of the following:

playback, delete, trim, and combine.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising an updated media file system object for storing modified representative of an edited video clip independent of the video file.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the metadata comprises one or more of the following:

entry-based textual description;

cover art, a thumbnail, audiovisual DSP properties; and

cross references.