TV Program Database
First Claim
1. A system comprising:
- means for maintaining a plurality of show identifiers (IDs) that each represent a television (TV) program that may, at some future time, be available;
means for associating a primary request ID with a particular one of the show IDs to indicate a user'"'"'s interest in a TV program represented by a particular show ID, wherein the TV program represented by the show ID is not currently available;
means for receiving at a later time, programming guide data that identifies TV programs scheduled to be available, where the TV programs that are scheduled to be available comprise a subset of the TV programs represented by the show IDs;
means for identifying the TV program associated with the primary request ID in the programming guide data, wherein the programming guide data indicates that the TV program associated with the primary request ID is scheduled to be available; and
, means for updating a log file, responsive to viewing of the TV program, which includes a history of TV programs viewed, to indicate that the TV program has been viewed.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Before a programming guide is created, a unique code is assigned to each TV program that can be identified in the programming guide. Prior to the creation of the programming guide, a viewer selects the unique code corresponding to the TV show that the viewer would like to record whenever that TV show is broadcast. When the programming guide is created, the corresponding unique codes are associated with each TV program in the programming guide. The TV program corresponding to the viewer-selected unique code is then scheduled to be recorded in accordance with the announced broadcast schedule in the programming guide. A recording is made of the TV program corresponding to the viewer-selected unique code as the TV program is broadcast in accordance with the announced broadcast schedule in the programming guide.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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means for maintaining a plurality of show identifiers (IDs) that each represent a television (TV) program that may, at some future time, be available;
means for associating a primary request ID with a particular one of the show IDs to indicate a user'"'"'s interest in a TV program represented by a particular show ID, wherein the TV program represented by the show ID is not currently available;
means for receiving at a later time, programming guide data that identifies TV programs scheduled to be available, where the TV programs that are scheduled to be available comprise a subset of the TV programs represented by the show IDs;
means for identifying the TV program associated with the primary request ID in the programming guide data, wherein the programming guide data indicates that the TV program associated with the primary request ID is scheduled to be available; and
,means for updating a log file, responsive to viewing of the TV program, which includes a history of TV programs viewed, to indicate that the TV program has been viewed. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method implemented, at least in part, by a computing device, the method comprising:
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maintaining a plurality of show identifiers (IDs) that each represent a television (TV) program that may, at some future time, be available on-demand;
associating a primary request ID with a particular one of the show IDs to indicate a user'"'"'s interest in the TV program represented by the particular show ID, wherein the TV program represented by the show ID is not currently available on demand;
receiving at a later time, programming guide data that identifies TV programs scheduled to be available during an upcoming time, where the TV programs that are scheduled to be available comprise a subset of the TV programs represented by the show IDs;
identifying the TV program associated with the primary request ID in the programming guide data, wherein the programming guide data indicates that the TV program associated with the primary request ID is scheduled to be available;
automatically generating a program event, thereby scheduling the TV program associated with the primary request ID to be streamed and recorded according to the programming guide data;
automatically recording the TV program associated with the primary request ID upon streaming when availability based on the program event; and
,responsive to playback of the TV program, updating a log file, which includes a history of TV programs watched, to indicate that the TV program has been watched. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A database comprising:
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a plurality of show identities (IDs) each representing an audio-visual content item, wherein the plurality of show IDs respectively represent a universe of all audio-visual content items that can be made available to a viewer, including at least one audio-visual content item that is not currently scheduled to be available and at least one different audio-visual content item that is scheduled to be available as indicated by an electronic programming guide (EPG);
a log file which contains a history of audio-visual content items viewed by a user, and which can be updated to indicate that a particular audio-visual content item has been viewed; and
,a comparison mechanism operable to detect patterns in the user'"'"'s viewing history and to compare the patterns to EPG data to detect audio-visual content scheduled to be available that are consistent with the viewing patterns and have not yet been viewed by the user. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification