Networked personal video recorder with shared resource and distributed content

• US 20070039033A1
• Filed: 08/15/2005
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ota, Takaaki
• Granted Patent: US 7,546,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/115
• 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 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44227 Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104

Abstract

A networked personal video recorder with shared resource and distributed content is provided. In one example, a method is provided for managing personal video recorders in a network. The method includes receiving a user defined recording task, recognizing each personal video recorder in the network as a collaborative peer, tracking statistical information on each personal video recorder, and delegating an appropriate personal video recorder to record the user defined recording task.

Claims

1. A method of managing personal video recorders in a network, the method comprising:

receiving a user defined recording task;

recognizing each personal video recorder in the network as a collaborative peer;

tracking statistical information on each personal video recorder; and

delegating an appropriate personal video recorder within the network to record the user defined recording task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the tracking of the statistical information comprises tracking statistical information using a distributed database, wherein the distributed database is based on at least one of:

an elected master coordinator; and

a distributed coordination system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein for each personal video recorder, the distributed database keeps track of at least one of:

time slot availability;

disk space availability; and

network bandwidth availability.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the distributed database is a shared distributed database locally stored on each personal video recorder.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the delegating an appropriate personal video recorder within the network to record the user defined recording task comprises at least one of:

checking statistical information of a particular personal video recorder;

determining whether the particular personal video recorder has an open time slot during the user defined recording task;

determining whether the particular personal video recorder has sufficient disk space; and

determining whether the particular personal video recorder has a network connection with sufficient bandwidth.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the delegating an appropriate personal video recorder within the network to record the user defined recording task further comprises at least one of:

determining that the particular personal video recorder does not have an open time slot during the user defined recording task;

determining that the particular personal video recorder does not have sufficient disk space;

determining that the particular personal video recorder does not have a network connection with sufficient bandwidth; and

deciding not to schedule the user defined recording task with the particular personal video recorder.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the delegating an appropriate personal video recorder within the network to record the user defined recording task further comprises at least one of:

determining that the particular personal video recorder has an open time slot during the user defined recording task;

determining that the particular personal video recorder has sufficient disk space;

determining that the particular personal video recorder has a network connection with sufficient bandwidth; and

scheduling the user defined recording task with the particular personal video recorder.

8. A system for managing personal video recorders over a network, the system comprising:

a first personal video recorder connected to the network;

a second personal video recorder connected to the network; and

a distributed database configured to track statistical information on the first personal video recorder and on the second personal video recorder.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the distributed database is based on at least one of:

an elected master coordinator; and

a distributed coordination system.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein for each personal video recorder in the network, the distributed database keeps track of at least one of:

time slot availability;

disk space availability; and

network bandwidth availability.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the distributed database is a shared distributed database locally stored on each personal video recorder.

12. A personal video recorder configured to have a connection to another personal video recorder over a network, the personal video recorder comprising a shared distributed database configured to track statistical information on the personal video recorder and the other personal video recorder.

13. The personal video recorder of claim 12, wherein the distributed database is based on at least one of:

an elected master coordinator; and

a distributed coordination system.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein for each personal video recorder, the distributed database keeps track of at least one of:

time slot availability;

disk space availability; and

network bandwidth availability.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the distributed database is a shared distributed database locally stored on each personal video recorder.

16. A virtual personal video recorder configured to have a connection to a network including a plurality of personal video recorders, the virtual personal video recorder comprising a personal video recorder menu having a look and feel of a menu of a single personal video recorder device, wherein the personal video recorder menu is an integrated interface to resources of at least two personal video recorders in the network.

17. The virtual personal video recorder of claim 16, further comprising a connection to a distributed database, wherein the distributed database is configured to track the resources of the at least two personal video recorders in the network.

18. The virtual personal video recorder of claim 16, wherein the virtual personal video recorder includes at least one of software and hardware.

19. The virtual personal video recorder of claim 16, wherein the virtual personal video recorder is a standalone device loaded with software configured to receive information from a first personal video recorder and a second personal video recorder.

20. The virtual personal video recorder of claim 19, wherein the software includes an instruction set for performing processing on the information received from the first personal video recorder and from the second personal video recorder.

21. The virtual personal video recorder of claim 16, wherein the personal video recorder menu allows a user to interact with and manipulate features of the plurality of personal video recorders.