System for Downloading Digital Content Published in a Media Channel

• US 20080276158A1
• Filed: 10/30/2006
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Creative Technology Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Creative Technology Ltd.
• Inventors: LIM, Seh Eing, Choo, Guan Chuan
• Granted Patent: US 8,413,038 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/266 Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system, merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4113 PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

There is provided a system for downloading digital content to a portable media player, the digital content being published in a media channel by a content creator. The system may reside on a server accessible via the Internet. The system may comprise: a data receiver module to receive the digital content from the media channel via a communication medium; a conversion module to convert the received digital content to at least one format for consumption by the player; and a download module to copy the at least one file to the portable media player. The system may further comprise a player detection module to detect file formats compatible with the portable media player. A corresponding method is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A system for downloading digital content to a portable media player, the digital content being published in a media channel by a content creator, the system comprising:

a data receiver module to receive the digital content from the media channel via a communication medium;

a conversion module to convert the received digital content to at least one format in at least one video file for consumption by the player; and

a download module to copy the at least one video file to the portable media player;

wherein the video file enables the digital content to be consumed in the same order that the digital content is published in the media channel by the content creator, where if the digital content is;

text, the conversion module paginates the text based on the size of the display of the portable media player, converts each page of text into a video frame, and creates a slideshow by combining the video frames into the video file,

an image, the conversion module converts each image into a common image format, scales the image to a resolution supported by the portable media player, and converts each image into a video frame for the video file,

an audio file, the conversion module converts the audio file to a predetermined audio format supported by the portable media player and converts the audio content of the audio file to an audio stream of the video file, or

a video file that is in a video format not natively supported by the portable media player, the conversion module transcodes the video file into a video format natively supported by the portable media player.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the media channel is any one from the group consisting of:

web cast, and a pod cast.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one video file is stored in a single location on the portable media player, the single location being any one from the group consisting of:

directory, folder and node.

4. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a player detection module to detect file formats compatible with the portable media player.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the player detection module also detects display capability and audio capability of the portable media player including screen size, resolution, contrast level, audio bit rate, or stereo capability.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined file format is selected according to display and audio capabilities of the portable media player.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined video file format is any one from the group consisting of MPG, MPEG, AVI, MOV, WMV, and ASF.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined video format enables user configuration of chapter markers in the video file for convenient frame manipulation.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the digital content is received by the data receiver module in the order the digital content is published in the media channel.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein bookmarks are placed for at least one page in the video file.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein either special or transition effects are applied to the image when the video file is created.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein background music is added as part of the audio stream of the video file to provide an enhanced multimedia experience to the user.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the audio content of the audio file is enhanced, and the video stream of the video file includes any one from the group consisting of:

playback visualizations, single frame video containing channel artwork and/or description of the content together with audio properties such as Album Name, Artist and Content Category, and random images selected from the player grouped together as a slideshow.

14. The system according to claim 1, wherein the filename of the video file is in the form of:

[YYMMDDHHMM]-[CHANNEL NAME]-[FILENAME].AVI

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system resides on a server accessible via the Internet.

16. A method for downloading digital content to a portable media player, the digital content being published in a media channel by a content creator, the method comprising:

receiving the digital content from the media channel via a communication medium;

converting the received digital content to at least one video file of a predetermined format; and

copying the at least one video file to the portable media player;

wherein the video file enables the digital content to be consumed in the same order that the digital content is published in the media channel by the content creator, where if the digital content is;

text, the conversion module paginates the text based on the size of the display of the portable media player, converts each page of text into a video frame, and creates a slideshow by combining the video frames into the video file,

an image, the conversion module converts each image into a common image format, scales the image to a resolution supported by the portable media player, and converts each image into a video frame for the video file,

an audio file, the conversion module converts the audio file to a predetermined audio format supported by the portable media player and converts the audio content of the audio file to an audio stream of the video file, or

a video file that is in a video format not natively supported by the portable media player, the conversion module transcodes the video file into a video format natively supported by the portable media player.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising detecting video file formats compatible with the portable media player.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the media channel is any one from the group consisting of:

web cast, and a pod cast.

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein the at least one video file is stored in a single location on the portable media player, the single location being any one from the group consisting of:

directory, folder and node.

20. The method according to claim 17, wherein the detection of video file formats also detects display capability and audio capability of the portable media player including screen size, resolution, contrast level, audio bit rate, or stereo capability.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the predetermined video file format is selected according to display and audio capabilities of the portable media player.

22. The method according to claim 16, wherein the predetermined video file format is any one from the group consisting of MPG, MPEG, AVI, MOV, WMV, and ASF.

23. The method according to claim 16, wherein the predetermined video format enables user configuration of chapter markers in the video file for convenient frame manipulation.

24. The method according to claim 16, wherein the digital content is received by the data receiver module in the order the digital content is published in the media channel.

25. The method according to claim 16, wherein bookmarks are placed for at least one page in the video file.

26. The method according to claim 16, wherein either special or transition effects are applied to the image when the video file is created.

27. The method according to claim 16, wherein background music is added as part of the audio stream of the video file to provide an enhanced multimedia experience to the user.

28. The method according to claim 16, wherein the audio content of the audio file is enhanced, and the video stream of the video file includes any one from the group consisting of:

playback visualizations, single frame video containing channel artwork and/or description of the content together with audio properties such as Album Name, Artist and Content Category, and random images selected from the player-grouped together as a slideshow.

29. The method according to claim 16, wherein the filename of the video file is in the form of:

[YYMMDDHHMMM]-[CHANNEL NAME]-[FILENAME].AVI

30. A system for downloading digital content to a portable media player, the digital content being published in a media channel by a content creator, the system comprising:

a user interface to be displayed to the user in response to a user action, the user interface enabling digital content to be selectively downloaded directly to the portable media player; and

a download module to receive the selected digital content from the media channel via a communication medium and to transmit the selected digital content to the portable media player without making a local copy.

31. The system according to claim 30, wherein the download module receives the selected digital content in a memory buffer temporarily storing data relating to the digital content before the digital content is saved to the portable media player.

32. The system according to claim 30, further comprising a conversion module to convert the received digital content to at least one file of a predetermined format;

wherein the file enables the digital content to be consumed in the same order that the digital content is published in the media channel by the content creator.

33. The system according to claim 30, wherein the user action is any one from the group consisting of clicking a link or button to download digital content.

34. The system according to claim 30, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of columns including:

title of the digital content, file size of the digital content, release date of the digital content and brief description of the digital content;

a checkbox associated with each digital content to indicate whether the digital content is to be downloaded; and

a portable media player selection field to indicate the type of the portable media player.

35. The system according to claim 34, wherein the plurality of columns further includes name of the media channel, author of the digital content, artwork, URL of the digital content and language of the digital content.

36. The system according to claim 30, wherein the system is in the form of an OCX/Active X plugin for a web browser application.

37. The system according to claim 30, wherein the download module maintains the digital rights of the content creator of the digital content.

38. The system according to claim 30, wherein the user interface further comprises a download location input field to indicate the storage location for a local copy of the digital content.

39. The system according to claim 30, wherein the download module inserts additional content selected from the group consisting of:

notices and advertisements.