Place-Shifting Apparatus and System

• US 20100146527A1
• Filed: 06/11/2007
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motive Television, PLC
• Original Assignee: Motive Television, PLC
• Inventors: Combe, Anthony David, Craib, Glenn Ritchie Gordon
• Granted Patent: US 8,468,567 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/5
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21815 comprising local storage units
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A place-shifting system for distributing video content from a content source (2) has apparatus including a set-top box (STB) (1) with a digital interface to a sender (6). The sender (6) receives video content from the STB (1) conditional upon access permissions that may be associated with a subscription. The permissions may also be determined using the identifier of a viewer device (9). The viewer (9) requests connection to a specific sender (6) by sending an association request to an association server (8) via a network connection (10). The association server (8) returns location information specific to the sender (6) being requested to the viewer (9). The viewer (9) and sender (6) then communicate directly (11) to establish communication and to start transfer of video and other information. The sender (6) can remove content protection from the video content before transcoding, re-applying content protection and sending it. The viewer (9) can act as a remote control for the STB (1) and modifies of the format of On-Screen Display data depending on its video output capability.

Claims

1. A media receiver comprising:

a digital interface operable to connect to a media sender device;

a receiving module operable to receive a request for video content from the media sender device via the digital interface; and

a transmitting module operable to transmit video content to the media sender device responsive to the received request.

2. The media receiver of claim 1 further comprising a conditional access module operable to determine access permissions and wherein the transmitting module is operable to transmit the video content to the media sender device conditional upon the determined access permissions.

3. The media receiver of claim 2 wherein the conditional access module is operable to determine access permissions associated with a subscription.

4. The media receiver of claim 2 or 3 wherein the conditional access module is operable to configure the access permissions of the media sender device.

5. The media receiver of any previous claim wherein the request for video content comprises an identifier of a media presentation device.

6. The media receiver of any of claims 2 to 5 wherein the conditional access module is operable to determine access permissions associated with the media presentation device using the identifier of the media presentation device.

7. The media receiver of claim 6 wherein the access permissions relate to permitted channels.

8. The media receiver of claims 6 or 7 wherein the access permissions relate to supported remote functions.

9. The media receiver of any previous claim wherein the media receiver further comprises a source of video content.

10. The media receiver of claim 9 wherein the source of video content comprises a tuner.

11. The media receiver of claim 9 or 10 wherein the source of video content comprises a storage module.

12. The media receiver of any of claims 9 to 11 wherein the transmitting module is operable to transmit video content to the media sender device from the source of video content.

13. The media receiver of any previous claim further comprising a plurality of sources of video content.

14. The media receiver of claim 13 wherein the transmitting module is operable to transmit first video content to the media sender device from a first source of the plurality of sources while the media receiver is operable to transmit second video content to a second media presentation device from a second source of the plurality of sources.

15. The media receiver of any previous claim further comprising a tuner module operable to provide the video content for transmission to the media sender device.

16. The media receiver of any previous claim further comprising a storage module operable to provide the video content for transmission to the media sender device.

55. A place-shifting system comprising a media receiver according to any of claims 1 to 16 and a media sender device according to any of claims 17 to 37.

17. A media sender device comprising:

a digital interface operable to connect to a media receiver;

a processor operable to transmit a request for video content to the media receiver via the digital interface; and

a receiving module operable to receive the requested video content from the media receiver; and

a sending module operable to transmit the received video content to a media presentation device.

18. The media sender device of claim 17 wherein the request for video comprises an identifier of a media presentation device.

19. The media sender device of claim 17 or 18 further comprising a content protection module.

20. The media sender device of claim 19 wherein the content protection module is operable to remove content protection from the video content after its reception from the media receiver.

21. The media sender device of claim 19 or 20 wherein the content protection module is operable to apply content protection to the video content prior to its transmission to the media presentation device.

22. The media sender device of any of claims 17 to 21 further comprising an identification module operable to transmit an identifier of the media sender device to an association server.

23. The media sender device of claim 22 wherein the identification module is further adapted to transmit an activity status to the association server.

24. The media sender device of any of claims 17 to 23 wherein the media sender device is operable to receive a request for video content from the media presentation device.

25. The media sender device of any of claims 17 to 24 further comprising a decoder module operable to decode the received video content.

26. The media sender device of claim 25 wherein the content protection module is operable to remove content protection from the video content after its decoding.

27. The media sender device of claim 25 or 26 further comprising an encoder module operable to encode the decoded video content.

28. The media sender device of claim 27 wherein the content protection module is operable to apply content protection to the video content prior to its encoding and transmission to the media presentation device.

29. The media sender device of claim 27 or 28 wherein the encoding comprises compression.

30. The media sender device of any of claims 27 to 29 wherein the encoder module is operable to encode the decoded video content depending on the capability of the media presentation device.

31. The media sender device of any of claims 27 to 30 wherein the encoder module is operable to dynamically adjust the encoding depending on connection speed between the media sender device and the media presentation device.

32. The media sender device of any of claims 17 to 31 wherein the media sender device is operable to receive On-Screen Display data from the media receiver and transmit the On-Screen Display data to the media presentation device.

33. The media sender device of claim 32 wherein the media sender device is operable to transmit the On-Screen Display data independently of the transmitted video content.

34. The media sender device of claim 32 or 33 wherein the media sender device is operable to modify the format of the On-Screen Display data prior to transmitting it to the media presentation device.

35. The media sender device of claim 34 wherein the modification of the format of the On-Screen Display data depends on the capability of the media presentation device.

36. The media sender device of any of claims 22 to 35 wherein the media sender device is operable, upon interruption of a connection to the media presentation device, to revert to a connection with the association server in order to re-establish the connection with the media presentation device.

37. The media sender device of any of claims 17 to 36 further comprising a remote control relay module operable to relay remote control signals from the media presentation device to the media receiver.

38. An association server comprising:

a storage module operable to store media sender device identifiers and addresses;

a request receiving module operable to receive a request from a media presentation device, the request comprising a media sender device identifier;

a retrieval module operable to retrieve the corresponding media sender device address; and

an address transmission module operable to return the retrieved address to the requesting media presentation device.

39. The association server of claim 38 further comprising an identifier receiving module operable to receive a media sender device identifier from a media sender device and to store the received media sender device identifier in the storage module.

40. The association server of claim 38 or 39 further comprising an activity status receiver module operable to receive a media sender device activity status from a media sender device and to store the media sender device activity status in the storage module and the address transmission module is operable to return the retrieved media sender device address to the requesting media presentation device conditional upon the activity status of the media sender device associated with the media sender device address.

41. The association server of any of claims 38 to 40 wherein the association server is operable to provide further content to the media presentation device.

42. The association server of claim 41 wherein the further content comprises advertisements.

43. The association server of claim 41 or 42 wherein the further content comprises content specific to the geographic location of the media presentation device.

44. The association server of claim 43 wherein the geographic location of the media presentation device is determined using an Internet Protocol address of the media presentation device.

45. The association server of claim 43 wherein the geographic location of the media presentation device is determined using feedback from a mobile phone network.

46. The association server of any of claims 41 to 45 wherein the further content comprises content specific to the service provider providing the video content.

47. The association server of any of claims 41 to 46 wherein the further content comprises content paid for by a third party with respect to a subscriber to the video content and the service provider providing the video content.

57. The place-shifting system of claim 55 or 56 further comprising an association server according to any of claims 38 to 47.

48. A media presentation device comprising:

an address request transmission module operable to transmit a request to an association server, the request comprising a media sender device identifier;

an address receiving module operable to receive a media sender device address from the association server;

a video request transmission module operable to transmit a request for video content to a media sender device;

a video receiving module operable to receive video content from the media sender device; and

a video output module operable to output the received video content.

49. The media presentation device of claim 48 wherein the media presentation device is operable, upon interruption of a connection to the media sender device, to revert to a connection with the association server in order to re-establish the connection with the media sender device.

50. The media presentation device of claim 48 or 49 further comprising a remote control transmission module operable to transmit remote control signals to the media sender device.

51. The media presentation device of any of claims 48 to 50 wherein the media presentation device is operable to receive On-Screen Display data from the media sender device.

52. The media presentation device of claim 51 wherein the media presentation device is operable to receive the On-Screen Display data independently of the received video content.

53. The media presentation device of claim 51 or 52 wherein the media presentation device is operable to modify the format of the On-Screen Display data.

54. The media presentation device of claim 53 wherein the modification of the format of the On-Screen Display data depends on the video output capability of the media presentation device.

56. The place-shifting system of claim 55 further comprising a media presentation device according to any of claims 48 to 54.