PROVIDING SYNDICATION FEED CONTENT ON A TELEVISION SET-TOP BOX WITH LIMITED DECODER CAPABILITY

• US 20100313235A1
• Filed: 11/16/2009
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Inc. (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Straub, Albert
• Granted Patent: US 8,533,768 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/131
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/27 Server based end-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4349 by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/818 OS software

Abstract

Techniques are afforded for providing syndication feed content on a television STB with limited decoder capability. A request is initiated for syndication feed content from a networked content source through the STB. The syndication feed content is obtained through a proxy device in communication with the networked content source. When the syndication feed content is in a first format usable by the STB, the proxy device passes the syndication feed content in the first format to the STB. When the syndication feed content is in a second format unusable by the STB, the syndication feed content is first converted from the second format to the first format usable by the STB and then the syndication feed content is passed, in the first format, to the STB.

Claims

1. A method for providing syndication feed content on a television set-top box (STB) with limited decoder capability, the method comprising the steps of:

initiating a request for syndication feed content from a networked content source;

obtaining, through a proxy device in communication with the networked content source, the syndication feed content;

when the syndication feed content is in a first format usable by the STB, the proxy device passing the syndication feed content in the first format to the STB; and

when the syndication feed content is in a second format unusable by the STB, converting the syndication feed content from the second format to the first format usable by the STB, and passing the syndication feed content in the first format to the STB.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the second format to the first format comprises:

parsing the syndication feed content to determine which portion of the content is in the first format and which portion is in the second format;

generating a modified syndication feed content by replacing the portion of the content that is in the second format with corresponding content that is in the first format; and

passing the modified syndication feed content to the STB in response to the request for syndication feed content.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of generating the modified syndication feed content comprises replacing at least one uniform resource identifier (URI) in the syndication feed content with a substitute at least one URI.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the second format to the first format further comprises storing the modified syndication feed content.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of storing the modified syndication feed content comprises storing the modified syndication feed content in memory associated with the proxy device.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of generating the modified syndication feed content comprises inserting at least one advertisement into the modified syndication feed content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the syndication feed content comprises sending the request for syndication feed content out to the networked content source through a firewall operatively coupled between the proxy device and the networked content source.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the syndication feed content comprises a really simple syndication (RSS) feed.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of initiating the request for syndication feed content is performed through the STB.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of initiating the request for syndication feed content is performed through a network-based interface.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of initiating the request for syndication feed content is performed through a processor operative, through a user-selectable profile, to automatically parse content residing on the networked content source for syndication feed content and to download the syndication feed content to the proxy device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the second format to the first format comprises converting at least a portion of metadata associated with the syndication feed content into a format usable for provisioning on a video-on-demand (VOD) system, the VOD system passing the syndication feed content to the STB.

13. The method of claim 12, converting the metadata associated with the syndication feed content to an extensible markup language (XML) format.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the second format to the first format comprises modifying at least a portion of metadata associated with the syndication feed content so that the metadata no longer references content stored on the networked content source but, rather, references content stored locally with respect to the STB.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of modifying at least a portion of the metadata comprises replacing at least a first uniform resource locator (URL) in the syndication feed content referencing content that is unusable by the STB by a second URL referencing content that is usable by the STB.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of initiating a request for syndication feed content comprises periodically checking the networked content source to determine whether there has been an update to the syndication feed content and, when the syndication feed content has been updated, automatically retrieving the syndication feed content.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing at least a portion of the syndication feed content prior to passing the syndication feed content to the STB.

18. A system comprising:

a set-top box (STB) having a STB memory and at least one STB processor coupled to the STB memory;

a networked content source in communication with the STB, the networked content source including syndication feed content stored thereon;

a proxy device coupled between the STB and the networked content source, the proxy device including a proxy device memory and at least one proxy device processor coupled to the proxy device memory for facilitating a transfer of data between the networked content source and the STB; and

a media converter operatively coupled to the proxy device and having a media converter memory and at least one media converter processor coupled to the media converter memory;

wherein the at least one STB processor, the at least one media converter processor and the at least one proxy device processor are cooperatively operative;

to initiate a request for syndication feed content from the networked content source;

to obtain, through the proxy device, the syndication feed content;

when the syndication feed content is in a first format usable by the STB, to pass the syndication feed content in the first format to the STB; and

, when the syndication feed content is in a second format unusable by the STB, to convert the syndication feed content from the second format to the first format usable by the STB and to pass the syndication feed content in the first format to the STB.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising a video-on-demand (VOD) server having a VOD memory and at least one VOD processor coupled to the VOD memory, the at least one VOD processor being operative:

to convert at least a portion of metadata associated with the syndication feed content into a format usable for provisioning on the VOD memory and to pass the syndication feed content to the STB.

20. The system of claim 18, further comprising an advertisement server operatively coupled to the media converter, the advertisement server including at least one advertisement server processor which, in conjunction with the at least one media converter processor, is operative:

to insert at least one advertisement into the syndication feed content;

to generate a modified syndication feed content; and

to pass the modified syndication feed content to the STB in response to the request for syndication feed content.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the request for syndication feed content is initiated through a user-selectable profile configured to cause the at least one proxy device processor to automatically parse content residing on the networked content source for syndication feed content and to download the syndication feed content to the proxy device memory.

22. An apparatus for providing syndication feed content on a television set-top box (STB) with limited decoder capability, the apparatus comprising:

means for initiating a request for syndication feed content from a networked content source;

means for obtaining, through a proxy device in communication with the networked content source, the syndication feed content;

means for passing the syndication feed content in a first format usable by the STB to the STB when the syndication feed content is in the first format; and

means for converting the syndication feed content from a second format unusable by the STB to the first format usable by the STB and for passing the syndication feed content in the first format to the STB when the syndication feed content is in the second format.

23. A method for transferring syndication feed content between a first device residing in a first location and a second device residing in a second location, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing a communication channel between the first and second devices for transferring information between the first and second devices;

the first device receiving a request to transfer at least a portion of the syndication feed content stored on the first device in a first format, the first format being different than a format of the syndication feed content obtained by the first device from a networked content source;

the first device converting the syndication feed content from the first format to a second format usable by the second device, the converting comprising modifying at least a portion of metadata in the syndication feed so that the metadata no longer references content stored on the networked content source but references content stored locally on the first device; and

transferring at least a portion of the syndication feed content stored in the first device in the first format to the second device in the second format.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first device is operative to communicate with the second device via a wireless communication channel.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the first device is operative to communicate with the second device via a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) communications protocol.