PERSONAL VIDEO RECORDER SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20100313238A1
• Filed: 06/18/2010
• Published: 12/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UV Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: United Video Properties Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ellis, Michael D., Carpenter, Kenneth F. JR., Baumgartner, Joseph P., Gaydou, Danny R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,281,345 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/153
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• 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 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• 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 21/43622 Interfacing an external recording device
• 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 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing an interactive television system for recording television programming. The interactive television system may include components for providing personal video recorder (PVR) functionality, such as an interactive television program guide (IPG), PVR extensions, PVR application programming interfaces (APIs), a PVR device, any suitable hardware or software, or a combination thereof. These components may be implemented in, for example, an arrangement having an integrated PVR-compliant device with a PVR device, or in an arrangement having a PVR-compliant device (e.g., a set-top box) coupled to PVR equipment (e.g., a remote PVR server or a PVR sidecar) with a PVR device. The PVR-compliant device may include software and hardware configured to implement the IPG. The PVR APIs may be a library of intelligent vendor-specific and vendor-independent APIs able to determine the type of PVR device being used. The PVR extensions and PVR APIs may be configured to provide a seamless integration of functionality associated with the PVR-compliant device and the PVR device. A full port of the IPG may be implemented in both the PVR-compliant device and the PVR device.

Claims

1-71. -71. (canceled)

72. A method for arranging a set-top box in a client-server arrangement, wherein the set-top box functions as a server for at least one client device coupled to the set-top box, the method comprising:

determining the type of the at least one client device using application programming interfaces;

receiving at the set-top box a request command from a user input device;

communicating the request command to the at least one client device that has information related to the request command using the set-top box;

generating a response to the request command at the at least one client device;

receiving at the set-top box the response to the request command from the at least one client device; and

providing to a user the response to the request command using the set-top box.

73. The method of claim 72, wherein the at least one client device includes a personal video recorder.

74. The method of claim 73, wherein the request command is a request to provide a recording from the personal video recorder.

75. An interactive television system comprising:

a user-input device;

a set-top box at which a request command from the user-input device is received;

at least one client device coupled to the set-top box, wherein;

the at least one client device has information related to the request command,

the request command is communicated to the at least one client device from the set-top box,

the at least one client device communicates a response to the request command to the set-top box, and

the set-top box provides to a user the response to the request command; and

application programming interfaces configured to determine the type of the at least one client device.

76. The system of claim 75, wherein the at least one client device includes a personal video recorder.

77. The system of claim 76, wherein the request command is a request to provide a recording from the personal video recorder.

78. A machine readable medium having machine program logic recorded thereon for:

determining the type of at least one client device coupled to a set-top box using application programming interfaces;

receiving at the set-top box a request command from a user input device;

communicating the request command to the at least one client device that has information related to the request command using the set-top box;

generating a response to the request command at the at least one client device;

receiving at the set-top box the response to the request command from the at least one client device; and

providing to a user the response to the request command using the set-top box.

79. The machine readable medium of claim 78, wherein the at least one client device includes a personal video recorder.

80. The machine readable medium of claim 79, wherein the request command is a request to provide a recording from the personal video recorder.