SIDE LOADING

• US 20120090020A1
• Filed: 12/20/2011
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Cox Communications Incorporated (Cox Enterprises Incorporated)
• Inventors: Shrum, Edgar V. Jr., Gonzalez, Francisco
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/5
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Side loading of content elements is provided. A selection of a content element from a terminal device may be received and a content format associated with the terminal device may be identified. If the content element is not available in the identified content format, the content element may be transcoded from a current content format to the identified content format and the content element may be transferred to the terminal device in the identified content format.

Claims

1. A method for providing encoded content, the method comprising:

connecting to a content provider from a terminal device;

submitting an authentication credential associated with the terminal device to the content provider;

selecting a content element from among a plurality of content elements available from the content provider, wherein the plurality of available content elements is associated with the authentication credential;

determining whether a profile associated with the authentication credential specifies a preferred content format;

in response to determining that the profile associated with the authentication credential specifies the preferred content format, determining whether the content element is available in the preferred content format;

in response to determining that the content element is not available in the preferred content format, transcoding the content element to the preferred content format; and

transferring the content element to the terminal device in the preferred content format.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the profile associated with the authentication credential does not specify the preferred content format, identifying a best content format according to a type of the terminal device and an available bandwidth associated with a connection between the content provider and the terminal device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the best content format according to the type of the terminal device comprises identifying a video codec associated with the type of the terminal device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein identifying the best content format according to the available bandwidth comprises identifying a type of network associated with the connection between the content provider and the terminal device.