Media-on-demand communication system and method employing direct access storage device
First Claim
1. A multimedia communication system including a communication channel and a local display, the system comprising:
- a remote multimedia server, comprising;
a mass storage library for storing a plurality of multimedia programs each segmented into source program segments, wherein each of the source program segments includes a unique segment address and is representative of a portion of one of the plurality of multimedia programs;
organizing means for organizing the unique segment addresses of source program segments associated with the one of the plurality of multimedia programs to produce a custom ordered series of source program segments; and
transmission means for transmitting the custom ordered series of source program segments arranged in packets to the communication channel; and
a local media control system, comprising;
a direct access storage device including at least one data storage disk;
an input buffer, coupled to the direct access storage device, having a storage capacity sufficient to buffer the source program segments of each of the packets received from the communication channel; and
controller means for coordinating writing of the source program segments received from the communication channel to the data storage disk, and for coordinating reading of the source program segments from the data storage disk as sequentially ordered local program segments;
wherein the sequentially ordered local program segments read from the data storage disk are transmitted to the local display for sequential presentation thereon.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for effectuating transmission, reception, and processing of source program signals representative of a multimedia program between a remote multimedia server and a plurality of local set-top control systems are disclosed. The multimedia server processes stored digitally compressed multimedia programs preferably by parsing a selected multimedia program into a customized series of discrete program segments, and transmitting the compressed program segments to a local set-top control system, which buffers and decompresses the compressed program segments for presentation on a local display monitor. A local set-top control system preferably includes a direct access storage device adapted to buffer a predetermined number of compressed program segments received from a multimedia server, some of which may be non-sequentially ordered and others of which may be sequentially ordered. A novel formatting methodology provides for the sequential presentation of the program segments asynchronously distributed on one or more data storage disks disposed in the direct access storage device. A user-definable presentation control window for performing local VCR-type presentation control functions for the portion of a multimedia program buffered in the direct access storage device is also provided through the novel formatting methodology. The novel formatting methodology also provides concurrent presentation and buffering of program segments received from the multimedia server for on-demand viewing of a selected multimedia program.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A multimedia communication system including a communication channel and a local display, the system comprising:
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a remote multimedia server, comprising; a mass storage library for storing a plurality of multimedia programs each segmented into source program segments, wherein each of the source program segments includes a unique segment address and is representative of a portion of one of the plurality of multimedia programs; organizing means for organizing the unique segment addresses of source program segments associated with the one of the plurality of multimedia programs to produce a custom ordered series of source program segments; and transmission means for transmitting the custom ordered series of source program segments arranged in packets to the communication channel; and a local media control system, comprising; a direct access storage device including at least one data storage disk; an input buffer, coupled to the direct access storage device, having a storage capacity sufficient to buffer the source program segments of each of the packets received from the communication channel; and controller means for coordinating writing of the source program segments received from the communication channel to the data storage disk, and for coordinating reading of the source program segments from the data storage disk as sequentially ordered local program segments; wherein the sequentially ordered local program segments read from the data storage disk are transmitted to the local display for sequential presentation thereon. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for communicating a multimedia program from a remote multimedia server to a local media control system coupled to a local display, the method comprising:
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organizing sequentially ordered source program segments representative of the multimedia program into custom ordered source program segments; transmitting the source program segments to a communication channel; buffering the source program segments received from the communication channel using a data storage disk device; and reading out sequentially ordered local program segments from the source program segments buffered on the data storage disk device for sequential presentation on the local display. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A multimedia communication system including a communication channel and a local display, the system comprising:
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a remote multimedia server, comprising; an organizing unit that arranges a multimedia program into a custom ordered series of source program segments, wherein each of the source program segments is representative of a portion of the multimedia program; and a transmission unit that transmits the source program segments to the communication channel; and a local media control system, comprising; a direct access storage device including at least one data storage disk; and a local controller for coordinating writing of the source program segments received from the communication channel to the data storage disk, and for coordinating reading of the source program segments from the data storage disk as sequentially ordered local program segments; wherein the sequentially ordered local program segments read from the data storage disk are transmitted to the local display for sequential presentation thereon. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification