Recording/playing apparatus and contents managing method

• US 6,618,546 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2001
• Issued: 09/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ichioka, Hidetoshi, Ishida, Masaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Boccio, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fletcher, James A.
• Application Number:
  US09/919,287
• Publication Number:
  US 20020012517A1
• Time in Patent Office: 771 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.591, H04/N.700, 386/46, 386/95, 386/83, 386/125-126, 386/40, 386/124
• US Class Current: 386/291
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06
• 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 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42661 for reading from or writing on a magnetic storage medium, e.g. hard disk drive
• 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 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• 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 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums

Abstract

In a first step, contents scheduled in the “past” of a virtual channel are extracted, in a second step one of the contents is selected, in the event that judgment is made in a third step that the contents are not in a playable state the flow proceeds to a seventh step but in the event that judgment is made that the contents are in a playable state judgement is made in a fourth step whether the corresponding contents have already been scheduled n times (n being a number for sufficient opportunity for viewing or listening) in the future. In the event that the number is less than n times, the contents are placed in the future at the time of the next scheduling in a fifth step, but in the event that the number is n times, in a sixth step the contents are set in a state to be deleted. In the event that judgment is made in the seventh step that processing of the all of the extracted contents has not been completed, the flow returns to the second step, but in the event that judgment is made that all processing has been completed, the flow ends. Thus, contents regarding which the user has no interest are automatically deleted.

Claims

1. A recording/playing apparatus, comprising:

obtaining means for obtaining contents;

recording control means for controlling recording of a plurality of said contents obtained by said obtaining means;

generating means for obtaining management information, including a status of said plurality of contents of which recording is controlled by said recording control means, and a time period in which viewing or listening to said contents has been provided to said contents, and for changing said management information as necessary;

first extracting means for extracting, from said plurality of contents of which recording is controlled by said recording control means, contents which have been available for viewing or listening for a predetermined time period that have not been requested by a user for viewing or listening therein such that said contents have not been viewed or listened to within said predetermined time period, and in accordance with the management information obtained by said generating means;

judging means for judging whether or not there are any contents in said plurality of contents of which recording is controlled by said recording control means regarding which deleting is necessary; and

deletion control means for controlling deleting of said contents regarding which the status of said contents contained in said management information is “

deletion planned”

, in the event that judgment is made by said judging means that deleting of said contents is necessary;

wherein said generating means automatically changes the status of said contents contained in said management information corresponding to said contents extracted by said first extracting means, to “

deletion planned”

.

2. A recording/playing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

second extracting means for extracting, from said contents of which recording is controlled by said recording control means, said contents regarding which viewing or listening thereof has been completed and also regarding which the date-and-time when last viewed or listened to is the oldest, based on said management information generated by said generating means;

wherein said management information further contains information relating to the date-and-time when last viewed or listened to, in the event that viewing or listening thereof has been completed regarding said contents;

and wherein, in the event that, following control of deletion of said contents regarding which the status contained in said management information is “

deletion planned”

by said deletion control means, judgment is made by said judging means that deletion of said contents is necessary, said second extracting means extracts said contents regarding which viewing or listening thereof has been completed and regarding which the date-and-time when last viewed or listened to is the oldest;

and wherein said generating means changes the status of said contents contained in said management information corresponding to said contents extracted by said second extracting means, to “

deletion planned”

.

3. A contents managing method, comprising:

an obtaining step for obtaining contents;

a recording control step for controlling recording of a plurality of said contents obtained by the processing in said obtaining step;

a generating step for obtaining management information, including a status of said plurality of contents of which recording is controlled by the processing in said recording control step, and a time period in which viewing or listening to said contents has been provided to said contents, and for changing said management information as necessary;

a first extracting step for extracting, from said plurality of contents of which recording is controlled by the processing in said recording control step, contents which have been available for viewing or listening for a predetermined time period that have not been requested by a user for viewing or listening therein such that said contents have not been viewed or listened to within said predetermined time period, and in accordance with the management information obtained by the processing in said generating step;

a judging step for judging whether or not there are any contents in said plurality of contents of which recording is controlled by the processing in said recording control step regarding which deleting is necessary; and

a deletion control step for controlling deleting of said contents regarding which the status of said contents contained in said management information is “

deletion planned”

, in the event that judgment is made by the processing in said judging step that deleting of said contents is necessary;

wherein said generating step automatically changes the status of said contents contained in said management information corresponding to said contents extracted by the processing in said first extracting step, to “

deletion planned”

.

4. A contents managing method according to claim 3, further comprising:

a second extracting step for extracting, from said contents of which recording is controlled by the processing in said recording control step, said contents regarding which viewing or listening thereof has been completed and also regarding which the date-and-time when last viewed or listened to is the oldest, based on said management information generated by the processing in said generating step;

wherein said management information further contains information relating to the date-and-time when last viewed or listened to, in the event that viewing or listening thereof has been completed regarding the status of said contents;

and wherein, in the event that, following control of deletion of said contents regarding which the status of contents contained in said management information is “

deletion planned”

by the processing in said deletion control step, judgment is made by the processing in said judging step that deletion of said contents is necessary, the processing in said second extracting step extracts said contents regarding which viewing or listening thereof has been completed and regarding which the date-and-time when last viewed or listened to is the oldest;

and wherein the processing in said generating step changes the status of said contents contained in said management information corresponding to said contents extracted by the processing in said second extracting step, to “

deletion planned”

.