Program recording apparatus and program recording medium

• US 7,181,128 B1
• Filed: 11/28/2000
• Issued: 02/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Wada, Hirofumi, Yasuno, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Chevalier; Robert
• Application Number:
  US09/722,643
• Time in Patent Office: 2,275 Days
• Field of Search: 386/83, 386/92, 386/95, 386/124, 386/125, 386/126, 386/45, 386/46, 386/40, 386/1, 725/86, 725/87, 725/39, 725/46
• US Class Current: 386/291
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/216 Rewritable discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/65 wherein solid state memory is used for storing indexing information or metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• 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 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4263 involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners
• 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 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• 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 21/4532 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 21/4583 Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programs in the same time slot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• 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 21/84 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 5/782 : on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 : involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A program recording apparatus has a program information input device, a program recording setting device, a recording device for writing to, or erasing from a recording medium, and a management device. When the program recording setting device sets the recording of a program, the management device predicts whether there is a shortage of vacant space in the recording medium. This is done when the recording device writes the contents of the program to the recording medium by referring to program management information. To provide vacant space in the recording medium, the management device decides programs to be erased according to predetermined criteria which include an erasure possibility set prior to erasure of the programs to be erased.

Claims

1. A program recording apparatus comprising:

a program information input unit inputting program information concerning programs;

a program recording setting unit setting of the recording of programs;

a recording unit writing and erasing data containing contents of said programs on a recording medium; and

a management unit storing program information inputted from said program information input unit and recording said programs by said recording unit according to said setting for recording and independent of said setting for recording,

wherein said program recording setting unit can carry out a comprehensive setting for recording which makes a plurality of pairs of recording/erasing operations; and

in the case that a recording of a program which belongs to a program group comprising programs which have been comprehensively set for recording is carried out, said recording unit may carry out the recording by erasing programs which have, already, been recorded before the recording is carried out and which belong to said program group.

2. A program recording apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that in the case that a recording of a program belonging to said program group is carried out, said recording unit carries out the recording by erasing the programs belonging to said program group, which have already been recorded before the recording is carried out.

3. A program recording medium characterized by the recording of programs and/or data in order to make a computer carry out the entire, or part of, the functions of the entire, or part of, the unit of the present invention according to any of claims 1 or 2, and characterized by being readable by computer.