System and method for controlling a digital video recorder on a cable network
First Claim
1. A method for controlling a digital video recorder (DVR) of a subscriber in response to a telephone state transition comprising:
- receiving an invitation message from a soft switch, wherein the invitation message comprises data indicative of a telephone state transition;
forwarding the invitation message to video termination device (VTD) servers;
determining at a VTD server whether to process the invitation message;
when the invitation message is processed, then;
creating a telephone state message comprising the data indicative of the telephone state transition;
addressing the telephone state message to a VTD in which the DVR resides; and
sending the telephone state message via an out-of-band channel to the VTD.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for controlling a digital video recorder on a cable network. Signaling associated with the answering or initiation of a digital telephone call by a digital telephone subscriber is used to issue commands to a digital video recorder (DVR). A signal is generated by an MTA when the telephone is enters an “off-hook” state and sent to the DVR to initiate recording of a program being viewed by the called party. When the phone goes “on-hook”, the called party resumes watching the program from exactly where it was interrupted. The MTA may be connected directly to the VTD/DVR and the telephone state is determined by the DVR from information provided by the MTA. Alternatively, a soft switch monitors signaling from the MTA indicative of the state of the called telephone. A telephone state message comprising the telephone state information is then sent over an out-of-band channel/path to a DVR client within the VTD. The DVR client uses the telephone state information to control a DVR.
131 Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A method for controlling a digital video recorder (DVR) of a subscriber in response to a telephone state transition comprising:
-
receiving an invitation message from a soft switch, wherein the invitation message comprises data indicative of a telephone state transition; forwarding the invitation message to video termination device (VTD) servers; determining at a VTD server whether to process the invitation message; when the invitation message is processed, then; creating a telephone state message comprising the data indicative of the telephone state transition; addressing the telephone state message to a VTD in which the DVR resides; and sending the telephone state message via an out-of-band channel to the VTD. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A system for controlling a digital video recorder (DVR) in response to a telephone state transition in a cable network comprising:
-
a headend adapted to provide video services to subscribers of the cable network, wherein the headend comprises a video termination device (VTD) server; a regional data center comprising a soft switch and a proxy server, wherein the regional data center is adapted to provide digital services to a subscriber of the cable network and the proxy server is adapted to; receive an invitation message from the soft switch, wherein the invitation message comprises an active telephone number of the subscriber and data indicative of a telephone state transition of a telephone using the active telephone number; and forward the invitation message to the VTD server; and
the VTD server is adapted to;parse the invitation message to obtain data indicative of a telephone state transition and the active telephone number of the subscriber; create a telephone state message comprising the data indicative of a telephone state transition; address the telephone state message to a VTD in which the DVR resides and which is associated with the active telephone number; and send the telephone state message via an out-of-band channel to the VTD to control the operation of the DVR. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
Specification