Method and apparatus for storing content

• US 7,577,336 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2005
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sankaranarayan, Mukund, Gates, Matthijs A., Srinivasan, Jai, Chakrabarti, Alok
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HUY THANH
• Application Number:
  US11/048,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20050129049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,659 Days
• Field of Search: 386/46, 386/68, 386/83, 386/95, 386/125, 386/126
• US Class Current: 386/241
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/455 said record carriers being in one device and being used as primary and secondary/backup media, e.g. HDD-DVD combo device, or as source and target media, e.g. PC and portable player
• 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 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

A system receives a broadcast program and temporarily stores the program data. A request is received to permanently record the broadcast program. This request is received after a portion of the broadcast program has been received and temporarily stored. The broadcast program is then permanently recorded, including the temporarily stored program data. A metafile identifies portions of the broadcast program and is accessible by a reader to continuously retrieve the stored portions of the broadcast program.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a broadcast data stream;

storing a first portion of the broadcast data stream in a plurality of time shifted data files; and

storing a second portion of the broadcast data stream in a recorded data file, wherein the plurality of time shifted data files have a different storage format than the recorded data file, and wherein the time shifted data files and the recorded data file are accessible by a reader to continuously retrieve the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are stored on a hard disk drive.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are portions of a television broadcast.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are portions of an Internet Protocol multicast.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are contiguous portions of a broadcast.

6. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising deleting the first portion of the broadcast data stream after a predetermined time period.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein storing the second portion of the broadcast data stream as a recorded data file is performed in response to a record operation.

8. One or more computer-readable memories having stored thereon a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 1.

9. A method comprising:

receiving a broadcast data stream;

storing a first portion of the broadcast data stream in a plurality of time shifted data files; and

storing a second portion of the broadcast data stream in at least one recorded data file, wherein the plurality of time shifted data files have a different storage format than the at least one recorded data file, and wherein the time shifted data files and the recorded data file are accessible by a reader to seek across all time shifted data files and the recorded data file.

10. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are stored on a hard disk drive.

11. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are contiguous portions of a broadcast.

12. A method as recited in claim 9 further comprising deleting the first portion of the broadcast data stream after a predetermined time period.

13. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein storing the second portion of the broadcast data stream as a recorded data file is performed in response to a record operation.