Strategies for scheduling bandwidth-consuming media events

• US 7,584,497 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2005
• Issued: 09/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Pasumarthy, Naga A. K., Taylor, Thomas H., Potrebic, Peter J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Koenig; Andrew Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bantamoi; Anthony
• Application Number:
  US11/135,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20060268099A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,561 Days
• Field of Search: 725/58, 725/93, 725 95- 97, 725/116, 386/83
• US Class Current: 725/116
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• 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 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• 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 21/47214 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 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape

Abstract

Scheduling functionality is described for resolving conflicts in the schedules of respective client devices, where the schedules are used to govern the recordation of media programs by the respective client devices. The client devices use virtual tuner functionality to receive media programs over respective communication channels, each channel having a prescribed amount of available bandwidth in which to receive media information. The scheduling functionality includes a conflict identification module for identifying conflicts in the schedules, a solution enumeration module for enumerating solutions to the conflicts, and a conflict resolution module for resolving the conflicts based on the output of the solution enumeration module. In one case, the schedules can be partitioned into a plurality of time segments, and solutions can be enumerated for each time segment in turn.

Claims

1. A method of resolving schedule conflicts affecting a client device that employs virtual tuner functionality, comprising:

receiving, at an operations center, from the client device, scheduling instructions to create a schedule to record plural media programs;

establishing a schedule for the client device to receive for recording the plural media programs at the client device by receiving transmission of the plural media programs from the operations center over a communication channel at a specified timing, wherein the schedule specifies that the plural media programs will be transmitted over the network in a specified first format version to the client device at the specified timing for recording at the client device;

identifying at least one conflict in the schedule caused by at least one bandwidth event by taking into account whether an amount of bandwidth to be consumed by each of said plural media programs in the schedule would exceed a total amount of bandwidth available to the client device to receive the plural media programs over the communication channel;

as a result of identifying the at least one conflict in the schedule, determining from a media program guide source that a second format version of one or more of the media programs is available to be transmitted to the client device for recording at the specified timing, wherein the second format version of the one or more media programs will consume a lower amount of bandwidth of the communication channel than the specified first format version of the media program;

enumerating at least one solution to the at least one conflict, wherein the solution includes replacing one or more of the media programs scheduled to be received over the over the communication channel for recording in the specified first format version with the one or more media programs in the second format version that consumes a lower amount of the bandwidth of the communication channel than the specified first format version; and

resolving said at least one conflict based on said at least one solution.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one bandwidth event comprises a user'"'"'s selection of a new media program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one bandwidth event comprises a change in media program guide information which affects the schedule.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of said at least one conflict comprises:

partitioning the schedule into at least one candidate time segment in which a conflict may exist; and

determining at least one conflicting time segment from said at least one candidate time segment for which an actual conflict exists.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the enumerating of said at least one solution comprises enumerating at least one solution that resolves the conflict for all of the time segments in said at least one conflicting time segment.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the enumerating of said at least one solution comprises enumerating at least one solution that resolves the conflict for each particular time segment in turn in said at least one conflicting time segment.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically downgrading recording quality of one or more of the media programs from the first format to the second format to resolve the conflict by changing the schedule at the operation center from scheduled reception over the communication channel of the one or more media programs in the first format to scheduled reception over the communication channel of corresponding one or more media programs in the second format.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the resolving of said at least one conflict comprises:

providing a user interface presentation to a user which solicits input from the user to resolve said at least one conflict; and

receiving the input from the user to resolve said at least one conflict.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the user interface presentation displays conflicting media programs using respective time bars, and wherein the receiving of the input comprises receiving the user'"'"'s selection of one or more of the time bars.

10. One or more machine-readable storage media containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 1.

11. A method for resolving schedule conflicts affecting a client device that employs virtual tuner functionality, comprising:

placing an operations center into communication with a plurality of the client devices, wherein the operations center includes a scheduling module for receiving user preference settings from users of the client devices;

establishing, at the operations center, a plurality of schedules, each schedule corresponding to one of the client devices, wherein each schedule specifies plural media programs to be received over a communication channel for recording by the corresponding client device, wherein one or more of the media programs is scheduled to be received over the communication channel in a high definition format version that requires a first amount of bandwidth;

identifying at least one conflict in a first one of the schedules by taking into account whether an amount of bandwidth of the communication channel to be consumed by each of said plural media programs in the first schedule would exceed a total amount of bandwidth of the communication channel available to the client device to receive the plural media programs;

in response to identifying the at least one conflict, determining the scheduling module at the operations center by referring to a media program guide source that one or more of the media programs scheduled to be transmitted in the high definition format version is available in a standard definition format version that requires a second amount of bandwidth that is less than the first amount of bandwidth required for transmitting the one or more media programs from the operations center to the client device;

determining that replacing the one or more of the media programs in the high definition format with a standard definition format version would resolve the at least one conflict by reducing the bandwidth required for transmitting the plural media programs from the operations center to less than or equal to the total amount of the bandwidth of the communication channel available to the client device to receive the plural media programs; and

presenting at least one solution to the user of the first client device, wherein the scheduling module at the operations center is configured to identify the user'"'"'s preferences regarding a quality at which the one or more media programs are scheduled to be received over the communication channel, and when the user'"'"'s preference is for receiving programs in the high definition format, the at least one solution includes selecting at least one of the media programs for receiving over the communication channel at a lower bandwidth requirement by changing scheduled reception and recording from the high definition format version to the standard definition format version for resolving said at least one conflict.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising identifying said at least one conflict by:

partitioning the schedule into at least one candidate time segment in which a conflict may exist; and

determining at least one conflicting time segment from said at least one candidate time segment for which an actual conflict exists.

13. The method according to claim 11 further comprising presenting said at least one solution by enumerating at least one solution that resolves the conflict for all of the time segments in said at least one conflicting time segment.

14. The method according to claim 11 further comprising presenting said at least one solution by enumerating at least one solution that resolves the conflict for each particular time segment in turn in said at least one conflicting time segment.

15. The method according to claim 11 further comprising eliminating, from a user interface presented to the user, display of the media programs whose removal from the schedule would not contribute to resolution of the at least one conflict.

16. The method according to claim 11 further comprising:

providing a user interface presentation to the user which solicits input from the user to resolve said at least one conflict; and

receiving the input from the user to resolve said at least one conflict.

17. One or more machine-readable media storage containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 11.

18. A system for scheduling the processing of media programs for a client device that employs virtual tuner functionality, comprising:

a head end operations center including a processing device configure by execution of program code stored in one or more computer readable memory devices to implement a schedule setting module for receiving scheduling instructions from the client device to create a schedule for the recording device to receive and record a set of media programs, wherein the schedule setting module identifies at least one bandwidth event that affects transmission of the set of the media programs to the client device and the recordation of the set of the media programs by the client device by taking into account whether an amount of bandwidth to be consumed by transmitting the set of media programs over a communication channel would exceed a total amount of bandwidth of the communication channel available to the client device to receive the set of media programs, the client device including a media processing module for receiving and recording the set of media programs transmitted via a network from the operations center;

wherein the schedule setting module at the operations center is configured to identify different bandwidth versions of at least one media program in the set of media programs by accessing a program guide source;

wherein the schedule setting module is configured to identify a users preferences regarding quality at which media programs are received and recorded corresponding to available bandwidth versions of the media programs;

wherein the schedule setting module is configured to provide a schedule to the client device which governs the reception and recording of said set of media programs based on the identified bandwidth versions and user'"'"'s preferences,

wherein the schedule setting module is configured to resolve at least one conflict in the schedule caused by the bandwidth event by automatically selecting a lower bandwidth version of one or more of the media programs in the set of media programs in place of a higher bandwidth version of one or more of the media programs requiring a first bandwidth for transmission, by automatically switching to a lower bandwidth version of the one or more media programs, requiring a second lower bandwidth for transmission over the communication channel to the client device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the schedule setting module at the operations center is configured to resolve said at least one conflict by:

identifying said at least one conflict in the schedule caused by said least one bandwidth event;

enumerating at least one solution to said at least one conflict, wherein said at least one solution takes into account;

(a) a total amount of bandwidth available to the client device to receive media programs; and

(b) an amount of bandwidth consumed by transmission of each of said plural media programs in the schedule; and

resolving said at least one conflict based on said at least one solution by identifying that the user'"'"'s preference is for higher bandwidth versions of the media programs, determining that a lower bandwidth version is available for one or more of the media programs, and automatically downgrading from the first bandwidth version of the one or more of the programs to the lower second bandwidth version to resolve the conflict.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the media program guide information specifies available bandwidth versions of media programs available.