Extra margins for record time interval via EPG

• US 7,764,865 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2002
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Top Victory Investments Limited (TPV Technology Co., Ltd. (f/k/a Nanjing Huadong Electronics Information & Technology))
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Van Haver, David Albert Lea
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLDER, ANNER N
• Application Number:
  US10/266,303
• Publication Number:
  US 20030072559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,849 Days
• Field of Search: 386/83, 386/46, 386/94
• US Class Current: 386/247
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 15/026 by using processor, e.g. microcomputer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape

Abstract

A system, method, and computer-readable medium which reduce the occurrence of incomplete recordings of television programs by video cassette recorders (VCR) (130), or other types of video recorders, by adding margins (6, 7) to the programmed start and end times (1, 2) of the recording. The margins (6, 7) cause the recording to start earlier than the programmed start time (1) by a specified amount of time (ΔT_B), and to stop later than the programmed stop time by another specified amount of time (ΔT_E). Therefore, when a television program starts a few minutes earlier, or ends a few minutes later than scheduled, the present invention helps ensure that the entire television program will be recorded by the video recorder, despite the fact that the video recorder was programmed in accordance with to the scheduled times (1, 2).

Claims

1. A system for recording a program, the system comprising:

an input device for inputting a start time and a stop time for recording, said start time and said stop time defining a recording time interval;

a margin setting device for automatically modifying said recording time interval by adding a predetermined amount of time to said recording time interval in response to receiving at least one of said start time and said stop time; and

a recording device for recording a broadcast program on a storage medium during said recording time interval as modified.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said input device includes a selection device for selecting a program displayed on an electronic program guide, said selected program corresponding to specific start and stop times.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a set-top box comprising said input device and said margin setting device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said input device includes an interface for manually entering the start time and the stop time for recording.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said recording device is a video cassette recorder (VCR) and said storage medium is a magnetic tape.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said margin setting device is implemented in said VCR.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said margin setting device modifies said recording time interval by at least one of:

moving said start time to an earlier time, said earlier time being determined in accordance with a predetermined beginning time margin; and

moving said stop time to a later time, said later time being determined in accordance with to a predetermined ending time margin.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said predetermined beginning time margin and said predetermined ending time margin are designated by a user.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein said predetermined beginning time margin is designated by a user.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein said predetermined ending time margin is designated by a user.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined amount of time is predefined and not settable by a user.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to automatically change the predetermined amount of time to a modified amount of time for the margin setting device to add the modified amount of time to said recording time interval, in response to determining an overlap of said recording time interval with a previously programmed recording time interval.

9. A method of recording a program, the method comprising the acts of:

inputting a start time and a stop time for recording, said start time and said stop time defining a recording time interval;

automatically modifying said recording time interval by adding a predetermined amount of time to said recording time interval in response to receiving at least one of said start time and said stop time; and

recording on a storage medium a broadcast program during said recording time interval as modified.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the predetermined amount of time is predefined and not settable by a user.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising the act of automatically changing the predetermined amount of time to a modified amount of time for the automatically modifying act to add the modified amount of time to said recording time interval, in response to determining an overlap of said recording time interval with a previously programmed recording time interval.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions to be executed by a computer, said medium comprising:

instructions for inputting a start time and a stop time for recording, said start time and said stop time defining a recording time interval;

instructions for automatically modifying said recording time interval by adding a predetermined amount of time to said recording time interval in response to receiving at least one of said start time and said stop time; and

instructions for automatically programming a video recorder to record on a storage medium a broadcast program during said recording time interval as modified.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the predetermined amount of time is predefined and not settable by a user.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions for automatically changing the predetermined amount of time to a modified amount of time for the instructions for automatically modifying to add the modified amount of time to said recording time interval, in response to determining an overlap of said recording time interval with a previously programmed recording time interval.