System for downloading digital content published in a media channel

• US 7,793,206 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2005
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Creative Technology Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Creative Technology Ltd.
• Inventors: Choo, Guan Chuan, Lim, Seh Eing
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, CONG LAC T
• Application Number:
  US11/265,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20070100787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,770 Days
• Field of Search: 715/201, 715/202, 715/203
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/266 Channel or content management, e.g. generation and management of keys and entitlement messages in a conditional access system, merging a VOD unicast channel into a multicast channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4113 PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

A system (10) for downloading digital content (5) to a video-enabled portable media player (20), the digital content (5) being published in a media channel (30) by a content creator, the system (10) comprising: a data receiver module (11) to receive the digital content (5) from the media channel (30) via a communication medium; a conversion module (12) to convert the received digital content to at least one video file (40) of a predetermined video format; and a download module (13) to copy the at least one video file (40) to the portable media player (20); wherein the video file (40) ensures the digital content is consumed in the same order that the digital content (5) is published in the media channel (30) by the content creator.

Claims

1. A system for downloading digital content to a video-enabled portable media player, the digital content being published in a media channel by a content creator, the system comprising:

a player detection module to detect video formats that are compatible with the portable media player,

a selection module to select one of the compatible video formats to convert the digital content into;

a data receiver module to receive the digital content from the media channel via a communication medium;

a conversion module to convert the received digital content to at least one video file of the video format selected; and

a download module to copy the at least one video file to the portable media player;

wherein the video file ensures the digital content is consumed in the same order that the digital content is published in the media channel by the content creator.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the digital content is at least one from the group consisting of:

text, images, audio, and video.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the media channel is any one from the group consisting of:

web cast, and a pod cast.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one video file is stored in a single location on the portable media player, the single location being any one from the group consisting of:

directory, folder and node.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the player detection module also detects the display capability and audio capability of the portable media player including screen size, resolution, contrast level, audio bit rate, or stereo capability.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein the video format is selected according to display and audio capabilities of the portable media player.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the video format is any one from the group consisting of MPG, MPEG, AVI, MOV, WMV and ASF.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the video format enables user configuration of chapter markers in the video file for convenient frame manipulation.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the digital content is received by the data receiver module in the order the digital content is published in the media channel.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein if the digital content is text, the conversion module paginates the text based on the size of the display of the portable media player, converts each page of text into a video frame, and creates a slideshow by combining the video frames into the video file.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein bookmarks are placed for at least one page in the video file.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein if the digital content is an image, the conversion module converts each image into a common image format, scales the image to a resolution supported by the portable media player, and converts each image into a video frame for the video file.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein either special or transition effects are applied to the image when the video file is created.

14. The system according to claim 12, wherein background music is added as part of the audio stream of the video file to provide an enhanced multimedia experience to the user.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein if the digital content is an audio file, the conversion module converts the audio file to an audio format supported by the portable media player and converts the audio content of the audio file to an audio stream of the video file.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the audio content of the audio file is enhanced, and the video stream of the video file includes any one from the group consisting of:

playback visualizations, single frame video containing channel artwork and/or description of the content together with audio properties such as Album Name, Artist and Content Category, and random images selected from the player grouped together as a slideshow.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein if the digital content is a video file that is in a video format not natively supported by the portable media player, the conversion module converts by transcoding the video file into a video format natively supported by the portable media player.

18. The system according to claim 1, wherein the filename of the video file is in the form of:

[YYMMDDHHMM]-[CHANNEL NAME]-[FILENAME].AVI.

19. The system according to claim 1, wherein the system resides on a server accessible via the Internet.

20. A method for downloading digital content to a video-enabled portable media player, the digital content being published in a media channel by a content creator, the method comprising:

detecting video formats that are compatible with the portable media player;

selecting one of the compatible video formats to convert the digital content into;

receiving the digital content from the media channel via a communication medium;

converting the received digital content to at least one video file of the video format selected; and

copying the at least one video file to the portable media player;

wherein the video file ensures the digital content is consumed in the same order that the digital content is published in the media channel by the content creator.

21. A method for downloading digital content to a video-enabled portable media player, the digital content being published in a media channel by a content creator, the method comprising:

selecting a predetermined video format according to suitability for the portable media player;

receiving the digital content from the media channel via a communication medium;

converting the received digital content to at least one video file of the predetermined video format; and

copying the at least one video file to the portable media player;

wherein the video file ensures the digital content is consumed in the same order that the digital content is published in the media channel by the content creator.