Controlling substantially constant buffer capacity for personal video recording with consistent user interface of available disk space

• US 7,962,011 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2001
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta LLC (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Plourde, Harold J. Jr., Rodriguez, Arturo A.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US10/010,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20030110513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,477 Days
• Field of Search: 725/89, 725/134, 725/58, 725/133, 725/141, 725/153, 386/295, 386/291, 386/294
• US Class Current: 386/295
• 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 21/42661 for reading from or writing on a magnetic storage medium, e.g. hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• 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 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• 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 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems

Abstract

A system manages the allocation and storage of media content instance files in a hard disk of a storage device of a media client device in a subscriber television system. In one embodiment among others, the system includes a memory for storing logic, a buffer space in the hard disk for buffering media content instances as buffered media content instance files, and a processor configured with the logic to track the size of permanent media content instance files and the buffered media content instance files to provide an indication of available free space, such that the indication is independent of the buffer space.

Claims

1. A system for managing the allocation and storage of media content instance files in a hard disk of a storage device coupled to a media client device in a subscriber television system, comprising:

a memory for storing logic;

a buffer space in the hard disk for buffering media content instances as buffered media content instance files; and

a processor configured with the logic to track the size of permanent media content instance files and the buffered media content instance files to provide a visual indication of an amount of available free space, such that the indication is independent of the buffer space.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to provide a user interface, responsive to a user input, wherein the user interface provides the indication of available free space for permanently recording media content instances, wherein the permanently recorded media content instances are configured as the permanently recorded media content instance files.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the permanently recorded media content instance files can be deleted from the storage device.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the permanently recorded media content instances are from the buffer space.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the permanently recorded media content instances are a scheduled recording initially written to non-buffer space.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the buffer space, the available free space, and a permanently recorded space are located on the hard disk.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the buffer space and a permanently recorded space are allocated from the free space on the hard disk.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the buffer space and a permanently recorded space have physical locations on the hard disk.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the buffer space and the available free space is measured in units of time.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the buffer space and the available free space is measured in units of hard disk space.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to convert analog broadcast media content instances, received at a communications interface, into digitally compressed media content instances stored in a buffer.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to convert an analog signal received at a connector from a consumer electronics device to a digitally compressed signal, and buffer the digitally compressed signal as a digitally compressed media content instance.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to buffer digital broadcast media content instances, received at a communications interface, as digitally compressed media content instances.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to buffer digital media-on-demand media content instances, received at a communications interface from a remote server, as digitally compressed media content instances.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to buffer digital media content instances, received at a digital communications port from a local network, as digitally compressed media content instances.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to buffer digital media content instances, received at a digital communications port from a local device, as digitally compressed media content instances.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to determine the available free space after subtracting buffer space capacity from total disk space.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured with the logic to reduce the available free space by the amount of the space used for the permanent media content instance files.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured with the logic to increase the available free space by the amount of the space recovered from a deleted permanent media content instance file.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication of the free space available is configured in time of space available for the permanent media content instance files.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the free space indication is unaffected by writes to and deletions from the buffer space.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured with the logic to provide an indication that insufficient free space is available for a requested recording.

23. A method for managing the allocation and storage of media content instance files in a disk of a storage device coupled to a media client device in a subscriber television system, comprising the steps of:

buffering media content instances into buffer space of the storage device as buffered media content instance files;

tracking the size of permanent media content instance files and buffered media content instance files; and

providing a visual indication of an amount of available free space of the storage device, such that the indication is independent of the buffer space.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of providing a user interface, responsive to a user input, wherein the user interface provides the indication of available free space for permanently recording media content instances, wherein the permanently recorded media content instances are configured as the permanently recorded media content instance files.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the permanently recorded media content instance files can be deleted from the storage device.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the user input is implemented with a remote control device.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the permanently recorded media content instances are from the buffer space.

28. The method of claim 24, wherein the permanently recorded media content instances are a scheduled recording initially written to non-buffer space.

29. The method of claim 23, wherein the buffer space, the available free space, and permanently recorded space are located on the disk of the storage device.

30. The method of claim 23, wherein the buffer space and permanently recorded space are allocated from the free space on the disk of the storage device.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein the buffer space and permanently recorded space have physical locations on the disk of the storage device.

32. The method of claim 23, wherein the buffer space and the available free space is measured in units of time.

33. The method of claim 23, wherein the buffer space and the available free space is measured in units of disk space of the storage device.

34. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of converting analog broadcast media content instances, received at a communications interface, in digitally compressed media content instances, and buffering the digitally compressed media content instances as digitally compressed media content instances.

35. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of converting an analog signal received at a connector from a consumer electronics device to a digitally compressed signal, and buffering the digitally compressed signal as a digitally compressed media content instance.

36. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of buffering digital broadcast media content instances, received at a communications interface, as digitally compressed media content instances.

37. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of buffering digital media-on-demand media content instances, received at a communications interface from a remote server, as digitally compressed media content instances.

38. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of buffering digital media content instances, received at a digital communications port from a local network, as digitally compressed media content instances.

39. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of buffering digital media content instances, received at a digital communications port from a local device, as digitally compressed media content instances.

40. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of determining the available free space after subtracting buffer space capacity from total disk space of the storage device.

41. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of reducing the available free space by the amount of the space used for the permanent media content instance files.

42. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of increasing the available free space by the amount of the space recovered from deleted permanent media content instance files.

43. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of configuring the indication of the free space available in time of space available for the permanent media content instance files.

44. The method of claim 23, wherein the indication of the free space available is unaffected by writes to and deletions from the buffer space.