System and method for bypassing an emergency alert break-in for a recorded event

• US 8,650,590 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Issued: 02/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Howarter, Jamie, Ceballos, Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): SALCE, JASON P
• Application Number:
  US13/324,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 791 Days
• Field of Search: 725/33, 725 93- 94, 725/116, 725/146
• US Class Current: 725/33
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/008 with transmission via TV or radio broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/106 Receiver-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/76 Wired systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/78 CATV [Community Antenna Television] systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• 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 21/443 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 21/4583 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 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums

Abstract

Embodiments of the disclosed invention include a system and a method for bypassing an emergency alert break-in for a recorded event. For example, in one embodiment, a set top box is disclosed that includes a memory component for storing computer executable instructions; a communication interface for receiving media content data from a cable service provider; a decoder module for decoding the received media content data; an emergency alert break-in monitoring module for identifying an emergency alert break-in from the received data; a digital video recorder controller module for determining whether the identified emergency alert break-in affects a recording of a program on a recorded channel; and an emergency alert break-in bypass module for bypassing the identified emergency alert break-in for enabling the digital video recorder controller module to record the program without the identified emergency alert break-in.

Claims

1. A set top box for bypassing an emergency alert break-in for a recorded event, the set top box comprising:

a memory component for storing computer executable instructions;

a communication interface for receiving media content data from a cable service provider;

a decoder module for decoding the received media content data;

an emergency alert break-in monitoring module for identifying an emergency alert break-in from the received data, by determining whether the received data includes a tone-based attention signal associated with an emergency alert break-in;

a digital video recorder controller module for determining whether the identified emergency alert break-in affects a recording of a program on a recorded channel; and

an emergency alert break-in bypass module for bypassing the identified emergency alert break-in for enabling the digital video recorder controller module to record the program without the identified emergency alert break-in by requesting, in response to a determination to bypass the emergency alert break-in, the program from an Internet television source, and, responsive to receiving the program from the internet television source, recording the received program.

2. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the communication interface receives both the recorded channel and a non-emergency alert break-in channel corresponding to the recorded channel.

3. The set top box of claim 2, further comprising a data storage unit for storing a data structure that includes data indicating the non-emergency alert break-in channel corresponding to the recorded channel.

4. The set top box of claim 3, wherein the emergency alert break-in bypass module identifies the non-emergency alert break-in channel corresponding to the recorded channel;

and switches recording of the program from the recorded channel to recording of the program on the non-emergency alert break-in channel corresponding to the recorded channel.

5. The set top box of claim 2, wherein the data storage unit stores user preferences associated with the recording of the program.

6. The set top box of claim 5, wherein the user preferences associated with the recording of the program may be different from user preferences associated with the recording of a second program.

7. The set top box of claim 5, wherein the emergency alert break-in bypass module retrieves the user preferences associated with the recording of the program to determine whether to bypass the identified emergency alert break-in for recording of the program.

8. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the emergency alert break-in bypass module requests the program from the cable service provider in response to a determination that the identified emergency alert break-in affects the recording of the program on the recorded channel;

and responsive to receiving the program from the cable service provider, the digital video recorder controller module records the received program.

9. The set top box of claim 1, wherein the internet television source is a website associated with a network broadcasting the program.

10. A method executed by a set top box for bypassing an emergency alert break-in for a recorded event, the method comprising:

receiving media content data from a cable service provider;

determining a recording setting associated with the set top box;

determining whether the media content data includes an emergency alert break-in on a channel associated with the recording setting, by determining whether the media content data includes a tone-based attention signal associated with an emergency alert break-in; and

bypassing recording of the emergency alert break-in on the channel associated with the recording setting by;

requesting, in response to a determination to bypass an emergency alert break-in for a recording event, a regularly scheduled program corresponding to the channel associated with the recording setting from an Internet television source; and

modifying, responsive to receiving the regularly scheduled program from the Internet television source, the recording setting to record the received regularly scheduled program.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of bypassing recording of the emergency alert break-in on the channel associated with the recording setting further comprises:

retrieving user preferences associated with the recording setting; and

determining whether to bypass recording of the emergency alert break-in on the channel associated with the recording setting based on the user preferences.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the media content data received from the cable service provider includes a non-emergency alert break-in channel corresponding to the channel associated with the recording setting.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the non-emergency alert break-in channel may only be decoded for recording of the nonemergency alert break-in channel.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of bypassing recording of the emergency alert break-in on the channel associated with the recording setting further comprises:

identifying the non-emergency alert break-in channel corresponding to the channel associated with the recording setting; and

modifying the recording setting to record the non-emergency alert break-in channel.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of bypassing recording of the emergency alert break-in on the channel associated with the recording setting further comprises:

requesting a regularly scheduled program corresponding to the channel associated with the recording setting from the cable service provider; and

responsive to receiving the regularly scheduled program from the cable service provider, modifying the recording setting to record the received regularly scheduled program.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the Internet television source is a website associated with a network broadcasting the regularly scheduled program.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein the request for the regularly scheduled program is transmitted to the Internet television source is performed after the regularly scheduled program has terminated.