Late assignment of recorded digital media content at time of playback

• US 8,832,757 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2012
• Issued: 09/09/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dish Digital LLC
• Inventors: Major, Robert Drew, Major, Darren
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen-Ba, Hoang-Vu A
• Application Number:
  US13/707,022
• Publication Number:
  US 20130145415A1
• Time in Patent Office: 642 Days
• Field of Search: 725/93, 725/97, 725/104, 386/295, 386/296
• US Class Current: 725/93
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2183 Cache memory caches in web servers or browsers G06F16/9574; intermediate storage and caching in data networks H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23103 using load balancing strategies, e.g. by placing or distributing content on different disks, different memories or different servers storage management G06F3/0604; allocation of resources considering the load in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/505; techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system G06F9/5083; access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. load balancing, in data networks H04L67/1001
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2312 Data placement on disk arrays data placement in general G06F3/0604
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2323 using file mapping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/462 Content or additional data management, e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end, controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/61 Network physical structure; Signal processing H04B takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6371 directed to network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6373 for rate control , e.g. request to the server to modify its transmission rate flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6379 directed to encoder , e.g. for requesting a lower encoding rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64769 for rate control flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 : on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 : on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 : Television signal processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 : Handling of requests in head-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/80 : Transformation of the television signal for recording, e.g. modulation, frequency changing; Inverse transformation for playback

Abstract

A remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR) system is disclosed. The RS-DVR system includes a network interface to communicate data between the RS-DVR system and a subscriber system via a network, a file system module coupled to the network interface, an ingest agent coupled to the file system module to receive encoded media segments that represent media content files encoded at a plurality of different bitrates; and a storage architecture coupled to the file system to store the encoded media segments, resulting in stored media segments. The RS-DVR carries out a number of functions and operations to service multiple subscribers and associated subscriber systems, such as various storage device management operations, file structure techniques, assignment of recorded media to subscribers, file system indexing, and supporting shared and per-subscriber content rights.

Claims

1. A method of operating a remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR) system that supports a plurality of subscriber systems via data communication over a network, the plurality of subscriber systems providing media content to a plurality of subscribers, the method comprising:

receiving a media content file at the RS-DVR system;

prior to storing recorded versions of the media content file, estimating a number of playback requests to be received for the media content file to obtain a predicted number;

storing the predicted number of recorded versions of the media content file in a storage architecture of the RS-DVR system without assigning any of the predicted number of recorded versions of the media content file to any of the plurality subscribers, resulting in a pool of unassigned recorded versions of the media content file;

maintaining the pool of unassigned recorded versions of the media content file in an unassigned state until receiving at least one request for playback of the media content file;

receiving, at the RS-DVR system, a request for the media content file, the request originating at a requesting subscriber system assigned to one of the plurality of subscribers; and

in response to receiving the request, the RS-DVR system assigning one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to a requesting subscriber associated with the requesting subscriber system, resulting in an assigned recorded version of the media content file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the assigning step exclusively assigns one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to the requesting subscriber or to the requesting subscriber system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the request, the RS-DVR system providing the assigned recorded version of the media content file to the requesting subscriber system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the number of playback requests is based upon usage statistics for the plurality of subscriber systems.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the number of playback requests is based upon programming statistics for the media content file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to the requesting subscriber comprises the RS-DVR system converting the one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file into the assigned recorded version of the media content file.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the RS-DVR system, a request for playback of the assigned recorded version of the media content file, the request originating at the requesting subscriber system; and

in response to receiving the request for playback, the RS-DVR system providing the assigned recorded version of the media content file to the requesting subscriber system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the predicted number of recorded versions of the media content file comprises the RS-DVR system redundantly recording the media content file.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein assigning the one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file comprises individually assigning the one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to the requesting subscriber to ensure that the assigned recorded version is only accessible by the requesting subscriber.

10. A remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR) system comprising:

a network interface to communicate data between the RS-DVR system and a plurality of subscriber systems via a network, the subscriber systems configured to provide media content to a plurality of subscribers;

a file system module coupled to the network interface;

an ingest agent coupled to the file system module to receive a media content file; and

a storage architecture coupled to the file system to store a predicted number of recorded versions of the media content file without assigning any of the predicted number of recorded versions of the media content file to any of the plurality of subscribers, resulting in a pool of unassigned recorded versions of the media content file;

wherein;

the predicted number is based on an estimated number of playback requests to be received by the RS-DVR system for the media content file; and

the file system module and the storage architecture cooperate to individually assign the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to the plurality of subscribers in response to receiving requests for playback of the media content file such that only one particular subscriber of the plurality of subscribers can access a particular recorded version of the predicted number of recorded versions of the media content file.

11. The RS-DVR system of claim 10, wherein:

in response to receiving a request for playback of the media content file from a requesting subscriber system of the plurality of subscriber systems, the file system module exclusively assigns one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to one of the plurality of subscribers, resulting in an assigned recorded version of the media content file.

12. The RS-DVR system of claim 11, wherein the network interface, the file system module, and the storage architecture cooperate to provide the assigned recorded version of the media content file to the requesting subscriber system.

13. The RS-DVR system of claim 10, wherein the estimated number of playback requests is based upon usage statistics for the plurality of subscribers.

14. The RS-DVR system of claim 10, wherein the estimated number of playback requests is based upon programming statistics for the media content file.

15. A method of operating a remote storage digital video recorder (RS-DVR) system that supports a plurality of subscriber systems via data communication over a network, the plurality of subscriber systems configured to provide media content to a plurality of subscribers, the method comprising:

receiving a media content file at the RS-DVR system;

estimating a number of future playback requests for the media content file to be received, resulting in a predicted number;

storing at least the predicted number of recorded versions of the media content file in a storage architecture of the RS-DVR system without assigning any of the recorded versions of the media content file to any of the plurality of subscribers, resulting in a pool of unassigned recorded versions of the media content file, wherein the pool includes at least the predicted number of unassigned recorded versions of the media content file; and

individually assigning, at the RS-DVR system, the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to the plurality of subscribers upon receipt of requests for playback of the media content file so that only one particular subscriber of the plurality of subscribers can access a particular recorded version of the recorded versions of the media content file.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving, at the RS-DVR system, a request for playback of the media content file, the request originating at a requesting subscriber system of the plurality of subscriber systems;

in response to receiving the request for playback, exclusively assigning one of the unassigned recorded versions of the media content file to one of the plurality of subscribers, resulting in an assigned recorded version of the media content file, wherein the one of the plurality of subscribers is associated with the requesting subscriber system; and

providing the assigned recorded version of the media content file to the requesting subscriber system.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein estimating the number of playback requests is based upon usage statistics for the plurality of subscriber systems.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein estimating the number of playback requests is based upon programming statistics for the media content file.