Methods and apparatus for displaying interstitial breaks in a progress bar of a video stream

• US 8,965,177 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2011
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Casagrande, Steven Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): MESA, JOSE M
• Application Number:
  US13/294,818
• Publication Number:
  US 20120057848A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,201 Days
• Field of Search: 386/245
• US Class Current: 386/245
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for presenting information regarding interstitials of a video stream. A recording of a television show may include segments of the show interspersed with interstitials (e.g., commercials). The location of the interstitials within the recording is identified, and the locations of the interstitials are presented in progress bar during presentation of the video stream. The location of the interstitials may also be utilized to determine durations of the interstitials, and provide a user with information regarding the lengths of the interstitials of a recording, and/or the length of the other content of a recording (e.g., segments of a television show).

Claims

1. A method for providing a user with locations of interstitials in a video stream of a show, the method comprising:

receiving a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream;

receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify a first anchor frame and a second anchor frame within a segment of the show, the metadata comprising a first displayable text string that is unique for the segment and a second displayable text string that is unique for the segment, the first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, and the metadata further comprising a first offset, relative to the first anchor frame, that identifies a beginning of the segment, and a second offset, relative to the second anchor frame, that identifies an ending of the segment;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame in the segment, corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying a beginning boundary of the segment based on the located first anchor frame and the first offset;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame in the segment, corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying an ending boundary of the segment based on the located second anchor frame and the second offset;

identifying a location of the at least one interstitial based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries;

outputting the video stream for presentation to a user; and

outputting a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering the at least one interstitial from the video stream based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries to generate a filtered video stream; and

outputting the filtered video stream to a user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

outputting the location of the at least one interstitial using a first indicator; and

outputting a location of the at least one segment using a second indicator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second anchor frames is associated with a presentation location of the last two bytes of the respective displayable text string in the video stream.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream further comprises:

indexing the closed captioning data according to a presentation order to generate indexed closed captioning data;

discarding null closed captioning bytes from the indexed closed captioning data; and

parsing the indexed closed captioning data to identify the first and second anchor frames.

6. A method for providing a user with locations of interstitials in a video stream of a show, the method comprising:

receiving a video stream including first and second segments of a show, at least one interstitial of the show temporally positioned between the first and second segments, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream;

receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify first and second anchor frames within the video stream, the metadata comprising first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, and the metadata further comprising a first offset relative to the first anchor frame and a second offset relative to the second anchor frame;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying a beginning boundary of the at least one interstitial of the show based on the located first anchor frame and the first offset;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying an ending boundary of the at least one interstitial of the show based on the located second anchor frame and the second offset;

identifying the location of the at least one interstitial based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries;

outputting the video stream for presentation to a user; and

outputting a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

outputting the location of the at least one interstitial using a first indicator; and

outputting a location of the at least one segment using a second indicator.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the first and second anchor frames is associated with a presentation location of the last two bytes of the respective displayable text string in the video stream.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream further comprises:

indexing the closed captioning data according to a presentation order to generate indexed closed captioning data;

discarding null closed captioning bytes from the indexed closed captioning data; and

parsing the indexed closed captioning data to identify the first and second anchor frames.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the first and second displayable text strings is unique within the text data.

11. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

filtering the at least one interstitial from the video stream based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries to generate a filtered video stream; and

outputting the filtered video stream to a user.

12. A digital video recorder comprising:

a receiver that receives a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream, and receives metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify first and second anchor frames within the video stream, the metadata comprising first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, the metadata further comprising a first offset relative to the first anchor frame, and a second offset relative to the second anchor frame;

a recording module that stores the video stream on a storage medium for subsequent presentation to a user;

a parsing module that parses the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded, identifies a beginning boundary of a segment of the show based on the first anchor frame and the first offset, parses the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded, identifies an ending boundary of the segment of the show based on the second anchor frame and the second offset, and identifies a location of the interstitial based on the beginning and ending boundaries; and

a presentation module that outputs the video stream for presentation to a user and outputs a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial, according to the beginning and ending boundaries.

13. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein the presentation module is further operable to:

filter the at least one interstitial from the video stream based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries to generate a filtered video stream; and

output the filtered video stream to a user.

14. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein the presentation module is further operable to:

output the location of the at least one interstitial using a first indicator; and

output a location of the at least one segment using a second indicator.

15. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein each of the first and second anchor frames is associated with a presentation location of the last two bytes of the respective displayable text string in the video stream.

16. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein the parsing module is further operable to:

index the closed captioning data according to a presentation order to generate indexed closed captioning data;

discard null closed captioning bytes from the indexed closed captioning data; and

parse the indexed closed captioning data to identify the first and second anchor frames.

17. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein each of the first and second displayable text strings is unique within the text data.