System and method for distributing media via portable storage

• US 9,852,218 B1
• Filed: 12/31/2010
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Joseph Alan Epstein
• Original Assignee: Joseph Alan Epstein
• Inventors: Epstein, Joseph Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Son T
• Application Number:
  US12/982,877
• Time in Patent Office: 2,552 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/71 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/74 Browsing; Visualisation therefor end-user interfaces for requesting or interacting with video content, e.g. video on demand interfaces or electronic program guides, H04N21/472
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1014 to tokens
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/84 output devices, e.g. displays or monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2541 Blu-ray discs; Blue laser DVR discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/61 wherein solid state memory is used for storing A/V content storing computer data in solid state memories G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/102 Programmed access in sequence to addressed parts of tracks of operating record carriers access by moving the head G11B3/08, G11B5/54, G11B7/085, G11B21/022; by moving the record carrier G11B15/005, G11B17/005, by driving of both record carrier and head G11B15/1816
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/00 Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 ; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18
• 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 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43632 involving a wired protocol, e.g. IEEE 1394 high-speed IEEE 1394 serial bus H04L12/40052
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption

Abstract

A system and method for securely delivering and updating media using portable storage. In one embodiment, field-modifiable storage presents itself to the host system as a read-only standardized media player, where the user adds, replaces, or updates media onto that storage. A further embodiment establishes encrypted streaming from field-modifiable storage directly into the graphics processor of the viewing host, bypassing the general-purpose computing infrastructure.

Claims

1. A method of displaying media content comprising:

downloading the media content from a movie source to a media system;

storing the media content in a flash-based storage in the media system, wherein the flash-based storage is a first storage type associated with a first interface personality;

providing a hardware communications interface;

communicating the media content, in part or in whole, over the hardware communications interface, wherein the communicating is performed using a second interface personality associated with a second storage type but not associated with the first storage type, and wherein the second interface personality is that of an optical drive when the media content is coded in optical data format; and

accessing the media content from the flash-based storage using the first interface personality; and

outputting the media content over the hardware communications interface using the second interface personality, wherein the second interface personality is enabled when the media content is at least partially stored in the flash-based storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein security operations are performed to make the media content available for display.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second interface personality is immutable.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second interface personality is mutable.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the media content is added, changed, replaced, deleted, or updated while the flash-based storage being coupled to the hardware communications interface.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the media content is made available over a network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware communications interface is a Universal Serial Bus interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first interface personality is associated with a flash memory.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first interface personality is associated with a flash memory and the second interface personality is associated with an optical disk storage type.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first interface personality is associated with a flash memory and the second interface personality is that of a Digital Video Disc (DVD) drive when the media content is coded in DVD data format.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first interface personality is associated with a flash memory and the second interface personality is that of a Blu-ray disc drive when the media content is coded in Blu-ray data format.

12. A system of displaying media content comprising:

a hardware communications interface;

a flash-based storage coupled to the hardware communications interface and configured to store the media content, wherein the flash-based storage is a first storage type associated with a first interface personality;

means for communicating the media content, in part or in whole, over the hardware communications interface, wherein the communicating is performed using a second interface personality associated with a second storage type but not associated with the first storage type, wherein the second interface personality is that of an optical drive when the media content is coded in optical data format

means for accessing the media content from the flash-based storage using the first interface personality; and

means for outputting the media content over the hardware communications interface using the second interface personality, wherein the second interface personality is enabled when the media content is at least partially stored in the flash-based storage.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein security operations are performed to make the media content available for display.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the second interface personality is immutable.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the second interface personality is mutable.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the media content is added, changed, replaced, deleted, or updated while the flash-based storage being coupled to the hardware communications interface.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the media content is made available over a network.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the hardware communications interface is a Universal Serial Bus interface.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the first interface personality is associated with a flash memory.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the second interface personality is that of a Digital Video Disc (DVD) drive when the media content is coded in DVD data format.

21. An apparatus comprising:

a flash-based storage that stores media content, and wherein the flash-based storage is a first storage type that is associated with a first interface personality;

a hardware communication interface;

logic that communicates the media content, in part or in whole, over the hardware communications interface using a second interface personality associated with a second storage type but not associated with the first storage type, wherein the second interface personality is that of an optical drive when the media content is coded in optical data format;

logic that accesses the media content from the flash-based storage using the first interface personality; and

logic that outputs the media content over the hardware communications interface using the second interface personality, wherein the second interface personality is enabled when the media content is at least partially stored in the flash-based storage.