Method and apparatus for storing content

• US 20020124099A1
• Filed: 06/28/2001
• Published: 09/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rovi Technologies Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Gates, Matthijs A., Srinivasan, Jai, Chakrabarti, Alok, Sankarayan, Mukund
• Granted Patent: US 7,260,312 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/455 said record carriers being in one device and being used as primary and secondary/backup media, e.g. HDD-DVD combo device, or as source and target media, e.g. PC and portable player
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

A system receives a broadcast program and temporarily stores the program data. A request is received to permanently record the broadcast program. This request is received after a portion of the broadcast program has been received and temporarily stored. The broadcast program is then permanently recorded, including the temporarily stored program data. A metafile identifies portions of the broadcast program and is accessible by a reader to continuously retrieve the stored portions of the broadcast program.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing a first portion of a broadcast data stream as a time shifted data file;

storing a second portion of the broadcast data stream as a recorded data file; and

creating a metafile that identifies the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream, wherein the metafile is accessible by a reader to continuously retrieve the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are stored on a hard disk drive.

3. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are portions of a television broadcast.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are portions of an Internet Protocol multicast.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising retrieving a continuous stream of data by accessing the metafile, wherein the continuous stream of data includes the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream.

6. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are contiguous portions of a broadcast.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising deleting the first portion of the broadcast data stream after a predetermined time period.

8. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein storing the second portion of the broadcast data stream as a recorded data file is performed in response to a record operation.

9. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim. 1.

10. A method comprising:

storing a portion of a broadcast program as time shifted data;

retrieving and displaying the time shifted data;

receiving a request to record the broadcast program as recorded data after a portion of the time shifted data has been stored; and

recording the broadcast program.

11. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein recording the broadcast program includes recording the portion of the broadcast program associated with the time shifted data.

12. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein recording the broadcast program includes converting the time shifted data associated with the broadcast program to recorded data.

13. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein recording the broadcast program includes modifying a metafile to indicate that the time shifted data associated with the broadcast program is recorded data.

14. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein recording the broadcast program includes creating a metafile associated with the recorded data.

15. A method as recited in claim 10 wherein storing a portion of the broadcast program as time shifted data includes creating a metafile associated with the time shifted data.

16. A method as recited in claim 10 further comprising recording a remainder of the broadcast program as recorded data.

17. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 10.

19. A method as recited in claim 18 wherein permanently recording the broadcast program includes converting the portion of the broadcast program that has been temporarily stored to a permanent storage format.

20. A method as recited in claim 18 wherein permanently recording the broadcast program includes recording a portion of the broadcast program already rendered.

21. A method as recited in claim 18 wherein the broadcast program is a television broadcast.

22. A method as recited in claim 18 wherein the broadcast program is an Internet Protocol multicast.

23. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 18.

25. A method as recited in claim 24 wherein part of the broadcast data stream is stored as permanently recorded data.

26. A method as recited in claim 24 wherein part of the broadcast data stream is stored as permanently recorded data and the first portion of the data file is associated with both time shifted data and permanently recorded data.

27. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 24.

29. A method as recited in claim 28 wherein the metafile identifies the portion of the broadcast data stream received while the request to pause the recording of the broadcast data stream was active.

30. A method as recited in claim 28 further comprising retrieving a continuous stream of data by accessing the metafile, wherein the continuous stream of data eliminates the portion of the broadcast data stream received while the request to pause the broadcast data stream was active.

31. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 28.

18. A method comprising:

receiving a broadcast program;

temporarily storing the received broadcast program;

receiving a request to permanently record the broadcast program, wherein the request is received after a portion of the broadcast program that is to be recorded has been received and temporarily stored; and

permanently recording the entire broadcast program.

24. A method comprising:

storing a broadcast data stream in a data file, wherein at least part of the broadcast data stream is stored as time shifted data;

creating a first metafile associated with a first portion of the data file; and

creating a second metafile associated with a second portion of the data file, wherein the first metafile and the second metafile include a common portion of the data file.

28. A method comprising:

receiving a broadcast data stream;

permanently recording the received broadcast data stream;

receiving a request to pause the recording of the broadcast data stream;

creating a metafile that identifies the recorded portion of the broadcast data stream.

32. A method comprising:

receiving a broadcast data stream;

storing a first portion of the broadcast data stream in a plurality of time

shifted data files; and

storing a second portion of the broadcast data stream in a recorded data file;

wherein the time shifted data files and the recorded data file are accessible by a reader to continuously retrieve the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream.

33. A method as recited in claim 32 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are stored on a hard disk drive.

34. A method as recited in claim 32 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are portions of a television broadcast.

35. A method as recited in claim 32 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are portions of an Internet Protocol multicast.

36. A method as recited in claim 32 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are contiguous portions of a broadcast.

37. A method as recited in claim 32 further comprising deleting the first portion of the broadcast data stream after a predetermined time period.

38. A method as recited in claim 32 wherein storing the second portion of the broadcast data stream as a recorded data file is performed in response to a record operation.

39. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 32.

40. A method comprising:

receiving a broadcast data stream;

storing a first portion of the broadcast data stream in a plurality of time shifted data files; and

storing a second portion of the broadcast data stream in at least one recorded data file;

wherein the time shifted data files and the recorded data file are accessible by a reader to seek across all time shifted data files and the recorded data file.

41. A method as recited in claim 40 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are stored on a hard disk drive.

42. A method as recited in claim 40 wherein the first portion of the broadcast data stream and the second portion of the broadcast data stream are contiguous portions of a broadcast.

43. A method as recited in claim 40 further comprising deleting the first portion of the broadcast data stream after a predetermined time period.

44. A method as recited in claim 40 wherein storing the second portion of the broadcast data stream as a recorded data file is performed in response to a record operation.

45. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 40.

47. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 46 wherein the broadcast program is permanently recorded by converting the data stored in the temporary data format into a permanent data format.

48. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 46 wherein the one or more processors create a metafile that identifies various portions of the broadcast program.

46. One or more computer-readable media having stored thereon a computer program that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to:

receive a broadcast program;

store the received broadcast program in a temporary data format;

receive a request to permanently record the broadcast program, wherein the request is received after a portion of the broadcast program has been received and stored in the temporary data format; and

permanently record the broadcast program.