Universal media player

• US 20050165843A1
• Filed: 03/17/2005
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Noonan, Timothy D., Capps, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 7,360,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/40 Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof

Abstract

A universal media player designed to improve a user'"'"'s online media experience that is preferably embedded in an Internet browser is disclosed. The universal media player allows a user to navigate between different sources of media without requiring the downloading of the media player associated with the format of the media source. The universal media player includes an interface with user-actuable control buttons, the universal media player determining whether incoming media is playable by the universal media player. If the incoming media is playable by the universal media player, the media is intercepted as the media is downloaded and redirected to the universal media player. Determining if the media is playable is accomplished by identifying the type of incoming media and searching a table of MIME media types.

Claims

1. A computer-based implementable method of playing media designed for playing on various types of media players comprising:

(a) providing a universal media player embedded in another computer program, wherein the universal media player includes a media player interface with user actuable control buttons;

(b) determining whether incoming media to be played is playable by the universal media player; and

(i) if the incoming media to be played is playable by the universal media player, intercepting the incoming media and directing the incoming media to the universal media player;

or

(ii) if the media to be played is not playable by the universal media player, allowing the incoming media to enable a default media player capable of playing the incoming media.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the incoming media to be played is playable by the universal media player comprises:

determining the media type of the incoming media; and

searching a table of media types to determine whether the media type of the incoming media is playable by the universal media player.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the table of media types is a MIME table.

4. The method of claim 1, further including cueing the incoming media if the incoming media is playable on the universal media player.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein cueing the incoming media includes instantiating a media component for the incoming media.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the incoming media is ready to be played;

when the incoming media is ready to be played, initializing an idle media player; and

directing the incoming media to the initialized idle media player.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the incoming media is ready to be played;

determining whether a current media player is playing media;

when the incoming media is ready to be played, if a current media player is playing media, stopping and hiding the current media player and initializing an idle media player; and

directing the incoming media to the initialized idle media player.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein if the incoming media component is ready, it includes determining whether a time to establish connection has timed out.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising in response to determining that the incoming media is not ready to be played, if a current media player is playing media, allowing the current media to continue playing the media until the incoming media is ready to be played.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the universal media player is remotely synchronized with another media player; and

if the universal media player is remotely synchronized with another media player, sending a remote navigation event to the other media player.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the incoming media is ready to be played;

when the incoming media is ready to be played, displaying an activated universal media player, and

in response to receiving a request from a user to play, the incoming media activating the universal media player to play the incoming media

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a request to change the size of the universal media player interface, changing the size of the universal media player interface.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a request to pause the incoming media, sending a remote pause event signal.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, in response to receiving a remote pause event, pausing the playing of the incoming media.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a request to change to a previous track of the incoming media, changing to the previous track of the incoming media.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a request to advance to the next track of the incoming media, sending a remote next event signal.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a remote previous event, changing to a previous track of the incoming media.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a request to advance to a next track of the incoming media, advancing to a next track of the incoming media.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein, in response to receiving a request to advance to the next track of the incoming media, sending a remote next event signal.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a remote next event, changing to the next track of the incoming media.

21. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to receiving a request to stop playing the media, deactivating the media player to stop playing the incoming media.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein, in response to receiving a request to stop playing the incoming media, sending a remote stop event signal.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising, locating the media player interface of the universal media player in a persistent region of a user interface of the another computer program in which the universal media player is embedded.