METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF DYNAMICALLY MANAGING CONTENT FOR USE BY A MEDIA PLAYBACK DEVICE

• US 20120131125A1
• Filed: 11/21/2011
• Published: 05/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deluxe 3D LLC (Deluxe Corp.), Deluxe Digital Distribution Inc. (Deluxe Corp.), Deluxe Digital Studios, Inc. (Deluxe Corp.), Deluxe Entertainment Services Inc., Deluxe Laboratories LLC, Deluxe Media Inc., Deluxe One, LLC, Softitler Net, Inc., Deluxe Creative Services Inc. (The Framestore Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Deluxe Digital Studios, Inc. (Deluxe Corp.)
• Inventors: Lamkin, Allan, Seidel, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,395 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/212
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06
• 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 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

Some embodiments provide systems and/or methods of managing content in providing a playback experience associated with a portable storage medium by detecting access to a first portable storage medium with multimedia content recorded on the first portable storage medium; evaluating content on the first portable storage medium; evaluating local memory of the multimedia playback device; determining, in response to the evaluation of the content on the first portable storage medium and the evaluation of the local memory, whether memory on the local memory needs to be freed up in implementing playback of multimedia content in association with the first portable storage medium; and moving one or more contents stored on the local memory of the multimedia playback device to a virtual storage accessible by the multimedia playback device over a distributed network in response to determining that memory on the local memory needs to be freed up.

Claims

1. A method of managing content in providing a playback experience associated with a portable storage medium, the method comprising:

detecting, at a multimedia playback device, access to a first portable storage medium with multimedia content recorded on the first portable storage medium;

evaluating content on the first portable storage medium, in response to detecting access to the first portable storage medium;

evaluating local memory of the multimedia playback device;

determining, in response to the evaluation of the content on the first portable storage medium and the evaluation of the local memory, whether memory on the local memory needs to be freed up in implementing playback of multimedia content in association with the first portable storage medium; and

moving one or more contents stored on the local memory of the multimedia playback device to a virtual storage accessible by the multimedia playback device over a distributed network in response to determining that memory on the local memory needs to be freed up.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, in response to evaluating the content on the first portable storage medium and the evaluating the local memory, whether a first content, which is different than the one or more contents moved to the virtual storage, is to be acquired from the virtual storage;

acquiring the first content from the virtual storage;

locally storing the first content at the multimedia playback device in freed up local memory on the multimedia playback device that was freed up as a result of the moving of the one or more contents to the virtual storage; and

playing back at least a portion of the first content in cooperation with the first portable storage medium.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

logging the moving of the one or more contents to the virtual storage; and

logging the locally storing the first content to the local memory of the multimedia playback device from the virtual storage.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring a first content associated with the first portable storage medium;

locally storing the first content at the multimedia playback device in freed up local memory that was freed up as a result of the moving of the one or more contents to the virtual storage;

obtaining, at the multimedia playback device and in response to the moving of the one or more contents and the acquiring the first content, a first updated Binding Unit Manifest File (BUMF); and

initiating playback, at the multimedia playback device, of content in association with the first portable storage medium and in accordance with the first updated BUMF.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising obtaining an updated Binding Unit Signature File (BUS) corresponding to the first updated BUMF file.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

retrieving from the virtual storage, in response to accessing a second portable storage medium with further multimedia recoded on the second portable storage medium, at least a first content of the one or more contents moved to and stored on the virtual storage; and

initiating playback of the first content of the one or more contents in cooperation with playback in accordance with the second portable storage medium.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether memory on the local memory needs to be freed up comprises identifying that additional content is to be acquired from a remote source and stored locally on the multimedia playback device to be played back in association with the first portable storage medium;

obtaining, from over the distributed network, additional content to be played back in association with the first portable storage medium;

recording the additional content to the freed up local memory; and

obtaining, at the multimedia playback device, a first updated Binding Unit Manifest File (BUMF) corresponding at least to the additional content.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring a first portion of a first content associated with the first portable storage medium;

locally storing the first portion of the first content at the multimedia playback device in freed up local memory that was freed up as a result of the moving of the one or more contents to the virtual storage;

playing back at least the first portion of the first content during a playback experience in cooperation with the first portable storage medium;

moving the first portion of the first content, during the playback experience, from the local memory to the virtual storage to free up a second portion of the local memory;

acquiring a second portion of the first content during the playback experience;

locally storing the second portion of the first content to the freed up second portion of the local memory; and

playing back the second portion of the first content during the playback experience in cooperation with the first portable storage medium.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more content stored on the local memory of the playback device to potentially move to the virtual storage in response to determining that memory on the local memory needs to be freed up;

retrieving one or more certificates from the first portable storage medium; and

evaluating content stored on the local memory to identify the one or more content to potentially move to the virtual storage where each of the one or more content to potentially move to the virtual storage corresponds with at least one of the one or more certificates.

10. A method of managing content to be played back at a playback device in association with a portable processor readable storage medium, the method comprising:

receiving a request, from a remote playback device and over a distributed network, to move a first content currently stored in local storage of the remote playback device;

identifying the playback device from which the request is received;

determining whether virtual storage is associated with the identified playback device;

storing content to a virtual storage; and

associating the stored content stored in the virtual storage with the identified playback device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the associating the stored content with the identified playback device comprises updating a virtual storage table to include an identification of the stored content stored in the virtual storage, the identification of the playback device and an association between the identification of the stored content and the identification of the playback device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the associating the stored content with the identified playback device comprises:

obtaining, from the remote device, a certificate recorded on a portable storage medium being accessed by the playback device at the time the request to store the first content on the virtual storage is issued from the playback device; and

storing the certificate in the virtual storage table and associating the certificate with the identification of the stored content.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining a data size of the first content;

determining whether storing the first content would exceed a virtual storage limit of the virtual storage associated with the identified playback device;

removing one or more contents from the virtual storage when the virtual storage limit would be exceeded; and

allowing storage to the virtual storage in response to the removing the one or more contents.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the removing the one or more contents comprises:

obtaining, from the remote device, a certificate recorded on a portable storage medium being access by the playback device at the time the request to store the first content on the virtual storage is issued from the playback device;

identifying content stored on the virtual storage that correspond to the certificate; and

the removing one or more contents comprises removing content that correspond to the certificate.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein storing the content in the virtual storage comprises:

determining whether a second content is to be stored in the virtual storage in place of the first content;

storing the second content to the virtual storage in response to determining that the second content is to be stored in the virtual storage in place of the first content; and

the associating the stored content with the identified playback device comprises associating the second content with the identified playback device and the first content such that subsequent requests to retrieve the first content are directed to retrieve the second content in place of the first content.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining whether a second content is to be stored in the virtual storage in place of the first content comprises:

determining whether the second content is usable by the playback device requesting that the first content be moved to the virtual storage;

determining that the second content is to be stored in the virtual storage in place of the first content when the second content is usable by the playback device requesting the first content be moved to the virtual storage.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining whether a secondary playback device, which is different from the playback device requesting the first content be moved to the virtual storage and that is authorized to access the virtual storage associated with the first playback device, can utilize the second content in response to determining that second content is not usable by the playback device requesting the first content be moved to the virtual storage;

authorizing the storing of the second content to the virtual storage in response to determining that the second content can be utilized by the secondary playback device; and

associating the second content with the secondary playback device and the first content such that subsequent requests from the secondary playback device to retrieve the first content are directed to the second content instead of the first content.

18. A method of managing content, the method comprising:

receiving a request, from a remote playback device and over a distributed network, to retrieve a first content to be played back at the playback device in cooperation with a processor readable portable storage medium directly accessed by the playback device;

identifying a virtual storage associated with the request;

determining whether the first content is stored within the identified virtual storage;

determining whether a second content is to be provided in place of the first content; and

supplying the second content to the playback device in response to determining that second content is to be provided in place of the first content.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the identifying the virtual storage associated with the request comprising identifying the playback device and determining whether there is a virtual storage associated with the playback device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the determining whether the second content is to be provided in place of the first content comprises:

determining whether the second content is usable by the playback device requesting that the first content be moved to the virtual storage;

authorizing the supplying the second content to the playback device in response to determining that second content is to be provided in place of the first content and that the second content is usable by the playback device requesting the first content be moved to the virtual storage; and

supplying the first content to the playback device in response to determining that second content is not usable by the playback device.