Providing syndication feed content on a television set-top box with limited decoder capability

• US 9,113,186 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2013
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC (Charter Communications Incorporated)
• Inventors: Straub, Albert W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Hai V
• Application Number:
  US14/020,866
• Publication Number:
  US 20140013366A1
• Time in Patent Office: 709 Days
• Field of Search: 725/62, 725/63, 725 86- 87, 725 91- 92, 725/100, 725/111, 725/114, 725/131
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/27 Server based end-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4349 by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/818 OS software

Abstract

Techniques are afforded for providing syndication feed content on a television STB with limited decoder capability. A request is initiated for syndication feed content from a networked content source through the STB. The syndication feed content is obtained through a proxy device in communication with the networked content source. When the syndication feed content is in a first format usable by the STB, the proxy device passes the syndication feed content in the first format to the STB. When the syndication feed content is in a second format unusable by the STB, the syndication feed content is first converted from the second format to the first format usable by the STB and then the syndication feed content is passed, in the first format, to the STB.

Claims

1. A method for transferring syndication feed content between a first device residing in a first location and a second device residing in a second location, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing a communication channel between the first and second devices for transferring information between the first and second devices;

the first device receiving a request to transfer at least a first portion of the syndication feed content stored on the first device to the second device;

the first device converting the first portion of the syndication feed content from a first format to a second format usable by the second device, the converting comprising modifying at least a first portion of metadata in a syndication feed referencing the syndication feed content so that the first portion of the metadata no longer references content stored on a networked content source but references the first portion of the syndication feed content stored locally on the first device as converted syndication feed content, and wherein at least a second portion of the syndication feed content stored on the networked content source, and which is useable by the second device, is referenced by a second portion of the metadata in the syndication feed; and

transferring at least the first portion of the syndication feed content stored in the first device to the second device in the second format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is operative to communicate with the second device via a wireless communication channel.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first device is operative to communicate with the second device via a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) communications protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the first format to the second format usable by the second device comprises:

parsing a file of the syndication feed content at a proxy device to determine the first portion of the syndication feed content in the first format and the second portion of the syndication feed content in the second format;

generating the converted syndication feed content by replacing the first portion of the syndication feed content that is in the first format with the converted syndication feed content that is in the second format, using the first device, wherein the first device is a media converter; and

passing the converted syndication feed content to the second device in response to the request, wherein the second device is a television set-top box (STB),

wherein replacing the first portion of the syndication feed content that is in the first format comprises;

generating the converted syndication feed content that is in the second format;

storing the converted syndication feed content that is in the second format in a memory associated with the proxy device; and

modifying at least the first portion of metadata in the syndication feed content so that the first portion of the metadata no longer references syndication feed content stored on the networked content source but references the converted syndication feed content stored on the memory associated with the proxy device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the first format to the second format further comprises storing the converted syndication feed content.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of storing the converted syndication feed content comprises storing the converted syndication feed content in the memory associated with the proxy device.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of generating the converted syndication feed content further comprises inserting at least one advertisement into the converted syndication feed content.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising initiating the request to transfer at least the first portion of the syndication feed content through the STB.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising storing at least a portion of the syndication feed content prior to passing the syndication feed content to the STB.

10. A method for transferring syndication feed content between a first device residing in a first location and a second device residing in a second location, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing a communication channel between the first and second devices for transferring information between the first and second devices;

the first device receiving a request to transfer at least a first portion of the syndication feed content stored in a memory of the first device;

a processor of the first device converting the first portion of the syndication feed content from a first format to a second format usable by the second device, the converting comprising modifying at least a first portion of metadata in a syndication feed referencing the syndication feed content stored on a networked content source to reference the first portion of the syndication feed content stored locally in the memory the first device as converted syndication feed content, and wherein at least a second portion of the syndication feed content stored on the networked content source, and which is useable by the second device, is referenced by a second portion of the metadata in the syndication feed;

storing the first portion of syndication feed content in the second format in the memory of the first device; and

transferring at least the first portion of the syndication feed content in the second format stored in the memory of the first device to a memory of the second device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first device is operative to communicate with the second device via a wireless communication channel.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first device is operative to communicate with the second device via a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) communications protocol.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the first format to the second format usable by the second device comprises:

parsing a file of the syndication feed content at a proxy device to determine the first portion of the syndication feed content in the first format and the second portion of the syndication feed content in the second format;

generating the converted syndication feed content by replacing the first portion of the syndication feed content that is in the first format with the converted syndication feed content that is in the second format, using the processor of the first device, wherein the first device is a media converter; and

passing the converted syndication feed content to the second device in response to the request, wherein the second device is a television set-top box (STB),

wherein replacing the first portion of the syndication feed content that is in the first format comprises;

generating the converted syndication feed content that is in the second format;

storing the converted syndication feed content that is in the second format in a memory associated with the proxy device; and

modifying at least the first portion of metadata in the syndication feed referencing content stored on the networked content source to reference the converted syndication feed content stored in the memory associated with the proxy device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the first format to the second format further comprises storing the converted syndication feed content.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of storing the modified syndication feed content comprises storing the converted syndication feed content in the memory associated with the proxy device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of generating the converted syndication feed content further comprises inserting at least one advertisement into the modified syndication feed content.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising initiating the request to transfer at least the first portion of the syndication feed content through the STB.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising storing at least a portion of the syndication feed content prior to passing the syndication feed content to the STB.

19. A method for transferring syndication feed content between a first device residing in a first location and a second device residing in a second location, the method comprising the steps of:

establishing a communication channel between the first and second devices for transferring information between the first and second devices;

the first device receiving a request to transfer at least a portion of the syndication feed content stored on the first device in a first format, the first format being different than a format of the syndication feed content obtained by the first device from a networked content source;

the first device converting the syndication feed content from the first format to a second format usable by the second device, the converting comprising modifying at least a portion of metadata in the syndication feed so that the metadata no longer references content stored on the networked content source but references content stored locally on the first device; and

transferring at least a portion of the syndication feed content stored in the first device in the first format to the second device in the second format, wherein the step of converting the syndication feed content from the first format to the second format usable by the second device comprises;

parsing a file of the syndication feed content at a proxy device to determine a first portion of the content in the first format and a second portion of the content in the second format;

generating modified syndication feed content by replacing the first portion of the content that is in the first format with corresponding content that is in the second format, using the first device, wherein the first device is a media converter; and

passing the modified syndication feed content to the second device in response to the request, wherein the second device is a television set-top box (STB),

wherein replacing the first portion of the content that is in the first format comprises;

generating the corresponding content that is in the second format;

storing the corresponding content that is in the second format in a memory associated with the proxy device; and

modifying at least a portion of metadata in the syndication feed content so that the portion of the metadata no longer references content stored on a networked content source but references content stored on the memory associated with the proxy device.