Patent Application
20060117354
This application incorporates by reference all of the following references, in their entireties:
U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/263,160, filed on Oct. 2, 2002, entitled “Systems and methods for providing television signals to multiple televisions located at a customer premises.”
U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/263,449, filed on Oct. 2, 2002, entitled “Expandable tuning capability.”
U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/403,485, filed on Mar. 31, 2003, entitled “Networked multimedia system having a multi-room interactive network guide,” which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application having Ser. No. 60/416,155, filed on Oct. 4, 2002; is related to both U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/212,017, filed on Aug. 2, 2002 and U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/235,201, filed on Sep. 5, 2002; and incorporates by reference U.S. patent applications having Ser. Nos. 10/263,160, 10/263,449, and 10/263,270, which were all filed on Oct. 2, 2002.
U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/437,556, filed on May 14, 2003, entitled “Systems and methods for operating a peripheral record/playback device in a networked multimedia system,” which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application having Ser. No. 60/418,412, filed on Oct. 15, 2002. U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/437,556 is also a continuation-in-part (CIP) of U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/342,670, filed on Jan. 15, 2003, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/416,155, filed on Oct. 4, 2002. U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/437,556 is also a CIP of U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/403,485, filed on Mar. 31, 2003, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application having Ser. No. 60/416,155, filed on Oct. 4, 2002. U.S. patent application having Ser. No. 10/437,556 also incorporates by reference U.S. patent application having Ser. Nos. 10/263,160, 10/263,449, and 10/263,270, which were all filed on Oct. 2, 2002.
The present disclosure relates generally to data communications and, more particularly, to client-server data communications.
Video-on-demand (VOD) services and other media-related services are well known in the art. For conventional VOD systems, such as that shown in
As shown in
A user interface 200, similar to that shown in
Many aspects of the disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
Reference is now made in detail to the description of the embodiments as illustrated in the drawings. While several embodiments are described in connection with these drawings, there is no intent to limit the disclosure to the embodiment or embodiments disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents.
Video-on-demand (VOD) services, which are well known in the art, enable viewers to request various media services from an operator. The requested media services, such as movies, etc., are then provided to the viewer's set-top terminal (STT) for viewing. In the event that the STT includes a personal video recorder (PVR), the movie or other media content instance can be recorded on the PVR for later viewing. Of course, the PVR can also be used to record regularly broadcast media content instances.
The PVR can be used in a multi-room (MR) setting, as described in the cross-referenced patent applications. In that regard, if the viewer has a television (TV) in different rooms at the viewer's location (e.g., home, office, etc.), then each of the TVs at the viewer's location can access the PVR, thereby enabling MR-PVR. Since MR-PVR environments, as well as systems and methods related to MR-PVR, are discussed in greater detail in the cross-referenced applications, only a truncated discussion of MR-PVR is provided below.
The various embodiments, disclosed herein, provide approaches in which MR-PVR services and VOD services are integrated to provide a consolidated interface for a viewer to select either VOD services or MR-PVR services.
The viewer's location includes multiple VOD clients 305, 325, each of which also functions within as a component in the MR-PVR environment. At least one VOD client 305 selectively acts as a PVR server 305, which in some embodiments includes separate logic for performing the PVR server functions. In that regard, that component is labeled VOD client/PVR server 305, since it in essence performs both the role of a VOD client as well as the role of a PVR server. Another VOD client 325 may act as a PVR client 325. In that regard, that component is labeled VOD client/PVR client 325, since it performs both the role of a VOD client as well as the role of a PVR client. It should also be understood that clients 305, 325 are further representative of STTs including additional components for providing STT functionality, as would be understood by those skilled in the art, including with additional reference to the cross-referenced applications. For example, PVR client functionality could also be included with VOD client/PVR server 305 for providing conventional PVR functionality.
Insofar as the VOD client/PVR client 325 performs the client function for both VOD and MR-PVR services, in some embodiments, among others, a single user interface can be implemented to provide access to both the VOD services as well as the MR-PVR services. An embodiment of such a user interface 500 is shown in
As shown in
Since both VOD and MR-PVR content are available through this interface, the listed content instances include an indicator 540, which identifies the particular content instance as being either a VOD selection or a MR-PVR selection. For example, in the embodiment of
In operation, a viewer navigates through the user interface 500 using a remote controller or a front-panel interface, such as those known in the art. If the user wishes to scroll down the list of featured content 530, the user can do so with scroll icons that are provided on the user interface. Since scroll icons and their operations are known in the art, further discussion of scroll icons is omitted here. Upon scrolling to a desired selection, such as, for example, “Titanic” 535, the viewer can select the content instance using the “SEL” icon, as shown in
If the selected service is a VOD movie, then the VOD client/PVR client 325 retrieves the VOD movie from a VOD server, as shown in
As shown in
The VOD server 110 receives the QPSK request and retrieves the corresponding VOD service or movie. For example, if the request is for the movie “Three Kings,” then the VOD server 110 retrieves the movie “Three Kings” in response to the request.
As shown in
In addition to the QAM1 signal, the VOD server 110 can also provide control or authorization information to the VOD client/PVR client 325 using QPSK. Since downstream VOD communications are known in the art, further discussion of VOD downstream communications is omitted here.
The VOD client/PVR client 325 receives the movie, which is transmitted using QAM1, through its QAM receiver. The movie or service is then displayed to the viewer at the VOD client/PVR client 325. Thus, as shown with reference to
As described in the cross-referenced patent applications, the MR-PVR server stores various movies or other content, which have been previously recorded. Additionally, the MR-PVR server provides a list of all recordings.
As shown in
For some embodiments, that request may include commands, such as, for example, play, fast-forward, rewind, skip, or other known commands that are comparable to known VOD commands or known PVR commands.
The VOD client/PVR server 305 receives the FSK request and retrieves the corresponding MR-PVR recording from its storage medium. For example, if the request is to play the movie “Titanic,” then the VOD client/PVR server 305 retrieves the movie “Titanic” in response to the request, and plays the movie over the network. Similarly, if the request were to pause a movie during viewing, then the VOD client/PVR server 305 would pause the movie in response to the request.
As shown in
The VOD client/PVR client 325 receives the recording, which is transmitted using QAM2, through its QAM receiver. The recording is then demodulated and displayed to the viewer at the VOD client/PVR client 325. For example, if the request were to play the recording, then the recording would be played at the VOD client/PVR client 325. Alternatively, if the viewer issues a pause command while viewing the recording, then the recording would be paused at the VOD client/PVR client 325.
As described above, by providing a consolidated interface for both VOD and MR-PVR services, a viewer can seamlessly request either VOD services or MR-PVR services with a single user interface, rather than having to utilize multiple user interfaces for each service. Also, by providing services that correspond to the VOD services within the MR-PVR environment, a viewer can readily utilize both VOD and MR-PVR functions from a single client location an interface, thereby increasing use of paid VOD services. Furthermore, by employing a distinct QAM bandwidth for VOD (e.g., approximately 54 MHz to approximately 860 MHz) and a different QAM bandwidth for MR-PVR (e.g., approximately 873 MHz), the environment enable the isolation of MR-PVR signals to within the viewer's location while also enabling pass-through of VOD signals to the viewer's location.
It should be appreciated that various functions of both the VOD client/PVR server 305 and the VOD client/PVR client 325 can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the preferred embodiment(s), the various functions are implemented in software or firmware that is stored in a memory and that is executed by a suitable instruction execution system. If implemented in hardware, as in an alternative embodiment, the various functions can be implemented with logic components that are reflective of their various functions (e.g., list-receive logic to receive a list of programs, render logic to render the list of programs, input-receive logic to receive a selection input from a viewer, request logic to generate a request, transmit logic to transmit requests, media-receive logic to receive a requested service or movie, display logic to display a service or movie, etc.). These logic components can be implemented using any or a combination of the following technologies, which are all well known in the art: a discrete logic circuit(s) having logic gates for implementing logic functions upon data signals, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) having appropriate combinational logic gates, a programmable gate array(s) (PGA), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.
The VOD client functions, the PVR client functions, and the PVR server functions can be implemented through appropriate computer programs, which comprise an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions. Such programs can be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In the context of this document, a “computer-readable medium” can be any means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-readable medium can be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. More specific examples (a nonexhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection (electronic) having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette (magnetic), a random access memory (RAM) (electronic), a read-only memory (ROM) (electronic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) (electronic), an optical fiber (optical), and a portable compact disc read-only memory (CDROM) (optical). Note that the computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitable manner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.
Although exemplary embodiments have been shown and described, it will be clear to those of ordinary skill in the art that a number of changes, modifications, or alterations to the disclosure as described may be made. For example, while QPSK and FSK have explicitly been recited for some embodiments, it should be appreciated that other known or future-developed modulation techniques can be used for the generation of requests. Similarly, other techniques can be used to distinguish between MR-PVR requests and VOD requests. Similarly, while QAM is used to illustrate a technique for providing movies or other services from the server-side, it should be appreciated that other modulation techniques can be substituted without detriment to the scope of the disclosure.
Also, it should be appreciated that the requested services or movies can be replayed at their respective client locations in near real time. Alternatively, the services or movies can be buffered and temporarily stored at the client location, thereby enabling more robust play. As another alternative, it should be appreciated that the services or movies can be recorded at the client location for future play.
All such changes, modifications, and alterations should therefore be seen as within the scope of the disclosure.
