Designating partial recordings as personalized multimedia clips

A set-top box that:

• receives a request to create a partial recording of a piece of content, wherein the request to create the partial recording is received during playback of the piece of content, and wherein the request to create the partial recording is received as a wireless signal from a remote control unit, the wireless signal being output from the remote control unit in response to a depressing of a button designated for initiating a creation of a partial recording;
• in response to the request being received, marks a current read position within the piece of content;
• identifies from within the piece of content, a start point for the partial recording, wherein the start point for the partial recording is identified in relation to the current read position that is marked within the piece of content, wherein the start point is identified in response to the request to create the partial recording and without further instructions from a user, wherein the start point for the partial recording is identified based upon a location of the current read position within the piece of content, wherein identifying the start point for the partial recording comprises:
• identifying a scene boundary preceding the current read position that is marked within the piece of content;
• and
• identifying as the start point for the partial recording, the identified scene boundary preceding the current read position that is marked within the piece of content;
• identifies from within the piece of content, a termination point for the partial recording, wherein a next scene boundary following the scene boundary preceding the current read position is identified as the termination point for the partial recording;
• and
• copies the portion of the piece of content between the start point and the termination point as the partial recording, wherein the portion of the piece of content is copied from a live off disk buffer;
• tags the partial recording with a unique identifier associated with the set-top box;
• and
• stores the partial recording.

One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform the operations comprising:

• receiving a request to create a partial recording of a piece of content, wherein the request to create the partial recording is received during playback of the piece of content, and wherein the request to create the partial recording is received as a wireless signal from a remote control unit, the wireless signal being output from the remote control unit in response to a depressing of a button designated for initiating a creation of a partial recording;
• in response to the request being received, marking a current read position within the piece of content;
• identifying from within the piece of content, a start point for the partial recording, wherein the start point for the partial recording is identified in relation to the current read position that is marked within the piece of content, wherein the start point is identified in response to the request to create the partial recording and without further instructions from a user, wherein the start point for the partial recording is identified based upon a location of the current read position within the piece of content, wherein identifying the start point for the partial recording comprises:
• identifying a scene boundary preceding the current read position that is marked within the piece of content;
• and
• identifying as the start point for the partial recording, the identified scene boundary preceding the current read position that is marked within the piece of content;
• identifying from within the piece of content, a termination point for the partial recording, wherein a next scene boundary following the scene boundary preceding the current read position is identified as the termination point for the partial recording;
• and
• copying the portion of the piece of content between the start point and the termination point as the partial recording, wherein the portion of the piece of content is copied from a live off disk buffer;
• tagging the partial recording with a unique identifier associated with the set-top box;
• and
• storing the partial recording.