Prioritized content recording and storage management
AssigneeGateway, Inc.
InventorJon Michel Greenwood
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A storage management system selectively reduces a quality level of previously stored content. When storage in the system is becoming full, selected content is converted to a lower quality or lower storage size, based at least one of priority or age. Such conversion is performed in a computing background to minimize interference with programs being currently viewed. A user interface provides a list of programs that are candidates for conversion. The user selects programs to be converted or deleted to create additional storage for the new programs.
Claims23
A system for managing storage of content in a storage device, the system comprising:
- a determining module that determines when the storage medium is approaching insufficient capacity;
- an identifier module that identifies content stored on the storage medium for conversion to a format requiring less storage space;
- a conversion module that converts the identified content to the format requiring less storage space.
A method of managing storage of a storage medium, the method comprising:
- determining when the storage medium is approaching insufficient capacity;
- identifying content stored on the storage medium for conversion to a format requiring less storage space;
- converting the identified content to the format requiring less storage space.
16 A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon for causing a computer to execute a method comprising:
- determining when the storage medium is approaching insufficient capacity;
- identifying content stored on the storage medium for conversion to a format requiring less storage space;
- converting the identified content to the format requiring less storage space.
The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein further content is identified and converted until storage space exists for additional content.
The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein the content for conversion is identified based on priority.
The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein the content for conversion is identified by a user.
The computer readable medium of claim 16 wherein the content for conversion is identified by a combination of age and user identified priority.
A method of managing storage of video programs on a storage medium for replay at a later time, the method comprising:
- determining when the storage medium is approaching insufficient capacity;
- identifying video programs stored on the storage medium for conversion to a format requiring less storage space based on overall priority;
- converting the video programs to the format requiring less storage space until sufficient storage is available for an additional program;
- and
- displaying a different stored video program.
A system for managing storage of content in a storage device, the system comprising:
- a determining module that determines when the storage medium is approaching insufficient capacity;
- an identifier module that identifies content stored on the storage medium for conversion to a format requiring less storage space;
- a conversion module that converts the identified content to the format requiring less storage space;
- a playback module for displaying content for viewing by a user of the system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.