Methods and apparatus for displaying interstitial breaks in a progress bar of a video stream
AssigneeEchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
InventorSteven Michael Casagrande
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for presenting information regarding interstitials of a video stream. A recording of a television show may include segments of the show interspersed with interstitials (e.g., commercials). The location of the interstitials within the recording is identified, and the locations of the interstitials are presented in progress bar during presentation of the video stream. The location of the interstitials may also be utilized to determine durations of the interstitials, and provide a user with information regarding the lengths of the interstitials of a recording, and/or the length of the other content of a recording (e.g., segments of a television show).
Claims20
A method for providing a user with locations of interstitials in a video stream of a show, the method comprising:
- receiving a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream;
- receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one anchor frame within the video stream, the metadata comprising a displayable text string included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, a first offset, relative to the anchor frame, that identifies a beginning of the at least one segment, a second offset, relative to the anchor frame, that identifies an ending of the at least one segment;
- parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded;
- identifying the boundaries of the at least one segment of the show based on the anchor frame and the first and second offsets;
- identifying a location of the at least one interstitial based on the boundaries;
- outputting the video stream for presentation to a user;
- and
- outputting a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial.
A method for providing a user with locations of interstitials in a video stream of a show, the method comprising:
- receiving a video stream including first and second segments of a show, at least one interstitial of the show temporally positioned between the first and second segments, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream;
- receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify first and second anchor frames within the video stream, the metadata comprising first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider;
- parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded;
- identifying first boundaries of the first segment of the show based on the first anchor frame and the metadata;
- parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded;
- identifying the second boundaries of the second segment of the show based on the second anchor frame and the metadata;
- identifying the location of the at least one interstitial based on the first and second boundaries;
- outputting the video stream for presentation to a user;
- outputting a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial.
The method of claim 17, wherein the displayable text string is unique within the text data.
A digital video recorder comprising:
- a receiver that receives a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream, and receives metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one anchor frame within the video stream, the metadata comprising a displayable text string included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider;
- a recording module that stores the video stream on a storage medium for subsequent presentation to a user;
- a parsing module that parses the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded, identifies the boundaries of the at least one segment of the show based on the anchor frame and the first and second offsets, identifies a location of the interstitial based on the boundaries;
- and
- a presentation module that outputs the video stream for presentation to a user and outputs a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.