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US 8,542,976 B2Granted
Time-shift buffer
AssigneeCable Television Laboratories, Inc.
InventorJ. Clarke Stevens
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system is disclosed for time-shifted access to media content. The time-shifted access may be facilitate with a time-shift buffer and the use of time-shift buffers to mark periods in time from which time-shifted access is to be begin according to triggering events registered at output devices being used to facilitate the time-shifted access.
Claims17
A method of facilitating time-shifted playback of television signaling, the method comprising:
- circularly buffering television signaling to a single memory disc, the circular buffering characterized by temporarily storing the signaling on a first-in, first-out basis such that the buffered signaling is continuously replaced over time with newer television signaling;
- continuously transmitting the buffered first-in signaling in real-time to a plurality of output devices over a first signaling stream;
- associating a time-shift pointer with each time-shift event triggered by one of the plurality of output devices, each time-shift pointer identifying a period of time during which the time shift event occurred and the associated output device;
- upon determining a first time-shifted playback request from a first output device of the plurality of output devices, retrieving a first two or more time-shift pointers associated with the first output device;
- selecting one of the first two or more time shift pointers, and as a function thereof, determining a first time-shifted portion of the buffered signaling;
- transmitting the first time-shifted portion to the first output device, the first time-shifted portion being transmitted over a second signaling stream and beginning at a first period of time marked by the selected one of the first two or more time-shift pointers.
3 more elements
A method of facilitating time-shifted playback of media content, the method comprising:
- buffering media content on a first-in, first-out basis such that the buffered media content is continuously replaced over time with newer television signaling once an amount of the buffered media content exceeds a buffer length;
- transmitting the buffered media content in real-time to a plurality of output devices over a first signaling stream;
- without correspondingly transmitting time-shifted portions of the buffered media content, assigning a plurality of time-shift pointers, one of the plurality time-shift being assigned for each time-shift event registered by the plurality of output devices, each time-shift pointer identifying a period of time during which the time shift event occurred;
- and
- subsequently, upon determining a first time-shifted playback request, transmitting a first time-shifted portion of the media content to at least a first requesting one of the plurality of output devices, the first time-shifted portion being transmitted over a second signaling stream and beginning at a first period of time marked by a first time-shift pointer selected from the plurality of time-shift pointers assigned to the first requesting one of the plurality of output devices.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.