Patent application number | Description | Published |
20100153410 | DISTRIBUTING AND SHARING CONTENT IN A NETWORK - A method may include receiving, from a first user device associated with a user profile, a first request for a media file and streaming the media file over a network to the first user device in a first format appropriate for the first device. The method may also include stopping the streaming of the media file and associating a stop time with the stopping, wherein the stop time indicates a position in the media file and receiving, from a second user device different from the first user device, a second request for the media file, the second user device being associated with the user profile. The method may also include streaming, starting at the stop time, the media file over the network to the second user device in a second format appropriate for the second device and different than the first format. | 06-17-2010 |
20100158476 | Methods, Systems and Computer Program Products for Local DVR Scheduling Conflict Management - This disclosure details the implementation of methods, systems and computer program products for local DVR scheduling conflict management (hereinafter, “SCM”). SCM systems allow for automatic organization, prioritization, and conflict resolution for multiple scheduled recording specifications. Conflicting scheduled recordings may be re-organized based on single-stage and/or multi-stage conflict resolution procedures. Embodiments of SCM systems may also implement weighted conflict resolution, wherein user preferences and/or prioritizations may be assigned to scheduled recordings and considered in the re-organization of conflicting recordings. In one embodiment, a method is disclosed, comprising: receiving a new scheduled recording instruction comprising at least a new program identifier and a new time; comparing the new scheduled recording instruction to an existing recording schedule to determine if a recording conflict exists; performing a conflict resolution for an existing conflict to yield a new recording schedule; and storing the new recording schedule in a scheduling database. | 06-24-2010 |
20100319048 | PUBLICATION OF TELEVISION CONTENT TO TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION SITES - A device receives updated television content, and generates a file that provides an indication to copy the updated television content to multiple television distribution sites, where each television distribution site includes multiple television distribution devices. The device identifies one of the multiple television distribution devices, associated with each of the multiple television distribution sites, to receive the file, packages the updated television content with the file, for the identified one of the multiple television distribution devices, and provides the updated television content and the file to the identified one of the multiple television distribution devices. | 12-16-2010 |
20100322393 | VOICEMAIL NOTIFICATION SERVER LOAD BALANCING - A device receives, from a management server, an optimal number of threads, generates a dynamic thread based on the optimal number of threads, and retrieves, from a message store, a message based on the dynamic thread and when the message store is not empty. The device receives a binding from a voicemail server associated with a voicemail user, generates a notification based on the retrieved message and based on the binding, and provides the notification to a user device associated with the voicemail user. | 12-23-2010 |
20110038467 | VOICEMAIL SERVER MONITORING/REPORTING VIA AGGREGATED DATA - A device receives, from a voicemail server, log information associated with voicemail transactions performed by the voicemail server, and determines data elements, of the log information, to be aggregated. The device also aggregates the determined data elements of the log information, determines a time period to provide the aggregated log information to a database for storage, and provides the aggregated log information to the database at the determined time period. | 02-17-2011 |
20110099277 | NETWORK ARCHITECTURE FOR RESOURCE REQUESTS - A method may include receiving a primary resource in a user device, wherein the resource includes a plurality of addresses and each of the plurality of addresses identifying one of a plurality of additional resources. The method may further include aggregating the plurality of addresses and sending the aggregated addresses to a network device. The method may further include receiving the additional resources in the user device. | 04-28-2011 |
20110099488 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESENTING VIDEO ASSETS - An approach is provided for presenting video assets. An asset manager determines a plurality of factors for positioning of video assets represented on a graphical user interface. The asset manager then determines weighting of the factors using one or more rules that are based on a search operation or a browse operation relating to the assets. From the determined plurality of factors and weighting of the factors, the asset manager computes a score for ranking of a particular one of the assets with respect to the positioning of other ones of the assets. | 04-28-2011 |
20110131594 | BOOSTING FACTOR FOR TELEVISION CONTENT - A method includes receiving viewership data associated with television contents; calculating one or more local boosting factors and a national boosting factor for each of the television contents based on the viewership data; applying boosting factor assignment heuristics to the one or more local and national boosting factors for each of the television contents; selecting one or more boosting factors based the applying of the boosting factor assignment heuristics for each of the television contents; and publishing the one or more boosting factors to one or more television distribution sites for each of the television contents. | 06-02-2011 |
20110154383 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR FACILITATING NETWORK CONNECTIVITY AND CONSUMPTION OF BROADBAND SERVICES - An approach is provided to facilitate network connectivity and consumption of broadband services. A data network connection is established by a set-top box. Sharing of the data network connection by a plurality of user devices is permitted by the set-top box. A credit count is maintained based on the sharing of the data network connection by the plurality of user devices. | 06-23-2011 |
20110154399 | CONTENT RECOMMENDATION ENGINE - A method may include determining a program currently being displayed for a user to watch and selecting a program to recommend to the user based on the program currently being displayed by the user and based on an availability of the program to recommend. The method may include displaying an indication of the recommended program to the user. | 06-23-2011 |
20120023126 | INTERNET VIDEO CONTENT DELIVERY TO TELEVISION USERS - A method for delivering video content to a user, including accessing a website that hosts a plurality of video content, causing a search to be performed of the website based on a keyword in the set of keywords, identifying, based on a result of the search, a set of video content, of the plurality of video content, related to the keyword, identifying a format of a particular video content in the set of video content, determining whether the format is compatible with a video client device, and outputting identifying information that identifies the particular video content when the format is compatible with the video client device, where the identifying information allows the video client device to access the particular video content. | 01-26-2012 |
20120030376 | USER-BASED PRIORITIZATION FOR CONTENT TRANSCODING - A system may include a server device. The server device may receive, from a device, a media item in a first format associated with the device, and determine a transcoding priority to be associated with transcoding of the media item based on information regarding a transcoding job request for one or more other media items received from the user and at least one of information associated with the media item or information associated with a user of the device. The server device may also select, based on the transcoding priority and at least one of the information associated with the media item or the information associated with the user, the media item, from among a number of media items, associated with one or more users, to be transcoded, and transcode the media item to a transcoded media item in a second format that is different than the first format. | 02-02-2012 |
20120096121 | HOME NETWORK VIDEO PEER-TO-PEER FOR MOBILE DEVICES - A device receives, from a user device, a request for content from a home network, and sends a notification of the request for content to a home network device. The device receives, from the home network device, a selection list of particular content, provides, to the user device, the selection list, and receives, from the user device, a content selection from the selection list. The device sends, to the home network device, the content selection, and receives, from the home network device, an indication that content corresponding to the content selection has been uploaded to a content delivery network. The device sends, to the user device, instructions to retrieve the content from the content delivery network. | 04-19-2012 |
20120117599 | THUMBNAIL PUBLICATION - A video service provider system may include one or more devices. The one or more device may receive thumbnails of programs that are currently airing on a group of television channels and match the received thumbnails with metadata. The metadata may include information relating to at least one of the television channels or the programs. The one or more devices may further provide, to a remote device, a set of thumbnails, of the captured thumbnails, and the metadata matching the set of thumbnails. The remote device may make the set of thumbnails and the metadata available to a user. | 05-10-2012 |
20120158713 | RANKING MEDIA CONTENT FOR CLOUD-BASED SEARCHES - A device receives, from a user device, a search query for media content within a content delivery network. The device identifies a group of relevant media content in the content delivery network, where the identifying is based on the search query, access restrictions of particular media content within the content delivery network, and/or a capability of the user device to present particular types of media content. The device associates sub-scores with each piece of media content in the group of relevant media content, and calculates a total score, for each piece of media content in the group of relevant media content, based on the sub-scores. The device ranks each piece of media content in the group of relevant media content, based on the total scores for each piece of media content, and sends, based on the search query, a list of the ranked, relevant media content to the user device. | 06-21-2012 |
20120159543 | AUTOMATED QUERY GENERATION FOR TELEVISON CONTENT SEARCHING - A system is configured to receive a portion of a word; retrieve a group of words matching the portion of the word; retrieve information associated with a set of words in the group, where the information, for a particular one of the words, indicates a measure of popularity of the particular word, geographic location information associated with the particular word, time information associated with the particular word, or user preference information associated with the particular word; rank the set of words based on the information; present a list of words from the set of words for display based on the ranking; receive selection of a word from the list of words; perform a search for television content based on the selected word to identify a group of television content; receive selection of television content from the group of television content; and present the selected television content for display. | 06-21-2012 |
20120215437 | METHOD, SYSTEM, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING LOCATION BASED SERVICES - Methods, systems, and computer program products for providing location based services are provided. Embodiments may include storing locations for a plurality of users of a telecommunication environment and contact lists of associated users for the plurality of users. Embodiments may also include providing the locations of the associated users for a first user based on a request from the first user. The request may further include providing locations for associated users who are located within an area of interest. The area of interest may be defined by a particular distance from the first user or by a point of interest of the first user. The locations of the users may be determined based on the locations of communication devices of the users including an identified receiving communication device for each user. | 08-23-2012 |
20130073574 | RULE-BASED METADATA TRANSFORMATION AND AGGREGATION FOR PROGRAMS - A method and devices for obtaining metadata associated with programs from multiple metadata sources. Title metadata is compared to determine if any title metadata match. Transformation rules are applied to the title metadata when title metadata does not match with other title metadata. The transformation rules transform the title metadata into a common format. The title metadata is compared after transformation to determine whether the title metadata matches other title metadata. Title metadata that matches other title metadata, the metadata associated with a program is aggregated. | 03-21-2013 |
20130108245 | MEDIA CONTENT RECORDING, MANAGEMENT, AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS AND METHODS | 05-02-2013 |
20130111529 | VIDEO SESSION SHIFTING USING A PROVIDER NETWORK | 05-02-2013 |
20130121261 | ADAPTIVE BANDWIDTH FOR MEDIA CONTENT - A system is described with one or more server devices to: receive an instruction to provide particular content; determine that a new channel is requested to provide the particular content; determine a first portion of bandwidth assigned to existing channels; allocate a second portion of the bandwidth for the new channel; provide the new channel in the second portion of the bandwidth; and provide the particular content on the new channel. | 05-16-2013 |
20130144871 | DYNAMIC CATALOG RANKING - A device receives, from a user device, a search query for video content listings in a video catalog. The device identifies, based on the search query, a set of relevant video assets from an index of the catalog content and determines dimensional values of the search query. The device determines a subset of the relevant video assets based on filtering usage metrics, for the set of relevant video assets, against the dimensional values. The device calculates a popularity value for each video asset in the subset of the relevant video assets and ranks each video asset in the subset of the relevant video assets to form a ranked list. The device sends, to the user device, a response to the search query that includes the ranked list. | 06-06-2013 |
20130145001 | UTILITY-BASED MODEL FOR CACHING PROGRAMS IN A CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK - Methods, devices, and storage media for receiving one or more utility preferences that indicate one or more criteria for measuring one or more utilities of programs; calculating utility solutions for the programs based on the one or more utility preferences; selecting one or more programs to store for at least one of downloading or streaming based on the utility solutions; and storing the one or more programs for downloading or streaming to users. | 06-06-2013 |
20130145383 | MULTI-SCREEN VIDEO - One or more network devices receive, from a third-party system, catalog metadata for physical media assets available to order and combine the catalog metadata with catalog entries for digital content to form a unified catalog file. The one or more devices receive, from a user device, a request to view a directory of available video content and send, to the user device, the unified catalog file for presentation to a user. The one or more devices receive, from the user device, a selection of an item in the unified catalog file. The one or more devices provide, to the user device, video content corresponding to the selection when the selection corresponds to one of the catalog entries for digital content and provide, to the third-party system and via a billing gateway, user payment information when the selection corresponds to the catalog metadata for one of the physical media assets. | 06-06-2013 |
20130151548 | MEDIA CONTENT SEARCHING - A method may include receiving, from a user device, a search query associated with identifying media content available from a service provider. The method may also include accessing a table including entries storing metadata associated with media content, wherein the table includes a key word field and at least some of the entries include key words/terms stored in the key word field. The method may further include identifying a first entry in the table based on a word/term in the search query matching metadata stored in the first entry, determining whether a word in the search query matches a word in the key word field of the first entry and providing a search result identifying a first media content corresponding to the first entry, in response to determining that a word in the search query matches a word in the key word field of the first entry. | 06-13-2013 |
20130151655 | ORCHESTRATION SERVER FOR VIDEO DISTRIBUTION NETWORK - A computing device receives, from a user device, a data call, and forwards the data call to a backend network device. The computing device receives, from the backend network device, a response to the data call in a first format. The computing device identifies a type of the user device and converts the response from the first format into a second format to create a reformatted response. The reformatted response addresses compatibility issues or simplifies processing by the user device. The computing device sends the reformatted response to the user device. | 06-13-2013 |
20130152221 | LIMITING CONCURRENT VIEWING SESSIONS ON MULTIPLE USER DEVICES - System devices include network interfaces to communicate with user devices associated with a user, memories for storing instructions to be executed by processors, and the processors. The processors are configured to execute the instructions to receive, from a first user device, among the user devices, a request for content; initiate an upload of the requested content to the first user device in response to the request; receive a request for a license key from the first user device in response to the initiation of the upload; determine whether a number of concurrent sessions with the user devices exceeds a maximum number; and send the license key to the first user device when the processors determine that the number of concurrent sessions does not exceed the maximum number. | 06-13-2013 |
20130191258 | BILLING AND CREDIT FOR CONTENT IN A CROSS-PLATFORM SYSTEM - A method includes identifying a subscription event for a digital service subscription for digital content. A billing cycle for the digital content is identified. The method includes determining whether an associated credit cycle for physical content is based on the identified billing cycle. The method also includes determining a billing action for the digital content based on the identified subscription event and the identified billing cycle. A credit action for physical content credits is determined based on the identified subscription event and the associated credit cycle in response to a determination that the associated credit cycle is based on the identified billing cycle. The method further includes determining a credit action for the physical content credits based on the identified subscription event and a maximum credit counter in response to a determination that the associated credit cycle is not based on the identified billing cycle. | 07-25-2013 |
20130262439 | ACTIVITY BASED SEARCH - A method includes identifying at least one document associated with content from at least one digital content source. The at least one document includes information identifying at least one aspect of the content. The method also includes determining a document index for the at least one document based on keywords included in the at least one document. An activity field is inserted into the document index. The method includes accessing activity information. The activity information identifies at least one activity keyword associated with at least one activity. The method further includes identifying at least one present activity keyword in the document based on the activity information. An indicator of at least one present activity is determined based on the at least one present activity keyword. The method includes indexing the indicator of the at least one present activity in the activity field of the document index. | 10-03-2013 |
20140019752 | ENCRYPTION-BASED SESSION ESTABLISHMENT - A first server is configured to receive a first token from a user device, determine whether the first token is valid, request the user device to provide a set of credentials to a second server, based on determining that the first token is invalid, and receive a first response from the user device. The first response may include information identifying whether the user device is authenticated to communicate with the first server. The first server is further configured to send the first response to a third server. The third server may generate a second response to indicate authentication of the user device to communicate with the first server. The first server is further configured to receive the second response from the third server, generate a second token, based on receiving the second response, and send the second token to the user device. | 01-16-2014 |
20140108497 | MEDIA SESSION HEARTBEAT MESSAGING - A client device plays streaming media, and obtains a media playback position of the media at a first time. The client device sends a first message from the client device to a server, wherein the first message includes the media playback position and where the media playback position includes a time reference associated with playback of the media at the first time. The client device receives a first reply message from the server, wherein the first reply message indicates a time period. The client device sends a second message from the first client to the server, based on expiration of the time period, wherein the second message includes a media playback position of the media at a second time during the playing of the streaming media that is different than the first time. | 04-17-2014 |
20140289773 | THUMBNAIL PUBLICATION - A video service provider system may include one or more devices. The one or more device may receive thumbnails of programs that are currently airing on a group of television channels and match the received thumbnails with metadata. The metadata may include information relating to at least one of the television channels or the programs. The one or more devices may further provide, to a remote device, a set of thumbnails, of the captured thumbnails, and the metadata matching the set of thumbnails. The remote device may make the set of thumbnails and the metadata available to a user. | 09-25-2014 |
20140331252 | ENTITLEMENT MANAGEMENT FOR VIDEO CUSTOMERS - A method includes receiving, at a server device, a request to generate an entitlement identifier (ID) associated with a customer transaction. The method also includes determining a customer ID, a video content ID, and a time window associated with the customer transaction. The method includes determining, by the server device, the entitlement ID based on the customer ID, video content ID, and the time window. The method also includes providing the entitlement ID to a user device associated with the customer. The user device is configurable to receive access to video content based on the entitlement ID. | 11-06-2014 |
20140358989 | MEDIA PLAYBACK PROFILE MAPPING - A network device stores a mapping configuration to associate client type profiles with particular delivery profiles for media content and receives, from a client device, a request for a link to a content selection. The request includes a content identifier and parameters for the client device. The network device constructs, based on the parameters for the client device, a particular client type profile and maps the particular client type profile to one of the particular delivery profiles in the mapping configuration. The network device constructs a uniform resource locator (URL), based on the one of the particular delivery profiles and the content identifier, that provides the link to the content selection with formatting that is suitable for the particular client type profile and sends the URL to the client device. | 12-04-2014 |
20150039480 | DETECTING AND FIXING PROBLEM VIDEO ACCOUNTS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS - A computer device may include logic configured to manage an account creation process for customers, wherein the account creation process includes creating a DVD account in a DVD system, creating a digital account in a digital system, and creating a billing account in a billing system and manage a subscription generation process for the customers, wherein the subscription generation process includes associated a subscription with the DVD account, associating the subscription with the digital account, and associating the subscription with the billing account. The logic may be further configured to detect a broken account generated by the account creation process and fix the detected broken account in response to detecting the broken account; and detect a broken subscription generated by the subscription generation process and fix the detected broken subscription in response to detecting the broken subscription. | 02-05-2015 |
20150039505 | DYNAMIC TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT - A network device receives a user's selection of a subscription to media content services that includes a designated trial period. The subscription includes access to both digital content and physical media content. The network device receives payment information, for the subscription, that includes a credit card number, a card security code, and a billing address. The network device grants, to a user account, a temporary entitlement for the digital content when the payment information is received and obtains verification of the payment information. The verification includes determining validity of the payment information and verifying that a minimum credit card balance is available on the credit card. The network device selects an updated trial period status from a group of options including terminating the temporary entitlement, extending the temporary entitlement for a first duration, extending the temporary entitlement for a second duration, and issuing credits for the physical media content. | 02-05-2015 |
20150046938 | METADATA VALIDATION - A method includes receiving a video content metadata entry. The method also includes accessing video content metadata validation rules. The method further includes determining whether the video content metadata entry is valid based on the video content metadata validation rules. The video content metadata entry is reported as a valid video content metadata entry in response to a determination that the video content metadata entry is valid. The method also includes reporting the video content metadata entry as an invalid video content metadata entry in response to a determination that the video content metadata entry is invalid. | 02-12-2015 |
20150074706 | AUTOMATED CONTENT INGESTION - A method includes receiving, from a content provider, content for processing and information identifying at least one of advertisements or promotional material to include with the content. The method also includes processing the content into a number of different formats, inserting the advertisements or promotional material into the processed content. The method further includes providing an indication to the content provider that the content has been processed and receiving, from the content provider, an approval or disapproval of the processed content. | 03-12-2015 |