184 results about "Media on demand" patented technology

An interactive television system is provided in which a user can use an interactive television application to access and request media-on-demand programming. The interactive television application may display customized interface display screens that include video-on-demand programs and categories that may be of particular interest to the user. These programs and categories of interest may be based on the user's personal profile. Once a list of programs and categories based on a user's personal profile is generated, one or more of these programs may be incorporated in a menu interface template to generate a video-on-demand menu customized for the user.

A method for providing configurable access to media in a media-on-demand system also can include delivering the media to a first client device in a format compatible with the first client device; interrupting the delivery of the media; recording a bookmark specifying a position in the media where the interruption occurred; and resuming delivery of the media to a second client device, the resumed delivery beginning at a position in the media specified by the recorded bookmark. The method further can include identifying device properties for each of the first and second client devices; delivering the media to the first client device in a format compatible with the identified device properties for the first client device; and, delivering the media to the second client device in a format compatible with the identified device properties for the second client device.

A system and method of providing media on demand to a mobile device user having a wireless enabled mobile device is disclosed. The method includes identifying the mobile device user at a first retail location, providing a first set of media purchase options to the wireless enabled mobile device, receiving a first selection from the mobile device responsive to the first set of media purchase options, preparing a media product responsive to the first selection, and providing the media product at a predetermined pickup location for pickup by the mobile device user.

A profile includes an indication of one or more topics of interest. A mixing server is configured to create a custom media channel based on the profile. A playback application is configured to provide the custom media channel upon a request from a user, wherein the custom media channel includes more than one item of multimedia content.

A media object is scheduled for transmission between a server and a client. The media object is partitioned into segments of blocks, wherein each block is a unit of media for which a client will wait to receive an entire block before playing out the block, and wherein each segment includes an integer number of blocks. One or more channels on which to serve each segment are determined, and a rate at which to serve each segment is determined. Additionally, a schedule pair for each channel is determined. The schedule pair includes a time at which the client may start receiving on the channel and a time at which the client may stop receiving on the channel.

A method for providing configurable access to media in a media-on-demand system also can include delivering the media to a first client device in a format compatible with the first client device; interrupting the delivery of the media; recording a bookmark specifying a position in the media where the interruption occurred; and resuming delivery of the media to a second client device, the resumed delivery beginning at a position in the media specified by the recorded bookmark. The method further can include identifying device properties for each of the first and second client devices; delivering the media to the first client device in a format compatible with the identified device properties for the first client device; and, delivering the media to the second client device in a format compatible with the identified device properties for the second client device.

The invention can be viewed as a system for providing media information to a user via an interactive media services client device coupled to a programmable television services server device. A method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes receiving user input and excluding one or more media titles from a media title list based on the user input.

A method for multimedia playback and transmission to wireless clients is described. A host webserver transcodes a live digital or analog audio-visual or audio broadcast signal and splits the input stream into small multimedia objects of an efficient compression such as MPEG4 / AAC, and then immediately deploys the objects to distributed content servers for a geographically dispersed population of wireless clients. A java applet object player, downloaded to wireless clients at the beginning of the multimedia on-demand session, interprets and decodes the multimedia objects as they are received, using multiple levels of optimization. The applet uses novel video and audio decoding optimizations which can be generically applied to many digital video and audio codecs, and specifically decodes Simple Profile MPEG4 video and Low Complexity AAC audio.

A home system for on-demand media advantageously employs hardware already present in a typical consumer's home to reduce the cost and complexity of an on-demand controller. The controller may use a pre-existing network connection to access media sources on the Internet or other data networks, and may use mass storage available on the consumer's computer or elsewhere in the user's household to store media for streaming to a television or other display device. The controller coordinates operation of these components to provide an on-demand media experience to a user.

The exemplary embodiments describe systems and methods for multimedia-on-demand services. A multimedia-on-demand system includes a mass storage device that receives and stores multimedia content items. Memory couples to the mass storage device and stores a multimedia-on-demand data table and multimedia-on-demand instructions. The multimedia-on-demand data table includes a multimedia content identifier field corresponding to a multimedia content item stored on the mass storage device. The multimedia-on-demand data table may also include a multimedia content usage indicator field associated with the multimedia content item. The multimedia-on-demand instructions are executed by a processor and include instructions to automatically receive the multimedia content items. The multimedia-on-demand instructions also send a multimedia-on-demand usage message based at least in part on the multimedia content usage indicator.

The invention can be viewed as a system for providing media information to a user via an interactive media services client device coupled to a programmable television services server device. A method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes receiving user input and excluding one or more media titles from a media title list based on the user input.

An apparatus and method integrates cellular technology, global positioning system (GPS) technology and satellite radio technology. The components of the apparatus share resources, such as a power, dual GPS / satellite antennae, display screen and controls. The system provides an “on-demand” back channel, such as via the nationwide cellular phone network, that allows a satellite radio subscriber to order data on demand from the satellite radio provider, such as a particular list of songs or travel information. The invention utilizes the existing satellite radio infrastructure which is capable of delivering large amounts of streaming on-demand customized programming and information across a satellite channel to a subscriber's satellite radio decoder. By effectively utilizing the growth and momentum of satellite radio technology, the invention introduces new options for location based services (LBS). Using the existing satellite radio infrastructure minimizes the overall cost of delivery of location based services while allowing a wide range of service options.

Various techniques for providing instantaneous media services are disclosed. Some of the techniques provide an instantaneous media-on-demand system, process and method for the same. Such a system offers a dynamic library with a significant number of titles from which a user may select and offers play back a desired title fairly instantly. To facilitate instant playback, a file pertaining to a title is fragmented into a header and segments. The header is seeded in all boxes in service and none, one or more segments are distributed to the network of boxes. When the title is ordered, the header is instantly played back while the segments, if not locally available, are streamed in respectively from the boxes having the segments to enable continuous playback of the ordered title.

A method for initiating or recovering a media-on-demand session in a distributed media-on-demand network consisting of N streaming nodes (203 . . . 204), the method having: a. a first step wherein a client device (201) sends a setup request (251; 256) to a highly available redirector device (221) to request initiation or recovery of said session; b. a second step wherein the redirector device (221) selects a streaming node (203; 204) for the session; and c. a third step wherein the redirector device (221) instructs the client device (201) to use the selected media streaming node (203; 204) for that session. A further distinctive feature is that the client device (201) requests media delivery from the selected media-streaming node either from the beginning (for initiation) or from the last position (for recovery).

A scalable Media-on-Demand (MoD) method to a large group of users in the Internet. This method makes use of peer buffering capabilities to collaborate in the distribution and downloading of media, facilitated by a central repository for the search of optimal peers as parent nodes to connect to and for the support of advanced features such as fast forward and backward plays. The method relieves the server load by shifting the media streaming functionality to the client side with high media receiving continuity and quality, leading to well-balanced and low network loads.

For use in media communications, e.g. in the delivery of video and audio or in teleconferencing, a media file or title is partitioned for secured, efficient delivery. A data sequence representing the file is partitioned into smaller subsequences, with a first subsequence being chosen to convey a degraded-quality representation of the data, and the other sequences for complementing the first subsequence to obtain a superior-quality representation. Among areas of applicability are media on demand, real-time communications and broadcasting, and online media locker, jukebox and chat room services.

A method and apparatus for broadcasting media objects for such bandwidth-intensive applications as Media on Demand (MoD) or Video on Demand (VoD) employ a novel StairCase Broadcast (SCB) scheme. A media server in accordance with one example of the invention includes a fragmenter that fragments media objects into multiple segments, with each segment provided to a corresponding streamer. Each streamer periodically and continuously streams data associated with its corresponding media segment on a connection between the server and a media client. A download controller in the media client selectively causes the proper streams to be received for downloading from the server in accordance with the fragmentation of the selected media object and the number of streams that the client can simultaneously receive for downloading. A selector is operable to cause data from each successive segment to be downloaded from the corresponding stream immediately regardless of the position in the period associated with the successive segment. By its design, the method and apparatus of the present invention allow for lossless broadcast of media contents with de-coupled per-media-object server and client bandwidth design considerations.

The present invention discloses a media file on-demand method, comprising: the server, upon receiving the media on-demand request from the client, provides the index information in the self-defining media file to the client; the server, upon receiving the playing progress request from said client, according to the requested time in the playing progress request, searches for the starting offset position of the media data corresponding to the requested time in the index information; the server, according to the starting offset position of the media data, reads out the media data corresponding to the requested time in the self-defining media file, and provides the media data to the client. The present invention further discloses a media file on-demand system and apparatus, wherein the index information derived by analyzing the original media file divides the original media file into individual segments according to time, thus the user, upon watching the program and dragging on the progress bar, is enabled to request the data according to the time so as to quickly acquire the media data at the time corresponding to the drag-and-drop position, so the experience of use by the user is enhanced.

The invention discloses a distributed flow medium order system and realizing method which are based on P2P technique. The invention includes content management subsystem, content exhibit subsystem, log server subsystem, authentication charging subsystem, data Stat. subsystem, P2P CDN network subsystem, flow medium player subsystem. The quantity of servers of system is distributed based on operation requirement to fit for expand and change of server; nodes inform each other data of itself in real time, and exchange online node information in P2P mode, so real time of online node can be increased greatly, burden of longing on server can be decreased.

A media-on-demand (MOD) portal application allows users to view and access from a single display interface MOD content provided by multiple media providers, such as vendors and service providers. The MOD portal application may provide grid display screens showing program listings of available media content. The grids may include rows and columns, where each row and each column includes program listings associated with a particular category. In one illustrative grid, each row includes programming from a single media vendor and each column includes programming of a particular genre. A media guidance application is also provided which automatically determines if a user does not watch an MOD program the user has ordered. The media guidance application may automatically make the unwatched program available to the user at a later time, for example by automatically recording the program or by allowing the user to access the program at the later time.

Various techniques for providing instantaneous media services are disclosed. Some of the techniques provide an instantaneous media-on-demand system, process and method for the same. Such a system offers a dynamic library with a significant number of titles from which a user may select and offers play back a desired title fairly instantly. To facilitate instant playback, a file pertaining to a title is fragmented into a header and segments. The header is seeded in all boxes in service and none, one or more segments are distributed to the network of boxes. When the title is ordered, the header is instantly played back while the segments, if not locally available, are streamed in respectively from the boxes having the segments to enable continuous playback of the ordered title.

An interactive television system is provided in which a user can use an interactive television application to access and request media-on-demand programming from one or more specific vendors. The interactive television application may display vendor-specific interface screens that allow the user to access and request content from a particular vendor. The application may generate a vendor-specific interface screen by incorporating vendor-specific interface elements into an interface template. The template may include vendor-invariant interface elements and attributes for the incorporated elements. The generated vendor-specific interface screen may then be displayed on the user equipment. The system may also include a remote server to provide vendor-specific interface elements and templates to the application, and memory on the user equipment where these elements and templates may be stored.

This invention treats of a two-level cache management method for continuous media files of a proxy server. In the first level, the method reserves collapsed buffers in the cache for every active client attended by the proxy server. To save bandwidth and memory space collapsed buffers can be concatenated and overlapped when content belongs to the same continuous media file. The proxy manages collectively the collapsed buffers of each client, which cooperate by making its content available to the whole system, reducing traffic over the communication network and on the media-on-demand server. In the second level, the method allows proxy servers to cooperate between themselves, by concatenating collapsed buffers when necessary, increasing the amount of available shared media in the cache, saving bandwidth both on the media-on-demand server and on the communication network backbone.

A system for establishing and re-using sessions for the delivery of media content from at least one server to any of a plurality of client devices that comprises a memory with logic and a processor configured by the logic to establish a first session to deliver first media content. The processor is further configured by the logic to receive a request for a second session to deliver second media content and determine whether a session can be re-used for the second session. The processor is further configured by the logic to re-use the first session for the second session responsive to determining that the first session can be used for the second session.

The embodiment of the invention discloses a method, equipment and system for controlling band width. The method comprises the following steps of: acquiring and identifying an HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol ) request message of streaming media on-demand service, and forwarding the HTTP request message of the streaming media on-demand service to a media server; receiving an HTTP response message which is returned by the media server and corresponds to the HTTP request message of the streaming media on-demand service; resolving the HTTP response message to acquire a playing code rate of a streaming media file to be transmitted; determining actually distributed transmission band width of the streaming media on-demand service according to the comparison result of the playing code rate and the initially distributed user signed bandwidth of the streaming media on-demand service; and controlling the transmission of the streaming media file by adopting the determined transmission band width. Therefore, in the embodiment of the invention, band width control is directly performed in a network element, so that the problems of more interaction among different network elements and additional increment of processing overhead of other network elements in the prior art are avoided at the same time of simply and effectively improving the utilization rate of network resources.

The invention discloses a streaming media on demand method based on Hadoop and a virtual streaming media server cluster. The virtual streaming media server cluster is constructed on a virtual machine server cluster, and directly acquires stored streaming media file data from a Hadoop storage cluster to realize streaming media on demand. Particularly, in the method, a virtual machine server management node monitors the service conditions of memory and network bandwidth resources of the virtual streaming media server cluster in real time to realize the dynamic scheduling of virtual streaming media servers; hotspot file prefixes on the Hadoop storage cluster are deployed on the virtual streaming media servers according to a virtual streaming media server cluster balanced-deployment principle; requests of users are cached at intervals on the virtual streaming media servers according to a time sequence; and cache sizes on each virtual streaming media server are controlled and a virtual machine scheduling strategy is triggered according to the file reading bandwidth of the virtual streaming media server cluster for the Hadoop storage cluster.