VCR Recording Margin Extension for Program Completeness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Video cassette recorders (VCRs) often fail to record entire television programs due to deviations in scheduled start and end times, incomplete programming, and clock synchronization issues, leading to incomplete recordings, especially when programs run longer than scheduled or start late.
Innovation Solution
Adding time margins to the recording start and stop times to ensure the VCR begins recording earlier and stops later than the programmed times, which can be manually or automatically set using an electronic program guide (EPG), allowing for flexible adjustment of recording intervals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the VCR records exactly at the scheduled start and stop times, then the recording time interval is minimized, but the program may be incomplete due to time deviations
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by adding a start margin before the scheduled program start time. The VCR begins recording earlier than the scheduled time, allowing it to capture the program even if it starts late or if there are time synchronization issues. This preliminary recording action ensures that no portion of the program is missed at the beginning.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extends the recording by adding an end margin after the scheduled program stop time. The VCR continues recording beyond the scheduled end time, ensuring that programs that run longer than scheduled are fully captured. This extended recording action prevents incomplete recordings at the end of the program.
2Reliability
If time margins are added to the recording interval, then the reliability of complete recording is improved, but the recording time interval increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system adds a predetermined start margin to the recording interval, extending the recording start time earlier than the scheduled program start. This ensures that even if the program starts late or there are clock synchronization issues, the VCR will have already begun recording and will capture the complete program content.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a predetermined end margin to the recording interval, extending the recording stop time later than the scheduled program end. This ensures that programs that run longer than their scheduled time are fully recorded, capturing any overflow content beyond the original scheduled end time.
3Measurement precision
If the VCR uses scheduled times for recording, then the recording precision is high, but it fails to capture programs with delayed starts or extended lengths
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a start margin that extends the recording start time earlier than the scheduled program start time. This preliminary recording action compensates for delayed program starts, clock synchronization drift, and other timing variations, ensuring that the VCR captures the complete program even when actual timing deviates from scheduled timing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an end margin that extends the recording stop time later than the scheduled program end time. This extended recording action ensures that programs running longer than scheduled are fully captured, maintaining reliability while accounting for timing deviations in broadcast schedules.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, and computer-readable medium which reduce the occurrence of incomplete recordings of television programs by video cassette recorders (VCR) (130), or other types of video recorders, by adding margins (6, 7) to the programmed start and end times (1, 2) of the recording. The margins (6, 7) cause the recording to start earlier than the programmed start time (1) by a specified amount of time (ΔTB), and to stop later than the programmed stop time by another specified amount of time (ΔTE). Therefore, when a television program starts a few minutes earlier, or ends a few minutes later than scheduled, the present invention helps ensure that the entire television program will be recorded by the video recorder, despite the fact that the video recorder was programmed in accordance with to the scheduled times (1, 2).