TiVo Corporation

Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the storage of digital media recordings. According to various embodiments, a system is provided comprising a processor, a storage device, Random Access Memory (RAM), an archive writer, and a recording writer. The archive writer is configured to retrieve a plurality of small multimedia segments (SMSs) in RAM and write the plurality of SMSs into an archive container file in RAM. The single archive container file may correspond to a singular multimedia file when complete. New SMSs retrieved from RAM are appended into the archive container file if the new SMSs also correspond to the singular multimedia file. The recording writer is configured to flush the archive container file to be stored as a digital media recording on the storage device once enough SMSs have been appended by the archive writer to the archive container file to complete the singular multimedia file.

Methods, systems, computer readable media, and apparatuses for providing enhanced content are presented. Data including a first program, a first caption stream associated with the first program, and a second caption stream associated with the first program may be received. The second caption stream may be extracted from the data, and a second program may be encoded with the second caption stream. The first program may be transmitted with the first caption stream including first captions and may include first content configured to be played back at a first speed. In response to receiving an instruction to change play back speed, the second program may be transmitted with the second caption stream. The second program may include the first content configured to be played back at a second speed different from the first speed, and the second caption stream may include second captions different from the first captions.

Provided are methods and systems for variable speed playback. In one aspect the disclosure provides for receiving content having a first playback speed, determining a second playback speed for at least a portion of the content based on a playback factor, associating the second playback speed with the portion of the content, and providing at least the portion of the content at the second playback speed to a display device.

Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the storage of digital media recordings. According to various embodiments, a system is provided comprising a processor, a storage device, Random Access Memory (RAM), an archive writer, and a recording writer. The archive writer is configured to retrieve a plurality of small multimedia segments (SMSs) in RAM and write the plurality of SMSs into an archive container file in RAM. The single archive container file may correspond to a singular multimedia file when complete. New SMSs retrieved from RAM are appended into the archive container file if the new SMSs also correspond to the singular multimedia file. The recording writer is configured to flush the archive container file to be stored as a digital media recording on the storage device once enough SMSs have been appended by the archive writer to the archive container file to complete the singular multimedia file.

A media device and methods that identify playback states reachable from a current content playback state and identify a reachable state that is likely to occur, are disclosed. A memory associated with the media device may receive frames that enable a smooth transition between the playback state and the reachable state. The media device may receive frames that correspond to points in the content that are separated by an amount of time that is proportional to the playback rate of the likely state. The frames may be frames corresponding to an image that may be played back at the playback rate of the likely state.

Methods, systems, computer readable media, and apparatuses for providing enhanced content are presented. Data including a first program, a first caption stream associated with the first program, and a second caption stream associated with the first program may be received. The second caption stream may be extracted from the data, and a second program may be encoded with the second caption stream. The first program may be transmitted with the first caption stream including first captions and may include first content configured to be played back at a first speed. In response to receiving an instruction to change play back speed, the second program may be transmitted with the second caption stream. The second program may include the first content configured to be played back at a second speed different from the first speed, and the second caption stream may include second captions different from the first captions.

Described herein are techniques and mechanisms for providing a lean private copy of media content. According to various embodiments, a private copy of a media content item may be made specific to a user account. For example, to use a private copy of a media content item to present that media content item, a client machine may need to first perform operations such as account authentication, content licensing, and device-based DRM. The private copy of the media content item may be significantly deduplicated such that the actual size on disk of the private copy is small relative to the size of the uncompressed media content item. The private copy of the media content item may include reference information which maps the user account associated with the copy to data files associated with the recording.

Methods, apparatuses, and software are disclosed for sending only a first video component (e.g., data comprising one of a left or right component) of content to a plurality of client devices. Further aspects provide for sending, responsive to a request from one of the plurality of client devices, both the first video component and a second video component (e.g., data comprising both of the left and right components) to one or more of the plurality of client devices.

The media stream delivery system encodes and fragments media streams into numerous media stream fragments maintained on fragment servers. Devices obtain fragments to reconstruct media streams including live real-time media streams for playback on the devices. A device may perform caching of media stream fragments so that particular fragments need not be accessed again from a fragment server. A fragment server or even a content provider can analyze and monitor characteristics of media streams, viewing behavior, content popularity, etc., to identify fragments for caching at the playback devices. Caching indicators along with time period indicators may be included in the media stream fragments.

Mechanisms are provided for character-based and image-based media content search and discovery. Character images or entity images are mapped to corresponding media content. Selection of an image or a portion of an image may trigger or search for corresponding media content or begin playback of relevant media content. Character images or entity images need not correspond to a primary program character or object but may correspond to minor characters or tangential entities depicted periodically on particular programs.