US 7,603,022 B2
Networked personal video recording system
Daniel Putterman, San Francisco, Calif. (US); Brad Dietrich, San Francisco, Calif. (US); Jeremy Toeman, San Francisco, Calif. (US); Pedro Freitas, San Francisco, Calif. (US); Ludovic Legrand, San Francisco, Calif. (US); Shawn McCaffrey, Belmont, Calif. (US); James Grimm, San Francisco, Calif. (US); Lijia Jin, Hayward, Calif. (US); and Paul Novaes, San Mateo, Calif. (US)
Assigned to Macrovision Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. (US)
Filed on Jul. 02, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/613,470.
Prior Publication US 2005/0002640 A1, Jan. 06, 2005
Int. Cl. H04N 5/91 (2006.01); H04N 7/00 (2006.01); H04N 5/00 (2006.01); H04N 7/18 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 386—46  [386/1; 386/45; 386/125; 386/126; 725/74; 725/76; 725/78; 725/80; 725/81; 725/82; 725/85] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for networking a plurality of television recording devices, said method comprising the steps of:
receiving a plurality of television signals;
selecting a set of tuners from a plurality of tuners available on a home-based network, the selected set of tuners residing within the home-based network;
tuning each of said television signals in one of the tuners selected from the plurality of tuners;
buffering said television signals on a storage medium in at least one PVR media server, the PVR media server configured for maintaining a read position and a write position for the buffering,
the PVR media server residing within the home-based networks,
the buffering comprising a configurable type buffer that has a configurable size for permitting storage of a selectable time duration of the television signals,
the configurable type buffer for providing buffering of the television signals continuously by using the selectable time duration;
setting a set of boundary conditions for the read position and the write position;
generating an event when the read position falls behind the write position an amount greater than the buffer size;
advancing the read position in response to the generated event while the write position advanced as a television signal is received;
coupling a plurality of clients, over the home-based network, to said PVR media server;
assigning at least two of said clients to one or more of said tuners; and
transferring, over said home-based network, buffered television signals to said clients.