As many content consumers' level of work and personal activity has increased, they are often unable to watch broadcast or streamed content at a time scheduled by a content provider. In order to allow more flexibility to consumers, content receiving devices (client devices) are now offered with a built-in personal video recorder (PVR), also known as a digital video recorder (DVR), that allows the consumer to record content for later viewing. Locally attached storage for storing this recorded content can be a significant added cost to the client device. For example, a cable set-top box that allows a consumer to record 80 hours of high definition content may require 200 gigabytes or more of local storage. Additionally, content rules for broadcast and re-transmission often require locally attached storage at the client device. Furthermore, a client device is generally limited in number of content streams to which it can access concurrently. For example, a typical cable set-top box may only have two tuners. As such, the cable set-top can only record two content streams concurrently. Adding more tuners to the client device would further increase cost of the client device.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds