For many years, viewers of broadcast television content, such as movies, news programs, weekly television episodes, sporting events, and the like, have taken fully advantage of the ability to record their favorite programs for subsequent viewing at a latter, more convenient time. This ability was first made widely available via the video cassette recorder (VCR), and more recently by way of the digital video recorder (DVR) or personal video recorder (PVR). With DVR technology, users may simply select a program to record from an electronic program guide (EPG) presented to the user via a television display. Further, the user may also be able to record each instance of a recurring program, such as a weekly episode, by setting a single recording timer in the DVR unit, which may be a standalone device, or a sub-unit incorporated into a satellite, cable, or terrestrial television receiver. In many cases, the user may also manually add or subtract time from the beginning and end of the program to account for small differences between the scheduled broadcast time and the typical broadcast time for the program.
While product developers continue to improve and simplify the user's interaction with a DVR for home recording of television programs, some unpredictable situations regarding the timing of television program broadcasts continue to make error-free recording difficult to attain. For example, due to unforeseen circumstances, a television presentation preceding a program for which a recording timer has been set may continue beyond its schedule ending time, thus delaying the program to be recorded by some unknown amount of time. As a result, while the beginning of the program may be recorded, the recording may end prior to the actual end of the selected program due to the unanticipated delay. In cases in which a program selected for recording has been rescheduled well in advance, the provider of EPG data residing in the DVR unit may be able to update the EPG data remotely, resulting in the associated recording timer being adjusted accordingly. However, if the program to be recorded is delayed with little or no warning, the EPG data provider would need to provide the unlikely capability of updating the EPG data in the recording DVR unit in real time for all programming channels to yield a proper recording of the program.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds