Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

S.i.s.v.el. Societa' Italiana Per Lo Sviluppo Dell'elettronica S.p.a.

U.S. Philips Corporation

Adolf Proidl

Serverius Petrus Paulus Pronk

Mauro Barbieri

Mark Henricus Verberkt

Lukasz Szostek

Makoto Asano

Franz Kuchar

Hannes Riedl

Herbert Gerharter

Andras Kalmar

Michael Kandler

Rudy Roth

Ralf Oestreicher

Andreas Posch

Severius Petrus Paulus Pronk

Bartel Marinius Van De Sluis

Franz Schuegerl

Martin Knespel

Werner Bl&uuml;mel

Items having a plurality of attributes associated therewith, each of said associated attributes having a rating, the rating indicating the importance of the attribute to the user can be selected () and displayed () with its associated attributes and corresponding ratings. The ratings can be adjusted () and at least one item similar to one of the selected at least one first item is selected () based on the rating of at least one of the displayed attributes.

Method and apparatus for selecting at least one media item

Method and system () for generating a recommendation for at least one further content item is disclosed. A personalized content channel is enabled to play out a plurality of content items (programs) complying with multiple selection criteria. At least one further content item is recommended by a recommender engine (), the at least one further content item complying with fewer of the multiple criteria. In an embodiment, at least one of the at least one recommended further content item is selected and the multiple selection criteria are adjusted by a scheduler () on the basis of at least one characteristic of the selected recommended further content item.

Method and system for generating a recommendation for at least one further content item

A recommender engine (___) recommends further content items for playout on a personalized content channel on the basis of a profile (___) associated with that personalized content channel. The profile (___) includes an indication of the user's 'like' and 'dislike' of content items played out on said personalized channel.

Method and apparatus for generating a recommendation for at least one content item

A method and system for transmitting channels to at least one digital video recorder is described. A server receives at least one recording schedule from a plurality of digital video recorders (step). A subset of channels is selected from the channels associated with the at least one program identification of the received at least one recording schedule (step). Information is transmitted from the server to at least one of the plurality of digital video recorders, the information indicating channels associated with the at least one program identification of the at least one recording schedule that were not selected (step). The selected subset of channels is also transmitted from the server to at least one of the plurality of digital video recorders (step).

Method and system for transmitting channels to at least one digital video recorder

The system, apparatus and method, of the present application offers the viewer a set of typical virtual channel types based on some predefined or definable category, e.g., news channel, which includes predefined default settings and behavior. These typical virtual channel 'templates' make it very easy for a viewer to specify a virtual channel. For example, for a news channel, the default behavior is to only keep the most current coverage, for a series, the default behavior is to keep all until watched. Such a typical virtual channel can be selected explicitly or implicitly. In addition, a virtual channel wizard is provided by the system, apparatus, and method of the present invention that interactively guides a viewer through setting up own templates.

System, apparatus, and method for templates offering default settings for typical virtual channels

The present invention relates to simultaneously playing back a plurality of content items, wherein preferred content items can be played back in overlays () alongside a main screen area () playing back a currently selected content item.

Method and apparatus for playback of content items

An Internet receiving arrangement, such as an Internet radio, is connected to the Internet and stores internet addresses of information servers which provide information data. The internet receiving arrangement has a quality test device for testing whether the received information data have a satisfactory quality. If the quality value of the received information data detected by the quality detector is below a quality threshold value, then the internet addresses stored in the internet receiving arrangement are updated with internet addresses of the information servers which are stored in an address server connected to the internet.

Internet receiving arrangement having quality test means

In a 'Pay per view' system (), a playback device () of a user of the 'Pay per view' system () obtains a playback authorization by an authorizing device () from a recording carrier () before playback of a coded playback information item (CWI) of a chargeable film. For granting the playback authorization, the authorizing device () bills a playback charge to the user. Inter alia, recorder identification information items (RKWI) identifying recording devices () that have contributed to creating the copy of the recording carrier () played back by the playback device () are stored on the recording carrier (). In the course of granting the playback authorization, bonus information evaluating means () store the recorder identification information items (RKWI) transferred by playback devices () to the bonus information evaluating means (). At billing instants, the bonus information evaluating means () transfer a bonus information item (BI) for the users of the recording devices () identified by the recorder identification information items (RKWI) and grant these users benefits.

Method for evaluating a bonus from authorized playbacks of a recording on a device other than a device used to make the recording

In the case of determination means () for determining the quality of a data signal (DS), which data signal (DS) consists of data blocks, wherein each data block is at least two-dimensional in structure and comprises at least two data zones, there are provided validity assessment means () for assessing whether data zones of at least one data block are valid or invalid and for generating and outputting validity information (QI) representing the assessment result and validity information processing means (), which are designed to determine the quality of the data signal (DS) on the basis of the validity information (QI).

Device for and method of determining the quality of a data signal

A remote control () for controlling source devices (PC, DVD, RADIO, MP3, TV, TV) and playback devices (B, B, TV, TV, M) sends a command document (DOC) containing a control command (SB) in the form of text to the source device (PC, DVD, RADIO, MP3, TV, TV) or playback device (B, B, TV, TV, M) to be controlled, with the result that a user-friendly matching of the control commands (SB) and a decoding of control commands (SB) is rendered possible in a plurality of devices.

Remote control transmits XML-document

A recording arrangement receives reception information including program, picture and/or sound information in a receiving channel of a television program. A detector detects the received program information which characterizes the start and end times of the television programs. A recorder is adapted to record the picture and/or sound information on a record carrier from a recording start time till a recording end time. A recording controller which, when a user of the recording arrangement has defined the recording start time and the receiving channel for a recording, is adapted to propose the end determined by the detector as the recording end time for the recording of the television program that can be received in the receiving channel.

Recording arrangement having recording control means

A target database () connected to the Internet (NET) is designed to gather entry data (EI) stored in source databases () similar in content, which source databases () are likewise connected to the Internet (NET). The target database () is designed to compare and enter retrieved entry date (EI) into a target memory module () of the target database (), wherein a check is performed, according to the majority principle, as to which of the mutually deviating entry data (EI) are correct. The target database () is further designed to notify an administrator of the source data base () from which incorrect entry data (EI) were received.

Method for charging information about an error in a database

A storage management device () is intended for managing data storage areas (DSB) of a mass storage, such as a hard disk (), for example,. Associated data storage areas (ID, ID, ID) of the mass storage are concatenated by concatenation data (VD). The storage management device () contains backup means () in order to determine backup data (SD), before overwriting the concatenation data (VD) with modified concatenation data (GVD), the backup data (SD) identifying the modified concatenation data (GVD) to be stored on the mass storage. If the process of storing the modified concatenation (GVD) is unexpectedly interrupted, the storage management device () is designed to determine valid concatenation data (VD, GVD).

Security device for a mass storage

A processor for analog and digital audio, video, and control information has analog connections to supply analog A/V signals and output control information to a television set. At the beginning of a recording mode in the DVHS video recorder, when an A/V signal (which may be a processed digital reception signal) of a television program just being displayed on the television set is applied to the television set, the signal is supplied to the DVHS video recorder as an A/V signal via an analog connection and/or as digital A/V data via a digital connection. An A/V signal of a television program being displayed on the television set and supplied by its tuner is transferred from one analog connection to another analog connection from the beginning of a recording mode in the DVHS video recorder, as a result of which the A/V signal is recorded by the DVHS video recorder.

Set top box which enables television program displayed on a television set to be recorded by means of a video recorder

A device for recording an information signal in a record carrier without loss of part of an information signal at the beginning of a recording, includes a processing circuit for processing an information signal and for supplying a recording information signal, an input device for supplying activation information and wait information, and an operating device for recording, after the activation information, a recording information signal in the record carrier and, after the wait information, for consecutively overwriting storage in a temporary store. An area of the record carrier is selected as the temporary store, and the operating device starts consecutively overwriting storage of a recording information signal in the selected temporary store after the wait information, and stops a consecutively overwriting storage after the activation information.

DEVICE AND METHOD FOR RECORDING AN INFORMATION SIGNAL IN A RECORD CARRIER IN WHICH A TEMPORARY STORE IS FORMED ON THE RECORD CARRIER, THE TEMPORARY STORE BEING CONTINUOUSLY OVERWRITTEN WITH THE INFORMATION SIGNAL

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Vienna, Austria

Adolf Proidl