International Business Machines Corporation

Oak Technology, Inc.

Advanced Digital Broadcast S.a.

Chris A Dinallo

Amir M Mobini

Scott Lee Winters

William W Lawton

Michael J Koval

John G Tyler

Gary G Allran

Martin J Paulat, Jr

Tomasz Kozlowski

A method for prolonging the service life of a solid state drive. The method includes providing for use with a digital video recorder, a solid state drive (SSD) for time-shifted viewing of media content, changing the SSD from a first state to a second state based on a functional command from the user, and repeating changes between the first state and the second state, an accumulation of which over time results in a prolonged service life. A device designed to prolong the service life of a solid state drive is also provided.

Apparatus and methods for prolonging service life of solid-state memory device in a digital video recorder

An interactive DVD browser in accordance with the DVD specification for read-only discs is capable of accessing remotely located data over the Internet through a technique which contemplates new navigation commands as well as the embedding of HTML page addresses in navigation commands in place of data stream identifiers currently unused by the DVD specification. A navigation command is supplied to the interactive DVD browser indicating the browser should change data sources. The navigation command includes a network protocol address, in the form of HTML page address, as well as a local address of the user's default Internet browser. A second command specifies a predetermined period of time in which the browser should wait until the Internet browser establishes a hyperlink to the remote source of presentation data specified by the network page address. If the data resident at the specified address is suitable for presentation by the DVD browser, the data is presented, otherwise, the DVD browser will wait while the network browser presents non-DVD compliant data. The technique enables software updates, on-line registration and other dynamic data activities to occur with a legacy DVD browser while still complying with the DVD specification for read-only disc.

Method and apparatus for enabling internet access with DVD bitstream content

A DVD system includes a graphic user interface which is constructed during information playback from commands and attributes extracted from the DVD data stream. The extracted commands are presented to an intelligent DVD browser engine which gathers information about the shape and location of a user menu from the navigation data in the DVD data stream and other sources. The browser engine operates with a database containing sets of predefined images which depict controls, buttons and other graphic images that form part of the user menu. The browser engine uses the command information to construct a query in the database. The query is applied to the database to extract a set of images which form the complete user menu. The extracted images are then used to display the menu on a visual display along with the multimedia information. The images are updated as new commands and attributes are received.

Method and apparatus for dynamically constructing a graphic user

A method of and apparatus for bridging communications between an object oriented component and a procedural programmed device driver are disclosed. Both the object oriented component and the procedural programmed device driver are part of a data processing system. Both the method and apparatus isolate the object oriented component from any device driver, specifically the active device driver, by encapsulating the specific driver information associated with that particular device driver and then transporting requests or commands from the object oriented component to the specific device driver when interfacing with the device driver. The object oriented component generates an interface object that allows for opening communication or closing communication to the device driver as well as initializing the device using the information within the device driver and for controlling the device via the device driver. A transport object is also generated, which allows the transporting of data from the object oriented selected device driver to the object oriented component. This transport object also allows data flow to be controlled between the component and the selected device driver.

Object oriented device driver system for procedural device drivers

A multimedia data processing system includes a memory for storing multimedia application programs and a multitasking operating system. Extensions to the operating system control data streaming from source devices to target devices to provide real-time, continuous streaming. The extensions provide central buffer management with a user buffer option, bi-level priority support for data stream handlers, support for interleaved streams, and data stream event detection and notification.

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Boca Raton, FL, United States of America

Chris A Dinallo