Tivo Corporation

Tivo Solutions Inc.

Abbott Laboratories Corporation

David E Pope

Margret B Schmidt

Richard Eugene Fulcher

Brian W Beach

Alan Waterman

Martin Hibdon

Tao Chang

Matthew Flannery

Scott P Gary

A method and apparatus for displaying branded video tags. An advertiser provides additional content associated with broadcast advertising content to a service provider that downloads the additional content to a digital video recorder (DVR). The service provider inserts command tags into the content that are intercepted by the DVR and interpreted as commands that instruct the DVR to perform specific actions when the DVR receives the stream from a broadcaster. The DVR intercepts and translates any tags inserted into the content stream while the DVR is playing the content stream. Tags can cause the DVR to display a branded video tag to the user which is a displayed icon that requests an interaction by the user and has an advertiser's logo(s) displayed in its vicinity.

Method and apparatus for displaying branded video tags

A method and apparatus for a digital video recorder (DVR) video editing system provides a user interface and video editing environment for content stored on a DVR's storage device. A visual progress indicator is displayed over the program content that the user has selected to edit. The user moves a position indicator within a cache bar in the visual progress indicator that indicates how much of the program content has been stored on the storage device. The user can delete sections of the program content. The user can also add other recorded program content into the program content. The deleted sections and added content are highlighted in the cache bar by colors that are different from the normal color used for the cache bar.

Digital video recorder video editing system

A smart broadcast program recording padding and scheduling system provides a system for adjusting the start and end times of a broadcast program's recording schedule that has a predetermined start and end broadcast time and resolving any conflicts arising from conflicting scheduled program recordings. An on screen program guide is displayed to the viewer via a monitor or television that lists the predetermined scheduled broadcast times and channels of a plurality of broadcast programs. The viewer selects a particular broadcast program to record and the invention schedules the broadcast program to be recorded by inserting the program's information such as program identifier, start and end times, and storage duration into a recording schedule database. The viewer adjusts the scheduled start and/or end recording times for a specific program or series of programs by specifying the time increment (padding) to add or subtract from the start and/or end recording times and the invention adjusts the recording schedule for the program(s) using the padding values. Conflicts that arise from adjusted recording schedules are resolved using a priority scheme. Conflicting padding values and start and end recording times are adjusted using threshold values or by elimination. Broadcast programs are recorded onto a persistent storage device when the recording schedule indicates that it is time to do so.

Smart broadcast program recording padding and scheduling system

Errors in data stored in the memory of a computer are detected prior to use of the data. A protected data type is declared in writing a program in which errors in critical data must be detected before the data are used. The invention is preferably implemented on a personal computer system (10) or in a microcontroller for a device. When a protected data item is initialized, both the protected data item and its corresponding bit-inverted form are stored in memory. A constructor function is used to determine the bit-inverted form. Any time that the protected data item is subsequently accessed for use by an application program, either the stored protected data item or its corresponding bit-inverted form are inverted for comparison to the other stored data item. Any difference detected in this comparison indicates that a change has occurred in either or both of the protected data item and its corresponding bit-inverted form within memory. Depending upon the application program in which the invention is used, an appropriate action is taken upon detecting such an error, such as providing an indication of the error and terminating further execution of the program.

Method and system for using inverted data to detect corrupt data

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Los Altos, CA, United States of America

David E Pope