Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC

Time Warner Cable Inc.

Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.p.

N2 Broadband, Inc.

Ericsson Television Inc.

Other

Time Warner Interactive Video Group, Inc.

Twc Interactive Video Group, Inc.

Time Warner Cable (Division of Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.p)

Time Warner Entertainment Co. L.p. Time Warner Cable

Aol Time Warner Interactive Video Group, Inc.

Joseph G Buehl

Erik Gwyn Urdang

David M Kimble

John B Carlucci

Louis Dew Williamson

John Callahan

Darryl Lanay DeFreese

Thomas L Gonder

Ralph William Brown

Stephen M Johnson

Mike L LaJoie

Timothy Hall Addington

Haig H Krakirian

Michael T Hayashi

Nizar Allibhoy

James Herbert Alexander

Kevin J Leddy

Joe Edmonds

James A Chiddix

Michael L LaJoie

Waig H Krakirian

John W Callahan

Segmentation messages indicative of locations of upcoming events, such as the start and end of programs and program portions, and/or rights related to the programs and program portions, are used by cable systems and the like to store programs and program portions for later retrieval and transmission to customers on request. Storage, retrieval and management of programming is thereby facilitated. Methods and systems are disclosed.

Program storage, retrieval and management based on segmentation messages

A 'pause live television' service is implemented, where in one embodiment, a continuously streaming video from a broadcast programming source is copied into a circular buffer. A set top box ('STB') requests a trick function, such as &#x201c;pause,&#x201d; by sending a message to the system, which in this case suspends the present broadcast video in the STB. The system determines an offset and when the user requests resumption of the broadcast video (e.g., &#x201c;play&#x201d;), the system uses the offset for that particular STB to determine the appropriate resumption point in the particular buffer to resume streaming of the video for that STB. In various embodiments, the network may begin streaming of the video at the resumption point on another channel and direct the STB to then tune to that channel. Thus, the program appears to have been seamless suspended and resumed using a network based capability.

Methods and systems for a current channel buffer for network based personal video recording

Assets, such as content and related data are packaged, transmitted, received and managed in a digital cable television system to standardize the distribution of content and services from a content/service provider to subscribers in the system. The standardized format for packaging content enables the digital cable system to package, transmit, receive and manage diverse types of content, such as MPEGs, executable files, HTML pages, and the like, using standard system components without requiring reprogramming of the system to deploy new services. Service and content providers are freed from having to develop custom formats for delivering content and data to the cable system. Moreover, the standardized bundling of content and related data that is enabled by the invention allows the cable system operator to automate the deployment of services based on specific content and data to select subscribers.

Systems and methods for packaging, distributing and managing assets in digital cable systems

Live television broadcast and other information and entertainment programs, e.g., videos-on-demand (VOD), are provided to a user through a communications network, e.g., a cable network. A processing unit is employed at an headend of the communications network to respond to user requests for PVR-like functions, e.g., pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding, to be performed on the program content being viewed. The processing unit in accordance with the invention causes a delivery of an appropriate version of the program content to meet such user requests.

Network based digital information and entertainment storage and delivery system

In delivering an entertainment program over a communications network, e.g., a cable TV network, interactive application data for realizing interactive features in the entertainment program are interjected into the program stream carrying the entertainment program on an as needed basis. Because the entire channel bandwidth is temporarily dedicated for transmission of the interactive application data, whose amount is relatively small compared with that of the video and audio data of the programming content, the interactive application data when transmitted appears as a short 'burst,' causing a virtually unnoticeable interruption in the programming content delivery.

Technique for delivering entertainment programming content including interactive features in a communications network

Systems and methods that divide the billing function of a billing system from the provisioning function of a service in digital cable systems. Because the billing system is only responsible for billing, rather than the provisioning of services, new services may be quickly added to cable systems without the time consuming and expensive task of configuring the billing system specifically for new services added to the system. The services are implemented using an offering package created by the service, where the offering package contains billing related information forwarded to the billing system to bill for the service.

Cable billing systems and methods enabling independence of service marketing and provisioning from billing and collection of revenue

A full service cable television system and method are provided. The system comprises a cable headend, at least one fiber transport, at least one distribution hub, at least one hybrid fiber coax plant, and a plurality of set-top terminals. The system delivers television programs, advanced cable services, and online services. Programs and services are transmitted to the set-top terminals in both digital and analog formats to maintain downward compatibility with existing systems. The set-top terminal includes a central processing unit, a unified memory architecture, a memory management unit, communications circuitry, I/O control circuitry, and audio and video output circuitry. Through these components, the set-top terminal provides advanced cable services such as a comprehensive channel navigator, an interactive program guide, impulse Pay-Per-View, Near-Video-On-Demand and Video-On-Demand programming, and advanced configuration controls. The set-top terminal also provides online services such as World Wide Web browsing, Internet e-mail, and home shopping.

Interactive television program guide display

Systems and methods facilitate the provisioning of a new service in a cable system without requiring that server hardware and/or software be changed to implement the service, or that an equivalent session manager be created in a set-top box. Session requests are generated at the STB and transmitted to the service, which then interprets the request, rather than forwarded from the STB to a server implementing the service, as in conventional systems. To effect the routing to the service the session request contains routing information. Servers facilitating the implementation of services do not know details about, or even the existence of, new services added to the system.

Systems and methods for establishing and administering sessions in digital cable systems

Growing community of inventors

Van Nuys, CA, United States of America

Joseph G Buehl