Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Scott D Sanders

Daniel John Zigmond

Mark D Schwesinger

David Michael Miller

Kenneth Fern

Peter Sewall Ford

Walter VonKoch

Markham MacLin

Michael Patrick Hart

Jonathan Wilkins

Norman N Ng

Content recordation techniques are described. In an implementation, a method includes querying electronic program guide (EPG) data to determine if a content item described in a recording document is available for recording. If the content item is available, a reference is added to a recording list for causing recordation of the content item.

Content recordation techniques

Subject matter includes a search engine for electronic program guide (EPG) data and related methods. In an exemplary method, a text search string can be normalized into searchable terms and the terms interpreted as either text search terms or attribute search terms. One or more queries having search conditions of varying degrees of complexity are created according to the interpretation of the terms of the search string. One or more searches in EPG databases and/or web-resources are performed based on interpretation of the text and attribute terms and results are given a relevancy ranking according to the interpretation. The combined search results may be grouped, ranked, and filtered for display to the user. Results may also be displayed progressively as each character of a search string is entered by the user.

Free text and attribute searching of electronic program guide (EPG) data

A system and methods perform an automatic TV signal/tuner setup in a tuner device (e.g., a PC, a personal video recorder, a set-top box, etc.) that has one or more tuners. The setup identifies the number of tuners in the device, whether the tuners are analog or digital, and what broadcast standard each tuner supports. The geographic region in which the device will be receiving TV signals is identified, and tuners supporting that region are identified. Digital tuners are reported as being digital, while analog tuners are scanned to locate valid TV signals, and to determine the source of any valid TV signals (e.g., an antenna, a cable provider, a set-top box).

Automatic TV signal and tuner setup

A robust device messaging framework is disclosed that enables a user to send commands to a device. A provisioning service is used to provision unique device identities and maps user web identities to device identities. The provisioning service also limits device per day provisioning attempts to limit denial of service attacks. A command service allows remote users to issue commands to a device, synchronize outgoing commands with incoming results, receive accurate feedback about whether a command was received, and maintain state information about the device. A device layer encrypts and stores device identities, authenticates itself with the command service, establishes a high-availability Internet connection to receive alerts that a command has issued, and reports results to the server-based command service.

Remote command framework for devices

Described herein is an exemplary system and related methods for cross-file DVR record padding playback. The exemplary system can recover program fragments lost by intentionally or unintentionally padding programs during recording.

Cross-file DVR record padding playback

Override client version properties are used to selectively replace default client version properties of a web browser to obtain versions of web resources that are operational on the web browser. A client operating the web browser issues a request for content through a proxy server. Using an index, the proxy server determines whether the content is to be requested using an override client version property set. If so, the override client version property set is used to request the content form the web server and causes the web server to respond with content that has been designed or optimized for a web server other than the one operating on the client. Accordingly, the client can obtain fully functional and operational versions of the web resources using client version properties that are selected based on the capabilities of the web browser and the functionality available in different versions of individual web resources.

Growing community of inventors

Sammamish, WA, United States of America

Scott D Sanders