The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 01, 2000
Filed:
Jun. 24, 1996
Brian D Crites, Redmond, WA (US);
Edward J Praitis, Woodinville, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A network system includes one or more network servers and a plurality of available media streams. The media streams are formatted differently. Some are file-based streams, supplied by the network servers. Others are supplied by local tuners from digital and/or analog signal broadcasts. A network client executes an application program that is to control rendering of the media streams. Each media stream is represented by a programming object. Each programming object has identical interface functions that can be invoked by the application program to control playback of the different media streams even though such media streams are of different media types.