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:
Dec. 02, 2014
Filed:
Apr. 01, 2009
Keith Millar, Haywards Heath, GB;
Keith Millar, Haywards Heath, GB;
Cisco Technology Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of content sub-item substitution is described. The method includes: receiving from a headend a description of a plurality of virtual channels, the description defining each virtual channel on the basis of one or more metadata attributes associated with that virtual channel; receiving one or more content sub-item substitution opportunities for each virtual channel, each content sub-item substitution opportunity specifying one or more content sub-items for use in the content sub-item substitution; and receiving and recording a content item, the content item including metadata associated with the content item and one or more substitutable content sub-items. The method further includes, upon playback () of a previously recorded content item: matching the metadata associated with the previously recorded content item with the one or more metadata attributes, thereby determining a virtual channel () valid for the previously recorded content item; selecting a content sub-item substitution opportunity () based on the determined virtual channel; and substituting the one or more substitutable content sub-items () with content sub-items specified in the selected content sub-item substitution opportunity. Related apparatus and methods are also disclosed.