Interactive television systems with digital video recording and adjustable reminders

摘要

An interactive television system is provided in which an interactive television application is used to support network-based or local personal video recorder capabilities. A user may use this application to view lists of program listings. The user may select a program listing of interest. The interactive television application may allow the user to set a reminder for the selected program at the scheduled broadcast time. This application may also allow the user to set a reminder for the selected program at a later time at which the program is not scheduled to be broadcast. The user may be provided with a reminder at this later time. In response, the user may direct the network-based or local personal video recorder to play back the program or may defer the reminder again. The interactive television application may collect information on program usage and popularity to determine how long to retain certain programming.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
storage circuitry for storing archived copies of videos; control circuitry configured to:
transmit a video to a plurality of user equipment, wherein the transmitting begins at a start time and ends at an end time;access a database to determine whether an archived copy corresponding to the video is available to a user after the start time;based on determining that the archived copy is available to the user after the start time, cause an indication corresponding to the archived copy to be displayed simultaneously with the video after a specified time after the start time but before the end time, wherein the specified time was configured prior to the start time;receive a user response to the indication that is displayed; andbased on the received user response, retrieve, from the storage circuitry, the archived copy.