METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING TRICK PLAY FUNCTIONS IN DEVICES WITHOUT LOCAL STORAGE

摘要

Methods and apparatus for providing playback devices with trick play functionality are described. The system includes a playback device, e.g., without recording capability, and a gateway device with multiple tuner-demodulators and/or a cable modem and recording capability. During normal playback, in some embodiments, both the playback device and gateway receive content in parallel with the gateway recording content at the request of the playback device and supplying the content over the local network when a user of the playback device requests a trick play operation. A single gateway, with multiple tuner demodulator pairs and/or a cable modem, supports trick play functions. In some embodiments if the number of playback devices exceeds the number of tuner-demodulator pairs in the gateway, the playback device can stream content to the gateway for recording and to be returned via the local network in the event of a request for a trick play operation.

主权项

1. A method, the method comprising:
operating a playback device at the customer premise to receive content of a program via a first network; operating a device with recording capability to receive the content of the program in parallel with the receipt of the content by the playback device; operating the device with recording capability to store the content of the program; operating the playback device to receive content from the device with recording capability, said content being content of the program which was received and stored at the device with recording capability and which is being supplied by the device with recording capability to the playback device as part of a trick play operation; operating the playback device to monitor for a user command from a user input device indicating user desired change to a real time mode of playback operation or reaching of a live playback point, said live playback point being a current point at which program content is being supplied from a content source via the first network; and making a decision, based on network congestion, in response to the user command from the user input device indicating the user desired change to a real time mode of playback operation or in response to reaching of a live playback point, whether to switch to outputting program content of the program received at the playback device from the first network or to outputting program content being supplied by said device with recording capability.