Feature activation on occurrence of an event

摘要

A cable provider could offer a promotional feature, such as live pause of video, above and beyond a tier of service to which the customer subscribes, limiting the feature to being activated only upon occurrence of one or more events. In a network video delivery context, a set-top box plays live video, including an ability to pause live video upon the occurrence of an event. The system can detect an event, including an event unrelated to video, and prompt a user to pause. The system can include configuration settings enabling, for example, detection of various events, prompting the user to pause live video, and/or automatically pausing the live video. The system enables the user to play a time-shifted video corresponding to resuming the paused video playback. The system can include a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) local to the user, to facilitate the time-shifted video. The system is also compatible with a RS-DVR, where DVR functionality and time-shifted video is provided remotely from a head-end of a network video system. Additionally, the system is compatible with non-DVR network video delivery systems configured to provide live pause.

主权项

1. A method for pausing live video on an occurrence of an event, the method comprising:
determining, by a set top box, whether the event corresponds to a first class of events or a second class of events; prompting, by the set top box, for a first input responsive to the event using a pause prompt that is overlaid on the live video for a first configurable duration when the event corresponds to the first class of events, the pause prompt including information relating to the event; pausing the live video responsive to the first input being received within the first configurable duration or proceeding to play the live video when the first input was not received within the first configurable duration; automatically pausing, without any input, the live video when the event corresponds to the second class of events; prompting, by the set top box, for a second input, subsequent to pausing the live video, to play a time-shifted video of the live video using a resume prompt that is displayed for a second configurable duration; and playing the time-shifted video responsive to the second input being received within the second configurable duration or resuming playing of the live video when the second input was not received within the second configurable duration, the live video being skipped ahead to an instance in time corresponding to the second configurable duration.