System And Method For Internet Access To A Personal Television Service

摘要

A communication system and a family of methods for remote access to personal television service are disclosed. A remote personal TV service center provides centralized program guide information. A user may access the personal TV service center through a digital video recorder which is connected to the personal TV service center via telephone modem or a network server. A user may access the personal TV service center through a remote computer terminal or a personal digital assistant which is connected to a computer network. The user selects program events and programs the digital video recorder by using a graphical user interface installed in the front panel of the digital video recorder, or using a similar GUI incorporated into the Web pages presented to remote users by a Web server. The media stream stored in one digital video recorder may be transferred to another digital video recorder.

主权项

1. A method for using personal TV service by transferring data from a home digital video recorder to a portable digital video recorder, comprising:
transferring media stream from said home digital video recorder to said portable digital video recorder; and operating said portable digital video recorder any where; wherein said media stream is stored in a disk of a battery driven device in said portable digital video recorder; wherein said media stream comprises content itself and associated service data; wherein said associated service data comprises a database object and other forms of data that enable said portable digital video recorder to operate independently of said personal TV service center; and wherein said database object provides descriptive information about said content.