Utilizing a Replacement Pathway for Lost Packet Delivery During Media Reception in a Set-Top Box (STB)

摘要

A replacement pathway in an STB is utilized to determine loss of packets and delivery error during reception of media broadcasts, and to retrieve replacement data from one or more replacement media servers. The retrieval of the replacement data is performed during playback of the received media broadcasts. The communication of media broadcast incorporates delays to accommodate the retrieval of replacement data. Alternatively, received broadcast media streams are buffered to enable retrieval of replacement data and to provide seamless presentation of media content in the media broadcasts. The replacement media server performs access authentication operations during replacement data retrieval. The replacement media server is accessed via markup language, for example, HTML and/or XML, based interfaces and/or dedicated APIs. The replacement media server may deny replacement data based on plurality of service criteria such as acceptance and denial criteria, which may comprise allowable bandwidth and/or error rates.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
at a data processing device,
receiving a stream of data from a source over a network, the stream of data defining media content to be displayed to a user;storing the data defining the media content in a media queue memory to buffer the stream of data during display of the media content to the user;providing the data defining the media content from the media queue memory to a playback device for display to the user;while providing the data defining the media content, determining an occurrence of an interruption in the stream of data from the source over the network;while providing the data to the playback device for display to the user,
transmitting to a remote server different from the source a request for replacement data to replace the interruption in the stream of data;receiving the replacement data; andcombining the replacement data with error-free portions of the stored data defining the media content in the media queue memory to replace the interruption in the stream of data so that the display to the user is not interrupted.