Content synchronization techniques

摘要

Techniques are disclosed that involve copying recorded content from a host device (e.g., a PVR) to a portable device. A storage medium within the portable device may include a portion that is assigned to store desired content received from the host device. Allocation of this portion may be based on a user selection. In embodiments, content may be automatically copied (“synchronized”) from the host device to the portable device. This copying may be based on various factors, such as previous synchronization and/or outputting activities.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving information at a host from a device through a communications interface module regarding available storage capacity of the device for content; receiving information at the host from the device through the communications interface module regarding previous activity of a user of the device; making one or more inferences using combined and weighted heuristics regarding content that the user of the device would prefer to receive based on the received information; automatically predictively selecting at the host content for consumption by the user of the device based at least on the inferences; sending the content selections to a storage management module; receiving the content selections and generating storage directives based on the content selections to send to a receiver to instruct the receiver to obtain the selected content, the storage directives specifying reception parameters to be used by the receiver to obtain the selected content; determining that the device is available for synchronization; sending a deletion directive to the communications interface module to instruct the device to delete content previously provided to the device for storage by the device based on the received available content storage capacity and the content selections; and sending a delivery directive to the communications interface module to provide the selected content to the device for storage on the device when the device is available.