Personal video recorder systems and methods

摘要

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing an interactive television system for recording television programming. The interactive television system may include components for providing personal video recorder (PVR) functionality, such as an interactive television program guide (IPG), PVR extensions, PVR application programming interfaces (APIs), a PVR device, any suitable hardware or software, or a combination thereof. These components may be implemented in, for example, an arrangement having an integrated PVR-compliant device with a PVR device, or in an arrangement having a PVR-compliant device (e.g., a set-top box) coupled to PVR equipment (e.g., a remote PVR server or a PVR sidecar) with a PVR device. The PVR-compliant device may include software and hardware configured to implement the IPG. The PVR APIs may be a library of intelligent vendor-specific and vendor-independent APIs able to determine the type of PVR device being used. The PVR extensions and PVR APIs may be configured to provide a seamless integration of functionality associated with the PVR-compliant device and the PVR device. A full port of the IPG may be implemented in both the PVR-compliant device and the PVR device.

主权项

1. A method for operating a personal video recorder compliant device, the method comprising:
detecting, using a processor, a coupling of a personal video recorder device to the personal video recorder compliant device; determining, using the processor, a type of the personal video recorder device being used from a plurality of compatible types of personal video recorder devices based on information received from the personal video recorder device; and selecting, using the processor, a communication method for communicating with the personal video recorder device, from a plurality of available communication methods, based on the determined type of the personal video recorder device.