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. According to this invention, a remote personal TV service center provides centralized program guide information. A user may access to 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 to 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 in case of local programming, or using a similar GUI which is incorporated into the Web pages presented to remote users by a Web server in case of remote programming. The media stream stored in one digital video recorder may be transferred to another digital video recorder. For data security protection during data transfer, all communication are authenticated and encrypted.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
sending, from a first multimedia playback device, a particular multimedia program to a second multimedia playback device, the second multimedia playback device being configured to, responsive to the sending, store the complete sent particular multimedia program at the second multimedia playback device; during playback of the particular multimedia program at the first multimedia playback device, receiving input indicating a trick-play action to perform with respect to the playback of the particular multimedia program; based on the input, the first multimedia playback device causing the second multimedia playback device to perform the trick-play action during playback of the particular multimedia program at the second multimedia playback device, the playback of the particular multimedia program at the second multimedia playback device being synchronized with playback of the particular multimedia program at the first multimedia playback device; during playback of the particular multimedia program, overlaying a chat program over the particular multimedia program, the chat program displaying comments at least from a first viewer of the first multimedia playback device and from a second viewer of the second multimedia playback device, the comments having been entered in the chat program during the synchronized playback; wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.