| 摘要 |
A digital video storage system, suitable for use within a movie-on-demand (MOD) system, includes a plurality of disk drive storage devices; the disk drives being connected together serially to form a loop, wherein each disk drive within the loop has an input for receiving digital video data for storage and an output for providing stored digital video data, the output of each disk drive being connected to the input of the succeeding disk drive in the loop. Successive segments of a video program, stored on successive disk drives in the loop, are each repeatedly moved at a predefined time interval from the disk drive on which the segments are currently stored to the succeeding disk drive in the loop. A plurality of taps are connected to the loop to provide connection points for MOD subscribers or viewers for receiving the video program from the loop. Each tap corresponds to the output of one of the plurality of disk drives. During operation, the video program is provided at each tap, however at any instant each tap is providing a different segment of the video program. The system also includes means for changing the tap to which a MOD subscriber or viewer is connected in response to a request received from the viewer. This feature allows the MOD subscriber to pause, play, or to jump forward or backward in time to the beginning of any movie segment, simulating the operation of a VCR or video disk player.
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