The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) guidelines describe a home entertainment protocol permitting seamless sharing of digital media content, such as photographs, music, and video, between many different diverse electronic devices interconnected via a home or other network. The network may be a local area network (LAN) or any other local or remote network on which a DLNA system can function and reside.
DLNA networks utilize standardized interaction between devices such that the devices are interoperable and such that communication between the devices is transparent to the user. For example, Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a protocol that enables the discovery and control configuration of other devices in the DLNA network. UPnP uses peer-to-peer network topology where devices discover each other and use a common mechanism which allows exchange of IP packets to communicate their status and abilities to each other.
Accordingly, DLNA and UPnP provide standards for controlling the sharing of media content between electronic devices such as consumer electronic devices (HDTVs, home theater systems, home music systems, set-top boxes, game consoles, digital photo frames, appliances, etc.), computer related devices (desktop computers, laptop computers, cable/Internet modems, home gateways, routers, etc.), and mobile devices (hand-held devices, mobile phones, communication devices, digital cameras, MP3 players, etc.). These standards enable digital media content stored on, or acquired by, one electronic device on the network to be shared by and played on other electronic devices within the home so that a user can access digital media on any of the electronic devices within the home at any location within the home at any time.
Simply for purposes of example, a so-called DLNA “ecosystem” can be constructed of devices from various diverse types of categories, such as Digital Media Server (DMS), Digital Media Player (DMP), Digital Media Renderer (DMR), Digital Media Controller (DMC), Mobile Digital Media Uploader (M-DMU), Mobile Digital Media Downloader (M-DMD) and Media Interoperability Unit (MIU) to name a few. A DMS is a component capable of acquiring, recording, storing and sourcing digital media content (for instance, a set-top box, PC Server, etc.); a DMP is a component capable of finding and acquiring media from a DMS and playing the media (for instance, a high definition television); a DMR has the ability to display content provided to it by another device (i.e., a passive DMP); and a DMC is a component that initiates activities as a third-party controller, for instance, to start a display of media from a DMS to a DMR. A M-DMU is a mobile device that sends content to the server (for instance, a digital camera or camcorder); a M-DMD is a mobile device that receivers content from the server (for instance, a hand held device with a display screen); and a MIU is a component of the DLNA that provides media content format conversions between the various home network devices and mobile devices.
In such a network, many devices may contain various types of content to which other devices may desire access. For the user to access content, the user must be able to browse the objects stored on a DMS, select a specific one, and cause it to be “played” on an appropriate rendering device. A user will typically initiate such operations from a variety of user interface (UI) devices. In most cases, the UI device will either be a UI built into a rendering device or a stand-alone UI device, such as a wireless PDA or tablet. In this case, the user is not required to interact directly with the device (DMS) containing the content.
The Content Directory Service (CDS) provides a uniform standard for UI devices to browse content on a DMS and to obtain detailed information about individual content objects that can be provided by the DMS. Thus, the CDS provides a lookup service that allows clients (devices) to locate individual objects that a DMS is capable of providing. For example, this service can be used to enumerate a list of songs stored on an MP3 player, a list of still-images comprising various slide-shows, a list of movies stored in a DVR, a list of TV shows currently being broadcast, and the like.
Accordingly, within the context of DLNA/UPnP specifications, the DMS (Digital Media Server) acts as a repository for various types of media content and will typically support Content Directory Service (CDS) which is an open standard that specifies the definition, classification and advertisement of such content over the network. These specifications, however, fail to provide any guidance as to when the DMS should exercise control over what content a specific client requesting such information should have visibility over via the CDS and what content should be capable of being accessed by the specific client and to what extent. The reason for this omission is believed to be that the above referenced specifications evolved from a general need to allow plug and play of different media content among different devices in which the ownership of the content and the associated entitlements across the various devices was not considered essential. For instance, user-owned content, in most cases, may be available to the user on any appropriate device.
In contrast, in a typical MVP (Multiple Video Provider) domain, part of the devices in the Customer Premises are not truly retail, and owned by the customer; rather, some devices may be leased to the customer by the MVP. As a typical example, a set-top box or digital recording device acting as a DMS (a server device, or server) may be leased from the service provide or MVP. In addition, the stored content in such server devices may include user-generated and hence user-owned content as well as other content that is provided by the MVP as part of the service or subscription and that is not owned by the user. Typically, content provided by the MVP will be stored in the DMS in an encrypted manner. An example is a DVR recording of a HD movie delivered by the MVP. As another example, live (un-recorded) content available to the DMS or server device via QAM, Internet, or other networking methods may also potentially be made available for retransmission on a home network to a client device.
A need exists for a mechanism or framework that enables the MVP (Multi Video Provider) and/or the user to exercise at least some degree of control over allowing participation and access of content, and furthermore, the extent of the participation and access, of MVP-managed and non-managed devices in the home DLNA network.