In recent years, digital video recorders have gained popularity because of the convenience these systems provide in viewing and recording television programs. Digital video recorders, or DVRs (also known as personal video recorders), integrated with electronic program guide data (EPG), provide consumers with a very convenient means of scheduling recordings in an interactive fashion, days or weeks ahead of time. EPGs are on-screen guides, which contain scheduling and programming information and are typically presented in the form of a user interface. Information about programs (e.g., program title, actors, synopsis, etc.) is provided to help the client decide which program to view or record. Consumers can now even schedule their digital video recorder to record every episode of a television series without having to manually program the system to record each episode. Furthermore, given the state of today's storage devices, consumers are no longer limited to recording just a few hours of television, as with video cassette recording. Consumers can now store many hours of content on their digital video recorders at a reasonable cost and build an archive for later viewing.
Given the increasing popularity of digital video recorders, it's not uncommon to find consumers with multiple digital video recorders in their homes. Furthermore, it's possible that a consumer might elect to receive content from multiple media providers. As an example, a television in the living room might receive content from a cable operator and be connected to a digital video recorder, such as the TIVO brand digital video recorder manufactured by TIVO. Electronic program guide data may be updated periodically via either cable signals or Internet signals. In another part of the house, another television might receive content from a satellite dish provider, which might furnish its own digital video recorder. In some instances a digital video recorder might even be integrated into the satellite receiver (e.g., the DISH NETWORK brand receiver/DVR). In yet another part of the house, a television might be set up to receive a high definition television signal and be connected to a digital video recorder.
One motivation for having multiple digital video recorders might be for the added convenience of having digital video recorders available in different parts of the house (e.g., the living room, the bedroom, etc.) while having a wide assortment of channels to select from. Another motivation for having multiple digital video recorders might be a desire to record two, three and perhaps even more programs showing in a given timeslot. With such potential scheduling conflicts, the consumer has to figure out which digital video recorder is available and then program each digital video recorder to record the desired program. Although a consumer might have the convenience of having multiple digital video recorders at home, each unit essentially operates as an independent unit if the electronic program guide on each digital video recorder is not from the same source. A consumer might also desire to view a previously recorded program. In the event that the consumer can't remember which digital video recorder the program is recorded on, the consumer has to go to each digital video recorder and search through its archive of recorded content to find the desired program. Furthermore, as the number of digital video recorders on a network grows, it becomes more challenging to monitor the status of each unit. For example, it would be useful to know the remaining storage capacity on a given unit so that a program scheduled to be recorded won't either be only partially recorded or be recorded over another previously recorded program due to lack of storage space. It would be useful to know in this scenario whether there is an alternate unit with more storage space capable of receiving and recording the same program.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which depicts a block diagram of a prior art setup for digital video recorders in a network environment. DVRs are connected to some type of content provider (e.g., a cable TV headend, a satellite signal, etc.) A person then accesses the EPG data to schedule recordings through an interactive user interface. As shown in FIG. 1, a consumer will, in some cases, have multiple DVRs in their home. Digital video recorder 1 (DVR1) 108, digital video recorder 2 (DVR2) 116, and digital video recorder 3 (DVR3) 120 might all be connected to a network 112. The network 112 might be any communications network, including the Internet. Program guide data servers 102, 104, which provide EPG data to the DVRs, reside at a remote location. A different program guide data server is accessed for each different service provider of EPG data. For example, DVR1 108 might receive content from a cable operator and receive EPG data from a TIVO server. DVR3 120 and DVR2 116, on the other hand, might receive content from a satellite service provider and receive EPG data from a TVGUIDE server. All of the DVRs have corresponding displays 106, 114, 118 and operate independently as stand alone units. In the event of a scheduling conflict, the user resorts to programming each DVR and manually in order to address any scheduling conflicts. For example, the user may wish to record a program on a particular DVR and find that another recording has already been scheduled for that same timeslot. The user then has to determine whether another DVR is available to record the program.
FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of a prior art setup where EPG data is downloaded by each digital video recorder from a respective program guide server. DVR1 108, which receives its EPG data from a different provider than DVR2 116, periodically downloads up-to-date program guide data 202 from program guide data server1 102. Likewise, DVR2 116 periodically downloads up-to-date program guide data 204 from program guide data server2 104. Upon a successful download, each DVR will contain the most current program guide data 206, 208. The two sets of EPG data are incompatible however, and therefore the DVRs 108, 116 can only operate independently.
Therefore, there exists a need, among others, for providing consumers with the ability to manage the resources of a plurality of digital video recorders from one central location, regardless of the electronic program guide format in order to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.