A content delivery system comprising: a receiving module for receiving a media asset in a received format; a transcoder configured to transcode the asset to provide a predetermined number of transcoded versions of the asset in at least one consumption format; a data store for storing the predetermined number of transcoded versions; a transmitting module coupled to said data store and configured to retrieve one of the predetermined number of transcoded versions from the data store and transmit the retrieved transcoded version to a media consuming device in response to detecting selection of the media asset by a content consumer associated with the device; a media asset duplication module configured, in response to detecting transmission of each transcoded version of the predetermined number of transcoded versions to respective one or more media consuming devices, to create a duplicate of the transcoded version and store the duplicate in the data store.

A method begins by a storage unit of a dispersed storage network (DSN) executing transitioning storage of one or more groups of encoded data slices. The method continues while transitioning storage of the one or more groups of encoded data slices with the storage unit receiving a proxied data access request regarding an encoded data slice from another storage unit of the DSN. The method continues by the storage unit determining whether the other storage unit is an authentic storage unit of the DSN based on at least one of the encoded data slice, a previous version of the distributed agreement protocol, and a new version of the distributed agreement protocol. The method continues by when the other storage unit is the authentic storage unit, processing the proxied data access request to produce a data access response and sending the data access response to the other storage unit.

Described embodiments are directed to methods and apparatus for redirecting a client device to a selected streaming server in response to receiving a request for content. The streaming server to which the client is redirected can be selected based on one or more criteria such as streaming server loads (e.g. connection loads and processing loads) and content storage location, using a data structure stored at the redirection server.

Systems, devices, and methods for streaming or otherwise delivering media content over a network are provided. One exemplary method of streaming media content over a network using a RS-DVR system involves receiving, at the RS-DVR system, a request for a portion of the media content from a media player on a client device via the network, receiving, at the RS-DVR system, the portion of the media content from an origin server on the network, buffering the portion of the media content at the RS-DVR system, and transmitting the portion of the media content to the media player on the client device. The portion of media content may be transmitted using a modified transport layer protocol, and in some embodiments, marked as non-cacheable.

The present application discloses a streaming media data processing method, including: receiving streaming media data, initializing a storage file and a storage queue according to a header data packet of the streaming media data, and starting a first thread to receive an enqueuing operation; starting a second thread and establishing a message channel to read a streaming media data packet from the storage queue for parsing, and adding the parsed streaming media data packet into the message channel in the form of a message; starting a third thread to read the message from the message channel and encapsulating the message according to preset requirements so as to store the message on a disk; determining a target pull server corresponding to the streaming media data and publishing the streaming media data to the target pull server.

Semantic data corresponding to video data may be received. Next, the received semantic data corresponding to the video data may be analyzed. Caching decisions may then be made based upon the analysis of the received semantic data corresponding to the video data.

A method for selecting a substantially optimized scheduler from a plurality of schedulers for executing dispersed storage error functions on a distributed storage network begins with a computing device receiving a dispersed storage error functions along with an indication of measured throughput and measured latency from a requesting device. The method resumes when a scheduler is selected from the plurality of schedulers based on desired latency and throughput, while considering the characteristics of the dispersed error function being executed. The method continues with the computing device receiving a different dispersed error function and selecting a different scheduler.

A first computing device may receive an indication of a second computing device. The first computing device may determine a continuity element based on a continuity between a representation of a content item located at the first computing device and a representation of the content item located at the second computing device. The first computing device may generate a data file associated with the content item. The data file may include a reference to the second computing device and the continuity element. The first computing device may receive a request for the content item from a user device. The first computing device may send the data file to the first computing device.

Systems and methods for managing the storage and delivery of recorded content in a network digital video recorder (DVR) system are disclosed. A plurality of requests to record a program may be received, wherein the program may comprise a plurality of segments. A segment from the plurality of segments may be determined to be copied to a first storage. A copy of the segment may be received from a second storage and a plurality of copies of the segment may be created in the first storage from the copy of the segment received from the second storage. The quantity of the plurality of copies of the segment may be equal to the quantity of the plurality of requests to record the program.

Methods and apparatus for supporting content delivery service are described. In accordance with the invention content can be supplied to temporary storage of a regional or local server used to supply the content to a customer's premises when the requested content is not already available in the regional or local server. A content server hierarchy may be implemented with servers higher up in the hierarchy including more content, e.g., titles, than the number of titles stored in the lower level servers. By storing less frequently accessed content in servers higher in the hierarchy and frequently requested titles lower in the hierarchy, a vast number of titles can be supported without overburdening the storage available at local and regional servers. In addition, a national or other server high in the hierarchy can be used to store, move, and distribute local or other content as part of an on demand service.