The present disclosure discloses a method, device, and system for controlling screen projection. The method comprises a first terminal acquiring a device list, wherein the device list includes identification information of a second terminal, and the second terminal is a terminal that accesses a same server as the first terminal; the first terminal receiving a selection instruction, wherein the selection instruction is used to select target identification information from the device list; the first terminal sending a screen projection control instruction to the server, wherein the screen projection control instruction includes target identification information, and the screen projection control instruction is forwarded to a target second terminal corresponding to the target identification information via the server, so as to control the target second terminal to project the screen to a first screen projection receiving end.

A method for controlling an operation of a target device using a plurality of input devices is disclosed. The method comprises: receiving from one of the plurality of the input devices a first operation instruction issued to the target device, with a first data format; recognizing the first operation instruction and the first data format; determining that the one of the plurality of the input devices is a first input device corresponding to the first data format; and providing to a user of the target device a recommendation for a second input device, a type of the second input device being different from a type of the first input device, when it is determined that a type of the first operation instruction is identical to a type of a second operation instruction received from the second input device earlier than the reception of the first operation instruction.

Systems and methods for providing blackout support in video mosaic environments are disclosed. In response to receiving a request for a video mosaic page, screen data, which may include blackout information, is received. The screen data identifies the video assets in the video mosaic page. A determination is made, based at least in part on the screen data, whether any video assets in the video mosaic page should be blacked out. Blacked out assets may be masked and their associated audio blocked. In addition, an overlay of options associated with the blacked out asset may be presented. The overlay may include options to substitute the blacked out asset with replacement content, search for similar content, or retrieve more information about the blackout.

In one aspect, the invention provides an interactive, multi-platform video network. In another aspect, the invention provides a dynamic scheduling method.

An interconnected architecture for set-top boxes (STBs) configured to facilitate media streaming in a network environment. In one embodiment, a data center associated with the network environment includes a control plane manager operative to receive and process media requests from a plurality of subscriber devices, each subscriber device comprising at least a media renderer and a user interface operative with a virtual STB hosted at the data center. One or more vSTBs associated with a plurality of subscribers may be hosted at the data center, which may be logically organized into a number of mesh architectures. The control plane manager is further operative to determine if a request from a subscriber device for a particular content is for content that already exists at one or more vSTBs hosted in the data center, and if so, select an optimal vSTB that already supports a stream of the requested particular content for effectuating a media session with the subscriber device.

A system and method are provided of minimizing network bandwidth used from an external network by client peers in a local network. The method can include the operation of organizing a plurality of clients each having media streamlets and a client parent in a structure within the local network. Mapping information propagates through the structure. The mapping information represents local streamlet locations as stored by the plurality of clients. Another operation is retrieving a local streamlet from a client identified in the mapping information as having the local streamlet for the requesting client.

A system is proposed for delivering video content to display devices using a cloud computing model. A plurality of independent physical computer systems cooperate to implement a virtual computer system (“cloud”) which receives media content from sources of media content, and delivers the media content selectively to video display devices. For each of a plurality of users of the virtual computer system, there is a corresponding process (“cloudclone”) running on the virtual computer system which coordinates the delivery of the content to one or more of the video display devices which are associated with the corresponding user. The cloudclone includes respective components for managing the transfer of media content to each of the video display devices associated with the user. This makes possible a straightforward way of migrating video sessions between the devices associated with the user, by changing the corresponding cloudclone. The cloud can also access pre-determined social relationships between the users, and use the actions of a first of the users, to control content delivered to the other user(s) with which the first user has a social relationship.

A method of sharing recording capability on a network, the network having a server supporting at least a recording DVR and a receiving DVR, the recording and receiving DVRs being in different households, the method comprising: (a) determining that the receiving DVR is unable to record the content at a certain time; and (b) identifying that the recording DVR is able to provide the receiving DVR with a recording of the content; (c) recording the content on the recording DVR at the certain time; and (d) transmitting the content from the recording DVR to the receiving DVR after the certain time.

The system (1) includes an application server system (AP system) (4) and a connection control system (3). Based on equipment specification information transmitted by user equipment (2), the connection control system (3) establishes connection between the AP system (4) and the user equipment (2). The AP system (4) receives a content delivery request transmitted by the user equipment (2) and containing information for identifying main content. The AP system (4) selects advertisement content based on advertisement selection information. The AP system (4) transmits information for specifying the selected advertisement content to the user equipment (2).

There is provided a method of allowing members of a television viewing household to create individual user profiles using a plurality of input devices, the method comprising: determining the context of a user enrollment session; using the context to adapt a user enrollment to minimize operations required to complete an enrollment of the user; and generating a user hierarchy based on relationships between a plurality of user profiles according to a relationship with a television distributor and relationships between the plurality of user profiles. There is also provided a method of allowing television (TV) distributor administrators to manage user profiles and user settings, the method comprising: enabling creation of at least one administrative user; enabling the at least one administrative user to perform at least one of managing, creating, and viewing user profiles created for TV viewing households according to an administrative level assigned to the at least one administrative user; and enabling the at least one administrative user to configure settings related to an enrollment of a user.