A method and apparatus for secure transfer and playback of multimedia content enables the secure transfer of multimedia content from a digital video recorder (DVR) to a personal computer (PC) and further to a handheld device. A DVR determines which devices on a Local Area Network (LAN) are authorized to share and/or retrieve content from the DVR. The DVR receives a connection request from a PC on the LAN, authorizes the connection request and establishes a secure connection between the DVR and the PC. Once the secure connection is established, the DVR receives a request for multimedia content from the PC, prepares the multimedia content for transfer and transfers the multimedia content to the PC.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses for content deliver, buffer management and synchronization are described herein. Content being played back on a playback platform is analyzed and based on the analysis, asynchronous playback of the content may be determined. A source buffer flush may be performed to correct the asynchronous playback. After the source buffer flush is performed, content segments may be written to the source buffer so that playback of the content on the playback platform resumes with synchronized audio and video.

Methods and apparatus are described for making broadcast content available as an on-demand asset soon after all of the video fragments of the broadcast content have been made available. As the video fragments of the broadcast content are made available, they are requested and archived. When all of the fragments for the duration of the broadcast content are available (e.g., a live event ends), a VOD-style manifest is generated and the archived fragments are made available for downloading or streaming using the VOD-style manifest.

In some implementations, a device may provide content received via a quadrature amplitude modulation channel. The device may receive supplemental content information regarding supplemental content to be provided during a period of time associated with providing the content, wherein the supplemental content information includes a uniform resource locator (URL) identifying a location of the supplemental content and start time information identifying a time when the supplemental content is to be provided. The device may obtain the supplemental content using the URL. The device may transition, from providing the content, to providing the supplemental content based on the start time information. The device may transition, from providing the supplemental content, to providing the content after providing the supplemental content.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, receiving, for a selected channel, a first video; processing the first video for rendering on a display being viewed by a user; selecting from among a plurality of channels a subset of channels for which to pre-fetch data, the selecting being according to predictions that each channel of the subset of channels is more likely to be requested by the user than each channel of the plurality of channels that is not part of the subset; prioritizing the subset of channels such that a first channel of the subset of channels has a priority over a second channel of the subset of channels, the first channel being given the priority based upon a prediction that the first channel is more likely to be requested by the user than the second channel; pre-fetching, for the first channel, first data of a first type and second data of a second type; and pre-fetching, for the second channel, third data of the first type without pre-fetching any data of the second type. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Methods, systems, and computer-readable media for secure offline transmission of a plurality of data segments from a sending device to one or more receiving devices. The sending device and the one or more receiving devices may communicate via an offline local network. A secure, encrypted container may be created at the receiving device to temporarily cache the received data segments one at a time and the encrypted storage container prevents access by one or more applications of the receiving device to data stored therein based on storage instructions from the sending device. The encrypted container may be configured to store the data segments such that less than all of the data segments are stored at the receiving device at any one time.

An electronic device associated with a media-providing service receives a first media item and a request, from a second device, for playback of the first media content item. The electronic device determines an insertion time within the first media content item for inserting a second media content item, and generates a queue indicating an order in which a first, second, and third file are to be provided. The first file corresponds to a portion of the first media content item from a start of the first media content item until the insertion time, the second file corresponds to the second media content item, and the third file corresponds to a portion of the first media content item starting at the insertion time. The electronic device generates the files, and queues the second electronic device to play back the first, second, and the third files in accordance with the queue.

A system and method of operating a content distribution system includes generating a first request for first content by a first user device. Based on the first request for the first content, the first content is pre-positioned by communicating the first content to a downstream storage device closer to a second user device without communicating the first content to the first user device using the downstream storage device; and storing the first content in the downstream storage device as pre-positioned content. The method further includes communicating the first content to the second user device from the downstream storage device.

The present invention refers to the field of television experience in particular the simultaneous use of the portable computing device and a television to share a user's experience. The present disclosure proposes a method to create a snapshot from a video transmission received by a receiver, said receiver being connected with a portable computing device and having a screen output, said method comprising the steps of receiving a video transmission by the receiver, converting by the receiver, the video transmission into a lower-bandwidth video transmission, sending the lower-bandwidth video transmission to the portable computing device, receiving from the portable computing device to the receiver, a command to execute a snapshot, producing by the receiver a snapshot from the video transmission, sending the snapshot to the portable computing device.

A data processing method is applied to a digital interface, which includes: reading data cached by a data source, where the data source includes a video source and an auxiliary data source; outputting video data, if the video data cached by the video source is not empty, where when the video data is output, corresponding position marks are at start and end positions of a frame structure of the video data and at start and end positions of a row structure of the video data; and outputting auxiliary data, if the video data cached by the video source is empty, the auxiliary data cached by the auxiliary data source is not empty and the frame structure or the row structure of the video data has been output, where when the auxiliary data is output, corresponding position marks are at a start position and an end position of the auxiliary data.