Systems and methods are disclosed for enabling Internet users to schedule recordings of electronic programming content. One method includes displaying on a web page, over the Internet, a user interface element associated with an advertisement for electronic programming content; wherein selection of the user interface element, by a user of a web browsing device, initiates a recording device of the user, separate from the web browsing device, to schedule a recording of the electronic programming content. Another method for enabling Internet users to request television content includes displaying on a web page, over the Internet, a user interface element associated with an advertisement for television content; wherein a user's selection of the user interface element initiates a request for the advertised television content from a carrier that provides television service to the user.

Methods and systems are provided for recording data in a network. A recording device may receive a recording instruction identifying a media content transmitted by an upstream media content server, and may offload recording one or more of a plurality of portions of the media content to one or more intermediate recording devices positioned between the recording device and the upstream media content server. Each portion of the media content may correspond to different portion of a transmission period associated with transmission of the media content, and may be assigned a corresponding recording control information configured based, at least in part, on one or more parameters associated with a network node recording or storing a corresponding one of the portions. Storage and retrieval of each of the portions of the media content may be managed based, at least in part, on the corresponding recording control information.

In some embodiments, an electronic device presents a plurality of representations of content items that are available on a respective channel in response to successfully subscribing the respective channel. In some embodiments, an electronic device plays content that is provided by a channel in a unified media browsing application. In some embodiments, an electronic device presents information about subscribing to a channel based on content consumption activity of the user on the electronic device in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

Embodiments include a system and method for monitoring and tracking consumption of digital content. The system comprises a viewer monitoring system coupled to a plurality of content providers via a network and further coupled to a plurality of users via user devices coupled to the network. A method includes a user downloading an application (app) using an API of the system, the user selecting content to view, and a biometric recognition module of the system determining whether the user is actually viewing the selected content.

Systems and methods are disclosed for enabling Internet users to schedule recordings of electronic programming content. One method includes displaying on a web page, over the Internet, a user interface element associated with an advertisement for electronic programming content; wherein selection of the user interface element, by a user of a web browsing device, initiates a recording device of the user, separate from the web browsing device, to schedule a recording of the electronic programming content. Another method for enabling Internet users to request television content includes displaying on a web page, over the Internet, a user interface element associated with an advertisement for television content; wherein a user's selection of the user interface element initiates a request for the advertised television content from a carrier that provides television service to the user.

Methods and systems are provided for recording data in a network used for transmission of the data. An arrangement of recording devices in the network may be used to record the data (e.g., media content) transmitted from a source (e.g., source media content server) on the network. The arrangement of recording devices comprises at least one local recording device and one or more upstream recording devices. The local recording device, when it is not possible or convenient to record the data or a part of the data during the time of transmission, is capable of issuing an upstream record instruction, thereby delegating the task of recording and/or storing the data or part of the data to an upstream recording device on the network. The upstream recording device may in turn, if necessary, delegate the recording and/or storage of all or part of the data to further upstream recording devices.

A media broadcasting method includes: receiving, by a server, a playing request transmitted by a terminal device, the playing request requesting to play media segments; querying, by the server, a segment index file of the media segments according to the playing request; determining, by the server, a target segment set according to the segment index file of the media segments, the target segment set comprising segments for which the terminal device has playing authority in the media segments; determining, by the server, a target segment index file corresponding to the target segment set; and transmitting, by the server, the target segment index file to the terminal device.

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing media content delivery. In some embodiments, a globally unique identifier (GUID) associated with a particular media content might be embedded in headers of packets of a transport stream of the media content. When the transport stream is received by a user device, the GUID might enable retrieval of the necessary metadata (and/or updates of metadata) for enabling presentation of the media content. Alternatively or additionally, ratings or similar information can likewise be embedded in the headers of packets or I-frames of the transport stream, which enables a user (e.g., parent) to easily block or skip objectionable content from children who may be present. Alternatively or additionally, the transport stream may be combined with auxiliary data streams containing metadata and other associated auxiliary content to create a combined transport stream, to ensure no lost or corrupted media content during transmission.

Novel tools and techniques are provided for implementing media content delivery. In some embodiments, a globally unique identifier (GUID) associated with a particular media content might be embedded in headers of packets of a transport stream of the media content. When the transport stream is received by a user device, the GUID might enable retrieval of the necessary metadata (and/or updates of metadata) for enabling presentation of the media content. Alternatively or additionally, ratings or similar information can likewise be embedded in the headers of packets or I-frames of the transport stream, which enables a user (e.g., parent) to easily block or skip objectionable content from children who may be present. Alternatively or additionally, the transport stream may be combined with auxiliary data streams containing metadata and other associated auxiliary content to create a combined transport stream, to ensure no lost or corrupted media content during transmission.

A tile selection and bandwidth optimization scheme for effectuating optimized 360 immersive video viewing experience. Stream manifest files describing characteristics of tile groupings per frame for each tile-encoded bitstream corresponding to a particular one of a plurality of bitrate representations of a media input stream are retrieved. Each bitrate representation is encoded having a separate video quality that is related to a corresponding QP value used for the bitrate representation. Each frame of a tile-encoded bitstream comprises an array of tiles, with a plurality of frames forming a GOP structure of the tile-encoded bitstream. Tile weights based on respective tile positions and variant weights corresponding to the plurality of tile-encoded bitstreams of the media input stream are used in determining adequacy metrics for each tile/GOP combination, based on which tiles having different bitrate qualities are selected from corresponding tile-coded bitstreams in an iterative process for effectuating knapsack optimization with respect to an overall bandwidth allocation.