An example process includes: storing a profile of a user of an interactive video system; receiving a selection from a computing device of the user to watch a channel of video that is available through the interactive video system; adding, based on the selection, at least some of the identifying information to a data structure; identifying, based on the data structure, a group of users, which includes the user, who are watching the channel of video during a same time period; generating data representing graphical objects associated with the users in the group who are watching the channel of video during the same time period and available to interact via the interactive video system; and outputting the data to the video device of the user to enable rendering the graphical objects on a display screen of the video device.

Media, methods, and systems are disclosed for processing composite streaming video in connection with a centralized service. A request is received to initiate mixing a composite video live stream having a constituent stream quantity, one or more streaming video assets, and one or more media providers. If needed, one or more subsequent media servers are provisioned. The one or more constituent video streams and the one or more streaming video assets are received at a mixing server. The composite video live stream is rendered based thereon. The rendered composite video live stream is encoded into a standardized encoded video stream, which may be stored in one or more shared memories. The standardized encoded video stream is encoded into a provider-specific encoded media stream, which is then transmitted to a corresponding media provider.

A network editor comprises a central location with stored videos such as movies that can be edited by editors at remote locations. An editor receives a representation of a video and specifies edits relative to the representation, enabling the editor to use a device lacking sufficient processing capability to edit the video directly, and also reducing the volume of information transmitted between the central location and the remote editor. The central location is able to provide the edited movie in a format suitable to the display capabilities of the viewing device of the viewer requesting the edited video.

An ad in a movie can be a static ad having a position in the movie that cannot be moved, or a dynamic ad having a position in the movie that can be changed. When a viewer wishes to skip a portion of the movie containing the ad, the playback system determines whether the ad is static or dynamic. If the ad is static, only the portion of the movie preceding the static ad can be skipped; the ad is unskippable. This technique is referred to as “bounceback” since the end of the skip bounces back to the start of the static ad. If the ad is dynamic, it is moved to after the end of the skip. This technique is referred to as “slip-ad” since the ad slips to later in the movie. When a movie has multiple ads, some can be static and some can be dynamic.

Techniques for neutralizing malicious malware embedded in a media item being sent to a user equipment (UE) are discussed herein. A network device may receive (e.g., intercept) a medial file in transit via a wireless communication network being sent to a UE. The media file may include some type of perceptible content (e.g., audio, video, image data, etc.) as well as malware embedded in the media file. The network device may generate a transcoded media file based on the received media file that includes the perceptible content while neutralizing the malware.

A system and method for a live streaming platform that can redundantly process input streams in parallel ingestion pipelines is disclosed herein. Ingested input streams in the parallel pipelines can be segmented using a segmentation function that creates identical segments in each of the streams in the pipelines. If errors occur, or there are disruptions in one or more of the input streams or pipelines, the live streaming platform can ensure that segments are identifiable and different parts of the pipelines can join a main stream at different points in time without disruption.

Apparatus and methods for the storage and delivery of content over a network. In one embodiment, the network comprises a managed content distribution network, and the apparatus comprises a “cloud” digital video recorder (cDVR) server which stores, processes and assembles content prior to its delivery in a way that obviates superfluous storage, and gains significant network efficiencies. This approach also facilitates various pre-streaming processing in the video recording (e.g., cDVR) system. One or more content libraries adapted to facilitate cDVR content assembly and access are also disclosed. Secondary content (e.g., promotions, advertisements, etc.) can also be selectively inserted into cDVR content. Various access, business or operational rules and methods implementing the foregoing are also described.

Methods and systems are provided for streaming a media asset with an adaptive bitrate transcoder. A server receives, from a client device, a first request for a first portion of the plurality of portions to be transcoded at a first bitrate. The server then starts to transcode the plurality of portions at the requested first bitrate to generate a plurality of corresponding transcoded portions. The server updates a header of a transcoded portion to include: 1) a transcode latency value; and 2) a count value indicating a number of available pre-transcoded portions of the media asset at the time the first request was received. The server then transmits the transcoded portion to the client. The client device then determines a second bitrate based on the transcode latency value included in the header of the transcoded portion corresponding to the first portion.

A smart casting device includes a broadcast hardware interface coupled to one or more external program material sources, a network controller coupled to one or more digital devices through a network, a service logic controller configured to control the broadcast hardware interface and the network controller to advertise identified ones of the one or more external program material sources to the one or more digital devices, convey, to one or more service providers accessible through the identified external program material sources, subscriptions from the one or more digital devices for program services, and in response to the subscriptions, receive the program services from the one or more service providers and provide the received program services to the one or more subscribing digital devices.

The present invention seeks to provide an improved file system that provides essence data for a media file in a way that does not require the contents of the entire file to be available before any file data can be provided. The present invention is reflected in a method of providing file data for a media file of a pre-determined format from a file system comprising a file record database and a data store, wherein the media file corresponds to a programme. The method comprises the steps of receiving details of the programme including the duration of the programme, and determining the layout of the media file in the pre-determined format from the received details of the programme, the layout including locations for essence data within the file. A file record for the media file is then created in the file record database. In response to a request for the location of essence data within the file, a location given by the determined layout of the media file is returned. Further, a stream of essence data corresponding to the contents of the programme is received and the received essence data is stored in the data store. In response to a request for a portion of essence data from the media file corresponding to a time period of the programme, essence data derived from the received essence data is returned according to the determined layout of the media file.