An interactive television program guide system is provided in which a viewer may direct a television to simultaneously display a selected television program and a program guide display. A viewer may use the program guide display to browse available video-on-demand (VOD) while continuing to view a previously selected program in the background. The viewer may browse through video-on-demand programs on the program guide display using a variety of keys on a remote control unit. The viewer may direct the program guide to order a given video-on-demand program/and set a desired broadcast time for that program.

A media switch enables a terminal to access content by receiving a content request from a terminal for a first piece of content to be distributed over a cable system, identifying.sup., a personal channel within resources available in the cable system to distribute the first piece of content to the terminal, transmitting access information to the terminal to enable the terminal to access the first piece of content through the personal channel, and interfacing with a cable headend to provide the first piece of content on the personal channel.

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.

A production facility receives program content from a plurality of broadcast feeds over the Internet. In an embodiment, the production facility comprises server on a computer network, such as the Internet. The server comprises computer programs configured to manipulate the audio and video data of the multiple program contents. At the production facility, the program content can be manipulated to produce a production. Program manipulation can comprise at least one of green screen technology, music, graphics, Foley, sound effects, voice over, advertising, or the like. The production is broadcast over the computer network to viewers, where the viewers receive the production. In an embodiment, the production is customized based on the viewers' input received while broadcasting. In other words, the production is customized in real time based at least in part on the interaction of the production with the viewers. In another embodiment, the viewers can further manipulate the program content of the production to create a new production, which can be broadcast over the customized programming system.

An information processing apparatus that can communicate with plural content viewing apparatuses includes a group registering unit that registers users of the content viewing apparatuses in groups, a sharing-level setting unit that sets sharing level information representing an information sharing level among users belonging to an identical group, a viewing-information receiving unit that receives viewing information of the users, a user-viewing-content managing unit that manages a user viewing content database, a discriminating unit that discriminates, when a viewing information request of another user is received, the other users belonging to a group identical with a group to which the user of the content viewing apparatus at the request source belongs, an information extracting unit that extracts viewing information of the discriminated other users from the user viewing content database, and a viewing-information transmitting unit that transmits the viewing information to the content viewing apparatus at the request source.

An information processing apparatus that can communicate with plural content viewing apparatuses includes a group registering unit that registers users of the content viewing apparatuses in groups, a sharing-level setting unit that sets sharing level information representing an information sharing level among users belonging to an identical group, a viewing-information receiving unit that receives viewing information of the users, a user-viewing-content managing unit that manages a user viewing content database, a discriminating unit that discriminates, when a viewing information request of another user is received, the other users belonging to a group identical with a group to which the user of the content viewing apparatus at the request source belongs, an information extracting unit that extracts viewing information of the discriminated other users from the user viewing content database, and a viewing-information transmitting unit that transmits the viewing information to the content viewing apparatus at the request source.

A method includes storing multicast transmission data at a peer-to-peer server. The multicast transmission data indicates multicast groups to which network elements are joined. The method includes receiving, at the peer-to-peer server from a first network element, a request related to a previously sent data packet of media content. The method includes determining, at the peer-to-peer server, whether a second network element can be identified, where the second network element was joined to a multicast group associated with the media content when the previously sent data packet was sent. The method also includes, in response to identifying the second network element, sending information identifying the second network element from the peer-to-peer server to the first network element.

An objective of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for video transmission, wherein the video is initially stored in one or more other network devices. The method comprises receiving a second request for a video from a user equipment; forwarding the second request to other network device corresponding to the second request; determining a manner of obtaining the video based on a response, received from the other network device, to the second request; and transmitting the video obtained based on the manner of obtaining the video to the user equipment. Compared with the prior art, by uniformly determining a manner of obtaining a video and transmitting the obtained video to the user equipment the present invention, the present invent on lowers deployment difficulty, reduces bandwidth resource demands, and enhances the video sharing degree.

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.

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.