Patent ID: 7865467
Filing Date: 2011-01-04
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of grouping program meta-data which relates to a plurality of programs, the method comprising: scanning the program meta-data to determine program instances which have substantially equal meta-data; grouping the program meta-data into groups so that each group refers to a set of program instances that have substantially equal meta-data, each set of program instances comprising at least one program instance; and so that meta-data associated with any one group is different from meta-data associated with every other group; assigning each group a unique program identifier, thereby producing a set of program identifiers; grouping the program meta-data by time windows to produce a set of time-window identifiers in which each time-window identifier is associated with at least one of the time windows; placing the program meta-data in virtual containers; and associating each virtual container with at least one program identifier from the set of program identifiers, and associating each virtual container with one time-window identifier from the set of time-window identifiers; transmitting the virtual containers, the set of program identifiers, and the set of time-window identifiers; wherein the transmitting comprises conveying the virtual containers, the set of program identifiers, and the set of time-window identifiers in at least one PID (Packet Identification) stream.