Patent ID: 9106943
Filing Date: 2015-08-11
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: delivering media content from a head end facility comprising a cable modem termination system to a plurality of user devices in a media distribution network; receiving, at the head end facility, a notification from a first user device in the media distribution network, the notification including information indicating recording of a broadcast program included in the media content at the first user device; receiving, at the head end facility, notifications from a plurality of user devices indicating that digital data for the recorded broadcast program is available for upload from each of the plurality of user devices; determining, at the head end facility, that digital data for the recorded program has not already been uploaded to the head end facility; dividing, at the head end facility, the recorded broadcast program into plurality of segments; assigning, at the head end facility, a segment of the recorded broadcast program to each of the plurality of user devices for upload of the respective segment from the corresponding user device to the head end facility; sending a notification from the head end facility to each of the plurality of user devices to schedule a time for uploading the respective segment of the recorded broadcast program from the corresponding user device, wherein each notification indicates parameters describing the segment to be uploaded by the corresponding user device; receiving the digital data for the respective segments of the recorded program at the head end facility from the corresponding user devices at the scheduled times; storing the digital data for the recorded program at the head end facility; at the head end facility, decrypting, transcoding and re-encrypting the digital data received from the corresponding user devices for use by different types of user devices supported by the media distribution network to produce re-encrypted digital data; and sending the re-encrypted digital data from the head end facility to the different types of user devices.