Patent ID: 11997350

Abstract:
A cable provider could offer a promotional feature, such as live pause of video, above and beyond a tier of service to which the customer subscribes, limiting the feature to being activated only upon occurrence of one or more events. In a network video delivery context, a set-top box plays live video, including an ability to pause live video upon the occurrence of an event. The system can detect an event, including an event unrelated to video, and prompt a user to pause. The system can include configuration settings enabling, for example, detection of various events, prompting the user to pause live video, and/or automatically pausing the live video. The system enables the user to play a time-shifted video corresponding to resuming the paused video playback. The system can include a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) local to the user, to facilitate the time-shifted video. The system is also compatible with a RS-DVR, where DVR functionality and time-shifted video is provided remotely from a head-end of a network video system. Additionally, the system is compatible with non-DVR network video delivery systems configured to provide live pause.