Patent ID: 7774816

Claim:
A video recorder configured to schedule the storage of shows, the video recorder comprising: a plurality of television tuners configured to receive a plurality of shows; a storage device configured to store a plurality of the received shows; and a conflict manager configured to: receive a request to schedule the storage of a first show to the storage device; automatically assign a priority to the first show based on a characteristic of the first show in response to receiving the request; maintain a list of shows that are scheduled for storage on the storage device, wherein the list includes the first show scheduled for storage; determine that there is a tuner conflict between the first show and another show in the maintained list of shows; generate a plurality of solutions to the tuner conflict, each solution corresponding to a storage schedule that comprises a subset of the shows in the maintained list; eliminate one of the plurality of solutions based on a comparison between the automatically assigned priority of the first show and priorities associated with the shows in each of the plurality of solutions; and initiate the storage of shows according to the storage schedule corresponding to a remaining one of the plurality of solutions.