Patent ID: 7496272

Claim:
A method for storing units of incoming video data on a storage medium comprising the steps of: a. establishing different priority levels for video data; b. establishing at least one rule for each of said priority levels, wherein one of said rules comprises a retention time; c. assigning one of said priority levels and a creation time to each unit of incoming video data; d. storing said units of incoming video data on said storage medium until all storage locations thereon are occupied; and e. thereafter, for each unit of incoming video data, and beginning at the lowest priority level and continuing to successively higher priority: (i) examining stored video data and identifying a location on said medium where the difference between the creation time of the incoming video and the creation time of video data stored at such location is greater than the retention time applicable to said priority level; and (ii) storing said unit of incoming video data by overwriting stored video data at said identified location.