Patent ID: 7088910

Claim:
In a video data recording system that is associated with a television on which a program can be displayed and includes a storage device for storing video data associated with the program, a method for optimizing the use of available storage space on the storage device, the method comprising the acts of: receiving a request by a viewer for the system to record a first program on the storage device; upon receiving the request from the viewer to record the first program, selectively assigning a first tag to said first program, wherein said first tag is used by the system to control, at least in part, recording of said first program, said first tag including at least one of a guaranteed tag, an optional tag or a priority tag, each of the guaranteed, optional and priority tags corresponding to different criteria for recording said program; applying recording rules to said first tag to determine whether the request to record said first program is to be fulfilled; and if it is determined that the request is to be fulfilled, automatically programming the system to record the first program on the storage device.