Patent ID: 7673322

Claim:
In a home entertainment system including a display device and any of a plurality of electronic devices, including at least a recording system containing a recording medium, a central electronics device comprising: means for electrically connecting any of a plurality of electronic devices using any of a plurality of identical jacks irrespective of the type of signal required to be transmitted or received by any of the plurality of electronic devices, including at least a recording system containing a recording medium, to the central electronics device in a hub and spoke configuration so that any signal that reaches the recording system must be transmitted from the central electronics device to the recording system; a processor for processing computer-executable instructions stored on one or more computer-readable media that are accessible to the central electronics device; and wherein the computer-executable instructions are executed on the processor to implement a method of operating the recording system to record and track the location on a recording medium of a program carried by a signal, and wherein the computer-readable instructions stored on the computer-readable media comprise: executable code for receiving and storing an electronic programming guide at the central device; executable code for inputting recording instructions to the central electronics device to record specified programming identified in the programming guide at the recording system; executable code which, in response to the recording instructions, and prior to sending the specified programming to the recording system to be recorded, causes the central electronics device to automatically send a first set of programming information from the stored electronic programming guide to the recording system which is then recorded on the recording medium of the recording system and which is used to identify the specified programming that is to be recorded; executable code which, thereafter, and in accordance with the input recording instructions, causes the central electronics device to transmit the specified programming when received at the central electronics device to the recording system so that the programming is recorded on the recording medium; executable codes which causes the central electronics device to also transmit a second set of programming information comprising indexing information that is included in the stored electronic programming guide from the central device to the recording system, so that the recording system records the indexing information to the recording medium after recording the programming, the indexing information identifying the location on the recording medium where the recorded programming begins; and executable code which thereafter causes the central electronics device to read the indexing information when a new recording instruction is received for new programming to be recorded, in order to automatically determine the location on the recording medium where the new programming is to be recorded.