Patent ID: 8347337

Claim:
A method for scheduling recording, storing, and deleting of television and/or Web page program material on a storage medium in a computer environment, comprising: generating a schedule of time versus available storage space that is optimal for a viewer's explicitly scheduled program recordings using a database of program guide objects, the schedule of time versus available storage space tracks all stored programs and programs that have been scheduled to be recorded in the future, the programs include television broadcast programs and/or Universal Resource Locators (URLs); generating an ordered list of future showings of a specific program of interest using the database of program guide objects; checking showing(s) of the specific program of interest in the ordered list for input source or storage space conflicts with programs previously scheduled for recording using the schedule of time versus available storage space until a particular showing of the specific program of interest is found having no input and/or space conflicts for the time the particular showing is available such that a recording of the specific program of interest is made as soon as possible and scheduling the particular showing of the specific program of interest for recording, the checking step making a determination of conflicts for an explicitly selected program immediately upon the viewer making the explicit selection of the specific program of interest to record; upon the checking step failing to find a particular showing of the specific program of interest having no input and/or space conflicts for the time the particular showing is available, sorting the ordered list of future showings, the ordering of the ordered list of future showings results in the viewer being presented with any conflicting explicit program selections in order from least impact on programs previously scheduled for recording to greatest.