Patent ID: 8595757

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a request, at a network-connected media recorder from a first user device that has access rights to a recording including subscription-based media content, to send the recording to a user; determining, at the network connected media recorder via an authorization server, a non-authorized media device associated with the user in response to a determination that the user is not a subscriber to a service that enables display of the subscription-based media content; receiving user input from the first user device at the network-connected media recorder, wherein the user input specifies a portion of the media content to send to the non-authorized media device as a part of a promotional recording for the service; and sending an instruction from the network-connected media recorder to a media content server to have the promotional recording with the portion of the media content specified by the user input sent to the non-authorized media device, wherein the promotional recording includes a link to purchase a subscription to the service.