Patent ID: 8352988

Claim:
A method, comprising: presenting a program guide identifying titles of audiovisual data and identifying a set start time and a provided stop time for each of the identified titled audiovisual data presented in the program guide; receiving a request for recording one of the identified titled audiovisual data selected from the program guide prior to the set start time associated with the one of the identified titled audiovisual data selected from the program guide; determining from metadata whether the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data has a known duration defined by the set start time and the provided stop time or has an unknown duration wherein the stop time is tentative and an actual stop time is not communicated to a set-top box; when the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data is determined from the metadata to have a known duration, allocating sufficient memory to record the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data having the known duration; when the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data is determined from the metadata to have the unknown duration wherein the stop time is tentative and the actual stop time is not communicated to the set-top box: receiving, at the set-top box, the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data presented in the program guide as tracks divided into sequential extents representing sections of the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data; allocating a portion of storage space for recording a received extent of the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data; determining whether the received extent is a last extent of the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data; when the received extent is determined not to be the last extent, determining whether a predetermined part of the allocated memory is consumed by recording the received extent of the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data; when a predetermined part of the allocated memory is determined to be consumed, allocating a next portion of memory; when the received extent is determined to be the last extent, terminating the recording of the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data after the last extent is recorded; and deallocating any of the allocated memory remaining after terminating the recording of the selected one of the identified titled audiovisual data.