Patent ID: 7657922

Claim:
A media entertainment system comprising: a plurality of external device ports via which one or more digital recording media may be connected to the media entertainment system; a media processing subsystem configured to provide media data flow through the media processing subsystem in an event that no external digital recording media is currently connected to the media entertainment system, and prepare media content for presentation; a digital recording subsystem configured to provide media data flow through the digital recording subsystem in an event that one or more digital recording media is currently connected to the media entertainment system, and provide digital recording capabilities; a digital recording user interface configured to schedule a program to be recorded even if there is currently no external recording media connected to the media entertainment system; and a disk manager configured to automatically enable the digital recording subsystem in an event that one or more digital recording media is connected to the media entertainment system, and automatically disable at least a portion of the digital recording subsystem in an event that no digital recording media is connected to the media entertainment system, wherein: the one or more digital recording media are external to the media entertainment system; the media processing subsystem and the digital recording subsystem are physically distinct from each other; the media processing subsystem and the digital recording subsystem are located at the media entertainment system; and the digital recording system comprises a memory buffer.