Patent ID: 8839109

Claim:
A method of operating a client device in a digital video system, the method comprising: receiving a user request for video availability information, the request including a time of interest and a video source; retrieving, for a first time period near the time of interest, a first availability message indicating an aggregate availability of video from the video source, the aggregate availability comprising an availability status of video from among a plurality of recorders configured to record video from the video source, at each time within the first time period; rendering a timeline on a screen in a graphical user interface (GUI), the timeline comprising: a selection indicator designating the time of interest; and an availability indicator indicating the availability status of video from any of the plurality of recorders, for each time within the time of interest, the availability indicator being positioned in the timeline, the availability status distinguishing between available video and unavailable video; retrieving additional availability messages for successively wider time periods near the time of interest; and updating the rendered timeline according to the additional availability messages.