Patent ID: 7729592

Claim:
A method for managing the recording capacity of a recording device when scheduling the recording of an item, comprising: receiving data representing a plurality of recording modes of the recording device; for each recording mode of the plurality of recording modes, calculating a capacity required to record said item using the respective recording mode; obtaining a prevailing unreserved recording capacity of the recording device; identifying, for the recording of said item, a number of recording modes of the plurality for which a corresponding calculated capacity is less than the prevailing unreserved recording capacity; and responsive to one or more recording modes of the plurality being identified for the recording of said item, selecting a particular identified recording mode of the one or more identified recording modes based on a preference, wherein the preference includes criteria that define a set of acceptable recording modes associated with said item; and responsive to the particular identified recording mode being selected, scheduling the recording of said item using the selected recording mode, wherein the scheduled recording of said item becomes a reserved item, and wherein the receiving, obtaining, identifying, selecting, and scheduling are independent of user involvement.