Patent ID: 7689995

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving one or more inputs, the one or more inputs requesting recording of one or more of a plurality of jobs, each job identifying particular programming content to be recorded; determining one or more solutions for each job of the plurality of jobs based on a program schedule, the solutions including null solutions and non-null solutions, each non-null solution for a particular job requiring a set of resources over a set of intervals for recording the job, wherein one or more combinations of solutions for the plurality of jobs require a number of resources greater than a number of resources available at a particular interval, resulting in a scheduling conflict; resolving the scheduling conflict including automatically determining a plurality of plans for performing jobs, each plan having a combination of solutions including a particular solution for each of the plurality of jobs, wherein resources used by the plurality of jobs for the combination of solutions in each plan are less than or equal to the number of resources available at each interval; scoring each plan of the plurality of plans, where scoring each plan includes determining whether the plan includes a null solution to a job where the null solution to a job is a solution in which the job is not recorded and if so modifying the score for the plan based on having the null solution; automatically determining a preferred plan based on the scores, wherein the scores are based on components of each of the lobs, the components including at least one element selected from the group including a recording time, a recording quality, a type of program, a relative position in an order a job of the two or more jobs was input, an inclusion of bonus time and a keyword; and automatically using a the preferred plan of the one or more plans to determine a recording schedule for a personal video recorder system.