Patent ID: 8612827

Claim:
A method for a centralized digital video recorder for a plurality of users, the method comprises: receiving, over time, a plurality of requests to playback recorded broadcast data, wherein a single copy of the recorded broadcast data is dispersed error encoded to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices that is stored in a dispersed storage network (DSN); and in response to the plurality of playback requests: identifying unique combinations of at least a threshold number of encoded data slices for sets of the plurality of sets of encoded data slices to produce unique copies of the recorded broadcast data, wherein a set of encoded data slices of the plurality of sets of encoded data slices includes a number of encoded data slices that is equal to or greater than the threshold number of encoded data slices plus two encoded data slices, and wherein a data segment of the recorded broadcast data is recoverable from the threshold number of encoded data slices; for a particular one of the plurality of playback requests: retrieving a unique copy of the unique copies of the recorded broadcast data from the DSN; and outputting the retrieved unique copy to a device associated with the particular one of the plurality of playback requests.