Patent ID: 8787733

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a media content access subsystem, a user input command to record a media content instance; scheduling, by the media content access subsystem in response to the user input command, a recording of the media content instance; determining, by the media content access subsystem, whether the user input command is a user input command to record a particular transmission of the media content instance or a user input command to automatically record any available media content instances in a series of related media content instances including the media content instance; determining, by the media content access subsystem based on an operations log of one or more past operations of the media content access subsystem, that the scheduled recording of the media content instance is duplicative of a past recording; and selectively canceling, by the media content access subsystem in response to the determining that the scheduled recording of the media content instance is duplicative of the past recording and in accordance with a cancelation heuristic, the scheduled recording of the media content instance, wherein the cancelation heuristic specifies a cancelation condition based on whether the user input command is determined to be the user input command to record the particular transmission of the media content instance or the user input command to automatically record all or any available media content instances in the series of related media content instances including the media content instance.