{
  "patent_number": "US 6233389",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How TiVo Pauses and Rewinds Live Television",
  "original_title": "Multimedia time warping system",
  "summary": "TiVo's 1998 patent on a digital video recorder that converts television signals into digital files, splits them into audio and video, and stores them on a hard drive to allow simultaneous recording and playback.",
  "what_it_does": "The system takes incoming television signals from sources like satellite or cable and converts them into a digital MPEG format. A component called a Media Switch parses this digital stream, separating it into distinct audio and video components. These components are stored onto a hard drive. Simultaneously, an Output Section pulls these stored audio and video pieces from the drive, reassembles them back into an MPEG stream, and sends them to a decoder to display on a television. This separation of input and output allows a user to pause a live broadcast, watch a recorded show while another is saving, or rewind a program currently being recorded.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover systems that record and play back purely analog signals without converting them to a digital MPEG format.",
    "Does not cover streaming video systems that deliver media over the internet without tuning to a broadcast television signal.",
    "Does not cover devices that only record or only play back media, rather than performing both operations simultaneously.",
    "Does not cover software-only media players running on a general-purpose computer that do not parse and separate MPEG streams into audio and video components via a dedicated media switch."
  ],
  "filed": "1998-07-30",
  "granted": "2001-05-15",
  "expires": null,
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Tivo Inc",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/tivo-inc",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Roderick James McInnis",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/roderick-james-mcinnis"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jean Swey Kao",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/jean-swey-kao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Andrew Martin Goodman",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/andrew-martin-goodman"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ching Tong Chow",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/ching-tong-chow"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alan S. Moskowitz",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/alan-s-moskowitz"
    },
    {
      "name": "James M. Barton",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/james-m-barton"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 798,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software",
    "telecommunications"
  ],
  "abstract": "A multimedia time warping system. The invention allows the user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program. A preferred embodiment of the invention accepts television (TV) input streams in a multitude of forms, for example, National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) or PAL broadcast, and digital forms such as Digital Satellite System (DSS), Digital Broadcast Services (DBS), or Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC). The TV streams are converted to an Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) formatted stream for internal transfer and manipulation and are parsed and separated it into video and audio components. The components are stored in temporary buffers. Events are recorded that indicate the type of component that has been found, where it is located, and when it occurred. The program logic is notified that an event has occurred and the data is extracted from the buffers. The parser and event buffer decouple the CPU from having to parse the MPEG stream and from the real time nature of the data streams which allows for slower CPU and bus speeds and translate to lower system costs. The video and audio components are stored on a storage device and when the program is requested for display, the video and audio components are extracted from the storage device and reassembled into an MPEG stream which is sent to a decoder. The decoder converts the MPEG stream into TV output signals and delivers the TV output signals to a TV receiver. User control commands are accepted and sent through the system. These commands affect the flow of said MPEG stream and allow the user to view stored programs with at least the following functions: reverse, fast forward, play, pause, index, fast/slow reverse play, and fast/slow play.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/6233389/dvr-trick-play",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/6233389/dvr-trick-play/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US6233389",
  "relatedPatents": []
}