Inventors:
Alistair Parker - Quispamsis, CA
Jeff Furlong - Grand Bay-Westfield, CA
Gino Dion - McKinney TX, US
Sean Higgins - Saint John, CA
International Classification:
H04N 7/173
US Classification:
725094000, 725115000, 725114000, 725096000
Abstract:
A circular buffer in a video delivery server tracks a second copy of a live video stream to provide instant replay capability. When an end-user initiates the instant replay function, the circular buffer is copied to an instant-replay buffer, from which a replay of the video is sent to the end-user. During replay the end-user can use playback functions such as pause, slow-play, freeze frame, etc. Upon leaving the replay function the end user rejoins the live stream. The circular buffer also enables transmission of delayed copies of the live stream, time-shifted by predetermined intervals, which copies are multicasted to end-users. Upon request, an end-user may join a delayed version of interest. This allows the user to replay interesting content by jumping to a time-delayed version without missing the show and to catch up with real-time during e.g. commercial breaks.