Digital video recorder alerting
View Patent ↗Systems and methods of providing alerts on a recording device. The alerting service is provided on a digital video recorder (DVR) or other computing device as an application that is loaded into memory. The DVR is configured with geographic information and is able to determine its geographic location. A data channel is used for receiving the emergency bulletins. A central database system receives the emergency bulletins and transmits to the DVR. The DVR may process the bulletins to select those which are geographically relevant. The DVR displays the bulletins on top of the video signal that it is sending to a display device. The bulletin is displayed even if the user is pausing, rewinding, fast-forwarding, altering the display of the program content, or controlling the DVR.
1. A method of providing a message to viewers watching recorded content on a computing device, comprising:
providing a location to a service, the location being stored in a subscriber database;
listening to messages at said service to determine if a message is relevant to said location;
receiving, from said service, said message at said computing device via a communication medium;
superimposing said message over said recorded content; and
outputting said recorded content having said message thereon.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
processing said message to determine if said message contains information that is geographically relevant to a predetermined location; and
if said message is not geographically relevant, ignoring said message.
3. The method of claim 1 , said outputting further comprising providing said recorded content having said message during fast forward, rewind and pause operations.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising encoding said message and said recorded content for a display device connected to said computing device.
5. The method of claim 1 , said communication medium comprising one of a satellite transmission, cable transmission, modem connection and a broadband connection.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising outputting said recorded content having said message thereon where said recorded content is retrieved from a mass storage device or from a buffer.