ACCESSING CONTENT VIA A RECEIVER COUPLED TO A TRANSMITTER
A communication system for accessing media items via a display device. A receiver is coupled to the display device and a transmitter is coupled to a computer system. Media items stored locally on the computer system and/or remotely on a remote server may be wirelessly transferred from the transmitter to the receiver for display on the display device. In addition, the transmitter and the receiver may be pre-paired prior to delivery to the user, allowing for the network to be configured without any user input. Advantageously, embodiments provide a user with the ability to conveniently view content stored on a computer or a web server without the user having to perform any wireless network setup procedures.
1 . A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computer system to provide a user access to one or more media items, by performing the steps of:
receiving from a receiver device a data request for media data within a byte range associated with at least a portion of a first media item, wherein the computer system is part of a communications system that also includes a transmitter device configured to perform two-way wireless communications with the receiver device;
retrieving the media data; and
causing the media data to be transmitted to the receiver device via the transmitter device for playback or display on a display device coupled to the receiver device.
2 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising the step of determining whether the first media item is stored locally in a memory within the computer system or is stored on a computer system remote from the communications system.
3 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2 , wherein the first media item is stored on a computer system remote from the communications system, and further comprising the step of retrieving the media data from the computer system remote from the communications system.
4 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3 , wherein the step of retrieving the media data from the computer system remote from the communications system comprises opening a socket associated with the location of the first media item on the computer system remote from the communications system.
5 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 2 , wherein the first media item is stored locally in a memory included in the computer system, and further comprising the step of transcoding the portion of the first media item into a data format supported by the receiver device.
6 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , wherein the data format supported by the receiver device comprises at least one of an MPEG-4 (Moving Picture Experts Group 4) file format and an AVI (Audio Video Interleave) file format.
7 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 , further comprising the step of transcoding all of the first media item into the data format supported by the receiver device.
8 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising the step of transcoding the portion of the first media item into a data format supported by the receiver device prior to providing the user an option to playback the first media item via the receiver device.
9 . The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 , further comprising the step of transcoding all of the first media item into a data format supported by the receiver device prior to providing the user an option to playback the first media item via the receiver device.
10 . A method for accessing media items via a communications system, the method comprising:
receiving a user request to display a first media item on a display device;
transmitting a data request for media data within a byte range associated with at least a portion of the first media item to a web server executing on a computer system coupled to a transmitter device;
receiving the media data associated with the data request from the web server via the transmitter device; and
outputting the media data to the display device for playback or display.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the data request comprises an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) request.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the user request is received from a remote control included in the communications system.
13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the media data is video data.
14 . A system for accessing media items, the system comprising:
a transmitter device coupled to a computer system;
a receiver device coupled to a display device and configured to:
receive a user request to display a first media item on the display device,
transmit a data request for media data within a byte range associated with at least a portion of the first media item to a web server executing on the computer system coupled to the transmitter device,
receive the media data associated with the data request from the web server via the transmitter device, and
output the media data to the display device for playback or display.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein a software application executing on the computer system is configured to determine whether the first media item is stored locally in a memory within the computer system or is stored on a computer system remote from the communications system.
16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the first media item is stored on a computer system remote from the communications system, and the software application is further configured to retrieve the media data from the computer system remote from the communications system.
17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein retrieving the media data from the computer system remote from the communications system comprises opening a socket associated with the location of the first media item on the computer system remote from the communications system.
18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the first media item is stored locally in a memory included in the computer system, and the software application is further configured to transcode the portion of the first media item into a data format supported by the receiver device.
19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the data format supported by the receiver device comprises at least one of an MPEG-4 (Moving Picture Experts Group 4) file format and an AVI (Audio Video Interleave) file format.
20 . The system of claim 18 , further comprising the step of transcoding all of the first media item into the data format supported by the receiver device.
21 . The system of claim 14 , wherein a software application executing on the computer system is configured to transcode the portion of the first media item into a data format supported by the receiver device prior to providing the user an option to playback the first media item via the receiver device.
22 . The system of claim 14 , wherein a software application executing on the computer system is configured to transcode all of the first media item into a data format supported by the receiver device prior to providing the user an option to playback the first media item via the receiver device.