Programming content processing and management system and method
In accordance with aspects of the present invention, a technique is implemented to effectively receive streaming multimedia content in digital form, parse and segment the received transport stream and process the segmented content. Such treatment of received programming content provides for efficient storage of such programming content, and effectively provides for access to such content by administrators of a broadband system as well as users of such systems. In accordance with the invention, a technique enables, among other things: the creation of reference frames for, e.g., effective segmentation of programming content; encapsulation of programming content data as a UDP/IP datagram; associating programming content with provider and dedicated resource attributes; monitoring staging processor activity; effectively segmenting programming content that is scrambled; developing a unicast and multicast; compensating for missing or delayed programming content; and propagating video servers of varying manufacturers.
1. A method for processing a program signal stream carrying respective data packets for a plurality of programs by a distributor of program content, the method comprising:
receiving program signal streams from a plurality of program signal sources by a distributor of program content, the program signal streams containing data packets for a plurality of programs, at least some of the data packets being associated with codes having values indicative of a program signal source of a respective program signal stream;
reading the codes in at least some of the data packets carried by the received program signal streams;
based on the read codes, generating at least one substream containing received data packets for a plurality of programs including read codes having values indicative of the same program signal source; and
storing the at least one substream in at least one storage device of the distributor of program content.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the codes are further indicative of program subject matter.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the codes are further indicative of a program rating.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the codes are indicative of a program name.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
repackaging the at least one substream using a predetermined transmission protocol, wherein the protocol enables each of the selected ones of the data packets to be transmitted to a plurality of storage devices.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the protocol comprises a User Datagram Protocol.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing a table correlating codes to respective sources to identify the respective source.
8. The method of claim 1 , comprising receiving the program stream by a head end of a cable television system.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a respective generated substream to an output port dedicated to the source of the respective substream, for storage on a respective video server.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising broadcasting the respective stored substream.
11. A distributor of program content, comprising:
an interface configured to receive program signal streams from a plurality of program signal sources, the program signal streams comprising data packets, at least some of the data packets for a plurality of programs, at least some of the data packets having codes indicative of a respective program signal source;
a processor configured to:
read the codes; and
based on the read codes, generate at least one substream containing received data packets for a plurality of programs having read codes indicative of the same program signal source; and
a storage device configured to store the at least one substream.
12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the attribute fields further include codes identifying a program subject matter.
13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the codes further include codes identifying a program rating.
14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the codes further includes a program name.
15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to repackage the at least one substream using a predetermined transmission protocol enabling each of the selected ones of the data packets to be transmitted to a plurality of storage devices.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the protocol comprises a User Datagram Protocol.
17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is configured to:
access a table correlating codes to respective sources to identify the source.
18. The system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is part of a cable television system.
19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the storage device comprises a plurality of video servers, the system further comprising:
a plurality of output ports dedicated to one or more respective sources:
wherein the processor is further configured to:
provide a respective generated substream to an output port dedicated to the one or more sources of the respective substream, for storage on a respective video server.
20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the codes comprise program identification codes.
21. The system of claim 11 , wherein the codes comprise program identification codes.