Granted Patent B2

US 8,842,970 · App. 13/969,325 · Granted Sep 23, 2014

Abstract

Claims (68)

1. A method of playing back multimedia content relative to a portable storage medium, the method comprising:

detecting, at a playback device, access to a portable storage medium, wherein the playback device is configured to playback multimedia content stored on portable storage mediums;

accessing, by the playback device, pre-roll content corresponding to content stored on the portable storage medium;

disguising, at the playback device, the accessing the pre-roll content and initiating playing back of the pre-roll content such that a user of the playback device does not perceive a delay in playback of content corresponding with the portable storage medium while the pre-roll content is being accessed, wherein the disguising the delay further comprises playing back disguise content, by the playback device, while the playback device is accessing the pre-roll content; and

transitioning playback from the disguise content to playing back the pre-roll content such that the user of the playback device does not perceive the delay associated with accessing the pre-roll content.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the accessing the pre-roll content comprises requesting, over a distributed network from a remote source, the pre-roll content corresponding to the content stored on the portable storage medium, wherein the disguising the delay further comprises implementing the playing back of the disguise content while at least the playback device is requesting and receiving the pre-roll content from the remote source.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initiating playback of the pre-roll content comprises initiating playback of the pre-roll content through the playback device prior to playback of a main menu or a main title stored on the portable storage medium, where the main menu and the main title are not disguise content.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the playing back the disguise content comprises:

determining whether there is previously obtained locally stored pre-roll content stored locally at the playback device; and

initiating playback of the previously obtained pre-roll content, as at least part of the disguise content, when there is previously obtained pre-roll content stored locally at the playback device.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the playing back the disguise content comprises:

determining, in response to determining that there is previously obtained pre-roll content stored locally at the playback device, whether the previously obtained pre-roll content has expired;

preventing the initiating the playback of the previously obtained pre-roll content when the previously obtained pre-roll content has expired; and

implementing the initiating the playback, as at least part of the disguise content, of the previously obtained pre-roll content when there is previously obtained pre-roll content stored locally at the playback device and the previously obtained pre-roll content has not expired.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting a request to remove the playback device's access to the portable storage medium;

implementing, on the playback device, an unbound retrieval application corresponding to the portable storage medium;

continuing to implement the unbound retrieval application even after the playback device's access to the portable storage medium is removed, where the continuing to implement the unbound retrieval application comprises:

accessing, by the playback device, subsequent pre-roll content associated with the portable storage medium; and

storing at the playback device the subsequent pre-roll content.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transitioning playback from the disguise content to playing back the pre-roll content comprises:

determining whether a sufficient amount of the pre-roll content has been received to initiate playback of the pre-roll content;

halting the playback of the disguise content when it is determined that the sufficient amount of the pre-roll content has been received to initiate playback of the pre-roll content; and

initiating playback of the pre-roll content when it is determined that the sufficient amount of the pre-roll content has been received to initiate playback of the pre-roll content.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining, while playing back the pre-roll content, whether the pre-roll content can be received in a higher quality;

requesting, from the remote source, a higher quality stream of the pre-roll content;

receiving a portion of the higher quality stream of the pre-roll content; and

playing back the portion of the higher quality stream of the pre-roll content following the playback of at least the portion of the pre-roll content such that the playback appears continuous without repeating playback of content and without skipping content.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the determining whether the pre-roll content can be received in the higher quality comprises:

determining a buffer level at the playback device;

determining whether the buffer level has a predefined relationship with a first buffer level threshold; and

implementing the requesting the higher quality of pre-roll content when the buffer level has the predefined relationship with the first buffer level threshold.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the accessing the pre-roll content comprises accessing the pre-roll content that comprises interactive content configured to allow the user of the playback device playing back the pre-roll content to interact with the content.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising detecting a selection of an option presented to the user of the playback device through the pre-roll content, and initiating access to additional information corresponding to the selected option.

12. A system for use in playing back multimedia content, the system comprising:

a processor configured to implement playback of content accessible from at least a portable storage medium; and

memory accessible by the process and configured to store code to be accessed and implemented by the processor such that the processor, when implementing the code, is configured to:

detect, local at the system, access to a portable storage medium;

access pre-roll content corresponding to content stored on the portable storage medium; and

disguise the access to and initiating playback of the pre-roll content such that a user of the system does not perceive a delay in playback of content relative to the portable storage medium while the pre-roll content is being accessed, wherein the processor, in disguising the access to and the initiating playback of the pre-roll content, is configured to play back disguise content while accessing the pre-roll content; and

transition playback from the disguise content to playing back the pre roll content such that the user does not perceive the delay associated with accessing and initiating playback of the pre-roll content.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor in initiating the playback of the pre-roll content is further configured to initiate playback of the pre-roll content prior to playback of a main menu or a main title stored on the portable storage medium.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor in implementing the code to play back the disguise content is further configured to:

determine whether there is previously obtained pre-roll content that is locally stored; and

initiate playback of the previously obtained pre-roll content, as at least part of the disguise content, when there is previously obtained pre-roll content stored locally.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processor, in playing back the disguise content, is further configured to:

determine, in response to determining that there is previously obtained pre-roll content stored locally, whether the previously obtained pre-roll content has expired;

prevent the initiation of the playback of the previously obtained pre-roll content when the previously obtained pre-roll content has expired; and

implement the initiating the playback, as at least part of the disguise content, of the previously obtained pre-roll content when there is previously obtained pre-roll content stored locally at the playback device and the previously obtained pre-roll content has not expired.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processor in implementing the code in transitioning the playback from the disguise content to playing back the pre-roll content is further configured to:

determine whether a sufficient amount of the pre-roll content has been received from a remote source to initiate playback of the pre-roll content;

halt the playback of the disguise content when it is determined that the sufficient amount of the pre-roll content has been received to initiate playback of the pre-roll content; and

initiate playback of the pre-roll content when it is determined that the sufficient amount of the pre-roll content has been received to initiate playback of the pre-roll content.

17. A method of providing pre-roll content to be played back in association with content stored on a portable storage medium, the method comprising:

receiving, from over a distributed network and at a server, a request from a remote playback device for pre-roll content in response to an initial access at the playback device to a portable storage medium, wherein the remote playback device is locally and directly accessing the portable storage medium upon which is stored multimedia playback content configured to be playback back by the playback device;

identifying, at the server, the multimedia content stored on the portable storage medium being directly accessed by the playback device and associated with the request for the pre-roll content;

identifying one or more pre-roll content associated with the identified portable storage medium;

identifying initial conditions;

selecting a first stream of a first pre-roll content from the identified one or more pre-roll contents;

initiating communication of the first stream of the first pre-roll content while the playback device is disguising a delay associated with requesting and receiving the pre-roll content from the server, such that a user of the playback device does not perceive the delay in playing back of content corresponding with the portable storage medium while the pre-roll content is being accessed, by playing back disguise content, by the playback device, while the playback device is requesting and receiving the pre-roll content and before transitioning playback from the disguise content to playing back the pre-roll content;

determining a connection bandwidth over a communication link with the remote playback device;

determining whether the bandwidth provides for the selection of a second stream of the first pre-roll content;

selecting, in response to determining that the bandwidth provides for the selection of the second stream of the first pre-roll content, the second stream of the first pre-roll; and

transitioning to communicating the second stream of the first pre-roll content.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the identifying the one or more pre-roll content comprises identifying one or more sequences associated with the portable storage medium, where each sequence identifies one or more pre-roll content and an order in which the one or more pre-roll content are to be played back at the playback device.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the identifying the initial conditions comprises determining an available bandwidth over the communication connection with the remote playback device.

20. The method of claim 17 , the selecting the first pre-roll content comprises identifying a priority associated one or more pre-roll content corresponding with the portable storage medium.

Assignments (34)