Method and system for delivering personal media over cable television
A method and system for delivering personal media over cable television have been disclosed. According to one embodiment, a computer implemented method comprises storing digital content, the digital content including digital photographs, digital video, and music. The digital content is queued for review. A photo show is generated from the digital content. The photo show is transmitted to a cable system for transmission on a video on demand system.
1. A computer-implemented method for distributing personal digital content over a cable network, comprising:
storing personal digital content, the personal digital content including digital photographs, digital video, and music received from one or more clients;
queuing the personal digital content for review and approval based on a criteria; generating a photo show of cable-compatible media file automatically from the personal digital content received from the clients, upon approval of the personal digital content, wherein generating the cable-compatible media file includes,
receiving instructions from a RSS feed associated with a particular category of photo show, the RSS feed providing playback instructions
executing the received instructions to create the photo shows by converting images into cable compatible media file including video and audio, the photo show of cable-compatible media file transcoded to identify one of a specific geographic area or a specific cable system within the cable network associated with the photo show for servicing the photo show, wherein the photo show of cable-compatible media file of personal digital content is assigned a schedule date and a time for broadcast over the specific cable system; and
transmitting the photo show of cable-compatible media file to the specific cable system of the cable network for transmission on a video on demand system to an interactive television system based on the transcoding, the transcoding provides playback instructions for the specific cable system, wherein the transmitting is performed without user request.
2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting an XML file with the photo show to the cable system, wherein the photo show is a video file.
3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the XML file includes a title, a menu, a short description, a long description, a length of the photo show, a rating, a license window, routing instructions and a location for playing.
4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising displaying the photo show on a television using a set top box.
5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the digital content from a client via the Internet.
6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising queuing the photo show for availability on the video on demand system according to one or more constraints, where the one or more constraints include a maximum amount of space for the photo shows based on time, data size and the number of time slots for playback on the video on demand system.
7. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising queuing the photo show for availability on the video on demand system according to one or more constraints, where the one or more constraints include a time window in which the photo show may be transmitted to the cable system.
8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising queuing the photo show for availability on the video on demand system according to one or more constraints, where the one or more constraints include a time window when the photo show is available for viewing on the video on demand system.
9. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising automatically generating email notifications to a user that provided the digital content.
10. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising extending a time window when the photo show is available,
generating a duplicate photo show of the generated photo show;
generating a second XML file for the duplicate photo show for the specific cable system, the second XML file extending a license period of the photo show for the specific cable system; and
transmitting the duplicate photo show with the second XML file to the specific cable system for transmission on the video on demand system.
11. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , further comprising generating a second photo show from two or more photo shows belong to a common category.
12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , further includes inserting one or more interstitials between the photo show, wherein the interstitials include any one or both of advertisements or other digital content.