System and method for multiscreen network digital video recording using on-demand transcoding

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a network digital video recorder in a digital video recorder system, a request to record content;

receiving, at the network digital video recorder, the requested content in a plurality of versions, each version having a respective format and a respective resolution;

storing, via the network digital video recorder, the requested content in the plurality of versions

from the plurality of stored versions of content, identify a mezzanine content having a first format and a first resolution for retaining in storage;

for a remaining plurality of stored versions other than the mezzanine content:

determine at least one of a threshold of time or a comparison of costs at which to delete each of the remaining plurality of versions;

if determining based on the threshold of time:

determine at least one threshold in time whether to delete assets from storage, and

based on said at least one threshold in time, delete the remaining plurality of versions based on a common time or a respective time for one or more of the plurality of versions;

if determining based on the comparison of costs:

determine a cost for storing each of the remaining plurality of versions over time,

determine a cost to transcode each of the remaining plurality of versions from the mezzanine content;

comparing the cost to store a respective one of the remaining plurality of versions to the cost to transcode from the mezzanine content,

retain versions in storage until at least one of the threshold of time or comparison of costs has been determined;

receiving a request for playback of the requested content to a requesting subscriber's device, the request including information related to decoding capabilities of a subscriber's device;

determining whether the request may be fulfilled using any stored versions of the requested content having a format and resolution corresponding to the decoding capabilities of the subscriber's device;

if the version having a format and resolution corresponding to the decoding capabilities of the subscriber's device is stored, deliver the stored version to the requesting subscriber's device;

if the version having a format and resolution corresponding to the decoding capabilities of the subscriber's device is not stored, regenerate from a stored version, having a respective format and resolution, the format and resolution that corresponds to the decoding capabilities of the subscriber's device, the regeneration occurring on demand via an on demand transcoder in the network digital video recorder.

2. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the remaining plurality of versions have a lower bit rate and lower resolution than that of the mezzanine content.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the mezzanine content comprises a highest quality format relative to the remaining plurality of versions.

4. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein at least one of the remaining plurality of versions has a second format and a second resolution that derived from the mezzanine content.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said at least one of the remaining plurality of versions has a format that is an adaptive bit rate (ABR) format in at least one of H.264/AVC, SVC and HEVC.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of versions other than the mezzanine content comprise a highest quality format and resolution.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein it is determined based on the threshold of time or the comparison of costs to retain the one of the plurality of versions other than the mezzanine content having the highest quality format and resolution.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said at least one of the remaining plurality of versions has a format that is an adaptive bit rate (ABR) format in at least one of H.264/AVC, SVC and HEVC.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the threshold of time determined for deletion of assets from storage includes a respective point in time at which to delete each of the remaining plurality of versions.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determination of the at least one threshold in time whether to delete assets from storage includes determining to retain at least one of the remaining plurality of versions and deleting at least another one of the remaining plurality of versions.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remaining plurality of versions are deleted at the same time.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein it is determined based on the comparison of costs to delete one or more of the remaining plurality of versions.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein all of the remaining plurality of versions are deleted from content based on at least one of the threshold of time or the comparison of costs, retaining only the mezzanine content.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the version having a format and resolution corresponding to the decoding capabilities of the subscriber's device is not stored, regenerating said version from the mezzanine content.