BACKGROUND

Users of media guidance applications may wish to download media assets to their user devices for storage. The users may watch the stored media assets when they do not have access to a communications network. Media guidance applications do not calibrate download characteristics to allow the media assets to be quickly and fully downloaded on user devices. This causes incomplete downloads to be performed if a user device loses access to a communications network during the download. Media guidance applications do not allow users to watch media assets if the media assets have only been partially downloaded on a user device. Hence, incomplete downloads may be useless to and frustrating for users.

SUMMARY

Methods and systems for efficiently downloading media assets are described in this disclosure. In some aspects, the method includes receiving a user selection of a media asset. For example, the media guidance application may receive a user selection of “Movie A” indicating that the user wishes to download Movie A and have it locally stored on the user's device for future access. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive user selections of more than two media assets, and order them based on the current user device being used by the user. For example, if the media guidance application received user selections of a movie and a song on a television, the media guidance application may schedule the movie before the song in a download order for the media assets because the media guidance application may have predetermined information that states movies are accessed more frequently than songs on televisions.

The method may include determining future unavailability of a network. For example, the media guidance application may determine, based on information from a user's calendar, that the user will soon be boarding a flight and will not have network access for the duration of the flight. The media guidance application may further determine the requested media asset download of “Movie A” cannot be completed in HD quality before the user boards her flight. The media guidance application may determine future unavailability based on one of a calendar, a location, and a behavior pattern.

The method may include receiving, from a server, based on receiving the user selection, a first version identifier associated with the media asset and a second version identifier associated with the media asset, wherein the first version identifier is associated with a first version of the media asset stored on the server and the second version identifier is associated with a second version of the media asset stored on the server. For example, the media guidance application may transmit a request to a server requesting identifiers of all available versions of the requested media asset. The media guidance application may receive the following identifiers associated with different versions of the media asset “Movie A”: “HD” and “SD”. The version may be any of HD quality, SD quality, 4K quality, 240p quality, 320p quality, 480 quality, 720p quality, and 1080p quality.

The method may include splitting, in response to receiving the first version identifier and the second version identifier, the media asset into a first segment and a second segment. For example, the media guidance application may split the media asset “Movie A” into two segments of equal length, wherein one segment will be downloaded in SD quality and another version will be downloaded in HD quality. The size of the segments may be based on the determined future unavailability of the network. The splitting may further be based on a time remaining until the future unavailability of the network. For example, the media guidance application may split the media asset to ensure the media asset can be completely downloaded before the loss of network connectivity. The splitting may further be based on received user selections such as a maximum download time, a percentage associated with the first version of the media asset, and a desired version of the media asset.

The method may include transmitting, to the server, a request for a first portion of the first version of the media asset, associated with the first version identifier, comprising the first segment of the media asset and a second portion of the second version of the media asset, associated with the second version identifier, comprising the second segment of the media asset. For example, the media guidance application may transmit a request to a video-on-demand server requesting a first half of “Movie A” in SD quality and a second half of “Movie A” in HD quality, wherein the request comprises the received identifiers “SD” and “HD”. The media guidance application may request only SD quality for the beginning and end portions of “Movie A” as these portions may only contain opening and ending credits respectively, and hence may not be of interest to the user.

The method may include receiving, from the server, prior to the determined future unavailability of the network, the first portion of the first version of the media asset and the second portion of the second version of the media asset. For example, the media guidance application may receive a first half of “Movie A” in SD quality and a second half of “Movie A” in HD quality. The media guidance application may generate for display an icon on a program listings page indicating how much of “Movie A” has been downloaded in which version. The media guidance application may also replace the SD portion of “Movie A” with an HD portion of “Movie A” at a later time.

