FIELD

The described embodiments relate generally to digital video or other content recorders. More particularly, the present embodiments relate to a tiered digital content recording network that manages storage based on monitored user behavior.

BACKGROUND

Users may use content access devices such as set top boxes, televisions, computing devices, and so on to access a variety of different instances of content from various content provider networks. This content may include video content, audio content, image content, data content, and so on. In some situations, the content may be part of a linear broadcast. In other situations, the content may be provided upon request and/or in various non-linear ways.

The content access device may be configured to perform various digital video (or other content) recording (DVR) functions. In short, the content access device may store received content so that the content is available to the user at a later time, particularly linear broadcast content that a user may miss if the user is not watching at a scheduled broadcast time.

The content access device may have a limited storage capacity. As such, the content access device may be able to store a limited amount of content for the user. If storage is full, stored content may need to be deleted before additional content can be stored.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure relates to tiered digital content recording. Digital content is recorded for a user of a content access device in a tiered group of storage devices. The storage is managed based on monitored behavior of the user so that recordings more likely to be accessed are more quickly accessible whereas recordings less likely to be accessed are less quickly accessible. This balances storage load with accessibility, resulting in a faster responding system that does not require as much storage.

In various implementations, a digital content recording network includes a tiered group of storage devices and a controller, communicably coupled to the tiered group of storage devices, that manages storage of a set of content in the tiered group of storage devices based on monitored behavior of a user of a content access device. The controller determines a first content of the set of content to be a higher priority for the user than a second content of the set of content based on the monitored behavior and directs storage of the first content in a first storage device of the tiered group of storage devices and the second content in a second storage device of the tiered group of storage devices that is less quickly accessible to the content access device than the first storage device.

In some examples, the controller determines to move at least some of the stored content within the tiered group of storage devices based at least on the monitored behavior. In various cases of such examples, the controller moves the determined content. In numerous cases of such examples, the controller moves a first portion of an instance of the stored content without moving a second portion. In some cases of such examples, the controller determines a connection issue prevents movement of the determined content, waits until the connection issue is resolved, and moves the determined content.

In various cases of such examples, the controller determines to move at least some of the stored content based on a change in the monitored behavior of the user or a change in circumstances. In numerous cases of such examples, the controller determines to move at least some of the stored content based on a change in storage capacity.

In some implementations, a digital content recording network controller device includes a non-transitory storage medium that stores instructions and a processing unit. The processing unit executes the instructions stored in the non-transitory storage medium to determine a first content of a set of content to be more likely to be requested by a user of a content access device than a second content of the set of content based on monitored behavior of the user, store the first content in a first storage device of a tiered group of storage devices, and store the second content in a second storage device of the tiered group of storage devices wherein the content access device is located closer to the first storage device than the second storage device.

In various examples, the tiered group of storage devices includes the content access device. In some examples, the processing unit moves a portion of an instance of the stored content once accessed.

In numerous examples, the processing unit determines there is an issue with an instance of the stored content and corrects the issue during storage. In various cases of such an example, the issue is that the instance of the stored content is incomplete or corrupt. In some cases of such an example, the issue is that at least a portion of the instance of the stored content has a resolution to be changed.

In various implementations, a method of digital content recording network interaction includes monitoring content access behavior of a user of a content access device, selecting a set of content to store in a tiered group of storage devices, ranking the set of content based on the monitored content access behavior of the user and managing storage of the set of content in the tiered group of storage devices such that higher ranked content of the set of content is stored on storage devices of the tiered group of storage devices with higher bandwidth connections to the content access device than storage devices of the tiered group of storage devices storing lower ranked content of the set of content.

In some examples, the method further includes determining to reorder at least a portion of storage of the set of content. In various cases of such examples, the method further includes reordering the portion of storage of the set of content if a priority of the reordering exceeds a network load for the reordering. In numerous cases of such examples, the method further includes reordering the portion of storage of the set of content if sufficient network bandwidth is available for the reordering.

In various examples, selecting the set of content includes automatically selecting the set of content for the user. In some examples, selecting the set of content includes selecting the set of content in response to user input. In numerous examples, ranking the set of content includes ranking the set of content based on the monitored content access behavior and a user ranking specification.

