The Internet is a popular means for distributing and viewing video content from a wide variety of media sources, as well as user generated video content. A variety of different types of videos from various sources may be displayed on a computerized device. For instance, displayed videos may include video advertisements, recorded broadcast videos (e.g., news broadcasts, cable and/or television shows and stations, etc.), user generated videos (e.g., videos created and uploaded to a particular website by an individual), and even real-time data streaming videos (e.g., live news coverage, video conferencing, etc.).
A user will often open and view a video within a window of a computerized device. The window may contain one or more programs that allow executing several programs simultaneously (i.e., allows multitasking), and may include one or more tabs within each window. After the video is opened in the first tab, and perhaps even while the video is being played, the user may open another tab within such window, or even open a different window on the computerized device. For instance, the user may receive a chat message and go to chat, or decide to open another tab, or even go to email. In such an event, the video that is opened and being played in the first tab becomes occluded (i.e., obstructed), such that, the user is not able to view such video. The occlusion of the video may also cause the video to stop playing all together.
Once a video becomes occluded the user will miss out watching the content of the Video until the user goes back to the window that has the video. By the time the user goes back to this window/tab, the video would have advanced much further and so the user will have to replay the video from where he had left earlier, typically through a manual process. In instances where the video was buffered from the Internet, the user will have to buffer that piece of the video again.
In other instance, once a video becomes occluded the user may need to browse back and forth amongst the various open tabs and/or windows to view the opened video. When the tab or window having the previously viewed video has been reopened, the user may find that the video has stopped playing, or the user may need to search for the video if the page has moved onto a next video within a sequence of videos. Often, if the user needs to reopen the video, such video does not open at the location where the video stopped playing. Rather, the video is loaded from its beginning and the user must watch the entire video again.
In other instances, the user may open several windows on the computerized device and have different videos playing simultaneously in the different windows. The user may also need to browse back and forth amongst the different open windows to watch the videos being played thereon, such that, the user will miss portions of videos being played on the windows not being currently viewed.
Accordingly, there continues to be a need in the art for computer-implemented methods, apparatus, and computer program codes for rendering videos watched in a multi-window computer system where people watch items over multiple windows and/or tabs.