Uploading and viewing clips - what exactly happens?

Let’s now get into the details on how this all works, we will use the example in the patent application.

Say you are watching a rerun of Seinfeld:

1. You find a section of the program interesting and decide you want to share it.
   
   
2. You invoke a graphical interface of the PVR (Slingplayer) to capture the video, by clicking on the clip + Sling button of your player.
   
   
3. You edit the video section by selecting the beginning and end of the section.
   
   
4. The SlingPlayer creates a video clip (Seinfeld clip) containing the captured video section and then you upload the Seinfeld clip to the community website using your registered account.
   
   
5. The Clip+Send site identifies the subject matter of the received clip using meta data stored in the VBI (we will explain VBI at the end of the article) of the video clip. In other words, you won't be able to lie and say it’s a home movie when it’s really a Seinfeld clip. ;-)
   
   
6. The website associates the clip with the content owner, Sony Pictures Digital Inc., and stores the clip and the related information in the media store.
   
   
7. A second user of the community website subsequently conducts searches in the website for video clips related to Seinfeld.
   
   
8. The second user finds the Seinfeld clip you uploaded.
   
   
9. The second user then submits a request for the Seinfeld clip.
   
   
10. In response to the second user's request, the website checks the restrictions applicable to the Seinfeld clip.
    
    
11. The content owner, Sony Pictures Digital Inc., has set a restriction applicable to all Seinfeld video clips limiting their duration to be no more than 2.5 minutes (for example).
    
    
12. After confirming that the Seinfeld clip is no longer than 2.5 minutes, the community website will identify an advertisement for it.
    
    
13. Let’s say eBay (again, for example) is promoting their Seinfeld related auction items.
    
    
14. eBay sets a restriction limiting their advertisement to be combined only with video clips related to Seinfeld.
    
    
15. The application server confirms that combining the Seinfeld clip and the eBay advertisement does not violate the restrictions associated with either the clip or the advertisement.
    
    
16. The website then joins the advertisement and the clip into a combined clip, such that the eBay advertisement leads into the Seinfeld clip.
    
    
17. Subsequently, the community website generates a webpage including a pointer reference to the combined clip, and redirects the second user to the generated webpage, where the second user downloads the combined clip.
    
    
18. After the combined clip is downloaded in the second users computer, the computer plays the eBay advertisement and the Seinfeld clip to the second user.
    
    
19. The payment server calculates an advertisement fee for the advertiser eBay and deducts the fee from their account.
    
    
20. The payment server also calculates a royalty payment for the content owner, Sony Pictures Digital Inc., and credits the payment to their account.

How do they know what I'm uploading? What's all this talk of VBI?

The way they can tell where the video was created from is by using the VBI, which stands for Video Blanking Interval. Television signals are transmitted in individual television frames. Each frame contains video image data used to create images on the television screen, as well control information used to control the image, such as synchronization and timing information.

The Video Blanking Interval (VBI) is the upper lines of a typical television frame. These VBI lines are not displayed on the television, but are instead used to carry the television control information. Since these lines are not displayed, it also contains various digital information used for closed captioning, V-Chip ratings, timecodes, test patterns, etc. This is where content owners put in the creator's name and other copyright information, which is how they can tell what the content is and where it came from.

That’s how it will work; all in all, but it will be very simple for the user to operate. All the hard stuff will be done on the back end. As you can tell, Sling Media has been hard at work putting this complicated system together; probably why it has taken longer to bring out than initially expected.

Page 3: Clip+Sling in action - photo samples >>

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