Inventors:
Krishnan Gopalan - Bellevue WA, US
Nishad Mulye - Redmond WA, US
Matthew McCormick - Seattle WA, US
Luke McCullough - Seattle WA, US
Assignee:
Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA
International Classification:
H04N 7/173, H04N 7/16
US Classification:
725100000, 725131000, 725151000
Abstract:
Automated sharing of control of a single tuner amongst multiple video consuming entities. One of the video consuming entities is assigned to be primary, thereby allowing seamless control over the channel tuned by the tuner. Another of the video consuming entities is assigned to be secondary, which prohibits the seamless control of the channel tuned by the tuner (at least while the assignment of secondary applies to the secondary video consuming entity). Promotion rules are applied to determine whether or not the secondary video consuming entity should be promoted to primary. The promotion rules only allow one video consuming entity at a time to be assigned as primary for the tuner. If appropriate, the secondary video consuming entity is then promoted to primary. The promotion rules may enforce any desired policy regarding conflict resolution on the tuner.