Abstract: A video data recordable having integrated channel guides allowing a user to control recording and storage of television signals into personal channels for later playback and viewing. In the described embodiment, the user may specify criteria for recording of shows from an input source such as a broadcast signal and shows are then selected based on the user specified criteria and recorded for later playback. Storage of the shows may be organized into personal channels in order to facilitate later playback, e.g., the user may specify a channel of action movies, a channel of nature programming, a channel for sports, etc. The shows to be recorded may also have a predefined format which may be used to ease playback of recorded programming by allowing the user to easily locate and playback sections of programming of interest.

Abstract: Disclosed is described a method for creating a real-time search engine over the Internet which provides a search response containing data object descriptions and server descriptions of data objects that are currently available for transfer from a provider server directly to a recipient client in response to a recipient client search request. The method comprises the provider server connecting to a Real-time search engine through the Internet, the provider server providing the Real-time search engine with data object descriptions of data objects residing on the provider server, and the Real-time search engine indexing data object descriptions associated with the data object of the provider server, wherein the data object descriptions provided by the provider server are purged from the Real-time search engine when the provider server is disconnected from the Real-time search engine.

Abstract: A video data recordable having integrated channel guides allowing a user to control recording and storage of television signals into personal channels for later playback and viewing. In the described embodiment, the user may specify criteria for recording of shows from an input source such as a broadcast signal and shows are then selected based on the user specified criteria and recorded for later playback. Storage of the shows may be organized into personal channels in order to facilitate later playback, e.g., the user may specify a channel of action movies, a channel of nature programming, a channel for sports, etc. The shows to be recorded may also have a predefined format which may be used to ease playback of recorded programming by allowing the user to easily locate and playback sections of programming of interest.

Abstract: Disclosed is described a method for creating a real-time search engine over the Internet which provides a search response containing data object descriptions and server descriptions of data objects that are currently available for transfer from a provider server directly to a recipient client in response to a recipient client search request. The method comprises the provider server connecting to a Real-time search engine through the Internet, the provider server providing the Real-time search engine with data object descriptions of data objects residing on the provider server, and the Real-time search engine indexing data object descriptions associated with the data object of the provider server, wherein the data object descriptions provided by the provider server are purged from the Real-time search engine when the provider server is disconnected from the Real-time search engine.