Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus to programmatically determine a home location for a user, to cluster photographs and videos into events and trips relative to the home location, to determine names for the events and trips, to composite stories created from the events and trips, to update the composited stories over time, and to output the composited stories for display.

Abstract: In a system comprising media files resident on various devices, devices equipped with media servers can deliver files to devices with media clients for purposes of playback (rendering) and/or storage. Some media servers may be capable of delivering files in various formats and may offer clients delivery format options. Media clients are aware of preferential list of formats that can be supported on a device and can choose from delivery options provided by media servers. Media files are introduced on the devices either via means external to this system or by leveraging system's media servers and media clients to transfer content between devices. When media files are introduced on the devices by means external to this system, media scanners detect such media files and make it available to media servers and thus to the rest of the system.

Abstract: In a system comprising media files resident on various devices which can interconnect and provide indices of their media library content, an organization method may provide an aggregate view of the media library of all connected devices ordering the media library contents of various connected devices from the point of view of the device from which the view of the aggregate library will be shown. This point-of-access-centric view of the library is formed by prioritizing significance or permanency or remoteness of the connected devices from the perspective of the viewing device. The content sort order is then boosted based on the device's priority.

Abstract: Summarization segments of an encoded video can be efficiently identified, without the need to decode the encoded video to obtain image data, by analyzing encoded-buffer-size deltas, each indicating an encoded-buffer-size difference between a pair of intra-coded frames of an encoded video.

Abstract: In a system comprising media files resident on various devices, devices equipped with media servers can deliver files to devices with media clients for purposes of playback (rendering) and/or storage. Some media servers may be capable of delivering files in various formats and may offer clients delivery format options. Media clients are aware of preferential list of formats that can be supported on a device and can choose from delivery options provided by media servers. Media files are introduced on the devices either via means external to this system or by leveraging system's media servers and media clients to transfer content between devices. When media files are introduced on the devices by means external to this system, media scanners detect such media files and make it available to media servers and thus to the rest of the system.

Abstract: Many media playback devices have a secure environment, with media decrypter and decoder components, and an insecure environment, with intermediate media processing components that are not suitable for secure implementation. In the secure environment, secure components decrypt encrypted media and store the clear-form media in secure memory that can only be accessed by secure components. Secure components also generate a media-data “proxy”, which corresponds structurally to the clear-form media, but which does not include actual clear-form media data. The media-data proxy is provided to insecure intermediate components, which manipulate the proxy to perform operations such as de-multiplexing, loss mitigation, and coded frame assembly. The manipulated proxy is returned to the secure environment, where secure components identify structural changes that were made to the proxy and make corresponding structural changes to the clear-form media before decoding the manipulated clear-form media.

Abstract: A method and computer program product for processing a locally-stored, specific media data file portion to generate a first normalized packetized stream. A remotely-sourced, specific media data stream is processed to generate a second normalized packetized stream. At least a portion of the first normalized packetized stream and at least a portion of the second normalized packetized stream are combined, using a packet loss tolerant stitching algorithm, to generate a loss-compensated media data stream.

Abstract: A method and computer program product for receiving a plurality of media data file portions on a client electronic device from a remote distribution server computer. Each media data file portion is associated with a media data stream. A user is allowed to select a specific media data file portion for rendering. The specific media data file portion is chosen from the plurality of media data file portions. Upon the user selecting the specific media data file portion, at least a portion of the specific media data file portion is rendered and a specific media data stream associated with the specific media data file portion is obtained from an on-demand media server computer.

Abstract: A secure media path system and method are provided herein.

Abstract: A method and computer program product for processing a locally-stored, specific media data file portion to generate a first normalized packetized stream. A remotely-sourced, specific media data stream is processed to generate a second normalized packetized stream. At least a portion of the first normalized packetized stream and at least a portion of the second normalized packetized stream are combined, using a packet loss tolerant stitching algorithm, to generate a loss-compensated media data stream.

Abstract: A method and computer program product for receiving a plurality of media data file portions on a client electronic device from a remote distribution server computer. Each media data file portion is associated with a media data stream. A user is allowed to select a specific media data file portion for rendering. The specific media data file portion is chosen from the plurality of media data file portions. Upon the user selecting the specific media data file portion, at least a portion of the specific media data file portion is rendered and a specific media data stream associated with the specific media data file portion is obtained from an on-demand media server computer.

Abstract: The invention is related to methods and apparatus that efficiently store and read data in a cache for a server system, such as a media server. The cache stores data for file formats of a streamable file format, such as an MPEG-4 file format. Relatively frequently accessed portions of a streamable file format are maintained with long-life links. For example, selected child atoms of sample table atoms of MPEG-4 file formats can be relatively frequently accessed during the streaming of a media presentation. A virtual address space manager for selected child atoms maintains relatively long-life links to pages or segments of data in a cache that hold data corresponding to these child atoms and can advantageously inhibit the release of these segments to enhance a hit rate for the cache and decrease an amount of thrashing, i.e., repeated paging of data to the cache.