Abstract: An enhanced manner of datacasting and providing broadcast television to portable devices is disclosed, including tuner assistance, improvements in recording and datacasting content, and assisting users in obtaining the optimum experience from their set-up. A small form factor, low cost accessory product such as a WiFi dongle with one or more tuners can be used to provide the single function of delivering content to portable devices. The content can be sourced from broadcast (e.g. ATSC/DVB-T, etc.) and can be in the form of live (linear) television or download (on demand) programming. No Internet connection is required.

Abstract: A place-shifting system for distributing video content from a content source (2) has apparatus including a set-top box (STB) (1) with a digital interface to a sender (6). The sender (6) receives video content from the STB (1) conditional upon access permissions that may be associated with a subscription. The permissions may also be determined using the identifier of a viewer device (9). The viewer (9) requests connection to a specific sender (6) by sending an association request to an association server (8) via a network connection (10). The association server (8) returns location information specific to the sender (6) being requested to the viewer (9). The viewer (9) and sender (6) then communicate directly (11) to establish communication and to start transfer of video and other information. The sender (6) can remove content protection from the video content before transcoding, re-applying content protection and sending it.

Abstract: A place-shifting system for distributing video content from a content source (2) has apparatus including a set-top box (STB) (1) with a digital interface to a sender (6). The sender (6) receives video content from the STB (1) conditional upon access permissions that may be associated with a subscription. The permissions may also be determined using the identifier of a viewer device (9). The viewer (9) requests connection to a specific sender (6) by sending an association request to an association server (8) via a network connection (10). The association server (8) returns location information specific to the sender (6) being requested to the viewer (9). The viewer (9) and sender (6) then communicate directly (11) to establish communication and to start transfer of video and other information. The sender (6) can remove content protection from the video content before transcoding, re-applying content protection and sending it.

Abstract: A disk drive comprises a magneto-resistive read head and an inductive write head for use with removable hard disk cartridges. A four-burst embedded servo is written and read to guide the servo-positioning of the magneto-resistive read head over data tracks recorded on the removable hard disk.