US 5,357,276 · Granted 1994-10-18

The Patent That Made Video-on-Demand Feel Like Your Home VCR

Before Netflix, there was video-on-demand—channels that would replay the same show over and over. This patent is the trick that let you pause, rewind, or fast-forward through a live broadcast by secretly switching you to a different showing of the same program that was already a few minutes ahead or behind. It made cable feel interactive when it really wasn't.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system where a subscriber terminal (a cable box) creates the illusion of pause, rewind, and fast-forward by monitoring what time the viewer wants to watch and automatically switching them to a different broadcast channel carrying the same program at a slightly different start time. What's protected here is the specific method of tracking NVOD (near video on demand) events in memory and using on-screen displays to guide the viewer through selecting and controlling playback without actually recording anything.

Why it matters

This patent represents a clever engineering solution to the pre-DVR era, when cable operators wanted to offer on-demand-like features without the cost of building massive server farms or allowing subscribers to record content. By staggering multiple identical broadcasts of the same show a few minutes apart, Scientific-Atlanta's system made passive linear television feel interactive—a key stepping stone between pure broadcast TV and true video-on-demand streaming.

Real-world use

In the 1990s, a cable subscriber could order a movie on their interactive cable box, press pause during a dramatic moment, and the box would silently tune to a different channel showing the same movie a few minutes earlier—making it seem like they had paused a live broadcast.

Original USPTO abstract

A near video on demand time shifting feature for a subscriber terminal emulates the video cassette recorder functions of pause, fast forward, and rewind for a NVOD service subscription. The subscriber terminal stores global transactions concerning NVOD events in an event portion of memory. The subscriber terminal provides an on screen display feature for assisting in ordering the NVOD service and a user interface which provides the functions of pause, fast forward and rewind. When viewing a NVOD event, if the subscriber selects the pause function, the subscriber terminal causes a pause on screen display to be viewed for one time increment. After the elapse of the time increment, the subscriber terminal will tune the channel of the next showing which is one time increment earlier than that presently viewed. If the subscriber selects the rewind function, the subscriber terminal will tune the channel of the next showing which is one time increment earlier than that presently viewed. If the subscriber selects the fast forward function, the subscriber terminal will tune the channel of the previous showing which is one time increment later than that presently received.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,357,276
Filing date: 1992-12-01
Grant date: 1994-10-18
Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.
Inventor(s): BANKER; ROBERT O., HUPPERTZ; JEFFREY B., HAYASHI; MICHAEL T., LETT; DAVID B., GODLEWSKI; VOYTEK E., RALEY; MICHAEL W.
CPC class: H04N21/2543

View original record on Google Patents →

Want to file your own patent?

Curious how older streaming and broadcast patents shaped today's apps? Use our free patent scanner to explore what protections might apply to your own ideas in consumer electronics.

Free patentability scan