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Abstract

A collaborative system for more efficiently viewing streamed content in a time shifted matter utilizes collaborative home set-top box (STB) home component (the home STB) and a cloud component (the cloud STB) and a receiving device, such as an antenna or cable component, all cooperatively shared among a community of users. The cloud STB may further comprise a network accessible distributed part and/or a cross licensed portion of other home STBs. The home STB may be connected to the cloud STB and other home STBs over any local or wide area network topology infrastructure, such as the Internet. A group of home STBs may be cross licensed to each other within a community of users sharing the same viewing rights to a collaboratively old copy of content retained either in the consort system or among a plurality of shared user systems. Various network infrastructure configurations and streaming techniques, including unicast, multicast, and upstream and downstream collaborative streaming, are proposed to optimize network bandwidth efficiency and increase viewing options.

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First Claim