A method for implementing dynamic, cloud-based metadata services based on a unified content ID space across a fragmented CE ecosystem

The number of digital entertainment sources has exploded. However, industry fragmentation makes it hard for consumers to discover and consume content across multiple devices from multiple entertainment service providers. A unified content ID space is one part of the solution. However, as seen from experience with the TV-Anytime CRID standard, unique URIs are not sufficient on their own to solve this problem. This paper sketches an extension to CRID that relies on real-time webservice protocols to dynamically resolve CRIDs across multiple, overlapping content sources (e.g. live TV, DVR, over-the-top content, DLNA servers, etc.). This proposal extends the usefulness of CRIDs outside the PVR use-case and addresses the messiness of the real-world where the same piece of content can be available from many different sources based on license restrictions, device capability and connectivity requirements. The paper also describes how layering dynamic metadata webservices onto the ID space can overcome the traditional problems faced in adopting industry-wide schemas for metadata.