Systems and methods for predictive delivery of high bit-rate content for playback

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10069730-B2
Application number	US-201414295270-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 3, 2014
Priority date	Jun 3, 2014
Publication date	Sep 4, 2018
Grant date	Sep 4, 2018

Abstract

The present disclosure provides for systems and methods for predictive delivery of high bit-rate content. The disclosed systems and methods provide an adaptive-bit-rate streaming (ABS) system with more robust information, thereby allowing more intelligent pre-caching of the media content. By providing greater information to the ABS system, the disclosed systems are able to foresee higher bit-rate segments that require greater attention, allowing the system to use such information to improve the playback experience.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a request from a device for transmission of a media content asset, the media content asset comprising a single media content asset file comprising a plurality of variable bit-rate encoded segments arranged in a particular order, at least one of the plurality of segments of the single media content asset file being a high bit-rate segment transcoded at a higher bit rate than one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment in the particular order;
transmitting the plurality of segments in the particular order to the device;
detecting the high bit-rate segment; and
transmitting data for the high bit-rate segment out of order in the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment to the device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media content asset further comprises a manifest file, the manifest file comprising bit-rate information for each of the plurality of segments, wherein the method further comprises: using at least the manifest file to determine that a portion of the high bit-rate segment needs to be transmitted out of order in the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high-bit rate segment.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting transmission conditions.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein detecting an upcoming high bit-rate segment further comprises using the transmission conditions to determine a high bit-rate segment.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein transmitting data for the high bit-rate segment out of order further comprises transmitting data for the high bit-rate segment simultaneously with the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment.

6. A method comprising:
requesting transmission of a media content asset, the media content asset comprising a single media content asset file comprising a plurality of variable bit-rate encoded segments arranged in a particular order, at least one of the plurality of segments of the single media content asset file being a high bit-rate segment transcoded at a higher bit rate than one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment in the particular order;
receiving bit-rate information for upcoming segments in the single media content asset file, the upcoming segments comprising the high-bit rate segment;
receiving the plurality of segments in the particular order;
detecting an upcoming high bit-rate segment using the bit-rate information;
requesting data for the high bit-rate segment out of order; and
receiving the requested data for the high bit-rate segment out of order.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the single media content asset file further comprises a plurality of headers associated with one or more of the plurality of segments, and the bit-rate information is contained within the plurality of headers.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of segments comprises a header, the header of each of the plurality of segments comprising bit-rate information for each of a predetermined number of upcoming segments, wherein detecting the upcoming high bit-rate segment comprises: detecting the upcoming high bit rate segment in a header of the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the media content asset further comprises a manifest file, and the bit-rate information is contained within the manifest file, wherein the method further comprises: using at least the manifest file to determine that a portion of the high bit-rate segment needs to be transmitted out of order in the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high-bit rate segment.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein requesting data for the high bit-rate segment out of order further comprises requesting data for the high bit-rate segment simultaneously with the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising an instruction set configured to cause a computing device to perform:
receiving a request from a device for transmission of a media content asset, the media content asset comprising a single media content asset file comprising a plurality of variable bit-rate encoded segments arranged in a particular order, at least one of the plurality of segments of the single media content asset file being a high bit-rate segment transcoded at a higher bit rate than one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment in the particular order;
transmitting the plurality of segments in the particular order to the device;
detecting the high bit-rate segment; and
transmitting data for the high bit-rate segment out of order in the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment to the device.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the media content asset further comprises a manifest file, the manifest file comprising bit-rate information for each of the plurality of segments, wherein the instruction set is further configured to cause the computing device to perform: using at least the manifest file to determine that a portion of the high bit-rate segment needs to be transmitted out of order in the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high-bit rate segment.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 further comprising detecting transmission conditions.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein detecting an upcoming high bit-rate segment further comprises using the transmission conditions to determine a high bit-rate segment.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein transmitting data for the high bit-rate segment out of order further comprises transmitting data for the high bit-rate segment simultaneously with the one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising an instruction set configured to cause a computing device to perform:
requesting transmission of a media content asset, the media content asset comprising a single media content asset file comprising a plurality of variable bit-rate encoded segments arranged in a particular order, at least one of the plurality of segments of the single media content asset file being a high bit-rate segment transcoded at a higher bit rate than one or more bit-rate segments preceding the high bit-rate segment in the particular order;
receiving bit-rate information for upcoming segments in the single media content asset file, the upcoming segments comprising the high-bit rate segment;
receiving the plurality of segments in the particular order;
detecting an upcoming high bit-rate segment using the bit-rate information;
requesting data for the high bit-rate segment out of order; and
receiving the requested data for the high bit-rate segment out of order.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the single media content asset file further comprises a plurality of headers associated with one or more of the plurality of segments, and the bit-rate information is contained within the plurality of headers.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein each of the plurality of segments comprises a header, the header of each of the plurality of segments comprising bit-rate information for each of a predetermined number of upcoming segments, wherein detecting the upcoming high bit-rate segment comprises: detecting the upcoming high bit rate segment in

Assignees

• Disney Entpr Inc

Inventors

• Voris James
• Arana Mark
• Drake Edward

Classifications

• H04N21/8456

  by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments · CPC title

• H04N21/2402

  Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available (traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876) · CPC title

• H04N21/23805

  Controlling the feeding rate to the network, e.g. by controlling the video pump · CPC title

• H04L65/80

  Responding to QoS · CPC title

• H04L65/4084

  Electricity · mapped topic