Playlists for real-time or near real-time streaming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10977330-B2
Application number	US-201615390201-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 23, 2016
Priority date	Dec 31, 2008
Publication date	Apr 13, 2021
Grant date	Apr 13, 2021

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for real-time or near real-time streaming of content using transfer protocols such as an HTTP compliant protocol. In one embodiment, a method includes dividing a stream of data, representing the contiguous time based content of a program (e.g. a live video broadcast), into a plurality of distinct media files, and generating a playlist file having a plurality of tags and Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) indicating an order of presentation of the plurality of distinct media files. The plurality of media files and the playlist file can be made available for transmission to a client device which can retrieve the media files using the playlist file.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An article comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon executable instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to:
receive, at a server device, from a content source, an initial portion of a continuous single stream of data of a live presentation;
segment, at the server device, the initial portion of data of the continuous single stream of data into multiple media segments, each of the multiple media segments is a separate and distinct media file encoded in a first encoding and in a transfer protocol compliant format, wherein the first encoding comprises encoding the multiple media segments at a first bit-rate;
generate, by the server device, a playlist that references the multiple media segments in the first encoding, the playlist having a plurality of Universal Resource Indicators (URIs), the plurality of URIs each having a unique sequence number indicating an ordering of the multiple media segments in the first encoding to recreate the continuous single stream of data, the playlist including a sequence tag that indicates the sequence number of a first URI in the playlist to be played back by the client device;
in response to receiving a request from a client device for the playlist that references multiple media files in the first encoding, transmit, by the server device, to a client device, the playlist of the initial portion of the continuous single stream of data that references the multiple media segments in the first encoding;
receive, by the server device, from the content source, additional data of the continuous single stream of data of the presentation after generating the playlist, wherein additional data comprises additional portions of a live presentation that the server device segments into additional multiple media segments of the continuous single stream of data in the first encoding;
removing from the playlist, by the server, at least one URI to a media segment and incrementing the sequence number of the sequence tag for each URI removed from the playlist;
generate, by the server device, an updated playlist that references changes to the multiple media segments in the first encoding, the updated playlist comprising a plurality of updated URIs each having a sequence number indicating an ordering of updated media segments having the first encoding to recreate a representation of the continuous single stream of data in the first encoding, the representation including the additional data, the updated playlist including the sequence tag with the incremented sequence number and excluding the at least one URI to a media segment removed from the playlist; and
in response to the server device receiving a request from the client device for the updated playlist, transmit, to the client device, the updated playlist, wherein the updated playlist references changes to the multiple media segments in the first encoding.

2. The article of claim 1 wherein the changes to the multiple media segments comprises adding one or more media segments divided from the additional data and the updated playlist includes URIs to the added one or more media segments.

3. The article of claim 1 wherein the changes to the multiple media segments comprises modifications to the multiple media segments and the updated playlist comprises URIs to the multiple media segments, and one or more updated tags indicating the modifications to the multiple media segments.

4. The article of claim 1 wherein a media segment referenced by a URI of the playlist remains available to the client device, by the server device, for a period of time equal to the duration of the media segment plus a duration of a longest playlist file in which the media segment appeared.

5. The article of claim 1 wherein the updated playlist is generated at the expiration of a selected period of time.

6. The article of claim 5 wherein the selected period of time is based on an attribute of one of the plurality of tags in the playlist.

7. The article of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to:
determine an approximate duration of a next media file segment to be added to the playlist;
cause the playlist to include a tag indicating the approximate duration.

8. The article of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to:
determine sequence numbers for one or more of the plurality of URIs in the playlist;
cause the playlist to include one or more tags indicating one or more of the sequence numbers.

9. The article of claim 1 further comprising executable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to:
determine whether a client device to receive the multiple media segments is authorized to store the multiple media segments after playback;
cause the playlist to include a tag that indicates whether the client device is authorized to store the multiple media segments after playback.

10. The article of claim 2 , further comprising:
encoding each of the multiple media segments in a second encoding, wherein the second encoding comprises generating encoding the multiple media segments at a second bit-rate; and
generating and storing a playlist that references the multiple media segments in the second encoding.

11. The medium of claim 2 , wherein the duration of the playlist file is the sum of a duration of playback of each media segment referenced in the playlist file.

12. The medium of claim 2 , wherein the at least one URIs that is removed from the playlist file is removed in the order that the URI was previously added to the playlist file.

13. A machine implemented method comprising:
receiving, by a server device, from a content source an initial portion of a single contiguous time-based stream of data of a presentation;
storing, by the server device, multiple media segments in a memory in a first encoding and a transfer protocol compliant format, the multiple media segments having been segmented into separate and distinct media files from the initial portion of the contiguous time based stream of data, and generating a playlist that references the multiple media segments in the first encoding, the playlist indicating an ordering of the media segments in the first encoding, wherein the first encoding comprises encoding the multiple media segments at a first bit-rate;
in response to receiving a request from a client device for the playlist in the first encoding, transmitting, by the server device, the playlist to a client device using the transfer protocol, the playlist having a plurality of Uniform Resource Indicators (URIs), the plurality of URIs each having a unique sequence number indicating an ordering of the multiple media segments in the first encoding to recreate the single contiguous time-based stream of data, the playlist including a sequence tag that indicates the sequence number of a first URI in the playlist to be played back by the client device;
transferring, by the server device, one or more of the multiple media segments in the first encoding to the client device using the transfer protocol in response to one or more requests from the client device utilizing one or more of the plurality of URIs;
receiving, by the server device, from the content source, additional data of the single contiguous time-based stream of data, wherein additional data comprises additional portions of a live presentation that the server device segments into additional multiple media segments of the single contiguous time-based stream of data in the first encoding;
transmitting, by the server d

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Biderman David
• May Jr William
• Tseng Alan
• Pantos Roger
• Batson James David

Classifications

• H04L65/756 Primary

  adapting media to device capabilities · CPC title

• H04N21/44016

  involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip · CPC title

• H04N21/234363

  by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution · CPC title

• H04N21/8456

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

• H04L65/1069

  Session establishment or de-establishment · CPC title