Method and apparatus for predicting video decoding time

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11196795-B2
Application number	US-202117211566-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2021
Priority date	Mar 25, 2020
Publication date	Dec 7, 2021
Grant date	Dec 7, 2021

Abstract

A method and apparatus for predicting the software frame decoding time for an HLS variant bit stream based on measurements of the frame decoding time for the lowest bit rate variant given in the master playlist and acquired and played at initial session startup. This permits the determination of a maximum bitrate setting to be refined and applied at startup such that a media program player does not attempt to download and decode variants that might exceed its CPU capacity, thus preventing playback stalls and similar failures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of receiving and decoding a media program, the media program selected from a plurality of media program variants, each of the plurality of media program variants of an associated resolution and generated for transmission at an associated hit rate different than a bit rate associated with the other media program variants, each of the plurality of media program variants comprising an associated plurality of media program version segments, the method comprising:
(a) transmitting a request for the media program;
(b) receiving a master playlist for the requested media program, the master playlist comprising: the bit rate and a resolution associated with each media program variant; an index to plurality of media playlists, each media playlist having an address to each of a plurality of media program segments of an associated variant of the media program;
(c) transmitting a request for a media program segment of a first variant of the media program, the first variant of the media program generated for transmission at a first bit rate and having a first resolution;
(d) receiving the requested media program segment;
(e) determining a time duration required to decode a picture of the received media program segment;
(f) estimating a time duration required to decode a picture of a media program variant segment of another media program variant at least in part from: the determined time duration required to decode the picture of the received media program segment; the first bit rate: the first resolution; a bit rate associated with the another media program variant; and a resolution associated with the another media program variant;
(g) comparing the estimated time duration required to decode the picture of the media program variant segment of the another media program variant with a duration of the picture of the media program variant segment of the another media program variant;
(h) selecting one of another media program segment of the first variant or another media program segment of the another media program variant according to the comparison; and
(i) transmitting a request for the selected one of the another media program segment of the first variant or the another media program segment of the another media program variant according to the comparison.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the time duration required to decode a picture of a media program variant segment of another media program variant is estimated at least in part from:
the determined time duration required to decode the picture of the received media program segment;
a ratio of the first bit rate and the bit rate associated with the another media program variant; and
a ratio of the first resolution and the resolution associated with the another media program variant.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the ratio of the first bit rate and the bit rate associated with the another media program variant and the ratio of the first resolution and the resolution associated with the another media program variant are weighted.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:
the estimated time duration required to decode a picture of a media program variant segment of another media program variant is determined from a linear combination of the weighted ratio of the first bit rate and the bit rate associated with the another media program variant and ratio of the first resolution and the resolution associated with the another media program variant.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the estimated time duration required to decode a picture of a media program variant segment of another media program variant is estimated at least in part from:

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Assignees

• Arris Entpr Llc

Inventors

• Schmidt Mark S

Classifications

• H04L65/613

  for the control of the source by the destination (control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637) · CPC title

• H04L65/612

  for unicast · CPC title

• H04L65/75

  Media network packet handling · CPC title

• H04L65/764

  at the destination  (reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355) · CPC title

• H04L65/70

  Media network packetisation · CPC title