Reduction of startup time in remote HLS

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11838451-B2
Application number	US-202217835375-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 8, 2022
Priority date	Jun 13, 2016
Publication date	Dec 5, 2023
Grant date	Dec 5, 2023

Abstract

A method is provided for streaming transcoded HLS video from a video asset to allow a minimum startup delay time. A method includes pre-transcoding a first number of the HLS chunks. Then, once a request is received from a remote HLS client for the HLS video asset, transmitting a number of the pre-transcoded chunks to the remote HLS player. The pre-transcoded chunks are transmitted during a startup period until real-time transcoded chunks can be received and processed by the remote HLS player at a time position to allow seamless transition from the pre-transcoded chunks.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A method of streaming video comprising:
providing a portion of a recorded video asset to a transcoder or transcoders;
storing pre-transcoded portions of a video asset as a sequence of temporally contiguous chunks, where the chunks sequentially increase in bitrate;
receiving a request from a remote HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) client player for the recorded video asset at a determined bitrate; and
transmitting the chunks to the remote HLS client player in sequence and at a bitrate no greater than the determined bitrate for a period of time, the magnitude of the period based on the determined bitrate, and thereafter transmitting chunks to the remote HLS client player transcoded in real time at the determined bitrate.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
transmitting at least a first one of the pre-transcoded chunks at said first low bitrate;
measuring a bandwidth available to the remote HLS player; and
transmitting subsequent ones of the pre-transcoded chunks at the multiple increasing bitrates for a remainder of the period of time.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pre-transcoded portion includes a highest bitrate chosen to be less than an available bandwidth receivable by the remote player by a predetermined margin.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pre-transcoded portion includes a highest bitrate equal to the bandwidth of the remote player.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pre-transcoded portion includes two or more higher bitrates.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the pre-transcoding of the chunks begins at a bookmarked timestamp.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising during a startup time when the pre-transcoded chunks are transmitted, beginning transcoding and transmission of the remaining chunks at a time position to allow seamless transition from the pre-transcoded chunks provided to the remote HLS player.

8. The method of claim 7 ,
wherein the pre-transcoded chunks include a first number of chunks of the video asset, and the chunks transcoded in real-time include chunks after the first number of chunks of the video asset,
wherein real-time transcoding begins at the time of transmission of the pre-transcoded chunks, and
wherein the transmission of the chunks transcoded in real-time begins after a predetermined number of pre-transcoded chunks are transmitted.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein all of the first number of pre-transcoded chunks are transmitted before the chunks transcoded in real-time chunks are transmitted.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein not all of the first number of pre-transcoded chunks are transmitted before the chunks transcoded in real-time chunks are transmitted.

11. An apparatus for streaming HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video to at least one remote HLS player device, the apparatus comprising:
an interface for transmitting the streaming HLS video to the remote HLS player;
a memory storing a portion of a recorded video asset divided and pre-transcoded into a number of temporally contiguous chunks, where the chunks sequentially increase in bitrate;
a processor connected to control the interface and configured to receive the streaming HLS video and receive the pre-transcoded contiguous chunks, and:
receive a request from the remote HLS client through the interface for the recorded video asset at a determined bitrate; and
transmit the stored pre-transcoded chunks to the remote HLS through the interface at a bitrate no greater than the determined bitrate for a period of time, the magnitude of the period based on the determined bitrate, and thereafter transmitting chunks transcoded in real time at the determined bitrate.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , where the processor is configured to:
transmit at least a first one of the pre-transcoded chunks through the interface at said first low bitrate;
measure a bandwidth available to the remote HLS player; and
transmit subsequent ones of the pre-transcoded chunks through the interface the multiple increasing bitrates for a remainder of the period of time.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the memory stores processor executable code to cause the processor during a startup time when the pre-transcoded chunks are transmitted, to begin transcoding and transmission of the remaining chunks through the interface at a time position to allow seamless transition from the pre-transcoded chunks provided to the remote HLS player.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 ,
wherein the pre-transcoded chunks include a first number of chunks of the video asset, and the chunks transcoded in real-time include chunks after the first number of chunks of the video asset,
wherein the chunks transcoded in real-time begins at the time of transmission of the pre-transcoded chunks, and
wherein the transmission of the chunks transcoded in real-time begins after a predetermined number of pre-transcoded chunks are transmitted.

Assignees

• Arris Entpr Llc

Inventors

• Schmidt Mark S
• Franks William P
• Moroney Paul

Classifications

• H04N21/2662 Primary

  Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities · CPC title

• H04N19/40

  using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream · CPC title

• H04N21/23406

  involving management of server-side video buffer · CPC title

• H04N21/234345

  the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment · 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