Signaling and Processing Content with Variable Bitrates for Adaptive Streaming

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016205162-A1
Application number	US-201615075703-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 21, 2016
Priority date	Jul 12, 2012
Publication date	Jul 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for adaptive streaming of a media content, wherein the method comprises receiving a media presentation description that provides presentation information for the media content, determining a plurality of representations from the media presentation description that comprise segments that are provided with bitrate and quality information, selecting a media segment that meets a desired quality level to download from one of the representations, updating a buffered media time for downloading the media segment, and determining when to switch to another representation by comparing the buffered media time to a switching threshold value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for preparing media content for adaptive streaming, the method comprising:
determining a target quality for a media content that comprises a plurality of segments; detecting a plurality of content types that indicate a plurality of complexity for the plurality of segments; determining a plurality of bitrates for the plurality of content types using the target quality; and encoding the plurality of segments using the plurality of bitrates.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating description formation that indicates that one or more segments of the plurality of segments have different bitrates.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the description information is a representation within a Media Presentation Description used for a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (DASH).

4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the segments are encoded with a constant quality determined by the target quality.

5 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising generating a second description information, wherein the second description information encodes the segments using a second target quality.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein a plurality of second bitrates are used to encode the segments that meet the second target quality.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of bitrates for each of the content types produce a quality that meets the target quality, and wherein the target quality is specified as a range of a quality metric.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein more complex content types are assigned with higher bitrates than less complex content types.

9 . A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on a non-transitory medium that when executed by a processor causes a node to perform the following:
receive a presentation description that provides information about a plurality of media segments; and receive the plurality of media segments for a media presentation, wherein the presentation description comprises a representation element, and wherein the representation element indicates whether the media presentation is provisioned as segments with different bitrates.

10 . The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the presentation description further comprises a plurality of segment bandwidth elements that indicate encoded bitrates for the media segments.

11 . The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the segment bandwidth elements are not located within the presentation description when the media presentation is encoded as constant bitrate streams.

12 . The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements comprise a bandwidth attribute that specifies a bitrate for one or more media segments.

13 . The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements further comprise a second attribute that specifies a number of media segments that correspond to each of the segment bandwidth elements, and wherein the bitrate is the same for the media segments associated with the segment bandwidth elements.

14 . The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the segment bandwidth elements are embedded into one or more segment timeline elements.

15 . The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the presentation description further comprises a second representation element, and wherein the second representation element provides a different media content quality than the representation element.

16 . A method for adaptively streaming media content, the method comprising:
determining, by a server, a target quality for a media content that comprises a plurality of segments; detecting, by the server, a plurality of content types that indicate a plurality of complexity for the plurality of segments; determining, by the server, a plurality of bitrates for the plurality of content types using the target quality; encoding, by the server, the plurality of segments using the plurality of bitrates; receiving, by a network receiver, a presentation description that provides information about a plurality of media segments, wherein the presentation description comprises a representation element, and wherein the representation element indicates whether the media content is provisioned as segments with different bitrates; and receiving, by the network receiver, the plurality of media segments for a media presentation.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising generating description information that indicates that one or more segments of the plurality of segments have different bitrates.

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the description information is a representation within a Media Presentation Description used for a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (DASH).

19 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the presentation description further comprises a plurality of segment bandwidth elements that indicate encoded bitrates for the media segments, and wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements comprise a bandwidth attribute that specifies a bitrate for one or more media segments.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements further comprise a second attribute that specifies a number of media segments that correspond to each of the segment bandwidth elements, and wherein the bitrate is the same for the media segments associated with the segment bandwidth elements.

21 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the constant quality determined by the target quality is indicated in a Media Presentation Description.

Assignees

• Futurewei Technologies Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Shaobo
• Wang Xin
• Giladi Alexander
• Liu Xin
• Xu Yangpo
• Ai Changquan
• Di Peiyun

Classifications

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L65/80

  Responding to QoS · CPC title

• H04L65/762 Primary

  at the source  (reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355) · CPC title

• H04L65/608

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/607

  Electricity · mapped topic