Selection of resolutions for seamless resolution switching of multimedia content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9467708-B2
Application number	US-201213430032-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 26, 2012
Priority date	Aug 30, 2011
Publication date	Oct 11, 2016
Grant date	Oct 11, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for the selection of resolutions for seamless resolution switching of multimedia content in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In one embodiment of the invention, a source encoder includes a processor configured by a source encoder application to receive multimedia content, where the multimedia content comprises video data having a primary resolution and a primary sample aspect ratio and encode the video data as a set of alternative streams, where a plurality of the streams in the set of alternative streams have different maximum bitrates and resolutions, the resolution of each of the plurality of streams comprises a width and height that are both an integer number of pixels, and both the width and height of each of the plurality of streams is a common fraction of the width and height of the corresponding primary resolution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A playback device, comprising:
a processor configured to communicate with a memory, where the memory contains a client application;
wherein the client application configures the processor to:
obtain an index file from a content provider system connected to the playback device via a network, where the index file includes a description of each of a plurality of alternative video streams including a first set of streams including at least two of the plurality of alternative video streams having a same aspect ratio where each of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams has a different bit rate from the other alternative streams of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams and a different resolution from the other alternative streams of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams wherein the different resolution of each of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams has a height and a width that are each an integer number of pixels;
select a first stream from the plurality of alternative streams that is a first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams based upon the descriptions of the plurality of alternative streams in the index file;
configure a video decoder to decode video having a resolution, and aspect ratio of the first one of the alternative streams in the first set of streams, where decoding the video comprises scaling the decoded video to the resolution of the display device;
request and receive a portion of the video from the first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams from the content provider system over the network;
decode the portion of video from the first one of the at least two alternative streams using the video decoder configured to decode video having a resolution and aspect ratio of the first one of the at least two alternative streams;
monitor the streaming conditions for the video received from the first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams over the network;
select a second one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams having a different bit rate and resolution from the first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams and the same aspect ratio as the first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams based upon a change in the streaming conditions and the descriptions of the plurality of alternative streams in the index file;
request and receive a portion of the video from the second one of the at least two alternative stream in the first set of streams over the network; and
decode the portion of video from the second one of the at least two alternative streams using the video decoder where video from the first one and the second one of the at least two of plurality of alternative streams in the first set of stream scale in a uniform fashion to the resolution of the display device.

2. The playback device of claim 1 wherein the aspect ratio of the first set of streams is 16:9.

3. The playback device of claim 1 wherein the aspect ratio of the streams in the set of alternative streams is 1.85:1.

4. The playback device of claim 1 wherein the aspect ratio of the first set of streams is 2.35:1.

5. The playback device of claim 1 wherein the aspect ratio of the first set of streams is 2.40:1.

6. The playback device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of alternative streams including a second set of streams that includes at least two of the plurality of alternative video streams having a same aspect ratio wherein each of the at least two alternative streams in the second set of streams has a different bit rate from the other at least two alternative streams in the second set of streams and a different resolution from the other at least two alternative streams in the second set of streams where the different resolution of each of the at least two alternative streams in the second set of streams has a height and a width that are each an integer number of pixels and further wherein the aspect ratio of the second set of streams is different from the aspect ratio of the first set of streams.

7. The playback device of claim 6 where each of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams has a first sample aspect ratio and each stream in the second set of streams has a second sample aspect ratio wherein the first and second sample aspect ratios are different.

8. The playback device of claim 1 where each stream in the first set of streams has a same sample aspect ratio.

9. A method of playing back content, comprising:
obtaining an index file from a content provider system via a network connection using a playback device, where the index file includes a description of each of a plurality of alternative video streams including a first set of streams that includes at least two of the plurality of alternative video streams having a same aspect ratio where each of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams has a different bit rate from the other alternative streams of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams and a different resolution from the other alternative streams of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams wherein the different resolution of each of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams has a height and a width that are each an integer number of pixels;
selecting a first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams based upon the descriptions of the plurality of alternative streams in the index file using the playback device;
configuring a video decoder on the playback device to decode video having a resolution, and sample aspect ratio of the first one of the at least two alternative video streams from the first set of video streams, where decoding the video comprises scaling the decoded video to the resolution of the display device;
requesting and receiving a portion of the video from a first one of the at least two video streams from the first set of streams from the content provider system via the network connection using the playback device;
decoding the portion of video from the first one of the at least two alternative streams using the video decoder configured to decode video having a resolution and aspect ratio of the first one of the at least two alternative streams;
monitoring the streaming conditions for the video received from the first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams using the playback device;
selecting a second one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams having a different bit rate and resolution from the first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams and the same aspect ratio as the first one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams based upon a change in the streaming conditions and the descriptions of the plurality of alternative streams in the index file;
requesting and receiving a portion of the video from the second one of the at least two alternative streams in the first set of streams from the content provider via the network connection; and
decoding the portion of video from the second one of the at least two alternative streams using the video decoder where video from the first one and the second one of the at least two of plurality of alternative streams in the first set of stream scale in a uniform fashion to the resolution of the display device.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the aspect ratio of the first set of streams

Assignees

• Soroushian Kourosh
• Shivadas Abhishek
• Sonic Ip Inc

Inventors

• Soroushian Kourosh
• Shivadas Abhishek

Classifications

• H04N21/23439

  for generating different versions · CPC title

• H04N21/2662

  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

• H04N19/33 Primary

  in the spatial domain · CPC title

• H04N21/8456

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

• H04N21/234363

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