Media streaming method and device using the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9680902-B2
Application number	US-201313938245-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 10, 2013
Priority date	Dec 17, 2012
Publication date	Jun 13, 2017
Grant date	Jun 13, 2017

Abstract

A media streaming method and a device using the same are introduced herein. The disclosure introduces a method for smooth and flawless playback of live media streaming in dynamic network environment. When network congestion occurs for a period, a media receiver may play media data as more as possible by adjusting the transmission order of media data meaningful to the receiver or a provider for providing the media data. In one embodiment, the disclosure introduces a method for smooth and flawless playback of live media streaming by caching a certain amount of media data and then playing them at an appropriate speed to catch up to the progress of the live media streaming, or by dynamically changing bit rates of the live media streaming in time by the provider to meet the most acceptable bit rate according to the network environment between the provider and the receiver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A media streaming method, comprising:
receiving, by a media streaming device, streaming data from a media provider;
monitoring and temporarily storing, by the media streaming device, a first plurality of encoded data obtained from the streaming data in a memory device of the media streaming device, wherein each of the first plurality of encoded data comprises a plurality of encoding-decoding units, wherein each of the first plurality of encoded data comprises media data or only image data, wherein a streaming adjustment event is started as a result of monitoring the first plurality of encoded data temporarily stored in the memory device;
wherein the streaming adjustment event comprises:
obtaining information of the first plurality of encoded data,
according to the obtained information of the first plurality of encoded data, obtaining, by the media streaming device, an importance parameter corresponding to a plurality of encoding-decoding units of a second plurality of encoded data to be received from the media provider, wherein the plurality of encoding-decoding units of the second plurality of encoded data comprises a first encoding-decoding unit and a second encoding-decoding unit, and the importance parameter indicates that the first encoding-decoding unit is arranged to be transmitted in a first position in a transmission order of the plurality of encoding-decoding units of the second plurality of encoded data, and the second encoding-decoding unit is arranged to be transmitted at a second position in the transmission order;
modifying the importance parameter by exchanging importance of at least two encoding-decoding units of the second plurality of encoded data; and
sending an adjustment signal comprising the modified importance parameter to the media provider to arrange the first encoding-decoding unit to be transmitted at the second position in the transmission order and arrange the second encoding-decoding unit to be transmitted at the first position in the transmission order according to the modified importance parameter before transmitting the second plurality of encoded data to the media streaming device, wherein the second plurality of encoded data is part of the streaming data subsequent to the first plurality of encoded data.

2. The media streaming method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of monitoring and temporarily storing the first plurality of encoded data obtained from the streaming data in a memory device of the media streaming device comprises:
determining whether an amount of the first plurality of encoded data temporarily stored in the memory device is lower than a first threshold or higher than a second threshold, wherein the second threshold is higher than the first threshold;
when the amount of the first plurality of encoded data temporarily stored in the memory device is lower than the first threshold, starting the streaming adjustment event according to the importance parameter; and
when the amount the first plurality of encoded data is higher than the second threshold, stopping the streaming adjustment event.

3. The media streaming method according to claim 1 , wherein the information of the first plurality of encoded data comprises group of picture (GOP) information of the first plurality of encoded data, a playback time of the first plurality of encoded data which is evaluated, a predicted size of data, a predicted decoding time, an available bandwidth, an number of sources providing the first plurality of encoded data and whether the first plurality of encoded data adopts a network coding technique.

4. The media streaming method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprises a feature of mutual reference and correlation.

5. The media streaming method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprises I-frames, P-frames and B-frames conforming to the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standard.

6. The media streaming method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprises I, P and B slices conforming to the H.263, H.264, or HEVC standard.

7. The media streaming method according to claim 1 , wherein the importance parameter corresponding to the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprised in each of the media data is determined and specified according to a type of the plurality of encoding-decoding units.

8. The media streaming method according to claim 7 , wherein the importance parameter corresponding to the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprised in each of the media data is further specified according to an urgency of the plurality of encoding-decoding units.

9. The media streaming method according to claim 7 , wherein the importance parameter corresponding to the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprised in each of the media data is further adjusted according to an additionally specified requirement.

10. The media streaming method according to claim 7 , wherein the importance parameter corresponding to the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprised in each of the media data is further specified according to an urgency and an additionally specified requirement.

11. The media streaming method according to claim 1 , wherein the importance parameter corresponding to the plurality of encoding-decoding units comprised in each of the media data is evaluated by configuring either one or multiple GOPs or a portion of the GOP of the plurality of encoded data as an evaluation object collection.

12. The media streaming method according to claim 11 , wherein before evaluating the evaluation object collection, a latest start download time of a next evaluation object collection is obtained to obtain an available download time of the evaluation object collection.

13. A media streaming device, adapted to receive streaming data comprising a first plurality of encoded data from a media provider, each of the first encoded data comprises a plurality of encoding-decoding units, and the plurality of encoding-decoding units is transmitted to a player according to an encoding order, wherein the first plurality of encoded data comprises media data or only image data, the media streaming device comprising:
a buffer, temporarily storing the first plurality of encoded data; and
a processor, coupled to the buffer, and configured to execute:
obtaining information of the first plurality of encoded data and monitoring an amount of the first plurality of encoded data temporarily stored in the buffer;
obtaining an importance parameter corresponding to a plurality of encoding-decoding units of a second plurality of encoded data to be received from the media provider, wherein the second plurality of encoded data is part of the streaming data subsequent to the first plurality of encoded data, and the plurality of encoding-decoding units of the second plurality of encoded data comprises a first encoding-decoding unit and a second encoding-decoding unit, wherein the importance parameter indicates that the first encoding-decoding unit is arranged to be transmitted from the media provider at a first position in a transmission order of the plurality of encoding-decoding units of the second plurality of encoded data, and the second encoding-decoding unit is arranged to be transmitted at a second position in the transmission order;
modifying the importance parameter by exchanging importance of the first and second encoding-decoding units, and transmitting an adjustment signal when the amount of the plurality of encoded data is lower than a first threshold; and
transmitting an adjustment stopping signal when the amount of

Assignees

• Ind Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Yu Yun-Shuai

Classifications

• H04L65/602

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/607 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/80 Primary

  Responding to QoS · CPC title

• H04L65/762

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

• H04L65/70 Primary

  Media network packetisation · CPC title