Adaptive bit rate transcode and caching for off air television programming delivery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9716856-B2
Application number	US-201213596911-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2012
Priority date	Mar 7, 2012
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for capturing, transcoding, and caching off-air programming at a location local to the consumer. According to certain embodiments, a device is provided that receives off-air (e.g., broadcast) and/or cable (e.g. ClearQAM) programming via one or more antennas and caches the programming in various streams having various bit rates for later viewing using, for example, Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) streaming. Such a device can be incorporated in a larger system that can stream content via a data communication network (e.g., the Internet) and the device in a seamless manner. The device also can be controlled by a remote system via the data communication network, and further can be configured to stream content to a remote device via the data communication network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for delivering television programming, the device comprising:
one or more television tuners configured to be communicatively connected with one or more off-air antennas located at housing at which the device is installed;
a memory;
a communication interface that communicates with a network, the communication interface being distinct from the one or more television tuners; and
a processing unit communicatively coupled with the one or more television tuners, the memory, and the communication interface, wherein the processing unit is configured to:
perform an initial setup of the device to determine a plurality of off-air broadcast television channels that are received using the one or more television tuners via the one or more off-air antennas at the housing at which the device is installed;
provide an indication of the plurality of off-air broadcast television channels determined during the performed initial setup of the device to a content provider;
receive, by the communication interface via the network, information corresponding to certain off-air broadcast television programming from the content provider indicating certain television programming is to be recorded via the one or more off-air antennas, the information at least partially based on the initial setup determining the plurality of off-air broadcast television channels are received via the one or more off-air antennas at the housing at which the device is installed;
receive, from the one or more off-air antennas via the one or more television tuners, a stream of the certain off-air broadcast television programming, the certain off-air broadcast television programming being received as part of the plurality of off-air broadcast television channels received via the one or more off-air antennas at the housing at which the device is installed;
transcode or encode the stream of the certain off-air broadcast television programming into a plurality of video streams based, at least in part, on the information corresponding to the certain off-air broadcast television programming, wherein each of the plurality of video streams includes a different bit rate;
store the plurality of video streams in the memory, wherein:
each video stream is stored as a plurality of series of streamlets, each streamlet of each series of streamlets being a separately addressable file; and
each series of streamlets is transcoded or encoded at a different bit rate;

receive a first request for the certain off-air broadcast television programing; and
provide, via the communication interface, at least a portion of a first video stream of the plurality of video streams by transmitting a streamlet from the series of streamlets corresponding to the first video stream.

2. The device for delivering television programming as recited in claim 1 , wherein:
the one or more television tuners are configured to be communicatively connected with a plurality of off-air antennas that comprises the one or more off-air antennas; and
the processing unit is further configured to determine a certain off-air antenna to use to receive the certain off-air broadcast television programming based on at least one of:
a signal strength associated with the certain off-air antenna, or
a channel associated with the certain off-air broadcast television programming.

3. The device for delivering television programming as recited in claim 1 , comprising a plurality of television tuners, wherein the processing unit is further configured to receive a plurality of streams of different television programming at the same time.

4. The device for delivering television programming as recited in claim 3 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to transcode or encode the plurality of streams at the same time.

5. The device for delivering television programming as recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of streamlets for each of the plurality of video streams is stored in a separate folder in the memory.

6. A method for delivering television programming, the method comprising:
performing an initial setup of a transcoding device to determine a plurality of off-air broadcast television channels that are received via one or more off-air antennas at housing at which the transcoding device and the one or more off-air antennas are installed;
providing, by the transcoding device, an indication of the plurality of off-air broadcast television channels determined during the performed initial setup of the transcoding device to a content provider system;
determining, by the content provider system, that certain off-air broadcast television programming can be received by the transcoding device based on the initial setup;
receiving, via a communication interface by the transcoding device, an instruction to record the certain off-air broadcast television programming based on the content provider system determining that the certain off-air broadcast television programming can be received by the transcoding device based on the initial setup, wherein the communication interface communicates with a network and the communication interface is distinct from a tuner of the transcoding device;
receiving, via the tuner of the transcoding device, a broadcast signal of the certain off-air broadcast television programming, the certain off-air broadcast television programming being received as part of the plurality of off-air broadcast television channels received via the one or more off-air antennas at the housing at which the transcoding device is installed;
transcoding, by the transcoding device, the certain off-air broadcast television programming into a plurality of video streams, wherein each of the plurality of video streams includes a different bit rate;
storing the plurality of video streams, wherein:
each video stream is stored as a series of streamlets, each of the streamlets being a separately addressable file; and
each series of streamlets is transcoded or encoded at a different bit rate;

receiving a first request to stream the off-air broadcast certain television programing; and
streaming, via the communication interface of the transcoding device, at least a portion of a first video stream of the plurality of video streams by transmitting a streamlet from the series of streamlets corresponding to the first video stream.

7. The method for delivering television programming as recited in claim 6 , further comprising:
determining a connection speed to a device to which the first video stream is streamed; and
selecting the first video stream based, at least in part, on the connection speed.

8. The method for delivering television programming as recited in claim 6 , further comprising:
determining a first type of device associated with the first request; and
selecting the first video stream based, at least in part, on the first type of device.

9. The method for delivering television programming as recited in claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a second request for the certain television programing;
determining a second type of device associated with the second request; and
streaming, via the communication interface, at least a portion of a second video stream of the plurality of video streams.

10. The method for delivering television programming as recited in claim 6 , further comprising:
detecting a change a connection speed to a device to which the first video stream is streamed; and
streaming, via the communication interface, at least a portion of a second video stream of the plurality of video streams based, at least in part, on the detected change in the connection speed.

11. The method for delivering television programming as reci

Assignees

• Lynch Roger
• Paul John
• Major Robert Drew
• Kummer David
• Echostar Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Lynch Roger
• Paul John
• Major Robert Drew
• Kummer David

Classifications

• H04N21/440218

  by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 (conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01) · CPC title

• H04N21/4331

  Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback · CPC title

• H04N5/765

  Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus · CPC title

• H04N21/44209

  Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network (arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896) · CPC title

• H04N21/4263

  involving specific tuning arrangements, e.g. two tuners · CPC title