Method and apparatus for hybrid transcoding of a media program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9832540-B2
Application number	US-96901610-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2010
Priority date	Dec 15, 2010
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

A method and apparatus for encoding a source media program is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of transcoding the source media program to produce a constant video quality transcoded version of the media program, determining if a portion of constant video quality version of the transcoded media program fails to satisfy a constraint, if the portion of the transcoded media program fails to satisfy the constraint, adjusting at least one transcoding parameter of a set of transcoding parameters, transcoding the portion of the source media program according to the adjusted at least one transcoding parameter to produce a constant bit rate version of the portion of the transcoded media program, and substituting the constant bit rate version of the portion of the transcoded media program for the constant video quality portion of the transcoded media program.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of encoding a source media program, the method comprising:
(a) before a request for transmission of the media program, performing a first pass transcoding for all frames of the source media program to produce a constant video quality transcoded version of the source media program, wherein the constant video quality transcoded version is transcoded by a transcoder operating in a first mode that targets a video quality;
(b) after performing the first pass transcoding of all the frames of the source media program, analyzing all of the frames of the constant video quality transcoded version using an interval of a plurality of frames;
(c) determining when a plurality of frames of the constant video quality transcoded version of the transcoded media program fail to satisfy a constraint related to a bit rate based on the analyzing of all the frames using the interval;
(d) when the plurality of frames of the constant video quality transcoded version fail to satisfy the constraint, adjusting at least one transcoding parameter of a set of transcoding parameters such that the constraint can be satisfied by a constant bit rate transcoding of the plurality of frames of the source media program;
(e) after the first pass transcoding of all the frames of the source media program, performing a second pass transcoding of the plurality of frames of the source media program according to the adjusted at least one transcoding parameter to produce a constant bit rate version of the plurality of frames of the source media program, wherein the constant bit rate version of the plurality of frames of the source media program is transcoded by the transcoder operating in a second mode that targets the bit rate;
(f) in response to producing the plurality of frames of the constant bitrate version, substituting the constant bit rate version of the plurality of frames for the plurality of frames in the constant video quality transcoded version to generate a transcoded source media program;
(g) before the request for transmission, storing the transcoded source media program in storage as a version of the source media program to be transmitted; and
(h) providing the version of the transcoded source media program from the storage for transmission in response to the request for the version.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the set of parameters includes texture complexity, video complexity, motion complexity, and picture rate; and
the method further comprises analyzing the constant video quality transcoded version of the transcoded media program to provide transcoded video information selected from the group comprising instantaneous bit rate, peak bit rate for an entire constant video quality transcoded version of the transcoded media program, average bit rate for an entire constant video quality transcoded version of the transcoded media program, a variance of an instantaneous bit rate of the constant video quality transcoded version of the transcoded media program; a size of the constant video quality transcoded version of the transcoded media program, and metrics reflecting any of the set of parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
(i) determining when the plurality of frames of the constant bit rate version fail to satisfy the constraint; and
(j) when the plurality of frames of the constant bit rate version fail to satisfy the constraint, further adjusting the at least one parameter of the set of parameters and repeating step i) until the plurality of frames of the constant bit rate version satisfy the constraint, then performing step (f).

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
(i) determining when the plurality of frames of the constant bit rate version fail to satisfy the constraint; and
(j) when the plurality of frames of the constant bit rate version fail to satisfy the constraint, adjusting another parameter of the set of parameters and repeating step (i) until the plurality of frames of the constant bit rate version satisfy the constraint, then performing step (f).

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein adjusting another parameter of the set of parameters comprises adjusting a transcoded video texture complexity parameter to reduce transcoded video texture complexity.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the constraint is a maximum instantaneous bit rate during the interval.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of frames comprises a smallest integer number of a group of pictures that span the plurality of frames.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transcoder comprises a first transcoder operating in the first mode and a second transcoder operating in the second mode.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the version of the source media program is associated with the targeted bitrate used to transcode the constant bit rate version of the portion of the transcoded media program.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the version of the source media program is stored with other versions of the source media program, wherein each version of the source media program is associated with a different resolution.

11. An apparatus for encoding a source media program, the apparatus comprising:
means for performing a first pass transcoding for all frames of the source media program to produce a constant video quality transcoded version of the source media program, wherein the constant video quality transcoded version is transcoded by a transcoder operating in a first mode that targets a video quality;
means for analyzing all of the frames of the constant video quality transcoded version using an interval of a plurality of frames after performing the first pass transcoding of all the frames of the source media program;
means for determining when a plurality of frames of the constant video quality transcoded version of the transcoded media program fail to satisfy a constraint related to a bit rate based on the analyzing of all the frames using the interval;
means for adjusting at least one transcoding parameter of a set of transcoding parameters such that the constraint can be satisfied by a constant bit rate transcoding of the plurality of frames of the source media program when the plurality of frames of the constant video quality transcoded version fail to satisfy the constraint;
means for performing a second pass transcoding of the plurality of frames of the source media program according to the adjusted at least one transcoding parameter to produce a constant bit rate version of the plurality of frames of the source media program, wherein the constant bit rate version of the plurality of frames of the source media program is transcoded by the transcoder operating in a second mode that targets the bit rate after the first pass transcoding of all the frames of the source media program;
means for substituting the constant bit rate version of the plurality of frames for the plurality of frames in the constant video quality transcoded version to generate a transcoded source media program in response to producing the plurality of frames of the constant bitrate version;
means for storing, before the request for transmission, the transcoded source media program in storage as a version of the source media program to be transmitted; and
means for providing the version of the transcoded source media program from the storage for transmission in response to the request for the version.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein:
the set of parameters includes texture complexity, video complexity, motion complexity, and picture rate; and
the apparatus further comprises means for analyzing the constant video quality transcoded version of the transco

Assignees

• Liao Yupeng
• Kang Kang
• Wang Zhibing
• Hulu Llc

Inventors

• Liao Yupeng
• Kang Kang
• Wang Zhibing

Classifications

• H04N19/146

  Data rate or code amount at the encoder output · CPC title

• H04N19/15

  by monitoring actual compressed data size at the memory before deciding storage at the transmission buffer · CPC title

• H04N19/154

  Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion (use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147) · 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

• H04N19/61

  in combination with predictive coding · CPC title