Providing advanced playback and control functionality to video client

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9930427-B2
Application number	US-201514976535-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2015
Priority date	Dec 21, 2015
Publication date	Mar 27, 2018
Grant date	Mar 27, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing playback features to a device are disclosed. In an aspect, one method can comprise transmitting a manifest and a state file to a recipient device, wherein processing of the manifest facilitates access to content and wherein processing of the state file facilitates one or more playback features associated with the content.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
generating, by a processor, a manifest associated with at least a first segment of a content asset, wherein the manifest comprises a manifest version and a first time code associated with one or more of the manifest and the first segment of the content asset;
generating a state file comprising a second time code and an indication of the manifest version associated with the manifest, wherein the state file is distinct from the manifest;
transmitting the manifest to a recipient device, wherein the manifest facilitates access to at least the first segment of the content asset; and
transmitting the state file to the recipient device, wherein the state file is configured to facilitate execution of one or more playback features, wherein the one or more playback features are associated with at least the first segment of the content asset.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the state file is time synchronized with the manifest.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first time code and the second time code facilitate time synchronization between the manifest and the state file.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first time code and the second time code represent a time the manifest was generated.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first time code and the second time code represent a time that the first segment of the content asset was encoded.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more playback features comprise one or more of an advertising cue, content manipulation, and entitlement logic.

7. A method comprising:
receiving, by a processor, a content asset;
storing at least a content segment representing at least a portion of the received content asset;
generating a manifest comprising a manifest version and information associated with a storage location of the stored content segment;
generating a state file comprising an identifier of the manifest version of the manifest;
transmitting the manifest to a recipient device, wherein the manifest facilitates access to at least the stored content segment of the content asset; and
transmitting the state file to a recipient device, wherein the state file facilitates execution of one or more playback features, and wherein the one or more playback features are associated with at least the stored content segment of the content asset.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the state file is time synchronized with the manifest.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the content asset is a video on demand asset, a linear content asset, or a network digital video recorder asset.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more playback features comprise one or more of an advertising cue, content manipulation, and entitlement logic.

11. A method comprising:
transmitting a request associated with content;
receiving, in response to the request, a first manifest of a plurality of manifests, wherein the first manifest indicates a manifest version and comprises information associated with a storage location of the content;
receiving a state file that comprises an identifier associated with the manifest version of the first manifest;
receiving, based on at least the first manifest, at least a portion of the content;
determining, based on the state file, the identifier associated with the manifest version of the first manifest; and
executing, based on the state file, one or more playback features associated with the received content.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the state file is time synchronized with the first manifest.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first manifest comprises a first time code, wherein the state file comprises a second time code, and wherein the first time code and the second time code facilitate time synchronization between the first manifest and the state file.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein one or more of the first time code and the second time code represents a time the first manifest was generated.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein one or more of the first time code and the second time code represents a time the requested content was encoded.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more playback features comprise one or more of an advertising cue, content manipulation, and entitlement logic.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the receiving the content comprises receiving a segment of a content asset using the first manifest.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the state file is configured to be processed by the recipient device to facilitate transmission of the indication of the manifest version associated with the manifest transmitted to the recipient device.

19. The method of claim 7 , wherein the state file is configured to be processed by the recipient device to facilitate transmission of an indication of the manifest version associated with the manifest transmitted to the recipient device.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first manifest of the plurality of manifests is associated with a bit rate version of the content.

Assignees

• Theplatform Llc
• Comcast Cable Communications Man Llc

Inventors

• Lacivita Jeremy
• Niland Daniel
• Fulton Curtis

Classifications

• H04N7/165

  Centralised control of user terminal (subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345); Registering at central (by two-way working H04N7/17309) · CPC title

• H04N21/8402

  involving a version number, e.g. version number of EPG data (arrangements for version control in computers G06F8/71) · CPC title

• H04N21/26606

  for generating or managing entitlement messages, e.g. Entitlement Control Message [ECM] or Entitlement Management Message [EMM] (arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14) · CPC title

• H04N21/26258

  for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list (retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40) · CPC title

• H04N21/4307

  Synchronising the rendering of multiple content streams or additional data on devices, e.g. synchronisation of audio on a mobile phone with the video output on the TV screen · CPC title