Systems and methods for encoding and sharing content between devices

• US 10,225,298 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2016
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonic IP Incorporated (Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: DivX, LLC (f/k/a DivX CF Holdings LLC) (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Cen, Song, Emdad, Reza
• Primary Examiner(s): Avery, Jeremiah
• Application Number:
  US14/989,551
• Publication Number:
  US 20160197971A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/062 for key distribution, e.g. centrally by trusted party cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving a central third party H04L9/0819
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

Systems and methods for sharing content between devices are disclosed. To request a shared piece of media content, a playback device generates and sends a request to content server. The playback device includes information in the request that indicates the playback capabilities of the device. The content server receives the request and determines the playback capabilities of the playback device from the information in the request. The content server then determines the assets that may be used by the playback device to obtain the media content and generates a top level index file for the playback device that includes information about the determined assets. The top level index file is then sent to the playback device that may then use the top level index file to obtain the media content using the indicated assets.

Claims

1. A content server that provides encoded media to playback devices comprising:

a processor;

a memory readable by the processor; and

instructions in the memory that when read by the processor direct the processor to;

receive shared media content from a first playback device;

obtain a transcoding of the shared media content that includes assets to provide the shared media content in a plurality of alternative streams;

receive a request for the shared media content from a second playback device where the request includes device capability information of the second playback device;

generate a top level index file that includes information for assets that can be used to provide the shared media content to the second playback device based upon the device capability information for the second playback device; and

transmit the top level index file to the second playback device.

2. The content server of claim 1 wherein the instructions further direct the processor to:

retrieve the information about assets that provide the shared media content from a memory storing the assets;

determine the capabilities of the second playback device from the device capability information in the request;

filter the information about the assets using the determined capabilities of the second playback device; and

include information for assets that meet criteria for the capabilities of the second playback device in the top level index file.

3. The content server of claim 2 wherein the device capability information provided by the second playback device includes a product identifier for the second playback device and the instructions to determine capabilities of the second playback device direct the processor to:

retrieve the capabilities of the second playback device from a memory that stores the capabilities of a playback device having the product identifier of the second playback device included in the device capability information.

4. The content server of claim 2 wherein the capabilities of the second playback device are included in the device capability information in the request and the instructions to determine capabilities of the second playback device direct the processor to obtain the capabilities of the second playback device from the device capabilities information in the request.

5. The content server of claim 1 wherein the assets included in the top level index file are also based upon rules regulating the use of different assets for providing the media content that are stored in memory.

6. The content server of claim 1 wherein the rules regulating the use of different assets include at least one rule selected from the rules consisting of:

the type of playback device, the playback capabilities of the device, location of the device, and a requested language.

7. The content server of claim 1 wherein the assets included in the top level index file are also based upon at least one criteria selected from the group of criteria selected from the group consisting of user preferences, and requirements of the content owner.

8. The content server of claim 1 wherein the request includes a token that the second playback device received from the first playback device and the instructions further direct the processor authenticate the token and provide access to the shared video content in response to the authentication of the token.

9. The content server of claim 8 wherein the instructions to provide access to the shared video content include instructions to direct the processor to provide decryption information for the shared media content to second playback device.

10. A method for providing a top level index file to a playback device that includes information for assets that may be used to obtain media content comprising:

receiving shared media content from a first playback device in a content server;

obtaining a transcoding of the shared media content that includes assets to provide the shared media content in a plurality of alternative streams in the content server;

receiving a request for the shared media content from a second playback device in the content server where the request includes device capability information of the second playback device;

generating a top level index file using the content server that includes information for assets that can be used to provide the particular media content to the second playback device based upon the device capability information for the second playback device; and

transmitting the top level index file from the content server to the second playback device.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the generating of the top level index file comprises:

retrieving the information about assets that provide the shared media content from a memory storing the assets using the content server;

determining the capabilities of the second playback device from the device capability information using the content server;

filtering the information about the assets based upon the determined capabilities of the second playback device using the content server; and

including information for assets that meet criteria for the capabilities of the second playback device in the top level index file using the content server.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the device capability information provided by the second playback device includes a product identifier for the second playback device and the determining of the capabilities of the second playback device comprise:

retrieving the capabilities of the second playback device from a memory that stores the capabilities of a playback device having the product identifier of the second playback device included in the device capability information using the content server.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the capabilities of the playback second device are included in the device capability information in the request and the determining of the capabilities of the second playback device comprise obtaining the capabilities from the device capabilities information in the request using the content server.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the assets included in the top level index file are also based upon rules regulating the use of different assets for providing the shared media content that are stored in memory.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the rules regulating the use different assets include at least one rule selected from the rules consisting of:

the type of playback device, the playback capabilities of the device, and location of the device, and a requested language.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the assets included in the top level index file are also based upon at least one criteria selected from the group of criteria selected from the group consisting of user preferences, and requirements of the content owner.

17. A non-transitory machine readable medium containing processor instructions, where execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to perform a process to provide a top level index file including information about assets to use to obtain a particular media content comprising:

receiving shared media content from a first playback device;

obtaining a transcoding of the shared media content that includes assets to provide the shared media content in a plurality of alternative streams;

receiving a request for the shared media content from a second playback device where the request includes device capability information of the second playback device;

generating a top level index file that includes information for assets that can be used to provide the particular media content to the second playback device based upon the device capability information for the second playback device; and

transmitting the top level index file to the second playback device.

18. A playback device comprising:

a processor;

a memory readable by the processor; and

instructions in the memory that when read by the processor direct the processor to;

generate a request for shared media content shared with the playback device by another playback device where the request includes device capability information of the playback device and a token associated with the shared media content that was received from the other playback device;

transmit the request to a content server; and

receive a top level index file that includes information for assets that can be used to obtain the shared media content to the device based upon the device capability information for the playback device; and

obtain the media content using the information in the top index file.

19. The playback device of claim 18 wherein the instructions to generate of the request comprise instructions to include a product identifier in the request that may be used to determine the capabilities of the playback device.

20. A method for obtaining a top index file including information about assets for a particular media content comprising:

generating a request for shared media content shared with the playback device by another playback device where the request includes device capability information of the playback device and a token associated with the shared media content that was received from the other playback device;

transmitting the request from the playback device to a content server;

receiving a top level index file from the content server in the playback device where the top level index file includes information for assets that can be used to obtain the particular media content to the device based upon the device capability information for the playback device; and

obtaining the media content in playback device using the information in the top index file.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the generating of the request comprises including a product identifier in the request that may be used to determine the capabilities of the playback device.

22. A non-transitory machine readable medium containing processor instructions, where execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor in a playback device to perform a process to obtain a top level index file including information about assets to use to obtain a particular media content comprising:

generating a request for shared media content shared with the playback device by another playback device where the request includes device capability information of the playback device and a token associated with the shared media content that was received from the other playback device;

transmitting the request to a content server;

receiving a top level index file from the content server where the top level index file includes information for assets that can be used to obtain the particular media content to the device based upon the device capability information for the playback device; and

obtaining the media content using the information in the top index file.