Multimedia distribution system for multimedia files with interleaved media chunks of varying types

• US 10,257,443 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2016
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sonic IP Incorporated (Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: DivX, LLC (f/k/a DivX CF Holdings LLC) (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Braness, Jason, Rota, Jerome, Grab, Eric William, Donaldson, Jerald, Hitchcock, Heather, Chavarria, Damien, Floyd, Michael John, Fudge, Brian T., Li, Adam H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Harvey, David E
• Application Number:
  US15/144,776
• Publication Number:
  US 20160360123A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 386337
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00731 involving a digital rights management system for enforcing a usage restriction
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00739 wherein the usage restriction is associated with a specific geographical region
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4856 for language selection, e.g. for the menu or subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/845 Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/265 Mixing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/278 Subtitling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/92 Transformation of the television signal for recording, e.g. modulation, frequency changing; Inverse transformation for playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding

Abstract

A multimedia file and methods of generating, distributing and using the multimedia file are described. Multimedia files in accordance with embodiments of the present invention can contain multiple video tracks, multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitle tracks, data that can be used to generate a menu interface to access the contents of the file and ‘meta data’ concerning the contents of the file. Multimedia files in accordance with several embodiments of the present invention also include references to video tracks, audio tracks, subtitle tracks and ‘meta data’ external to the file. One embodiment of a multimedia file in accordance with the present invention includes a series of encoded video frames and encoded menu information.

Claims

1. A system for decoding multimedia files comprising:

at least one processor;

a non-volatile storage containing a decoder application;

wherein the decoder application causes the at least one processor to perform the steps of;

receiving at least a portion of a multimedia file, wherein;

the received at least a portion of the multimedia file comprises at least one video track encoded as a plurality of video chunks, a set of digital rights management (DRM) chunks, and an index chunk;

at least one video chunk of the plurality of video chunks contains at least one partially encrypted frame of video so that only a portion of the encoded frame is encrypted;

each DRM chunk of the set of DRM chunks comprises DRM information to decrypt at least one partially encrypted frame of video in at least one video chunk of the plurality of video chunks;

the DRM information comprises an offset value that points to the start of an encrypted block within an encoded frame and a number value that indicates the number of encrypted bytes in the encrypted block;

the index chunk includes information concerning the location of data chunks within the multimedia file including the locations of video chunks from the at least one video track; and

for each chunk of the plurality of video chunks;

determining whether the video chunk contains at least one partially encrypted frame of video;

when a video chunk contains a partially encrypted frame of video, identifying a corresponding one of the set of DRM chunks that contains the DRM information for the partially encrypted frame of video, demultiplexing the partially encrypted frame from the video chunk, and decrypting the partially encrypted frame of video using the offset and number values from the DRM information for the partially encrypted frame of video; and

decoding at least one encoded frame of video for display.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each DRM chunk is identified by a FOURCC code.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the FOURCC code identifies a track number associated with the DRM chunk.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the DRM chunk further comprises a reference to a decryption key that can be used to decrypt an encrypted portion of a partially encrypted frame of video.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one video chunk of the plurality of video chunks does not have a corresponding DRM chunk in the set of DRM chunks.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the location of a particular DRM chunk corresponding to a particular video chunk is dependent upon an amount of buffering provided within the system.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one index chunk further comprises locations of DRM chunks within the multimedia file.

16. The system of claim 4, wherein the decoder application causes the at least one processor to perform the steps of:

requesting at least a portion of the multimedia file from a first server system; and

requesting a decryption key referenced in a DRM chunk from the set of DRM chunks from a second server system.

7. A system for encoding multimedia files comprising:

a network interface;

at least one processing unit;

a non-transitory memory storing an encoding application, wherein the encoding application causes the at least one processing unit to encode multimedia files by performing the steps of;

obtaining source media using the network interface, wherein the source media comprises video;

encoding at least one video track as a plurality of video chunks, the video chunks being portions of the at least one video track, the video track comprising a series of encoded video frames;

partially encrypting at least some of the encoded frames of video so that only portions of the encoded frames of video are encrypted;

encoding the DRM information as a set of DRM chunks, wherein;

each DRM chunk of the set of DRM chunks comprises DRM information to decrypt at least one partially encrypted frame of video in at least one video chunk of the plurality of video chunks; and

the DRM information comprises an offset value that points to the start of an encrypted block within an encoded frame and a number value that indicates the number of encrypted bytes in the encrypted block;

interleaving the video chunks and DRM chunks so that a DRM chunk for decrypting at least one partially encrypted frame within a particular video chunk is located before the particular video chunk; and

encoding at least one index chunk that includes information concerning the locations of video chunks;

writing the interleaved chunks to at least one multimedia file; and

transmitting at least a portion of the at least one multimedia file using the network interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each DRM chunk is identified by a FOURCC code.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the FOURCC code identifies a track number associated with the DRM chunk.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the DRM chunk further comprises a reference to a decryption key that can be used to decrypt an encrypted portion of a partially encrypted frame of video.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein at least one video chunk of the plurality of video chunks does not have a corresponding DRM chunk in the set of DRM chunks.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the location of the DRM chunk for decrypting a particular video chunk is dependent upon a predetermined amount of buffering.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one index chunk further comprises locations of DRM chunks within the multimedia file.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein writing the interleaved chunks to at least one multimedia file comprises writing the interleaved chunks to a single multimedia file.