Systems and methods for performing quality based streaming

• US 10,298,985 B2
• Filed: 05/11/2016
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MediaMelon, Inc.
• Original Assignee: MediaMelon, Inc.
• Inventors: Kalagi, Ameet, Satija, Rupesh Kumar, Begen, Ali C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Dustin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hao H
• Application Number:
  US15/152,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20160337680A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: 709217, 709230, 709231, 375240, 37524001, 37524012
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/38 by adapting coding or compression rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 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 Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

Systems and methods in accordance with various embodiments of the invention enable quality based streaming. A content player in accordance with an embodiment of the invention includes: a processor; a network interface; and memory containing a content player application. The content player application can direct the processor to: receive quality metadata describing a plurality of streams, where: the plurality of streams are encoded at different maximum bitrates; each stream is divided into content segments; and the quality varies between content segments in each stream. Furthermore, the content player application directs the processor to measure available bandwidth; request content segments from the plurality of streams based upon the available network bandwidth and the quality metadata, where the requested content segments include content segments encoded at a maximum bitrate and having quality that is the lowest maximum bitrate that achieves a target quality level.

Claims

1. A quality based streaming content player system comprising:

a processor;

a network interface; and

a memory connected to the processor, where the memory contains a content player application;

wherein the content player application directs the processor to;

receive quality metadata describing a plurality of streams, where;

the plurality of streams are encoded at different maximum bitrates;

each stream is divided into content segments; and

quality varies between content segments in each stream, wherein the quality depends on a type of content encoded by a content segment;

generate an aggressiveness factor based on playback condition data;

measure available bandwidth via the network interface; and

request content segments from the plurality of streams based upon the available bandwidth and the quality metadata describing the plurality of streams, where the requested content segments include content segments encoded at a maximum bitrate and having quality that is a lowest maximum bitrate that achieves a target quality level, and the requested content segments are selected based upon the aggressiveness factor, the available bandwidth, the quality metadata describing the selected content segments, and a calculated bitrate, wherein the calculated bitrate is a higher of an average bitrate of a given stream and a time-window rate, the time-window rate being a minimum bitrate for downloading a window of content from the given stream without playback interruption given content segments currently buffered by a content player.

2. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein the received quality metadata describing a plurality of streams is contained within at least one manifest file.

3. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein requesting content segments from the plurality of streams further comprises selecting content streams encoded at different maximum bitrates at a given available network bandwidth based upon quality of the content segments.

4. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of streams are encoded at different resolutions; and

requesting content segments from the plurality of streams further comprises selecting content streams having different resolutions at a given available network bandwidth based upon quality of the content segments.

5. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 4, wherein the quality of the content segments at different resolutions are selected by using at least one measurement process selected from a group consisting of:

comparing number of encoded bits per pixel, measuring mean squared error between a low resolution frame of video scaled to meet a higher resolution frame of video, and analyzing contrast value of one or more frames in a video.

6. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, where the window of content is selected from a group consisting of:

a predetermined duration of content, and remaining content segments in a stream.

7. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein the quality metadata describes segment sizes of content segments.

8. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein:

the quality metadata is contained within a manifest file identifying byte ranges of each of the content segments; and

the content player application further directs the processor to determine sizes of the content segments from the byte ranges of each of the content segments in the manifest file.

9. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of streams described by the quality metadata are generated from source content by multiple encoders that each encode one of the plurality of streams.

10. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 9, wherein:

the quality metadata is contained within a manifest file containing URLs identifying content segments; and

the content player application further directs the processor to determine sizes of the content segments by requesting header information using URLs from the manifest file.

11. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 9, wherein the source content is received and encoded in real time using single-pass encoding.

12. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein the target quality level is generated based on quality levels of previously requested content segments.

13. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein the target quality level is determined based upon a moving average of a set of content segments encoded at the same maximum bitrate.

14. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 13, wherein the moving average is a weighted average with content segments described as having lower quality levels by the quality metadata having a higher weight compared to content segments described as having higher quality levels by the quality metadata.

15. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein the target quality level is a range of specific quality values.

16. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein requesting content segments from the plurality of streams also includes selecting content segments encoded at a higher maximum bitrate than the available network bandwidth.

17. The quality based streaming content player system of claim 1, wherein the playback condition data comprises at least one piece of data selected from a group consisting of:

playback duration, bandwidth variation, current buffer level and current bandwidth.

18. A method for quality based streaming comprising:

receiving content including a plurality of streams at a content server system, where;

the plurality of streams are encoded at different maximum bitrates;

each stream is divided into content segments; and

quality varies between content segments in each stream, wherein the quality depends on a type of content encoded by a content segment;

measuring quality of the content segments using the content server system;

generating quality metadata describing the content segments based upon content segment quality measurements using the content server system; and

transmitting the quality metadata to a playback device using the content server system, where the playback device;

measures playback conditions;

generates an aggressiveness factor based on the playback conditions;

selects content segments based upon an available bandwidth, the aggressiveness factor, quality metadata describing the content segments, and a calculated bitrate, wherein the calculated bitrate is a higher of an average bitrate-of a given stream and a time-window rate, the time-window rate being a minimum bitrate for downloading a window of content from the given stream without playback interruption given content segments currently buffered by a content player; and

requests the selected content segments.

19. A quality based redirection server system comprising:

a processor;

at least one network interface; and

a memory connected to the processor, where the memory contains a redirection application;

wherein the redirection application directs the processor to;

receive quality metadata describing a plurality of streams, where;

the plurality of streams are encoded at different maximum bitrates;

each stream is divided into content segments; and

quality varies between content segments in each stream, wherein the quality depends on a type of content encoded by a content segment;

receive a plurality of segment requests via the network interface;

generate segment redirection responses from the plurality of streams based upon an available bandwidth and the quality metadata describing the plurality of streams, where the segment redirection responses include content segments encoded at a maximum bitrate and having quality that is a lowest maximum bitrate that achieves a target quality, and the content segments are selected based upon an aggressiveness factor determined based on playback conditions, an available bandwidth, the quality metadata describing the selected content segments, and a calculated bitrate, wherein the calculated bitrate is a higher of an average bitrate of a given stream and a time-window rate, the time-window rate being a minimum bitrate for downloading a window of content from the given stream without playback interruption given content segments currently buffered by a content player; and

transmit the segment redirection responses via the network interface.