Qualified video delivery methods
First Claim
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1. A method, comprising:
- receiving a request from a client computer system to allow a user of the client computer system to play a video game;
testing the client computer system to verify that the client computer system is qualified to receive a streaming video of the video game, wherein the testing includes determining respective bandwidths of data communication channels between the client computer system and each of a plurality of geographically distributed video server systems;
determining a video decoder type present at the client computer system;
selecting a video server system from among the plurality of geographically distributed video server systems to provide streaming video of the video game to the client computer system, wherein the video server system is selected based on the determined bandwidth of the data communication channel between the client computer system and the video server system being sufficient to enable real-time interactive play of the video game at the client computer system;
dynamically provisioning an encoding pipeline after determining the video decoder type present at the client computer system, wherein the encoding pipeline is dynamically provisioned to include an encoder that is both compatible with the video decoder type present at the client computer system and configured to encode video of the video game at a level of compression that is compatible with the determined bandwidth of the data communication channel to enable real-time interactive play of the video game at the client computer system;
operating the encoder to encode video of the video game to generate the streaming video of the video game; and
transmitting the streaming video of the video game through the data communication channel between the client computer system and the video server system.
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Abstract
A video server is configured to provide streaming video to players of computer games over a computing network. The video server can provided video of different games to different players simultaneously. This is accomplished by rendering several video streams in parallel using a single GPU. The output of the GPU is provided to graphics processing pipelines that are each associated with a specific client/player and are dynamically allocated as needed. A client qualifier may be used to assure that only clients capable of presenting the streaming video to a player at a minimum level of quality receive the video stream.
17 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method, comprising:
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receiving a request from a client computer system to allow a user of the client computer system to play a video game; testing the client computer system to verify that the client computer system is qualified to receive a streaming video of the video game, wherein the testing includes determining respective bandwidths of data communication channels between the client computer system and each of a plurality of geographically distributed video server systems; determining a video decoder type present at the client computer system; selecting a video server system from among the plurality of geographically distributed video server systems to provide streaming video of the video game to the client computer system, wherein the video server system is selected based on the determined bandwidth of the data communication channel between the client computer system and the video server system being sufficient to enable real-time interactive play of the video game at the client computer system; dynamically provisioning an encoding pipeline after determining the video decoder type present at the client computer system, wherein the encoding pipeline is dynamically provisioned to include an encoder that is both compatible with the video decoder type present at the client computer system and configured to encode video of the video game at a level of compression that is compatible with the determined bandwidth of the data communication channel to enable real-time interactive play of the video game at the client computer system; operating the encoder to encode video of the video game to generate the streaming video of the video game; and transmitting the streaming video of the video game through the data communication channel between the client computer system and the video server system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification