Integration of media playback components with an independent timing specification

• US 20020161797A1
• Filed: 02/02/2001
• Published: 10/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Newman, Debbie A., Ungureanu, Dorin O., Gallo, Kevin T., David, Paul C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,665,115 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/500.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents

Abstract

A software framework that allows seamless integration of generic media players into a web browser. A media player is a software module that implements specific interfaces; defines a playing state, such as playing, paused, or stopped; and associates with the playing state a current playback time. A generic media player implements interfaces, including timing interfaces and playback synchronization interfaces for exchanging timing and synchronization information with a web browser. A player-hosting peer, which is a software component built into the browser, manages generic player hosting by a web browser. The player-hosting peer negotiates playback state and rendering status between the browser and the media player. Both the media player and the player-hosting peer maintain playing state and current playback time. The relationship between the peer and the player is a master slave relationship, with the peer being the master. The peer issues commands to the player, and the player notifies the peer of any state changes. A proxy layer allows external media players to integrate seamlessly into a browser.

Claims

1. A system for synchronizing playback of media content with other content or with host computer time information, the system comprising:

a web browser for providing a timing representation to a media player;

a media player implementing a first interface for object management and a second interface for exchanging timing and synchronization information with the web browser; and

a player-hosting peer within the web browser for negotiating a playback state and a rendering status between the browser and the media player.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the player-hosting peer issues commands to the media player.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the media player notifies the player-hosting peer of media player state changes.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the second interface includes a playback state and a current playback time passed from the media player to the web browser.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the player and the player-hosting peer jointly maintain the playing state and the current playback time.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the second interface includes web browser time information and/or application time information passed from the browser to the media player.

7. The system as in claim 1 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions through states including inactive, active, waiting for data, and out of sync.

8. The system as in claim 7 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the inactive state to the active state upon receiving a media cued notification from the media player.

9. The system as in claim 8 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the active state to the inactive state upon receiving a deactivate command from the browser.

10. The system as in claim 8 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the active state to the inactive state upon receiving a change source command from the browser.

11. The system as in claim 8 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the active state to the waiting for data state upon receiving a buffer empty notification from the media player.

12. The system as in claim 11 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the waiting for data state to the active state upon receiving a buffer full notification from the media player.

13. The system as in claim 11 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the waiting for data state to the active state upon receiving a seek command from the browser.

14. The system as in claim 8 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the active state to the out of sync state upon detecting a sync lost condition.

15. The system as in claim 14 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the out of sync state to the active state upon detecting a sync recovered condition.

16. The system as in claim 14 wherein the player-hosting peer transitions from the out of sync state to the active state upon receiving a seek command from the browser.

17. The system as in claim 1 wherein the media player transitions through states including no source, playing, seeking, and media done.

18. The system as in claim 17 wherein the media player transitions from the no source state to the playing state upon completion of media cueing.

19. The system as in claim 18 wherein the media player transitions from the playing state to the no source state upon receiving a change source command from the player-hosting peer.

20. The system as in claim 18 wherein the media player transitions from the playing state to the seeking state upon receiving a seek command from the player-hosting peer.

21. The system as in claim 20 wherein the media player transitions from the seeking state to the playing state upon completion of a seek operation.

22. The system as in claim 18 wherein the media player transitions from the playing state to the media done state upon receiving a stop command from the player-hosting peer.

23. The system as in claim 22 wherein the media player transitions from the media done state to the playing state upon receiving a start command from the player-hosting peer.

24. The system as in claim 18 wherein the media player transitions from the playing state to the media done state upon finishing media playback.

25. The system as in claim 24 wherein the media player transitions from the media done state to the playing state upon receiving a start command from the player-hosting peer.

26. The system as in claim 1 wherein the media player notifies the player-hosting peer when media is ready for playback.

27. The system as in claim 1 wherein the media player prepares for destruction upon receiving a deactivate command from the player-hosting peer.

28. The system as in claim 1 wherein the media player changes from a first media source to a second media source upon receiving a change media source command from the player-hosting peer.

29. The system as in claim 1 wherein the media player notifies the player-hosting peer of a buffer empty condition when media playback can not continue due to a media delivery problem.

30. The system as in claim 29 wherein the media player notifies the player-hosting peer of a buffer full condition when the media delivery problem has been resolved and media playback can continue.

31. The system as in claim 1 wherein the player-hosting peer notifies the player that the media playback time is out of sync with time information maintained by the player-hosting peer.

32. The system as in claim 31 wherein the player-hosting peer notifies the player that synchronization has been regained between the media playback time and time information maintained by the player-hosting peer.

33. The system as in claim 1 wherein the player-hosting peer passes commands from the browser to the player, the commands including play, stop, pause, resume, and seek.

34. The system as in claim 1 wherein the player-hosting peer passes a seek command from the browser to the player to indicate that the player should jump to a specific time offset into media playback.

35. The system as in claim 1 wherein the web browser is operating in a television set top environment.

36. The system as in claim 1 wherein the other content includes advertising or other commercial content synchronized with at least one portion of the media content.

37. The system as in claim 1 further comprising a proxy layer for passing synchronization information or commands or both synchronization information and commands between the browser and an external media player.

38. The system as in claim 1 wherein the player-hosting peer implements an interface for providing access to timing information from the player-hosting peer.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein the second media player interface includes a playback state and a current playback time passed from the media player to the web browser.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the player and the web browser both maintain the playing state and the current playback time.

42. The method of claim 39 wherein the second media player interface includes the host computer time information passed from the browser to the media player.

43. The method of claim 39 wherein the media player notifies the player-hosting peer when media is ready for playback.

44. The method of claim 39 wherein the media player prepares for destruction upon receiving a deactivate command from the browser.

45. The method of claim 39 wherein the media player changes from a first media source to a second media source upon receiving a change media source command from the browser.

46. The method of claim 39 wherein the media player notifies the browser of a buffer empty condition when media playback can not continue due to a media delivery problem.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the media player notifies the browser of a buffer fill condition when the media delivery problem has been resolved and media playback can continue.

48. The method of claim 39 wherein the browser notifies the player that the media playback time is out of sync with time information maintained by the browser.

49. The method of claim 44 wherein the browser notifies the player that synchronization has been regained between the media playback time and time information maintained by the browser.

50. The method of claim 39 wherein the commands passed from the browser to the player include play, stop, pause, resume, and seek.

51. The method of claim 39 wherein the browser passes a seek command to the player to indicate that the player should jump to a specific time offset into media playback.

52. The method of claim 39 wherein the other content includes advertising or other commercial content synchronized with at least one portion of the media content.

53. The method of claim 39 wherein the media player is external to the browser.

54. The method of claim 39 wherein the step of providing a timing representation to a media player further comprises the step of implementing an interface to provide access to timing information from the web browser.

39. A method of synchronizing playback of media content with other content or with host computer time information, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a timing representation to a media player,

implementing a first media player interface for object management and a second media player interface for exchanging timing and synchronization information with a web browser; and

issuing commands from the web browser to the media player, the commands being directed to media player operations other than, and in addition to, instantiation of the media player; and

notifying the web browser of media player state changes.