Fast start-up for digital video streams

• US 20040255328A1
• Filed: 06/13/2003
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Baldwin, James Armand, Green, Dustin L., Grossman, John H. IV
• Granted Patent: US 7,603,689 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21 Server components or server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23 Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2389 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream encrypting
• 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 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4385 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream decrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream

Abstract

Described herein is a technology facilitating the presentation of digital video streams. An implementation, described herein, reduces the effective start-up delay in the presentation of the first frames of the video content that occurs when a system tunes into a video stream. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method comprising:

selecting a lead-in video stream, where the lead-in stream corresponds to a particular main video-stream transmission;

receiving the selected lead-in video-stream transmission;

presenting content of the selected lead-in video stream transmission;

switching reception from the lead-in to the main video-stream transmission;

switching presentation from the content of the lead-in to the content of the main video-stream transmission.

2. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the selected lead-in video stream of the selecting is chosen from one of multiple lead-in video streams.

3. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the switching occurs on or about the occurrence a random-access point (RAP) transmitted in the main video-stream transmission.

4. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the switching occurs just before the occurrence a random-access point (RAP) transmitted in the main video-stream transmission.

5. A medium as recited in claim 1 further comprising querying a video-stream provider asking the provider to identify which one of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions is the first transmission with an available RAP, wherein the identified lead-in transmission is the one selected.

6. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are scheduled for transmission during transmission of one group-of-pictures (GOP) of the main video-stream transmission, wherein a GOP has only one RAP.

7. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the RAP of each of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are scheduled for phase-staggered transmission relative to each other.

8. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are encoded using a lower bitrate than that used by the main video-stream transmission.

9. A medium as recited in claim 1, wherein the video-stream transmissions are multicast.

10. A computing device comprising:

a video-stream presentation device;

a medium as recited in claim 1.

11. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method comprising:

choosing a particular main video-stream transmission for reception and presentation;

before the transmission of the next random-access point (RAP) transmitted in the main video-stream transmission, temporarily receiving a lead-in video stream that corresponds to the particular main video-stream transmission;

switching reception from the lead-in to the main video-stream transmission.

12. A medium as recited in claim 11 further comprising

presenting content of the lead-in video stream transmission;

after switching reception to the main video-stream, presenting the content of the main video-stream transmission.

13. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the switching is performed on or about the transmission of a RAP in the main video-stream transmission.

14. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the switching is performed on or about the transmission of the next RAP to occur during the main video-stream transmission.

15. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the lead-in video-stream transmission is scheduled for transmission during transmission of one group-of-pictures (GOP) of the main video-stream transmission, wherein a GOP has only one RAP.

16. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein each of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are encoded using a lower bitrate than that used by the main video-stream transmission.

17. A medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the video-stream transmissions are multicast.

18. A computing device comprising:

a video-stream presentation device;

a medium as recited in claim 11.

19. A medium as recited in claim 11 further comprising:

selecting one of multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions for reception, where each lead-in stream corresponds to a particular main video-stream transmission, wherein the one lead-in transmission selected is the lead-in transmission that is temporarily received;

presenting content of the selected lead-in video stream transmission;

switching reception from the lead-in to the main video-stream transmission and doing so on or about the occurrence a random-access point (RAP) transmitted in the main video-stream transmission;

switching presentation from the content of the lead-in to the content of the main video-stream transmission.

20. A medium as recited in claim 19 further comprising querying a video-stream provider asking the provider to identify which one of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions is the first transmission with an available RAP, wherein the identified lead-in transmission is the one selected.

21. A medium as recited in claim 19, wherein the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are scheduled for transmission during transmission of one group-of-pictures (GOP) of the main video-stream transmission, wherein a GOP has only one RAP.

22. A medium as recited in claim 19, wherein the RAP of each of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are scheduled for phase-staggered transmission relative to each other.

23. A medium as recited in claim 19, wherein each of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are encoded using a lower bitrate than that used by the main video-stream transmission.

24. A method for fast start-up presentation, the method comprising:

selecting one of multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions for reception, where each lead-in stream corresponds to a particular main video-stream transmission;

receiving the selected lead-in video-stream transmission;

presenting content of the selected lead-in video stream transmission;

switching reception from the lead-in to the main video-stream transmission and doing so upon the occurrence a random-access point (RAP) transmitted in the main video-stream transmission;

switching presentation from the content of the lead-in to the content of the main video-stream transmission.

25. A method as recited in claim 24 further comprising querying a video-stream provider asking the provider to identify which one of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions is the first transmission with an available RAP, wherein the identified lead-in transmission is the one selected.

26. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are scheduled for transmission during transmission of one group-of-pictures (GOP) of the main video-stream transmission, wherein a GOP has only one RAP.

27. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the RAP of each of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are scheduled for phase-staggered transmission relative to each other.

28. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein each of the multiple lead-in video-stream transmissions are encoded using a lower bitrate than that used by the main video-stream transmission.

29. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the video-stream transmissions are multicast.

30. A computer comprising one or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the computer, perform the method as recited in claim 24.

31. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method comprising:

preparing multiple video-streams based upon the same original video content for an overlapping transmission schedule so that the random access point (RAP) of each is phase-staggered;

transmitting one of more of the multiple video-streams over a communications network in accordance with the overlapping transmission schedule.

32. A medium as recited in claim 31, wherein the transmission of the group-of-pictures (GOP) of each of the multiple streams ends on or about the same point in the transmission schedule.

33. A medium as recited in claim 31, wherein the multiple video-streams comprise a main stream and a lead-in stream.

34. A medium as recited in claim 31, wherein one or more of the video-streams are encoded using a lower bitrate than one or more of the other streams.

35. A computing device comprising:

a transmitting device for transmitting one or more of the multiple video- streams;

a medium as recited in claim 31.