Non-realtime data transcoding of multimedia content

• US 20070061490A1
• Filed: 09/15/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Onders, Timothy, Sullivan, Gary
• Granted Patent: US 7,924,913 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/247
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• 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 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04

Abstract

Described herein are technologies directed towards non-realtime transcoding (e.g., compressing) a formatted multimedia datastream and doing so without consuming additional storage space or without making the data unavailable during the process.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a multimedia datastream capturer configured to acquire a formatted multimedia datastream;

a multimedia player configured to playback the acquired formatted multimedia datastream;

a transcoder configured to transcode the acquired formatted multimedia datastream in non-realtime, wherein the transcoding of the acquired formatted multimedia datastream is not performed concurrently or nearly concurrently with the capturer'"'"'s acquisition of the datastream.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the transcoder is further configured to transcode the acquired formatted multimedia datastream concurrently with the multimedia player playing the acquired formatted multimedia datastream.

3. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the transcoding performed by the transcoder is characterized by compressing the formatted multimedia datastream.

4. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the transcoding performed by the transcoder is characterized by changing the format of the formatted multimedia datastream.

5. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the transcoder is further configured to perform its transcoding while the system is idle or otherwise has low performance demands.

6. A system as recited in claim 1 further comprising a computer-readable storage medium configured to store the acquired formatted multimedia datastream and the transcoded formatted multimedia datastream.

7. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the formatted multimedia datastream is partitioned into a sequence of individually decodable units (IDUs), wherein a change in one IDU in the datastream does not affect the usability of the remaining IDUs in the datastream.

8. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the formatted multimedia datastream is partitioned into a sequence of individually decodable units (IDUs), wherein a change in one IDU in the datastream does not affect the usability of the other IDUs in the datastream;

the transcoding performed by the transcoder is characterized by transcoding one or more individual IDUs, but less than all of the IDUs of the datastream, so that the transcoding of any particular IDU does not affect the usability of the other IDUs in the datastream.

9. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the formatted multimedia datastream is partitioned into a sequence of individually decodable units (IDUs), wherein a change in one IDU in the datastream does not affect the usability of the remaining IDUs in the datastream;

the transcoding performed by the transcoder is characterized by;

transcoding one or more individual IDUs, but less than all of the IDUs of the datastream;

replacing one or more individual IDUs with its associated just-transcoded IDUs.

10. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the formatted multimedia datastream is partitioned into a sequence of individually decodable units (IDUs), wherein a change in one IDU in the datastream does not affect the usability of the remaining IDUs in the datastream, the system further comprising a multimedia playback subsystem configured to decode and play the formatted multimedia datastream, the datastream having IDUs of differing formats.

11. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the formatted multimedia datastream is partitioned into a sequence of individually decodable units (IDUs), wherein a change in one IDU in the datastream does not affect the usability of the remaining IDUs in the datastream, the system further comprising a multimedia playback subsystem configured to decode and play the formatted multimedia datastream, the datastream having IDUs which are compressed differently from each other.

12. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein the formatted multimedia datastream is selected from a group consisting of digital multimedia files, digital audio files, and digital video files.

13. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform a method comprising:

acquiring a formatted multimedia datastream, the formatted multimedia datastream being partitioned into a sequence of individually decodable units (IDUs), wherein a change in one IDU in the datastream does not affect the usability of the other IDUs in the datastream;

transcoding the acquired formatted multimedia datastream in non-realtime, wherein the transcoding is not performed concurrently or nearly concurrently with the acquiring act, the transcoding act being characterized by transcoding one or more individual IDUs so that the transcoding of any particular IDU does not affect the usability of the other IDUs in the datastream.

14. One or more media as recited in claim 13, playing the acquired formatted multimedia datastream concurrently with transcoding of the acquired formatted multimedia datastream.

15. One or more media as recited in claim 13, wherein the transcoding act is further characterized by compressing the formatted multimedia datastream, changing the format of the formatted multimedia datastream, or both.

16. One or more media as recited in claim 13 further comprising storing the acquired formatted multimedia datastream and the transcoded formatted multimedia datastream.

17. One or more media as recited in claim 13, wherein the transcoding act is further characterized by replacing one or more individual IDUs with its associated just-transcoded IDUs.

18. One or more media as recited in claim 13, the method further comprising decoding and playing the formatted multimedia datastream, the datastream having IDUs of differing formats.

19. One or more media as recited in claim 13, the method further comprising decoding and playing the formatted multimedia datastream, the datastream having IDUs which are compressed differently from each other.

20. One or more media as recited in claim 13, wherein the formatted multimedia datastream is selected from a group consisting of digital multimedia files, digital audio files, and digital video files.