DETERMINING PLAYABILITY OF MEDIA FILES WITH MINIMAL DOWNLOADING

• US 20080320100A1
• Filed: 06/20/2008
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Carlson, Eric, Bushell, John Samuel, Pantos, Roger, Batson, James D., Jones, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 8,489,702 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets

Abstract

A method is provided through which information about media files embedded in web pages is obtained from a server and analyzed to determine if the media files are playable on a device. This information may be external to the media file or may be a portion of the media file itself. The determination of whether a media file is playable by a device is made based on information obtained from the server without downloading the entirety of the media file.

Claims

1. A method comprising steps of:

detecting that a web page contains a reference to a media file;

in response to detecting that the web page contains the reference, requesting, from a server, information about the media file;

receiving the information from the server; and

determining, based on the information, whether the media file can be played by a device;

wherein the information does not comprise an entirety of the media file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the media file comprises a MIME type of the media file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the media file comprises a portion of the media file.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the portion of the media file comprises a header of an atom of the media file.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein:

requesting the portion of the media file comprises requesting two or more parts of the media file; and

the two or more parts are not sequential parts in the media file.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the web page on a screen on the device;

wherein displaying the web page includes displaying an indication of whether the media file can be played by the device.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

in response to determining that the media file can be played by the device, displaying, on the web page, an option for downloading the media file from the server;

receiving input that indicates whether the option has been selected by a user; and

in response to receiving input that indicates that the option has been selected by the user, requesting a playable portion of the media file from the server.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

requesting an entirety of the media file from the server in response to determining that the media file can be played by the device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are performed asynchronously with other steps that a process performs to request contents of the web page from the server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the device is a mobile device.

11. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, wherein the instructions include instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform steps of:

detecting that a web page contains a reference to a media file;

in response to detecting that the web page contains the reference, requesting, from a server, information about the media file;

receiving the information from the server; and

determining, based on the information, whether the media file can be played by a device;

wherein the information does not comprise an entirety of the media file.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the information about the media file comprises a MIME type of the media file.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the information about the media file comprises a portion of the media file.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the portion of the media file comprises a header of an atom of the media file.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein:

the instructions for requesting the portion of the media file comprise instructions for requesting two or more parts of the media file; and

the two or more parts are not sequential parts in the media file.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein:

the instructions further comprise instructions for displaying the web page on a screen on the device; and

wherein the instructions for displaying the web page comprise instructions for displaying an indication of whether the media file can be played by the device.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

in response to determining that the media file can be played by the device, displaying, on the web page, an option for downloading the media file from the server;

receiving input that indicates whether the option has been selected by a user; and

in response to receiving input that indicates that the option has been selected by the user, requesting a playable portion of the media file from the server.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise instructions for:

requesting an entirety of the media file from the server in response to determining that the media file can be played by the device.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the steps are performed asynchronously with other steps that a process performs to request contents of the web page from the server.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the device is a mobile device.