BUFFERING OF VIDEO STREAM DATA

• US 20090122875A1
• Filed: 03/03/2006
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Den Hollander, Jacobus Maarten
• Application Number:
  US11/817,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20090122875A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.250
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• 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 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer

Abstract

Buffering of a video stream containing intra frames (I-frames) and inter frames (P-frames, B-frames) is disclosed. A buffer memory is segmented in two parts, a contiguous part for buffering of contiguous frames of the video stream (I-, P- and B-frames), and an intra part for the buffering of intra frames of the video stream. A decoding of the video stream may under normal conditions be done on data read from the contiguous part of the buffer, whereas the decoding of the video stream in a buffer-underrun situation may be done on data read from the intra buffer

Claims

1. Device for buffering a video stream comprising intra frames and inter frames, wherein the device comprising a buffer memory (12) being segmented in two parts, a contiguous part (13) for buffering of contiguous frames of the video stream, and an intra part (14) for the buffering of intra frames of the video stream.

2. Device according to claim 1, wherein the video stream comprising intra frames (I-frames) and predictive frames (P-frames) and/or bi-directional frames (B-frames), and wherein the buffer memory (12) is segmented in two parts, one part (13) for the buffering of contiguous frames of the video stream, and one part (14) for the intra frames of the video stream.

3. Device according to claim 1, wherein a decoding of the video stream under normal conditions (25) is done on data read from the contiguous part of the buffer, and wherein the decoding of the video stream in a buffer-underrun situation (26) of the contiguous part of the buffer is done on data read from the intra buffer.

4. Device according to claim 1, wherein a size of the buffer segments are fixed, so that the size of the segments allocated to the contiguous part and to the intra part is a fixed property of the device.

5. Device according to claim 1, wherein a size of the buffer segments can be updated dynamically, so that the size of the segments allocated to the contiguous part and to the intra part can be changed during a streaming session of the video stream.

6. Device according to claim 1, wherein a size of the buffer segments can be determined prior to streaming of specific video data, based upon an analysis of the ratio of intra to inter frames of the specific video stream.

7. Device according to claim 1, wherein the buffer memory is segmented so that at least 85% of the total buffer memory is allocated to the contiguous part

8. Device according to claim 1, wherein the size of the intra buffer corresponds to at least 3 seconds of video playback.

10. Computer readable code for controlling a buffer memory as claimed in claim 1.

9. System for preparing video signals, the system comprising:

a stream handling section (I) for handling a received an encoded video stream comprising intra frames and inter frames, and for providing the video stream to a buffer section (12),

a buffer section (12), including a buffer, for handling the buffering of the video stream,

a decoder (10) for decoding the video stream,

an output section (0) for outputting the decoded video stream, and

a controller (C) for controlling the interoperability of the system

wherein the buffer (12) is segmented in two parts, a contiguous part (13) for buffering of contiguous frames of the video stream, and an intra part (14) for the buffering of intra frames of the video stream.

11. Data stream in a buffer-underrun situation (26), the data stream being based on a normal situation data stream (25) comprising intra frames and inter frames, wherein the buffer memory being segmented in two parts, a contiguous part for buffering of contiguous frames of the normal situation video stream, and an intra part for the buffering of intra frames of the normal situation video stream, and wherein the data stream in the buffer-under run situation (24) only comprises frames from the intra buffer.

12. Method for managing a buffer memory for a video stream comprising intra frames and inter frames, wherein the buffer memory being segmented in two parts, a contiguous part for buffering of contiguous frames of the video stream, and an intra part for the buffering of intra frames of the video stream.