METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE TRANSCODING AND TRANSRATING IN A VIDEO NETWORK

• US 20090288129A1
• Filed: 06/29/2009
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DIRECTV, LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Westerhoff, David, Wolfe, Andrew L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,143,814 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/116
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23805 Controlling the feeding rate to the network, e.g. by controlling the video pump
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2401 Monitoring of the client buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• 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 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440218 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006

Abstract

A video server adaptively selects an appropriate video encoding standard and an appropriate video encoding rate for encoding video content to be downloaded to one or more video client devices over a communication network. The video server adaptively selects the video encoding standard and the video encoding rate based upon factors such as the data transmission rate of the communication network, the processing speed of the video client device, or the type of the video content to be downloaded. Once the video encoding standard and the video encoding rate are selected, video content can be transcoded prior to downloading to one or more video client devices. During the download, the video content may be adaptively transrated, such as in response to a change in the data transmission rate of the communication network.

Claims

1-39. -39. (canceled)

40. An apparatus for transferring video content to a client device over a communication network, comprising:

a storage unit for storing the video content;

a transcoder, coupled to the storage unit;

a communications interface, coupled to the transcoder, for downloading the video content to the client device over the communication network; and

a controller coupled to the storage unit, the transcoder, and the communications interface, wherein the controller determines a supportable transmission rate of the communication network and adaptively selects an encoding standard to be employed by the transcoder and an actual transmission rate used by the communication network based on the supportable transmission rate of the communications network.

47. A system for transferring video content over a communication network, comprising:

a server, comprising;

a memory for storing the video content;

a transcoder coupled to the memory;

a communications interface coupled to the transcoder for transmitting the video content over the communication network; and

a controller coupled to the memory, the transcoder, and the communications interface, wherein the controller determines a supportable transmission rate of the communication network and adaptively selects an encoding standard to be employed by the transcoder and an actual transmission rate used by the communication network based on the supportable transmission rate of the communications network; and

at least one client device, wherein the server transmits the video content to the at least one client device via the communications interface at the selected encoding standard and at the actual transmission rate.

57. A digital video recorder, comprising:

a memory;

a transmission interface; and

a controller coupled to the memory and the transmission interface, wherein the controller determines a supportable transmission rate between the digital video recorder and at least one client device, and transmits video content stored in the memory at an encoding standard and an actual transmission rate based on the supportable transmission rate of the transmission interface to the at least one client device.