MULTIPLE AUDIO STREAMS

• US 20110023072A1
• Filed: 10/01/2010
• Published: 01/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NBC Universal Media LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Vudu Incorporated (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Goodman, Andrew M., Shankar, Sumankar, Ganesan, Prasanna, Hodzic, Edin
• Granted Patent: US 8,745,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• 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 21/2368 Multiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47208 for requesting near-video-on-demand content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A system and method for providing multiple audio streams for a video over a network such as the Internet. The system comprises a server that includes an encryption unit and a slicing unit, a plurality of boxes, and an ordering box. The server encodes multiple audio streams and a single video to be sliced into segments. The sliced segments of multiple audio streams and the single video are seeded to a number of the plurality of boxes. This may be repeated for other videos with multiple streams. When the ordering box makes a request for a single video with a single audio, then the number of boxes with segments of the requested video and multiple audio streams, filters and sends the requested video and requested single audio stream to the ordering box. Similarly, multiple closed caption streams can be handled and provided like the audio streams.

Claims

1. A method for providing media programs over a content delivery network, the method comprising:

transmitting a request for a media program from a user device, wherein the user device monitors a bandwidth in order to make a determination as to whether there is a change in the bandwidth during data retrieval; and

receiving data corresponding to the media program over the content delivery network, wherein the data is encoded at different bitrates such that data encoded at a lower bitrate is of a lower quality than data encoded at a higher bitrate;

wherein receiving data corresponding to the media program comprises (i) retrieving data encoded at a lower bitrate when the bandwidth decreases below a threshold during data retrieval, and (ii) retrieving data encoded at a higher bitrate when the bandwidth increases above the threshold during data retrieval.

2. A system for providing media programs over a network, the system comprising:

a server; and

a plurality of devices coupled to the network, wherein a first device of the plurality of devices is configured to;

transmit a request to the server for a media program, wherein the first device monitors a bandwidth in order to make a determination as to whether there is a change in the bandwidth during data retrieval; and

receive data corresponding to the media program from the server, wherein the data is encoded at different bitrates such that data encoded at a lower bitrate is of a lower quality than data encoded at a higher bitrate;

wherein the first device is configured to receive data corresponding to the media program by (i) retrieving data encoded at a lower bitrate when the bandwidth decreases below a threshold during data retrieval, and (ii) retrieving data encoded at a higher bitrate when the bandwidth increases above the threshold during data retrieval.