Multimedia Pipeline Architecture

• US 20150281297A1
• Filed: 03/26/2015
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Solutions Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: TiVo Inc. (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Chamberlin, David, Reddy, Rajashekar, Bakowski, Aleksander
• Granted Patent: US 10,169,621 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1083 Partial license transfers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/85 interconnection devices, e.g. bus-connected or in-line devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/402 Encrypted data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/432 Content retrieval operation from a local storage medium, e.g. hard-disk details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4433 Implementing client middleware, e.g. Multimedia Home Platform [MHP]

Abstract

A media content pipeline architecture is described that enables media devices to efficiently receive, store, play, and stream media content. In general, a media content pipeline as described herein is configured to receive media content streams from one or more input sources, segment and store the media content streams into fixed-sized or variable-sized data buffers, encrypt the data stored in the buffers, and store the encrypted data in an in-memory buffer cache for further processing. The media content pipeline further may be configured to write the encrypted buffers stored in the in-memory buffer cache to a secondary storage device (e.g., a hard disk) in response to the occurrence of one or more defined operating conditions. The media content pipeline may enable a media device to efficiently receive and process media content data streams, write the media content data streams to storage, and stream the media content data to client devices.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a media device, a plurality of media content data streams;

storing, in one or more in-memory buffers, at least a portion of a particular media content stream of the plurality of media content data streams;

receiving, from a client device, a request for the particular media content stream, the request indicating a position within the particular media content stream;

in response to determining that the position within the particular media content stream corresponds to a particular buffer of the one or more in-memory data buffers, sending the particular buffer to the client device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising, subsequent to encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers, storing the one or more in-memory buffers to a secondary storage device.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the in-memory buffers are encrypted in response to determining that one or more unencrypted in-memory buffers have reached an encryption limit, wherein the encryption limit is one or more of:

a time limit, and a number of unencrypted in-memory buffers currently stored.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the one or more in-memory buffers are stored at the secondary storage device in response to determining that a write limit is reached, wherein the write expiration limit is one or more of a time limit and a number of in-memory data buffers currently stored.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising storing the one or more in-memory buffers to a secondary storage device without encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the position within the particular media content stream is indicated by one or more of a buffer order number and a timestamp.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more in-memory buffers are a uniform size.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least one buffer of the one or more in-memory buffers is padded with non-media content data.

10. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program of instructions that is executable by a device to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving, by a media device, a plurality of media content data streams;

storing, in one or more in-memory buffers, at least a portion of a particular media content stream of the plurality of media content data streams;

receiving, from a client device, a request for the particular media content stream, the request indicating a position within the particular media content stream;

in response to determining that the position within the particular media content stream corresponds to a particular buffer of the one or more in-memory data buffers, sending the particular buffer to the client device.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

subsequent to encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers, storing the one or more in-memory buffers at a secondary storage device.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the in-memory buffers are encrypted in response to determining that one or more in-memory buffers have reached an encryption limit, wherein the encryption limit is one or more of a time limit and a number of in-memory buffers currently stored.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the one or more in-memory buffers are stored at the secondary storage device in response to determining that a write expiration limit is reached, wherein the write expiration limit is one or more of a time limit and a number of in-memory data buffers currently stored.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, further comprising storing the one or more in-memory buffers to a secondary storage device without encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the position within the particular media content stream is indicated by one or more of a buffer order number and a timestamp.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, wherein the one or more in-memory buffers are of a uniform size.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium as recited in claim 10, wherein at least one buffer of the one or more in-memory buffers is padded with non-media content data.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

a subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that receives a plurality of media content data streams;

a subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that stores, in one or more in-memory buffers, at least a portion of a particular media content stream of the plurality of media content data streams;

a subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that receives, from a client device, a request for the particular media content stream, the request indicating a position within the particular media content stream;

a subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that, in response to determining that the position within the particular media content stream corresponds to a particular buffer of the one or more in-memory data buffers, sends the particular buffer to the client device.

20. The apparatus as recited in claim 19, further comprising:

a subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that encrypts the one or more in-memory buffers.

21. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, further comprising:

a subsystem, implemented at least partially in hardware, that, subsequent to encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers, stores the one or more in-memory buffers at a secondary storage device.

22. The apparatus as recited in claim 20, wherein the in-memory buffers are encrypted in response to determining that one or more in-memory buffers have reached an encryption limit, wherein the encryption limit is one or more of a time limit and a number of in-memory buffers currently stored.

23. The apparatus as recited in claim 19, further comprising storing the one or more in-memory buffers to a secondary storage device without encrypting the one or more in-memory buffers.

24. The apparatus as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more in-memory buffers are stored at the secondary storage device in response to determining that a write limit is reached, wherein the write expiration limit is one or more of a time limit and a number of encrypted in-memory data buffers currently stored.

25. The apparatus as recited in claim 19, wherein the position within the particular media content stream is indicated by one or more of a buffer order number and a timestamp.

26. The apparatus as recited in claim 19, wherein the one or more in-memory buffers are of a uniform size.

27. The apparatus as recited in claim 19, wherein at least one buffer of the one or more in-memory buffers is padded with non-media content data.