Live Manifest Update

• US 20160112484A1
• Filed: 10/21/2014
• Published: 04/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Liu, Fang
• Granted Patent: US 10,148,713 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

Live manifest update techniques are described. In one or more implementations, data streams of media content are provided to computing devices by a service provider. During playback of the data streams, a manifest associated with the data streams is updated by the service provider effective to cause the computing devices to transition to playing back the data streams using the updated manifest without restarting playback of the data streams. In one or more implementations, a data stream of media content is played back at a computing device. During playback of the data steam, a manifest monitoring module at the computing device monitors for updates to a manifest associated with the data stream. Responsive to detecting an update to the manifest, the computing device seamlessly transitions to playing back the data stream using the updated manifest without restarting playback of the data stream.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

playing back a data stream at the computing device using a bitrate profile of the data stream, the data stream associated with a manifest that specifies locations for multiple bitrate profiles of the data stream;

monitoring, during playback of the data stream, for updates to the manifest;

detecting, during playback of the data stream, an updated manifest associated with the data stream;

comparing the updated manifest to the manifest; and

transitioning to playing back the data stream using the updated manifest based on the comparison without restarting playback of the data stream.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transitioning further comprises:

determining that the updated manifest includes a same bitrate profile as the bitrate profile of the data stream currently being played back; and

transitioning to playing back the data stream using the same bitrate profile of the updated manifest.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transitioning further comprises:

determining that the updated manifest does not include a same bitrate profile as the bitrate profile of the data stream currently being played back;

determining a common bitrate profile that is included in both the manifest and the updated manifest;

switching to playing back the data stream using the common bitrate profile of the manifest; and

transitioning to playing back the data stream using the common bitrate profile of the updated manifest.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transitioning further comprises:

determining that the updated manifest does not include a same bitrate profile as the bitrate profile of the data stream currently being played back;

determining that the updated manifest and the current manifest do not include a common bitrate profile; and

transitioning to playing back the data stream using a lowest bitrate profile of the updated manifest.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, further comprising switching from playing back the data stream using the lowest bitrate profile of the updated manifest to playing back the data stream using a higher bitrate profile of the updated manifest based on available bandwidth.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring the date stream for updates to the manifest in a predetermined interval.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring the data stream to detect a modified time and Etag from a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request response.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data stream is configured in accordance with a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data stream comprises an HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) data stream or an HTTP live streaming (HLS) data stream.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the manifest is configured in accordance with HTTP live streaming (HLS).

11. A system comprising:

one or more modules implemented at least partially in hardware and configured to perform operations comprising;

providing data streams of media content to computing devices to enable playback of the data streams by the computing devices; and

updating a manifest associated with the data stream effective to cause the computing devices to transition to playing back the data stream using the updated manifest without restarting playback of the data stream.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein updating the manifest comprises updating a server location of one or more bitrate profiles of the data stream.

13. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein updating the manifest comprises removing one or more bitrate profiles of the data stream

14. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein updating the manifest comprises adding one or more bitrate profiles of the data stream

15. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the data stream comprises an HTTP Dynamic Streaming (HDS) data stream or an HTTP live streaming (HLS) data stream.

16. A computing device comprising:

one or more processors;

one or more memories comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution by the one or more processors, perform operations comprising;

detecting, during playback of an HTTP live streaming (HLS) data stream at the computing device, an update to a manifest associated with the HLS data stream;

comparing the updated manifest to the manifest;

selecting one of multiple approaches to transition to playback of the HLS data stream using the updated manifest, the selecting based on a current bitrate profile of the HLS data stream being played back by the computing device and the comparison of the updated manifest to the manifest; and

transitioning, using the selected approach, to playback of the HLS data stream using the updated manifest.

17. The computing device as recited in claim 16, wherein the transitioning further comprises:

determining that the updated manifest includes a same bitrate profile as the current bitrate profile of the HLS data stream being played back; and

transitioning to playing back the HLS data stream using the same bitrate profile of the updated manifest.

18. The computing device as recited in claim 16, wherein the transitioning further comprises:

determining that the updated manifest does not include a same bitrate profile as the current bitrate profile of the HLS data stream being played back;

determining a common bitrate profile that is included in both the manifest and the updated manifest;

switching to playing back the HLS data stream using the common bitrate profile of the manifest; and

transitioning to playing back the HLS data stream using the common bitrate profile of the updated manifest.

19. The computing device as recited in claim 16, wherein the transitioning further comprises:

determining that the updated manifest does not include a same bitrate profile as the current bitrate profile of the HLS data stream being played back;

determining that the updated manifest and the current manifest do not include a common bitrate profile; and

transitioning to playing back the HLS data stream using a lowest bitrate profile of the updated manifest.

20. The computing device as recited in claim 16, wherein the manifest uses an .m3u8 file extension.