VCR-type controls for video server system

• US 6,608,966 B1
• Filed: 11/21/1996
• Issued: 08/19/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Michael H., Aune, David B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thai
• Application Number:
  US08/754,743
• Time in Patent Office: 2,462 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.576, H04/N.5781, H04/N.5782, H04/N.578, H04/N.592, H04/N.710, H04/N.5783, 386/6-8, 386/33, 386/68, 386/81, 386/82, 386/125-126, 386/111-112, 348/7, 348/13, 725/114-117, 725/138, 725/144, 725/82, 725/92-97
• US Class Current: 386/346
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

A video server system having the ability to playback movies at a higher than recorded speed. A storage device stores one or more of the movies to be played back. The storage device has the ability to playback the movies in selected segments. A controller is connected to the storage device for causing the storage device to playback a sequential set of movie segments with an alternating series of intervening movie segments missing therefrom. In addition to Fast Forward and Fast Reverse commands, Pause, Slow, Play and Stop commands are also implemented.

Claims

1. A video server system which plays back a movie regardless of its content at a higher than recorded speed upon receipt of and in response to a single request to play back the movie at a higher than recorded speed comprising:

a storage device for storing the movie to be played back and for playing back the movie in selected segments; and

a controller connected to said storage device for causing said storage device to play back a sequential set of substantially adjacent movie segments of substantially the same length from the movie with an alternating series of intervening movie segments of substantially the same length omitted therefrom upon receipt of and in response to the single request to play back the movie at a higher than recorded speed, wherein the length of the play back matches the length of a single stripe in the storage device, wherein said adjacent movie segments comprise a plurality of consecutive frames of said movie, and wherein said alternating series of intervening movie segments is omitted from said sequential set of adjacent movie segments during the playback, regardless of the content of said alternating series of intervening movie segments, and further wherein said plurality of consecutive frames without a reference frame are eliminated.

2. The video server system of claim 1 wherein said sequential set of movie segments are played back in a forward sequence upon receipt of a request to playback the movie at a higher than recorded speed in the forward direction.

3. The video server system of claim 1 wherein said sequential set of movie segments are played back in a reverse sequence upon receipt of a request to playback the movie at a higher than recorded speed in the reverse direction.

4. The video server of claim 3 wherein the portion of the movie contained in each played back segment is played back in the forward direction.

5. The video server system of claim 1 wherein the time duration of each played back segment is substantially the same as the time duration of each missing segment.

6. The video server system of claim 1 wherein the length of each played back segment is approximately two seconds.

7. The video server system of claim 6 wherein the length of each missing segment is approximately two seconds.

8. The video server system of claim 1 wherein said storage device includes a hard disk drive.

9. The video server system of claim 8 wherein said storage device includes a plurality of hard disk drives in a RAID configuration and wherein the movie to be played back is recorded on said plurality of hard disk drives in stripes.

10. The video server system of claim 1 wherein the movie is stored on said storage device in a digital and compressed format.

11. The video server system of claim 10 wherein the compressed format is MPEG.

12. The video server system of claim 11 wherein orphaned P-Frames and B-Frames at the beginning of each played back movie segment are eliminated.

13. The video server system of claim 12 wherein a set top box is used to decode the movie and wherein the elimination of the orphaned P-Frames and B-Frames occurs in the set top box.

14. The video server system of claim 12 wherein said storage device and/or said controller prevent(s) orphaned P-Frames and B-Frames from being read from said storage device.

15. The video server system of claim 14 wherein I-Frames are recorded on said storage device and wherein a header is recorder on said storage device to delineate the location of each I-Frame.

16. The video server system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of consecutive frames without a reference frame are eliminated.

17. A method of playing back a movie regardless of its content from a video server at a higher than recorded speed upon receipt of and in response to a single request to play back the movie at a higher than recorded speed comprising the steps of:

receiving a single request to playback the movie at a higher than recorded speed; and

playing back a sequential set of substantially adjacent segments of substantially the same length of the movie with an alternating series of intervening movie segments of substantially the same length omitted therefrom upon receipt of and in response to the single request to play back the movie at a higher than recorded speed, wherein said adjacent movie segments comprise a plurality of consecutive frames of said movie including at least one I-frame, B-frame and P-frame such that a first frame of said plurality of consecutive frames of said adjacent movie segments comprises an I-frame, and wherein said alternating series of intervening movie segments is omitted from said sequential set of adjacent movie segments during the playback, regardless of the content of said alternating series of intervening movie segments, and further wherein B-frames and P-frames without a reference frame are omitted from said sequential set of adjacent movie segments.

18. The movie playback method of claim 17 wherein the time duration of each played back segment is substantially the same as each missing segment.

19. The movie playback method of claim 17 wherein the length of each played back segment is approximately two seconds.

20. The movie playback method of claim 19 wherein the length of each missing segment is approximately two seconds.

21. The video server system of claim 17 wherein said sequential set of movie segments are played backed beginning with an I-frame by dropping all leading B-frames and P-frames not preceded by an antecedent I-frame.

22. A network system for playing back a movie regardless of its content at a higher than recorded speed upon receipt of and in response to a single request to play back the movie at a higher than recorded speed comprising:

a storage device for storing the movie to be played back and for playing back the movie in selected segments;

a controller connected to said storage device for causing said storage device to play back a sequential set of substantially adjacent movie segments lasting two seconds in length from the movie with an alternating series of intervening movie segments lasting two seconds in length missing therefrom upon receipt of and in response to the single request to play back the movie at a higher than recorded speed, wherein said adjacent movie segments comprise a plurality of consecutive frames of said movie including at least one I-frame, B-frame and P-frame such that a first frame of said plurality of consecutive frames of said adjacent movie segments comprises an I-frame, and wherein said alternating series of intervening movie segments is omitted from said sequential set of adjacent movie segments during the playback, regardless of the content of said alternating series of intervening movie segments and further wherein B-frames and P-frames without a reference frame are omitted from said sequential set of adjacent movie segments; and

a communication network connected to said controller and to said storage device for receiving a request for the playback of a movie at a higher than recorded speed, for delivering that request to said controller, and for delivering data representative of that movie from said storage device to the viewer.

23. The video server system of claim 22 wherein said sequential set of movie segments are played backed beginning with an I-frame by dropping all leading B-frames and P-frames not preceded by an antecedent I-frame.

24. The network system of claim 22, wherein B-frames and P-frames without a reference frame are omitted from said sequential set of adjacent movie segments.

25. An information delivery system having the ability to play back recorded information regardless of its content at a higher than recorded speed upon receipt of and in response to a single request to play back the information at a higher than recorded speed comprising:

a storage device for storing the information to be played back and for playing back the information in selected segments; and

a controller connected to said storage device for causing said storage device to play back a sequential set of information segments of substantially the same length from the information with an alternating series of intervening information segments of substantially the same length omitted therefrom upon receipt of and in response to the single request to play back the information at a higher than recorded speed, wherein said information segments comprise a plurality of consecutive set of data such that said plurality of consecutive set of data comprises at least one segment of intraframe data, at least one segment of interpolated frame data and at least one segment of predictive frame data such that a first said information segment of said plurality of consecutive set of data of said information segments comprises intraframe data, and wherein said alternating series of intervening information segments is omitted from said sequential set of adjacent information segments during the playback, regardless of the content of said alternating series of intervening information segments, and further wherein interpolated frames and predictive frames without a reference frame are omitted from said sequential set of adjacent information segments.

26. The video server system of claim 25 wherein said sequential set of information segments are played backed beginning with intraframe data by dropping all leading interpolated frame data and predictive frame data not preceded by an antecedent intraframe data.

27. An information delivery system having the ability to play back recorded information regardless of its content at a higher than recorded speed upon receipt of and in response to a single request to play back the information at a higher than recorded speed comprising:

a storage device for storing the information to be played back and for playing back the information in selected segments; and

a controller connected to said storage device for causing said storage device to play back a sequential set of information segments lasting two seconds in length from the information with an alternating series of intervening information segments lasting two seconds in length omitted therefrom upon receipt of and in response to the single request to play back the information at a higher than recorded speed, wherein said information segments comprise a plurality of consecutive set of data, and wherein said alternating series of intervening information segments is omitted from said sequential set of adjacent information segments during the playback, regardless of the content of said alternating series of intervening information segments, and further wherein said controller varies the degree to which the speed is altered.

28. A video server system which plays back a movie regardless of its content at a higher than recorded speed upon receipt of and in response to a single request to play back the movie at a higher than recorded speed comprising:

a storage device for storing the movie to be played back and for playing back the movie in selected segments; and

a controller connected to said storage device for causing said storage device to play back a sequential set of substantially adjacent movie segments wherein each of said adjacent movie segments begins with an I frame and contains B frames and P frames which reference I, B and P frames, wherein said controller eliminates orphaned B and P frames when the movie segment no longer contains the reference frame of the orphaned B and P frames.

29. The video server system of claim 28 wherein said controller eliminates the orphaned B and P frames before transmitting the orphaned B and P frames for playback.

30. The video server system of claim 28 wherein said controller eliminates the orphaned B and P frames after receiving the movie segments at the storage device.

31. The video server system of claim 28 wherein said controller records a header to mark the beginning location of each I frame such that the controller eliminates the orphaned B and P frames by not reading the orphaned B and P frames.