Methods and systems to fast fill media players

• US 6,801,964 B1
• Filed: 10/25/2001
• Issued: 10/05/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Mahdavi, Jamshid
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, HAROLD J
• Application Number:
  US10/037,119
• Time in Patent Office: 1,076 Days
• Field of Search: 710/35, 710/52, 370/248, 702/124, 709/233, 711/118
• US Class Current: 710/35
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23611 Insertion of stuffing data into a multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bitrate synchronisation arrangements in time-division multiplex systems using bit stuffing for systems with different or fluctuating information rates H04J3/073
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2385 Channel allocation H04N21/266 takes precedence; Bandwidth allocation H04N21/24 takes precedence ; allocation of channels according to the instantaneous demands of the users in time-division multiplex systems H04J3/1682; admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896; negotiating bandwidth in wireless networks H04W28/16
• 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 21/4392 involving audio buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided to fast fill media players and buffers associated with media players. A bandwidth associated with initial startup of a media player is overloaded to rapidly fill the buffer and initiate the media player. Alternatively, multiple simultaneous data communication sessions are established with a media data source device, and the media data are concurrently received from the simultaneous sessions into the buffer or transferred of out the buffer at startup, thereby decreasing the latency associated with initiating the media player.

Claims

1. A method to fill a media player, comprising:

identifying a latency associated with a startup time of a media player required to initially play media data received;

identifying a bandwidth of the media player associated with receiving the media data in a buffer of the media player; and

increasing the bandwidth by a factor resulting in the media data filling the buffer before the startup time thereby decreasing the latency.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying a pacing set of executable instructions associated with receiving the media data by the media player when increasing the bandwidth.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the media data are at least a portion of a stream of data that is played on the media player.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the media data are delivered to the buffer using a streaming media protocol.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the media data are delivered in at least one of a fixed bit rate stream and a variable bit rate stream.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising controlling the increased bandwidth to manage congestion associated with filling the media data into the media buffer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a duration associated with the increased bandwidth is determined by dividing a startup latency time by the factor.