Managing topology changes in media applications

• US 7,577,940 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2004
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Amin, Samuel, Rudolph, Eric H., Mohammed, Sohail Baig, Debique, Kirt A., Nayak, Niranjan S., Wilson, Mei L., Crites, Brian D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen; Wei Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chen; Qing
• Application Number:
  US10/796,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20050198623A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,989 Days
• Field of Search: 717120-123, 719/322, 348/500, 348512-513
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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

Abstract

Systems and methods for resolving a partial topology are disclosed. In one embodiment a media engine includes a topology loader module that receives a partial topology from another module associated with the media engine. The topology loader implements logic operations that convert a partial topology into a full topology, which may be returned to the media engine for presentation of the media stream(s) to a user.

Claims

1. A method of supporting and dynamically managing media pipeline topology changes during a media application session to facilitate seamless presentation of media during dynamic changes, the method comprising:

accessing a highest priority time source as a main presentation clock to which all clock-aware components synchronize;

receiving a partial media pipeline topology that defines how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a first media source node and at least a first media sink node;

retrieving a cached media pipeline topology when the partial media pipeline topology is not sufficient to permit presentation to further define how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a second media source node, at least a second media sink node, and at least one transform node;

cloning one or more nodes including state information from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology during the media application session thus creating a full media pipeline topology to facilitate the seamless presentation of media;

maintaining a data table that correlates one or more decoders or encoders in the cached media pipeline topology with one or more source nodes or destination nodes in the cached media pipeline topology;

associating a source node with a same instance of a decoder and requiring that the same decoder be used if a media source node is re-used in a subsequent topology or a destination node with a same instance of an encoder and requiring that the same encoder be used if a media destination node is re-used in a subsequent topology;

facilitating the seamless presentation of media by pre-rolling, the pre-rolling comprising receiving data from the first media source node at the first media sink node before the first media sink node starting a presentation clock synchronized with the main presentation clock; and

executing the seamless presentation of media by a computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the partial media pipeline topology is received from a remote process as a parameter in an interface call.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the cached media pipeline topology is retrieved as a parameter in an interface call.

4. The method of claim 1, farther comprising determining whether there are corresponding nodes in the partial media pipeline topology and the cached media pipeline topology.

5. The method of claim4, further comprising transferring the at least one transform node from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology.

6. The method of claim 1, farther comprising cloning a plurality of connected nodes from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising connecting one or more nodes in the partial media pipeline topology.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein connecting the one or more nodes in the partial media pipeline topology between the first media source node and the first media sink node comprises generating a data path between an output of a node and an input of an intermediate node.

9. A system comprising:

one or more computer-readable storage media; and

a media engine embodied on the one or more computer-readable storage media and configured to communicatively interact with an application to facilitate seamless presentation of media;

the media engine being configured to communicatively interact with the application to facilitate the seamless presentation of media by using;

a highest priority time source as a main presentation clock to which all clock-aware components synchronize;

a media session configured to;

receive a partial media pipeline topology that defines how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a first media source node and at least a first media sink node; and

retrieve a cached media pipeline topology when the partial media pipeline topology is not sufficient to permit presentation to further define how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a second media source node, at least a second media sink node, and at least one transform node; and

a topology loader configured to;

clone one or more nodes including state information from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology during a media application session thus creating a full media pipeline topology to facilitate the seamless presentation of media;

maintain a data table that correlates one or more decoders or encoders in the cached media pipeline topology with one or more source nodes or destination nodes in the cached media pipeline topology;

associate a source node with a same instance of a decoder and requiring that the same decoder be used if a media source node is re-used in a subsequent topology or a destination node with a same instance of an encoder and requiring that the same encoder be used if a media destination node is re-used in a subsequent topology; and

facilitate the seamless presentation of media by pre-rolling, the pre-rolling comprising receiving data from the first media source node at the first media sink node before the first media sink node staffing a presentation clock synchronized with the main presentation clock.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the media session passes the partial media pipeline topology to the topology loader as a parameter in an interface call.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the media session passes the cached media pipeline topology to the topology loader as a parameter in an interface call.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the topology loader is configured to determine whether there are corresponding nodes in the partial media pipeline topology and the cached media pipeline topology.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the topology loader is configured to clone one or more intermediate nodes from the cached media pipeline topology, and to connect the one or more intermediate nodes in a communication path between a media source node and a media sink node in a partial media pipeline topology.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more intermediate nodes comprise a decoder for decoding an output of a source node.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more intermediate nodes comprises an encoder for encoding an input of a source node.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the topology loader is configured to maintain a data table that associates one or more decoder nodes with a source node from one or more previous topologies.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the topology loader maintains a data table that stores one or more encoder nodes from one or more previous topologies.

18. The system of claim 9, wherein the topology loader returns a fully resolved topology to the media session.

19. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer executable instructions comprising instructions that, when executed on a computer, direct the computer to:

access a highest priority time source as a main presentation clock to which all clock-aware components synchronize;

receive a partial media pipeline topology that defines how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a first media source node and at least a first media sink node;

retrieve a cached media pipeline topology when the partial media pipeline topology is not sufficient to permit presentation to further define how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a second media source node, at least a second media sink node, and at least one transform node;

clone one or more nodes including state information from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology during a media application session thus creating a full media pipeline topology to facilitate seamless presentation of media;

maintain a data table that correlates one or more decoders or encoders in the cached media pipeline topology with one or more source nodes or destination nodes in the cached media pipeline topology;

associate a source node with a same instance of a decoder and requiring that the same decoder be used if a media source node is re-used in a subsequent topology or a destination node with a same instance of an encoder and requiring that the same encoder be used if a media destination node is re-used in a subsequent topology;

facilitate the seamless presentation of media by pre-rolling, the pre-rolling comprising receiving data from the first media source node at the first media sink node before the first media sink node starting a presentation clock synchronized with the main presentation clock; and

execute the seamless presentation of media.

20. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, wherein the partial media pipeline topology is received from a remote process as a parameter in an interface call.

21. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, wherein the cached media pipeline topology is retrieved as a parameter in an interface call.

22. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, direct the computer to determine whether there are corresponding nodes in the partial media pipeline topology and the cached media pipeline topology.

23. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, direct the computer to transfer the at least one transform node from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology.

24. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, direct the computer to clone a plurality of connected nodes from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology.

25. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, direct the computer to connect one or more nodes in the partial media pipeline topology.

26. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 19, further comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, direct the computer to generate a data path between an output of an upstream node and an input of a downstream node.

27. A topology loader module comprising computer executable instructions stored in computer-readable storage media that, when executed by a computer, provide:

means for accessing a highest priority time source as a main presentation clock to which all clock-aware components synchronize;

means for receiving a partial media pipeline topology that defines how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a first media source node and at least a first media sink node;

means for retrieving a cached media pipeline topology when the partial media pipeline topology is not sufficient to permit presentation to further define how data flows through a plurality of nodes in the partial media pipeline topology including at least a second media source node, at least a second media sink node, and at least one transform node;

means for cloning one or more nodes including state information from the cached media pipeline topology to the partial media pipeline topology during a media application session thus creating a full media pipeline topology to facilitate seamless presentation of media;

means for maintaining a data table that correlates one or more decoders or encoders in the cached media pipeline topology with one or more source nodes or destination nodes in the cached media pipeline topology;

means for associating a source node with a same instance of a decoder and requiring that the same decoder be used if a media source node is re-used in a subsequent topology or a destination node with a same instance of an encoder and requiring that the same encoder be used if a media destination node is re-used in a subsequent topology;

means for facilitating the seamless presentation of media by pre-rolling, the pre-rolling comprising receiving data from the first media source node at the first media sink node before the first media sink node staffing a presentation clock synchronized with the main presentation clock; and

means for executing the seamless presentation of media.