Playlists for real-time or near real-time streaming

• US 8,650,192 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2012
• Issued: 02/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Biderman, David, May, William Jr., Tseng, Alan, Pantos, Roger, Batson, James David
• Primary Examiner(s): Saeed, Usmaan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vo, Cecile
• Application Number:
  US13/593,040
• Publication Number:
  US 20120324058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 537 Days
• Field of Search: 707/723, 707/709, 707/769, 707/693, 707/736, 386/234, 386/239, 386/241, 386/244, 386/248, 709/231, 709/219, 709/217
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/34 ensuring sequence integrity, e.g. using sequence numbers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for real-time or near real-time streaming of content using transfer protocols such as an HTTP compliant protocol. In one embodiment, a method includes dividing a stream of data, representing the contiguous time based content of a program (e.g. a live video broadcast), into a plurality of distinct media files, and generating a playlist file having a plurality of tags and Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) indicating an order of presentation of the plurality of distinct media files. The plurality of media files and the playlist file can be made available for transmission to a client device which can retrieve the media files using the playlist file.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing data in a digital, random access format that when executed by a data processing system causes the system to perform a method comprising:

storing a plurality of alternative media playlist files of a same contiguous media presentation, wherein each media playlist file includes a plurality of URIs (Uniform Resource Indicators) specifying segments of the same contiguous media presentation, wherein the segments are encoded according to a value of an encoding parameter for the media playlist file, the value of the encoding parameter differs for each of the plurality of media playlist files, and the value of the encoding parameter indicates a bit rate at which the segments are encoded; and

generating a variant playlist file that specifies the plurality of alternative media playlist files representing the same contiguous media presentation, each of the media playlist files specifying segments of the same contiguous media presentation encoded according to a different value of the encoding parameter, the variant playlist, comprising;

a plurality of tags, wherein each tag indicates a value of the encoding parameter of a respective one of the plurality of media playlist files, and

a plurality of URIs, wherein each URI corresponds to one of the plurality of tags and the URI specifies a respective one of the plurality of alternative media playlist files that specifies segments encoded according to a value of the encoding parameter, wherein selection of a URI from the variant playlist file requests transmittal of a respective one of the plurality of media playlist files specified by the selected URI, and wherein the respective media playlist file includes a plurality of URIs specifying segments of the same contiguous media presentation encoded according to the value of the encoding parameter indicated by the tag in the variant playlist file corresponding to the selected URI.

2. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of tags comprises a tag preceding each URI specifying a respective media playlist file, wherein each tag indicates a program identifier, wherein each program identifier is the same, and wherein each program identifier identifies the same contiguous media presentation.

3. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 2, wherein at least one of the plurality of tags comprises an identifier of a CODEC.

4. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein corresponding segments from each media playlist file comprise a same audio encoding.

5. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein a tag in the variant playlist file comprises an EXT-X-STREAM-INF tag.

6. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the EXT-X-STREAM-INF tag identifies the connection bandwidth as an approximate upper bound of a stream bit rate.

7. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the variant playlist file comprises a plurality of EXT-X-STREAM-INF tags, each EXT-X-STREAM-INF tag identifying a different encoding parameter for each URI specifying a respective media playlist file.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the segments of the same contiguous media presentation are divided on a packet or a key frame boundary.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each media playlist file comprises optional content that is not part of the same contiguous media presentation, and wherein the optional content is the same for each media playlist file.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein corresponding segments from each media playlist file comprise matching timestamps.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein each media playlist file comprises a period of content and a target duration, each period of content being the same within a smallest target duration.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, in response to the selection, the respective one of the plurality of media playlist files.