Method and system for adaptive transcoding and transrating in a video network

• US 9,143,814 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2009
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DIRECTV, LLC (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: The DIRECTV Group, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wolfe, Andrew L., Westerhoff, David
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEN, CAI Y
• Application Number:
  US12/494,091
• Publication Number:
  US 20090288129A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,276 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23805 Controlling the feeding rate to the network, e.g. by controlling the video pump
• 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 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440218 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006

Abstract

A video server adaptively selects an appropriate video encoding standard and an appropriate video encoding rate for encoding video content to be downloaded to one or more video client devices over a communication network. The video server adaptively selects the video encoding standard and the video encoding rate based upon factors such as the data transmission rate of the communication network, the processing speed of the video client device, or the type of the video content to be downloaded. Once the video encoding standard and the video encoding rate are selected, video content can be transcoded prior to downloading to one or more video client devices. During the download, the video content may be adaptively transrated, such as in response to a change in the data transmission rate of the communication network.

Claims

1. A digital video recorder for transferring video content to a client device over a communication network, comprising:

a storage unit for storing the video content;

a communications interface for transmitting the video content to the client device over the communication network;

a controller coupled to the storage unit and the communications interface, wherein the controller determines, during transmission of the video content to the client device, a supportable transmission rate of the communication network and then adaptively selects an encoding standard and selects an encoding rate according to the determined supportable transmission rate of the communications network; and

a transcoder, coupled to the controller, the storage unit, and the communications interface for transcoding the video content from a first encoding standard and a first encoding rate to the selected encoding standard and the selected encoding rate during the transmission of the video content to the client device according to the adaptively selected encoding standard and encoding rate;

wherein the selected encoding standard and selected encoding rate is determined according to an allocation of the supportable transmission rate between the client device and at least one other client device.

2. The digital video recorder of claim 1, wherein the selected encoding standard is further selected based on a type of the images depicted in the video content.

3. The digital video recorder of claim 1, wherein the selected encoding rate is further selected based on the video content.

4. The digital video recorder of claim 1, wherein the allocation of the supportable transmission rate is unevenly allocated between the client device and the at least one other client device.

5. The digital video recorder of claim 1, wherein the communication network is a wireless communication network.

6. A system for transmitting video content over a communication network, comprising:

a communications interface for transmitting the video content over the communication network; and

a controller coupled to the memory and the communications interface, wherein the controller determines, during transmission of the video content over the communications network, a supportable transmission rate of the communication network and then adaptively selects an encoding standard according to the supportable transmission rate of the communications network; and

a transcoder, coupled to the memory, the controller, and the communications interface, for transcoding the video content from a first encoding standard to the selected encoding standard during the transmission of the video content to a plurality of client devices according to the adaptively selected encoding standard and encoding rate;

wherein the encoding standard is selected based on an allocation of the supportable transmission rate among the plurality of client devices.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the system comprises a the plurality of client devices and wherein the system further transmits the video content to at least one of the plurality of client devices via the communications interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the communications interface transmits the video content transcoded to the selected encoding standard to at least one of the plurality of client devices and transmits the video content transcoded to a second selected encoding standard to another of the plurality of client devices.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a transrater, coupled to the controller, for altering an encoding rate of the transcoder based on a change in the supportable transmission rate of the communication network.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the selected encoding standard is further selected based on a type of the images presented depicted in the video content.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the encoding standard is further selected based on a processing speed of the at least one of the plurality of client devices.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the allocation of the supportable transmission rate between the at least one client device of the plurality of client devices and at least one other client device of the plurality of client devices is unequal.

13. A method of transmitting video content to a video client device via a communications network, the method comprising:

during the transmission of the video content to the video client device, performing steps comprising the steps of;

determining a transmission rate of the communication network, during transmission of the video content;

adaptively selecting a video encoding standard based on the determined transmission rate of the communication network;

transcoding the video content from an initial video encoding standard to the adaptively selected video encoding standard; and

transmitting the transcoded video content to the video client device over the communications network;

wherein the selected encoding standard is determined according to an allocation of the determined transmission rate of the communication network between the video client device and at least one other video client device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

during the transmission of the transcoded video content to the video client device, performing steps comprising the steps of;

detecting a change in the determined transmission rate of the communication network;

transrating a remaining portion of the video content that has not already been transmitted to the video client device according to the determined change in the transmission rate of the communications network; and

transmitting the transrated remaining portion of the video content to the video client device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein transcoding the video content comprises converting the video content from the initial video encoding standard directly to the adaptively selected video encoding standard without decoding the video content.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the selected video encoding standard is MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the allocation of the determined transmission rate of the communication network between the video client device and at least one other video client device is unequal.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the adaptively selected video encoding standard is based on the allocation of the determined transmission rate of the communications network between the video client device and the at least one other video client device;

a second video encoding standard is adaptively selected based on the allocation of the determined transmission rate of the communications network between the video device and the at least one other video client device;

the video content further transcoded from the initial video encoding standard to the second video encoding standard; and

the video content encoded according to the second video encoding standard is transmitted to the at least one other video client device over the communications network.