Signaling video samples for trick mode video representations

• US 9,485,546 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2010
• Issued: 11/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Chen, Ying, Karczewicz, Marta
• Primary Examiner(s): Czekaj, Dave
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAQUE, MD NAZMUL
• Application Number:
  US12/908,593
• Publication Number:
  US 20110317760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,204 Days
• Field of Search: 375/240
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/007 reproducing continuously a part of the information, i.e. repeating
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3027 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/70 characterised by syntax aspects related to video coding, e.g. related to compression standards
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream

Abstract

This disclosure describes techniques relevant to HTTP streaming of media data. According to these techniques, a server device may signal a byte range for at least one intra-decodable (I-frame) of a video fragment. According to the techniques of this disclosure, a client device may communicate a request to a server device to retrieve the at least one I-frame based on the signaled byte range, and use the retrieved I-frame to provide a high speed version of a video presentation that includes the at least one I-frame. A high speed version of a video presentation may be a trick mode of the video presentation, such as a fast forward or fast rewind version of the video presentation.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a client device from a server device, an indication of a maximum byte offset defining a byte range within a plurality of media segments, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame) within the byte range, wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file associated with a respective one of a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs), and wherein the plurality of media segments represent a video presentation configured to be displayed at a first playback speed;

in response to a determination to present the video representation using a trick mode, sending, by the client device, requests to the server device to retrieve media data from each of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range based on the indication, wherein the requests specify the URL associated with a respective one of the media segments and specify the byte range, such that each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

using the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of the video representation, in accordance with the trick mode, that includes the at least one I-frame at a second playback speed higher than the first playback speed, wherein the retrieved media data for a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment and the retrieved media data for a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein using the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of a video presentation that includes the at least one I-frame comprises:

consecutively presenting two or more I-frames of the retrieved media data, wherein the two or more I-frames are temporally separated by at least one inter-coded frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein using the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of a video presentation that includes the at least one I-frame comprises presenting a fast forward or fast rewind version of the video presentation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the requests are hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) Get requests that include an indication of the byte range to retrieve the stream indicated by the byte range within the at least one media segment.

30. The method of claim 1, wherein the requests comprise partial GET requests specifying a byte range defined by a first byte of the respective one of the plurality of media segments and the maximum byte offset.

5. A device, comprising:

means for receiving, at a client device from a server device, an indication of a maximum byte offset defining a byte range within a plurality of media segments, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame) within the byte range, wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file associated with a respective one of a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs), and wherein the plurality of media segments represent a video presentation configured to be displayed at a first playback speed;

means for sending, by the client device, in response to a determination to present the video representation using a trick mode, requests to the server device to retrieve media data from each of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range based on the indication, wherein the requests specify the URL associated with a respective one of the media segments and specify the byte range, such that each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

means for using the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of the video representation that includes the at least one I-frame at a second playback speed higher than the first playback speed, wherein the retrieved media data for a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment and the retrieved media data for a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the means for using the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of a video presentation consecutively present two or more I-frames of the retrieved media data, wherein the two or more I-frames are temporally separated by at least one inter-coded frame.

7. The device of claim 5, wherein the means for using the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of a video presentation present a fast forward or fast rewind version of the video presentation.

8. The device of claim 5, wherein the requests are hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) Get requests that include an indication of the byte range to retrieve the stream indicated by the byte range within the at least one media segment.

31. The device of claim 5, wherein the requests comprise partial GET requests specifying the byte range defined by a first byte of the respective one of the plurality of media segments and the maximum byte offset.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions configured to cause a computing device to:

receive, at a client device from a server device, an indication of a maximum byte offset defining a byte range within a plurality of media segments, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame) within the byte range, wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file associated with a respective one of a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs), and wherein the plurality of media segments represent a video presentation configured to be displayed at a first playback speed;

in response to a determination to present the video representation using a trick mode, send, by the client device, requests to the server device to retrieve media data from each of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range based on the indication, wherein the requests specify the URL associated with a respective one of the media segments and specify the byte range, such that each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

use the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of the video representation that includes the at least one I-frame at a second playback speed higher than the first playback speed, wherein the retrieved media data for a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment and the retrieved media data for a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions cause the computing device to:

present a high speed version of a video presentation that includes the at least one I-frame by consecutively presenting two or more I-frames of the retrieved media data, wherein the two or more I-frames are temporally separated by at least one inter-coded frame.

11. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions cause the computing device to:

use the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a fast forward or fast rewind version of the video presentation.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the requests are hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) Get requests that include an indication of the byte range to retrieve the stream indicated by the byte range within the at least one media segment.

32. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the requests comprise partial GET requests specifying a byte range defined by a first byte of the respective one of the plurality of media segments and the maximum byte offset.

13. A device, comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of media segments; and

at least one processor configured to;

receive an indication of a maximum byte offset defining a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame) within the byte range, wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file associated with a respective one of a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs), and wherein the plurality of media segments represent a video presentation configured to be displayed at a first playback speed;

in response to a determination to present the video representation using a trick mode, send requests to the server device to retrieve media data from each of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range based on the indication, wherein the requests specify the URL associated with a respective one of the media segments and specify the byte range, such that each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

use the retrieved media data within the byte range to present a high speed version of the video representation that includes the at least one I-frame at a second playback speed higher than the first playback speed, wherein the retrieved media data for a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment and the retrieved media data for a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment.

14. The device of claim 13, wherein the at least one processor is configured to use the at least one received I-frame to present a high speed version of a video presentation that includes the at least one I-frame by consecutively presenting two or more I-frames of the retrieved media data, wherein the two or more I-frames are temporally separated by at least one inter-coded frame.

15. The device of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to use the at least one received I-frame to present fast forward or rewind version of the video representation.

16. The device of claim 13, wherein the indication of the at least one byte range comprises an indication of a byte range from a first byte of the media segment to a last byte of a first I-frame of the media segment.

17. The device of claim 13, wherein the requests are hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) Get requests that include an indication of the byte range to retrieve the stream indicated by the byte range within the at least one media segment.

18. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of media segments, each of the plurality of media segments comprising a respective sequence of encoded video frames comprising at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame), and wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file;

determining a maximum of byte offsets to last bytes of the intra-coded frames of the plurality of media segments to determine a maximum byte offset for the plurality of media segments;

generating an indication of the maximum byte offset defining a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one I-frame within the byte range, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, and wherein a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment within the byte range and a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment at the byte range; and

outputting the indication of the maximum byte offset.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein each of the plurality of media segments is associated with a respective one of a plurality of uniform resource locator (URLs), the method further comprising:

receiving requests to retrieve portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range, wherein each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

outputting, in response to the request, the portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the requests comprise respective hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) GET requests that include an indication of the byte range to retrieve data of the respective plurality of media segments.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the indication of the maximum offset corresponds to a last byte of a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein in the request for the first media segment, the byte range comprises a byte range from a first byte of the one of the plurality of media segments to a last byte of a first I-frame of the first media segment.

33. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving requests specifying the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset for each of the plurality of media segments; and

in response to the requests, outputting media data of the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset from the respective ones of the plurality of media segments.

22. A device comprising:

means for receiving a plurality of media segments, each of the plurality of media segments comprising a respective sequence of encoded video frames comprising at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame), and wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file;

means for determining a maximum of byte offsets to last bytes of the intra-coded frames of the plurality of media segments to determine a maximum byte offset for the plurality of media segments;

means for generating an indication of the maximum byte offset defining a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one I-frame within the byte range, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, and wherein a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment within the byte range and a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment at the byte range; and

means for outputting the indication of the maximum byte offset.

23. The device of claim 22, wherein each of the plurality of media segments is associated with a respective one of a plurality of uniform resource locators (URLs), the device further comprising:

means for receiving requests to retrieve portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range, wherein each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

means for outputting, in response to the request, the portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range.

24. The device of claim 23, wherein the requests comprise respective hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) GET requests that include an indication of the byte range to retrieve data of the respective plurality of media segments.

25. The device of claim 22, wherein the indication of the maximum offset corresponds to a last byte of a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein in the request for the first media segment, the byte range comprises a byte range from a first byte of the one of the plurality of media segments to a last byte of a first I-frame of the first media segment.

34. The device of claim 22, further comprising:

means for receiving requests specifying the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset for each of the plurality of media segments; and

means for outputting, in response to the requests, media data of the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset from the respective ones of the plurality of media segments.

26. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium that stores instructions configured to cause a computing device to:

receive a plurality of media segments, each of the plurality of media segments comprising a respective sequence of encoded video frames comprising at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame), and wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file;

determine a maximum of byte offsets to last bytes of the intra-coded frames of the plurality of media segments to determine a maximum byte offset for the plurality of media segments;

generate an indication of the maximum byte offset defining a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one I-frame within the byte range, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, and wherein a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment within the byte range and a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment at the byte range; and

output the indication of the maximum byte offset.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the indication of the maximum offset corresponds to a last byte of a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein in the request for the first media segment, the byte range comprises a byte range from a first byte of the one of the plurality of media segments to a last byte of a first I-frame of the first media segment.

35. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, further comprising instructions that cause the computing device to:

receive requests specifying the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset for each of the plurality of media segments; and

in response to the requests, output media data of the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset from the respective ones of the plurality of media segments.

37. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 26, further comprising instructions that cause the processor to:

receive requests to retrieve portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range, wherein each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

output, in response to the request, the portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range.

28. A device comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of media segments; and

one or more processors configured to;

receive the plurality of media segments, each of the plurality of media segments comprising a respective sequence of encoded video frames comprising at least one intra-coded frame (I-frame), and wherein each of the plurality of media segments comprises a respective file;

determine a maximum of byte offsets to last bytes of the intra-coded frames of the plurality of media segments to determine a maximum byte offset for the plurality of media segments;

generate an indication of the maximum byte offset defining a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein the indication of the maximum byte offset further indicates that each of the media segments includes at least one I-frame within the byte range, wherein the maximum byte offset is less than the total number of bytes in each of the plurality of media segments, and wherein a first media segment of the plurality of media segments includes data for a non-I-frame following an I-frame of the first media segment within the byte range and a second media segment of the plurality of media segments ends with an I-frame of the second media segment at the byte range; and

output the indication of the maximum byte offset.

29. The device of claim 28, wherein the indication of the maximum offset corresponds to a last byte of a byte range within the plurality of media segments, wherein in the request for the first media segment, the byte range comprises a byte range from a first byte of the one of the plurality of media segments to a last byte of a first I-frame of the first media segment.

36. The device of claim 28, wherein the one or more processors are configured to receive requests specifying the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset for each of the plurality of media segments, and, in response to the requests, output media data of the byte range defined by the maximum byte offset from the respective ones of the plurality of media segments.

38. The device of claim 28, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

receive requests to retrieve portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range, wherein each of the requests specifies a different one of the URLs but specifies the same byte range; and

output, in response to the request, the portions of the plurality of media segments corresponding to the byte range.