Multimedia distribution system

• US 20050207442A1
• Filed: 12/17/2004
• Published: 09/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonic IP Incorporated (Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sonic IP Incorporated (Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Cote, Benjamin, Zoest, Alexander T. van, Rota, Jerome, Mayo, Alastair, Hitchcock, Heather, Donaldson, Jerald, Butt, Ahsan, Chavarria, Damien, Sayre, Timothy, Durham, Christopher, Thompson, Darrius Nguyen, Floyd, Michael John, Fudge, Brian, Bourke, Adrian, Robinson, Aaron, Braness, Jason, Grab, Eric William
• Granted Patent: US 8,731,369 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/465
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00731 involving a digital rights management system for enforcing a usage restriction
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00739 wherein the usage restriction is associated with a specific geographical region
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4856 for language selection, e.g. for the menu or subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/845 Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/265 Mixing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/278 Subtitling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/92 Transformation of the television signal for recording, e.g. modulation, frequency changing; Inverse transformation for playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding

Abstract

A multimedia file and methods of generating, distributing and using the multimedia file are described. Multimedia files in accordance with embodiments of the present invention can contain multiple video tracks, multiple audio tracks, multiple subtitle tracks, data that can be used to generate a menu interface to access the contents of the file and ‘meta data’ concerning the contents of the file. Multimedia files in accordance with several embodiments of the present invention also include references to video tracks, audio tracks, subtitle tracks and ‘meta data’ external to the file. One embodiment of a multimedia file in accordance with the present invention includes a series of encoded video frames and encoded menu information.

Claims

1. A multimedia file, comprising:

a series of encoded video frames; and

encoded menu information.

2. The multimedia file of claim 1, wherein the encoded menu information is stored as a chunk.

3. The multimedia file of claim 2, further comprising at least two separate ‘

menu’

chunks of menu information.

4. The multimedia file of claim 3, wherein the at least two separate ‘

menu’

chunks are contained in at least two separate ‘

RIFF’

chunks.

5. The multimedia file of claim 4, wherein a first ‘

RIFF’

chunk containing a ‘

menu’

chunk includes a standard 4cc code and the second ‘

RIFF’

chunk containing a ‘

menu’

chunk includes a specialized 4cc code where the first two characters of a standard 4cc code appear as the last two characters of the specialized 4cc code.

6. The multimedia file of claim 3 wherein at least two separate ‘

menu’

chunks are contained in a single ‘

RIFF’

chunk.

7. The multimedia file of claim 3, wherein the ‘

menu’

chunk includes chunks describing a series of menus and an ‘

MRIF’

chunk containing media associated with the series of menus.

8. The multimedia file of claim 7, wherein the ‘

MRIF’

chunk contains media information including video tracks, audio tracks and overlay tracks.

9. The multimedia file of claim 7, wherein:

the chunks describing a series of menus include;

a chunk describing the overall menu system;

at least one chunk that groups menus by language;

at least one chunk that describes an individual menu display and accompanying background audio;

at least one chunk that describes a button on a menu;

at least one chunk that describes the location of the button on the screen; and

at least one chunk that describes various actions associated with a button.

10. The multimedia file of claim 1, further comprising:

a link to a second file;

wherein encoded menu information is contained within the second file.

11. A system for encoding multimedia files, comprising:

a processor configured to encode menu information;

wherein the processor is also configured to generate a multimedia file including an encoded video track and the encoded menu information.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the processor is configured to;

generate an object model of the menus;

convert the object model into an configuration file;

parse the configuration file into chunks;

generate AVI files containing media information;

interleave the media in the AVI files into an ‘

MRIF’

chunk; and

concatenate the parsed chunks with the ‘

MRIF’

chunk to create a ‘

menu’

chunk.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to use the object model to generate a second smaller ‘

menu’

chunk.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to encode a second menu.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor inserts the first encoded menu in a first ‘

RIFF’

chunk and insert the second encoded menu in a second ‘

RIFF’

chunk.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the processor includes the first and second encoded menus in a single ‘

RIFF’

chunk.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to insert in to the multimedia file a reference to an encoded menu in a second file.

18. A system for decoding multimedia files, comprising:

a processor configured to extract information from the multimedia file;

wherein the processor is configured to inspect the multimedia file to determine if it contains encoded menu information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processor is configured to extract menu information from a ‘

menu’

chunk within a ‘

RIFF’

chunk.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to construct menu displays using video information stored in the ‘

menu’

chunk.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to generate background audio accompanying a menu display using audio information stored in the ‘

menu’

chunk.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor is configured to generate a menu display by overlaying an overlay from the ‘

menu’

chunk over video information from the ‘

menu’

chunk.

23. A system for communicating multimedia information, comprising:

a network;

a storage device containing a multimedia file and connected to the network via a server;

a client connected to the network;

wherein the client can request the transfer of the multimedia file from the server; and

wherein the multimedia file includes encoded menu information.

24. A system for decoding a multimedia file containing a plurality of encoded video tracks, comprising:

a processor configured to extract information from the multimedia file;

wherein the processor is configured to extract information concerning the number of encoded video tracks contained within the multimedia file.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the processor is configured to locate an encoded video track within a ‘

RIFF’

chunk.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein:

a first encoded video track is contained in a first ‘

RIFF’

chunk having a standard 4cc code;

a second video track is contained in a second ‘

RIFF’

chunk having a specialized 4cc code; and

the specialized 4cc code has as its last two characters the first two characters of a standard 4cc code.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein each encoded video track is contained in a separate ‘

RIFF’

chunk.

28. The system of claim 24, wherein the decoded video track is similar to the original video track that was encoded in the creation of the multimedia file.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein at least some of the differences between the decoded video track and the original video track are located in dark portions of frames of the video track.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein at least some of the differences between the decoded video track and the original video track are located in high motion scenes of the video track.

31. The system of claim 24, wherein each video track has at least one audio track associated with it.

32. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the processor is configured to;

display video from a video track by decoding a series of ‘

video’

chunks within a ‘

RIFF’

chunk; and

generate audio from an audio track accompanying the video track by decoding a series of ‘

audio’

chunks interleaved within the ‘

RIFF’

chunk containing the ‘

video’

chunks of the associated video track.

33. The system file of claim 32, wherein:

the processor is configured to;

use information extracted from each ‘

video’

chunk to generate a single frame of the video track; and

use information extracted from each ‘

audio’

chunk to generate the portion of the audio track that accompanies the frame generated using a ‘

video’

chunk.

34. The multimedia file of claim 33, wherein the processor is configured to locate the ‘

audio’

chunk prior to the ‘

video’

chunk with which it is associated in the ‘

RIFF’

chunk.

35. A system for decoding a multimedia file containing a plurality of audio tracks, comprising:

a processor configured to extract information from the multimedia file;

wherein the processor is configured to extract information concerning the number of audio tracks contained within the multimedia file.

36. The system of claim 35, wherein:

the processor is configured to select a single audio track from the plurality of audio tracks;

the processor is configured to decode the audio information from the selected audio track.

37. The system of claim 35, wherein at least one of the audio tracks includes a plurality of audio channels.

38. The system of claim 35, wherein the processor is configured to extract information from a header in the multimedia file including description information about at least one of the audio tracks.

39. A system for decoding multimedia files, comprising:

a processor configured to extract information from the multimedia file;

wherein the processor is configured to inspect the multimedia file to determine if there is at least one subtitle track.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the at least one subtitle track comprises a plurality of subtitle tracks and the processor is configured to determine the number of subtitle tracks in the multimedia file.

41. The system of claim 39, wherein the processor is further configured to extract header information identifying the number of subtitle tracks from the multimedia file.

42. The system of claim 39, wherein the processor is further configured to extract description information about at least one of the subtitle tracks from the multimedia file.

43. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 39, wherein:

the multimedia file includes at least one video track encoded as video chunks; and

the multimedia file includes at least one subtitle track encoded as subtitle chunks.

44. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 43, wherein each subtitle chunk includes information concerning a single subtitle.

45. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 44, wherein:

each subtitle is encoded in the subtitle chunks as a bit map;

the processor is configured to decode the video track; and

the processor is configured construct a frame of video for display by superimposing the bit map over a portion of the video sequence.

46. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 45, wherein:

the subtitle is encoded as a compressed bit map; and

the processor is configured to uncompress the bit map.

47. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 46, wherein the processor is configured to uncompress a run length encoded bit map.

48. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 45, wherein:

each subtitle chunk includes information concerning the portion of the video track over which the subtitle should be superimposed; and

the processor is configured to generate a sequence of video frames for display by superimposing the bit map of the subtitle over each video frame indicated by the information in the subtitle chunk.

49. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 45, wherein:

each subtitle chunk includes information concerning the position within a frame in which the subtitle should be located; and

the processor is configured to superimpose the subtitle in the position within each video frame indicated by the information within the subtitle chunk.

50. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 45, wherein:

each subtitle chunk includes information concerning the color of the subtitle; and

the processor is configured to superimpose the subtitle in the color or colors indicated by the color information within the subtitle chunk.

51. The system for decoding multimedia files of claim 50, wherein:

the color information within the subtitle chunk includes a color palette; and

the processor is configured to superimpose the subtitle using the color palette to obtain color information used in the bit map of the subtitle.

52. The system of claim 51, wherein:

the subtitle chunks comprise a first subtitle chunk that includes information concerning a first color palette and a second subtitle chunk that includes information concerning a second color palette; and

the processor is;

configured to superimpose the subtitle using the first color palette to obtain information concerning the colors used in the bit map of the subtitle after the first chunk is processed; and

configured to superimpose the subtitle using the second color palette to obtain information concerning the colors used in the bit map of the subtitle after the second chunk is processed.

58. The system of claim 52, wherein:

the subject is a chunk that includes a type and a value; and

the processor is configured to identify that the chunk contains subject information by inspecting the type; and

the processor is configured to extract information from the value.

59. The system of claim 52, wherein:

the predicate is a chunk that includes a type and a value; and

the processor is configured to identify that the chunk contains predicate information by inspecting the type; and

the processor is configured to extract information from the value.

60. The system of claim 52, wherein:

the object is a chunk that includes a type, a language, a data type and a value;

the processor is configured to identify that the chunk contains object information by inspecting the type;

the processor is configured to inspect the data type to determine the data type of information contained in the value;

the processor is configured to extract information of a type indicated by the data type from the value; and

the processor is configured to extract information identifying a specific language from the language.

61. The system of claim 52, wherein:

the authority is a chunk that includes a type and a value; and

the processor is configured to identify that the chunk contains authority information by inspecting the type; and

the processor is configured to extract information from the value.

62. The system of claim 52, wherein the processor is configured to extract information from the meta data statement and display at least a portion of the information.

63. The system of claim 52, wherein the processor is configured to construct data structures indicative of a directed-labeled graph in memory using the meta data.

64. The system of claim 52, wherein the processor is configured to search through the meta data for information by inspecting at least one of the subject, predicate, object and authority for a plurality of statements.

65. The system of claim 64, wherein the processor is configured to display the results of the search as part of a graphical user interface.

66. The system of claim 64, wherein the processor is configured to perform a search in response to a request from an external device.

67. The system of claim 52, wherein at least a portion of the meta data information concerning the multimedia file is represented as binary data.

68. The system of claim 52, wherein at least a portion of the meta data information concerning the multimedia file is represented as 64-bit ASCII data.

69. The system of claim 52, wherein at least a first portion of the meta data information concerning the multimedia file is represented as binary data;

and wherein at least a second portion of the meta data information concerning the multimedia file is represented as additional chunks that contain data represented in a second format.

70. The system of claim 69, wherein the additional chunks contain a single piece of metadata.

53. A system for decoding multimedia files, comprising:

a processor configured to extract information from the multimedia file;

wherein the processor is configured to extract meta data information concerning the multimedia file; and

wherein the meta data information includes at least one statement comprising a subject, a predicate, an object and an authority.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein the processor is configured to extract, from the subject, information identifying a file, item, person or organization that is described by the meta data.

55. The system of claim 54, wherein the processor is configured to extract information indicative of a characteristic of the subject from the predicate.

56. The system of claim 55, wherein the processor is configured to extract information descriptive of the characteristic of the subject identified by the predicate from the object.

57. The system of claim 56, wherein the processor is configured to extract information concerning the source of the statement from the authority.

71. A system for displaying a multimedia file including encoded audio, video and text strings, comprising:

a processor configured to;

extract the encoded text strings from the file; and

generate a pull down menu display using the text strings.