Devices, methods, and program products are provided enabling Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) optimization upon initialization of a streaming video session. In embodiments, the method includes launching a streaming media interface application in response to user input. Substantially concurrently with application launch, the client media receiver further transmits a request over a communications network to a streaming media server for a sample video stream. As the video stream is received, the client media receiver plays the sample video stream as, for example, a background process. When subsequently receiving user input selecting streaming content for end user viewing, the client media receiver determines an optimized ABR setting based upon a recent ABR value of the sample video stream. The client media receiver transmits a request to the streaming media server for user-selected content stream at the optimized ABR setting and then presents the content stream for end user viewing.
H04N 21/238 - Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams
H04N 21/24 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth or upstream requests
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
2.
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR EFFECTIVE SCRUB BAR NAVIGATION
Various arrangements are presented for managing video content navigation Metadata may be acquired that designates one or more portions of a programming content item as mapped to a predefined category selected from a plurality of predefined categories. A scrub bar interface may be output for presentation that graphically indicates a start point of the programming content, an end point of the programming content, and a scrub bar spanning from the start point to the end point. One or more graphical indications may be output that are indicative of the predefined category on the scrub bar based on the metadata.
A method for determining the health of a network includes determining, for a set of clients within the network, a total air percentage for each of the plurality of clients, and determining a total air percentage for a first access point within the network. The method further includes determining a transmit opportunity corresponding to a percentage of time a channel medium is free; determining a total air percentage used by a set of second access points; determining an air margin for the network, and determining an overall health classification for the network based on the air margin.
A system comprises a computing device including a processor and a memory. The memory stores instructions executable by the processor such that the processor is programmed to: decode a plurality of individual media items using at least a plurality of decoders to generate a plurality of mcdia input items, each of the plurality of individual media items received from a respective one or more inputs, at least one of the plurality of individual media items received from a media device remote from the computing device; process the plurality of media input items to generate a first media output item; generate an aggregated media item that includes one or more of the media input items, the aggregated media item combining the one or more of the media input items for a common display; send, to the media device remote from the computing device, the aggregated media item; receive one or more commands from the media device, the one or more commands identifying at least one of the one or more of the media input items included in the aggregated media item to be included in a second media output item; generate the second media output item based at least in part on the at least one of the one or more of the media input items; and output the first media output item and the second media output item to one or more remote devices for viewing and/or storing of the first media output item and the second media output item.
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabi
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
Systems and methods are described for providing a media stream transmitted from an encoding system to a remotely-located media player that requests segments of the media stream. The media stream is encoded into segments according to an encoding parameter. Data is gathered about current conditions of the network and/or the media player, and encoding of the media stream is adjusted during operation to adapt to changing conditions. The encoding parameter is suitably adjusted in response to changes in available bandwidth and/or segment transmit time, as appropriate.
Systems and methods are operable to present summaries of a media content event. An exemplary embodiment receives a media content stream having at least one media content event, receives a summary feed stream having at least one media content event summary segment associated with the received at least one media content event, receives a user request for presentation of the media content event summary residing in the received at least one media content event summary segment, ends or pauses presentation of the media content event on a media presentation device, and presents the media content event summary of the media content event summary segment on the media presentation device.
Systems and techniques are provided to distribute access to stored or other local media content across a number of different placeshifting systems. A server maintains a database of stored programs or other content that is available from at any number of different placeshifting systems. The server processes requests for content received from authenticated users by identifying a placeshifting system that has local content that corresponds to the requested content and that is accessible via a network. The server then facilitates a placeshifting session between the identified placeshifting system and a client device operated by the authenticated user in which the client device obtains the requested content.
Systems, methods and devices are provided to reduce change latency and/or to provide a picture-in-picture (PIP) feature within a placeshifted media stream. As the viewer receives a primary stream containing selected programming, secondary programming that is likely to be of interest to the user is predicted. A secondary stream containing the predicted content is obtained at the same time as the primary stream selected by the user. The secondary stream may be of lower quality than the primary stream to preserve network bandwidth. If the user subsequently selects the predicted secondary content, the previously-obtained content can be quickly provided as an output to the display. Alternately, the primary and secondary streams may be simultaneously output to the display in PIP or another manner.
H04N 21/438 - Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. retrieving MPEG packets from an IP network
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies
H04N 21/2381 - Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an IP [Internet Protocol] network
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfaces; Content or additional data rendering
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabi
H04N 21/6379 - Control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components directed to server directed to encoder
9.
AUTOMATED SEARCHING FOR SOLUTIONS TO SUPPORT SELF-DIAGNOSTIC OPERATIONS OF WEB-ENABLED DEVICES
An automated diagnostic system is presented here. The system includes a network-enabled device, a remote network-based search engine, and a data communication network to facilitate data communication between the network-enabled device and the remote network-based search engine. The device automatically detects a problem, error, or failure associated with its operation, and automatically sends a corresponding search query to the remote network-based search engine. The search engine receives the search query and, in response to the search query, searches for relevant information pertaining to the problem, error, or failure, and sends a corresponding response to the network-enabled device. The response includes response data having some contextual association with the solution. The device receives the response, processes at least some of the response data to determine a course of action, and initiates that course of action.
A server facilitates sharing of otherwise idle placeshifting devices over the Internet or another network. The server maintains a list of placeshifting devices that are available to share content via the network. When a selection of shared content is received from a client device, an available placeshifting device that has access to the requested content is identified. The client device and the identified placeshifting device establish a placeshifting connection over the network in which the client device controls the identified placeshifting device to obtain the selected content.
A player decodes and renders encoded digital data received from an encoder. During processing, the player periodically monitors dropped frames as well as time spent. If the dropped frames are below a minimum, the player determines to signal the encoder to increase bit rate or frame rate by consulting a table. If the player determines to increase bit rate, the player signals accordingly. However, if the player determines to increase frame rate, the player first verifies that the spent time is below a minimum. To the contrary, if the dropped frames are both above the minimum and a first maximum but not a second maximum, the player determines to signal the encoder to decrease bit rate or frame rate by consulting the table and signaling accordingly. However, if the dropped frames are above the second maximum, the player signals the encoder to decrease the frame rate without consulting the table.
A content retransmitter receives information for receivers and forms an authorized list by transmitting authentication prompts, receiving authentication information, and adding receivers if the authentication information for the respective receiver is verified to match stored user information. Subsequently, the content retransmitter may receive content and broadcast the received content to some or all of the receivers on the authorized list. Additionally, the content retransmitter may store the received content in a storage medium and provide the stored content to receivers on the authorized list upon request. The user authentication information received from the receivers may be passwords, biometric information, and so on. The received content may be broadcast to a subset of the authorized list corresponding to users who are related to the content. The related users may be determined by examining metadata about the received content, facial recognition analysis of users present in the received content, and so on.
H04H 60/14 - Arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services
H04H 60/48 - Arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time, e.g. for identifying broadcast stations or for identifying users for recognising items expressed in broadcast information
13.
CONNECTION PRIORITY SERVICES FOR DATA COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TWO DEVICES
A digital media player device includes, without limitation, a processor and a communication module coupled to the processor and configured to support data communication with a digital media place-shifting device. The processor and the communication module cooperate to attempt to establish data communication with the digital media place-shifting device in accordance with a connection mode sequence that identifies a plurality of different data communication modes supported by the digital media player device, until one of the plurality of different data communication modes can be used to initiate a data communication session between the digital media player device and the digital media place-shifting device. The processor and the communication module also cooperate to perform data communication with the digital media place-shifting device, using the one of the plurality of different data communication modes.
A method of encoding a time-domain audio signal is presented. A device transforms the time-domain signal into a frequency-domain signal including a sequence of sample blocks, wherein each block includes a coefficient for each of multiple frequencies. The coefficients of each block are grouped into frequency bands. For each frequency band of each block, a scale factor is estimated for the band, and the energy of the band for the block is compared with the energy of the band of an adjacent sample block, wherein the blocks may be adjacent to each other in either or both of an interchannel and a temporal sense. If the ratio of the band energy for the first block to the band energy for the adjacent block is less than some value, the scale factor of the band for the first block is increased. The coefficients of the band for each block are quantized based on the resulting scale factor. The encoded audio signal is generated based on the quantized coefficients and the scale factors.
G10L 19/02 - Speech or audio signal analysis-synthesis techniques for redundancy reduction, e.g. in vocoders; Coding or decoding of speech or audio signals, using source filter models or psychoacoustic analysis using spectral analysis, e.g. transform vocoders or subband vocoders
15.
FREQUENCY BAND SCALE FACTOR DETERMINATION IN AUDIO ENCODING BASED UPON FREQUENCY BAND SIGNAL ENERGY
A method of encoding a time-domain audio signal is presented. In the method, an electronic device receives the time-domain audio signal. The time-domain audio signal is transformed into a frequency-domain signal including a coefficient for each of a plurality of frequencies, which are grouped into frequency bands. For each frequency band, the energy of the band is determined, a scale factor for the band is determined based on the energy of the band, and the coefficients of the band are quantized based on the associated scale factor. The encoded audio signal is generated based on the quantized coefficients and the scale factors.
Systems and methods are described for aggregating and playing media content using a proxy server. A request is received, in the proxy server, to play media content from a placeshifting media source on a media player. The requested media content is received, in the proxy server, from the placeshifting media source. The proxy server determines the media playing capability of the media player, and transmits the requested media content to the media player in a manner that is compatible with the media player associated with the request.
Systems, methods, and program products are provided for selectively restricting the transmission of copy protected digital media content from a computer system, over a network, and to a remote display. In one embodiment, a method includes the steps of capturing digital media content rendered on the local display by a media player application executed by the computer system; determining whether the media player application is accessing copy protected digital media content; and, if the media player application is not accessing copy protected digital media content, converting the captured digital media content to a media stream and transmitting the media stream over a network for presentation on a remote display.
An adaptive gain control system and related operating method for digital audio samples is provided. The method is suitable for use with a digital media encoding system that transmits encoded media streams to a remotely-located presentation device such as a media player. The method begins by initializing the processing of a media stream. Then, the method adjusts the gain of a first set of digital audio samples in the media stream using a fast gain adaptation scheme, resulting in a first group of gain-adjusted digital audio samples having normalized volume during presentation. The method continues by adjusting the gain of a second set of digital audio samples in the media stream using a steady state gain adaptation scheme that is different than the fast gain adaptation scheme, resulting in a second group of gain-adjusted digital audio samples having normalized volume during presentation.
Systems and methods are described for providing a media stream transmitted from an encoding system to a remotely-located media player. The media stream is encoded according to an encoding parameter. Data is gathered about a transmit buffer within the encoding system, and the gathered data is processed to arrive at an estimate of network capacity and a calculated encoder rate. The encoding parameter is adjusted during subsequent encoding in response to a change in at least one of the esti-mate of network capacity and the calculated encoder rate.
patents
