Failure recovery for real-time audio and video encoding, decoding, and transcoding

An apparatus for recovering from a disruption in an input stream, which when executed by one or more processors, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage mediums storing one or more sequences of instructions, which when executed, cause:
• receiving a higher quality input stream and a lower quality input stream;
• performing a real-time encoding, decoding, or transcoding operation using said higher quality input stream;
• upon encountering a disruption in the higher quality input stream, performing said real-time encoding, decoding, or transcoding operation using said lower quality input stream;
• and
• transitioning from using said lower quality input stream to said higher quality input stream in the performance of said real-time encoding, decoding, or transcoding operation based on a state diagram that considers how long one or more of the higher quality input stream and the lower quality input stream have been available relative to a configurable interval of time.

A method for recovering from a disruption in an input stream, comprising:

• receiving a higher quality input stream and a lower quality input stream;
• performing a real-time encoding, decoding, or transcoding operation using said higher quality input stream;
• upon encountering a disruption in the higher quality input stream, performing said real-time encoding, decoding, or transcoding operation using said lower quality input stream;
• and
• transitioning from using said lower quality input stream to said higher quality input stream in the performance of said real-time encoding, decoding, or transcoding operation based on a state diagram that considers how long one or more of the higher quality input stream and the lower quality input stream have been available relative to a configurable interval of time.