Client optimization for providing quality control in 360° immersive video during pause

An apparatus associated with a client device configured for controlling video quality while pausing an Over-the-Top (OTT) 360-degree immersive video session, the apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more persistent memory modules having program instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, perform following acts in association with one or more modules:
• receiving a request from a user operating the client device to pause playing a particular video asset being streamed in the 360-degree immersive video session, the particular video asset comprising a plurality of video frames and each video frame comprising an array of tiles projected on a 3-dimensional (3D) display environment viewed by the user in a display device associated with the client device, wherein the request to pause playing the particular video asset is generated with respect to a tiled video frame stored in a video decode buffer of the client device and further wherein the tiled video frame includes a first portion of video tiles having a first video quality, the first portion corresponding to a viewport of the display device, and a second portion of video tiles having a second video quality, the second portion corresponding to a display region outside the viewport of the display device;
• generating a replacement video frame by replacing tiles in the second portion of the tiled video frame with tiles having a video quality matching the first video quality of the video tiles of the first portion corresponding to the viewport;
• and
• providing the replacement video frame having video tiles with matching video qualities in the viewport and the display region outside the viewport to a video decoder of the client device for decoding and displaying the replacement video frame instead of the tiled video frame while the particular video asset is paused.

A method of optimizing video quality at a client device engaged in a 360-degree immersive video session, the method comprising:

• pausing a tiled video frame of the 360-degree immersive video session, wherein the tiled video frame is comprised of a plurality of mixed quality video tiles;
• equalizing video quality of all tiles of the tiled video frame to a highest video quality;
• and
• presenting the tiled video frame having tiles with same highest video quality to a media player for display while the 360-degree immersive video session is in pausing.

A client device configured for controlling video quality while pausing an Over-the-Top (OTT) 360-degree immersive video session, the client device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more persistent memory modules having program instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, perform following acts in association with one or more modules:
• pausing a tiled video frame of the 360-degree immersive video session, wherein the tiled video frame is comprised of a plurality of mixed quality video tiles;
• equalizing video quality of all tiles of the tiled video frame to a highest video quality;
• and
• presenting the tiled video frame having tiles with same highest video quality to a media player of the client device for display while the 360-degree immersive video session is in pausing.