Transmission of reconstruction data in a tiered signal quality hierarchy

Computer-readable storage hardware having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when carried out by a processing device, causing the processing device to:

• retrieve image reconstruction data and metadata from a repository, the retrieved image reconstruction data and metadata being a subset of available data selected from the repository for distribution to a decoder from a streaming server performing the distribution, the retrieved image construction data encoded in accordance with a tiered hierarchy including multiple available levels of image signal quality in which portions of an image signal are encoded,
• wherein the retrieved image reconstruction data comprises at least a first set of image reconstruction data and a second set of image reconstruction data associated with the image signal and further comprises a plurality of frames, including intra-frames and predicted-frames, and
• wherein the metadata, which includes information provided to assist the streaming server in selecting which portions of the image reconstruction data are to be distributed to the decoder, includes distance information indicating a determined distance as between (i) at least one frame included among the plurality of frames, which are included in the image reconstruction data, and (ii) a next subsequent intra-frame included in the image reconstruction data, whereby the distance information is also provided to assist the streaming server in its selecting,
• transmit the retrieved image reconstruction data to the decoder, the decoder configured to reconstruct one or more renditions of the image signal based on the transmitted image reconstruction data;
• and
• during the transmission, and responsive to a detected condition identified during the transmission, varying a level of resolution quality of the image reconstruction data retrieved from the tiered hierarchy and transmitted to the decoder by transmitting the first set of image reconstruction data during a first portion of the transmission, the first set of image reconstruction data being of a first level of quality configured to provide a first rendition of a first portion of the image signal at the first level of quality, and transmitting the second set of image reconstruction data during a second portion of the transmission, the second set of image reconstruction data being of a second level of quality, that is a greater quality than the first level of quality, and that is configured to provide a second rendition of a second portion of the image signal at the second level of quality.

A computer system comprising:

• a processor including processing hardware;
• a hardware storage unit that stores instructions associated with an application executed by the processor;
• and
• an interconnect coupling the processor and the hardware storage unit, causing the processing hardware to:
• retrieve image reconstruction data and metadata from a repository, the retrieved image reconstruction data and metadata being a subset of available data selected from the repository for distribution to a decoder from a streaming server performing the distribution, the retrieved image construction data encoded in accordance with a tiered hierarchy including multiple available levels of image signal quality in which portions of the image signal are encoded,
• wherein the retrieved image reconstruction data comprises at least a first set of image reconstruction data and a second set of image reconstruction data associated with the image signal, and further comprises a plurality of frames, including intra-frames and predicted-frames, and
• wherein the metadata, which includes information provided to assist the streaming server in selecting which portions of the image reconstruction data are to be distributed to the decoder, includes distance information indicating a determined distance as between (i) at least one frame included among the plurality of frames, which are included in the image reconstruction data, and (ii) a next subsequent intra-frame included in the image reconstruction data, whereby the distance information is also provided to assist the streaming server in its selecting;
• transmit the retrieved image reconstruction data to the decoder, the decoder configured to reconstruct one or more renditions of the image signal based on the transmitted image reconstruction data;
• and
• during the transmission, and responsive to a detected condition identified during the transmission. vary a level of quality of the image reconstruction data retrieved from the tiered hierarchy and transmitted to the decoder by transmitting the first set of image reconstruction data during a first portion of the transmission, the first set of image reconstruction data having a first level of quality configured to provide a first rendition of a first portion of the image signal at the first level of quality, and transmitting the second set of image reconstruction data during a second portion of the transmission, the second set of image reconstruction data having a second level of quality, that is a greater quality than the first level of quality, and that is configured to provide a second rendition of a second portion of the image signal at the second level of quality.