Apparatus and methods for thumbnail generation

A non-transitory computer-readable apparatus comprising a storage medium, the storage medium comprising a plurality of instructions configured to, when executed on a processing apparatus, cause a computerized apparatus to:

• obtain data configured to enable adaptive bitrate streaming of video, the obtained data comprising:
• first data comprising a thumbnail data stream, the thumbnail data stream comprising a plurality of key frames at least partially interleaved with a plurality of null frames;
• second data comprising an encoded data stream, the encoded data stream comprising a second plurality of key frames, and a plurality of transitional frames;
• and
• third data comprising data indicative of locations of the plurality of key frames;
• based at least on an initiation of a trick mode operation, extract at least a portion of the plurality of key frames from the thumbnail data stream based at least on the third data;
• and
• enable display of a plurality of thumbnails, the plurality of thumbnails generated based at least on the extracted plurality of key frames;
• wherein the extraction of the at least portion of the plurality of key frames from the thumbnail data stream based at least on the third data comprises an automatic skipping of each of the plurality of null frames.

A computerized method of processing a digital content stream, the computerized method comprising:

• obtaining a content stream and a thumbnail stream, the thumbnail stream comprising a plurality of key frames each separated by one or more null frames, the one or more null frames comprising metadata correlated to a corresponding one of the plurality of key frames, the thumbnail stream configured to enable extraction of at least a portion of the plurality of key frames by a computerized user device based at least on the metadata;
• and
• during operation associated with a trick mode, generating one or more thumbnails from the extracted at least portion of the plurality of key frames;
• wherein the extracted at least portion of the plurality of key frames are grouped into one or more chunks of digital data of dynamically adjustable length, the dynamically adjustable length based at least on one or more network conditions.

Computerized encoder apparatus, the computerized encoder apparatus comprising:

• first data interface apparatus configured to communicate with a network;
• storage apparatus;
• and
• processor apparatus in data communication with the first data interface apparatus and the storage apparatus and configured to execute at least one computer program, the at least one computer program comprising a plurality of instructions which are configured to, when executed on the processor apparatus, cause the computerized encoder apparatus to:
• generate a plurality of video data from a content source for use with adaptive bitrate streaming, the plurality of video data comprising:
• a thumbnail stream comprising a first plurality of key frames separated by one or more null frames, the thumbnail stream configured to have the first plurality of key frames extracted and be transmitted to a computerized user device;
• and
• at least one other encoded stream, the at least one other encoded stream comprising a second plurality of key frames separated by delta frames;
• wherein the generation of the plurality of video data is performed so as provide temporal synchronization between the thumbnail stream and a playback time code associated with the at least one other encoded stream.