Measuring remote video playback performance with embedded encoded pixels

A system for measuring performance of remote video delivery, the system comprising:

• a video server for delivering a video stream, the video server embedding a marker in selected frames of the video stream, the marker including a preconfigured sequence of pixels and being followed by a frame number encoded in pixel data;
• a video client that receives the video stream, the video client configured to,
• find a first marker to determine a location of the markers in a display, and
• detect markers following the first marker with their corresponding frame numbers;
• and
• a performance server configured to,
• receive from the video client an arrival time and frame number for each detected marker, and
• store the received arrival times and frame numbers.

A computer program embedded in a computer-readable storage medium, when executed by one or more processors, for measuring performance of remote video delivery, the computer program comprising:

• program instructions for embedding at a server computer a marker in selected frames of a video stream, the marker including a preconfigured sequence of pixels and being followed by a frame number encoded in pixel data;
• program instructions for finding a first marker at a client computer to determine a location of the markers in a display;
• program instructions for detecting markers following the first marker with their corresponding frame numbers;
• and
• program instructions for storing arrival time and frame number for each detected marker.