Media Quality Enhancement Among Connected Media Communication Devices

A computer-readable medium encoding a computer program product operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• collecting, at a sending device, information including
• first information regarding an amount of encoded video data produced by a video encoder, and
• second information regarding an amount of encoded video data passed to, but not yet transmitted by, a transport layer network protocol stack;
• calculating,
• from the first information, an intermediate quantity of produced encoded video data, and
• from the first information and the second information, a rate of encoded video data transmission by the transport layer network protocol stack;
• and
• when the intermediate quantity compares favorably to a current video rate set for video data provided to the video encoder,
• increasing the current video rate by a rate adjustment amount,
• when the rate of encoded video data transmission compares unfavorably to the current video rate,
• decreasing the current video rate,
• else,
• maintaining the current video rate.

A system comprising:

• an interface device;
• a network connection;
• and
• a computer coupled with the interface device and the network connection and programmed with a runtime environment comprising a media encoder, an audio data buffer and an video data buffer, the audio data buffer being separate from the video data buffer, and the runtime environment is configured to enhance transmitted media quality based on input received in response to output provided regarding an amount of encoded video data produced by the media encoder and regarding an amount of encoded video data passed to the video data buffer but not yet transmitted.