Method and apparatus for playing a mp4 file container while generating such a file

Abstract

A method for enabling playback of an MP4 file wrapper/container during generation of the same includes the creation of an auxiliary index file at initiation of the MP4 file generation and the updating of the auxiliary index file simultaneously with the MP4 file being generated. The auxiliary index file provides the instantaneous playback of a partially generated MP4 file container up to a last data block written to the MP4 file wrapper. Furthermore, by fixing the size of the index records that make up the auxiliary index file, a device can seek to any index record within the auxiliary index file at constant time and read the attributes of a frame such as data block location and frame offset.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.