Concept for determining the quality of a media data stream with varying quality-to-bitrate

A server configured to store, in a look-up table,

• for each media section of a media content, for each of a plurality of quality-to-bitrate levels,
• a parameter set which describes a coding quality of a data stream section to which the respective media section at the respective quality-to-bitrate level is encoded, and
• an identifier which is associated with the parameter set and which can be derived, by a derivation specification that is the same for all of the data stream sections, from the data stream section to which the respective media section at the respective quality-to-bitrate level is encoded, and
• configured to respond to a request comprising an identifier by returning the quality parameter set associated with said identifier.

A device for generating a look-up table, the device being configured to

• generate, for each media section of a media content, for each of a plurality of quality-to-bitrate levels,
• a parameter set which describes a coding quality of a data stream section to which the respective media section at the respective quality-to-bitrate level is encoded, and
• an identifier which is associated with the parameter set and which can be derived, by a derivation specification that is the same for all of the data stream sections, from the data stream section to which the respective media section at the respective quality-to-bitrate level is encoded, and
• configured to respond to a request comprising an identifier by returning the quality parameter set associated with said identifier.

A method of determining a quality of a media data stream comprising a sequence of data stream sections which transmit different media sections of a media content at quality-to-bitrate levels that vary across the media content, the method comprising:

• deriving, from each data stream section, an identifier for the respective section;
• looking up, for each data stream section, a parameter set from a look-up table by means of the identifier derived for the respective data stream section;
• and
• aggregating the parameter sets that are looked up for data stream sections that transmit media sections that lie within a test section of the media content;
• and
• determining the quality on the basis of the aggregated parameter sets.