Speedy clipping

A method comprising:

• encoding media content as a first set of slices at a first bitrate, and as a second set of slices at a second bitrate, wherein the first bitrate is higher than the second bitrate;
• receiving a request for a snippet of the media content at the second bitrate, wherein the request identifies an end time for the snippet that is before an end time of the media content, and wherein the snippet spans a shorter duration than the media content;
• encoding a snippet end slice at the second bitrate from one or more frames of a particular slice of the first set of slices encoded at the first bitrate, wherein the one or more frames of the particular slice are time aligned with the end time for the snippet, and wherein a number of frames encoded as the snippet end slice is less than a number of frames encoded as the particular slice;
• and
• providing the snippet in response to the request, the snippet comprising a subset of the second set of slices and the snippet end slice, wherein the subset of the second set of slices spans a duration of the snippet immediately before the snippet end slice, and the snippet end slice spans a last duration of the snippet.

A device comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a set of processor-executable instructions;
• and
• one or more processors configured to execute the set of processor-executable instructions, wherein executing the set of processor-executable instructions causes the one or more processors to:
• obtain a video asset encoded as at least a first slice and a second slice, each of the first and second slices comprising a mix of key frames and other frames;
• receive a request for a snippet of the video asset, wherein the request identifies a start time for the snippet that is after an initial key frame of the first slice, and wherein the snippet spans a shorter duration than the video asset;
• encode a third slice using (i) one or more frames of the first slice that are time aligned with the start time for the snippet and that are after the initial key frame of the first slice, and (ii) subsequent frames of the first slice coming after the one or more frames;
• and
• produce the snippet from appending the frames of the second slice, without modification of the second slice, to the frames of the third slice.