Delivering Content in Multiple Formats
AssigneeComcast Cable Communications, LLC
InventorsDanial E. Holden, Austin J. Vrbas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Content may be received at an edge location in one format, but delivered to a terminal on an access network in another format. The received content may be transcoded at the edge location. The transcoded content may be stored, or immediately delivered. The transcoded content may be fragmented prior to storage. Multiple copies of the transcoded content may be maintained in multiple formats. These formats may be aligned with one another such that delivery of the content can include delivering portions of the content in one format and other portions of the content in another format.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- sending, by a computing device and via a connection, a first video stream of a content item, wherein the first video stream comprises a first plurality of fragments associated with a first format;
- determining, by the computing device and based on one or more characteristics of the connection, to send a second video stream of the content item, wherein the second video stream comprises a second plurality of fragments associated with a second format;
- aligning, by the computing device, and based on a first time associated with the first plurality of fragments and a second time associated with the second plurality of fragments, a first fragment of the first plurality of fragments and a second fragment of the second plurality of fragments;
- and
- sending, by the computing device, after the aligning, and via the connection, the second video stream.
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a computing device and from a client device, a request for a content item;
- generating, by the computing device and according to a first format, a first video stream corresponding to the content item, wherein the first video stream comprises a first plurality of fragments;
- generating, by the computing device and according to a second format, a second video stream corresponding to the content item, wherein the second video stream comprises a second plurality of fragments;
- sending, by the computing device and based on the request, the first video stream;
- and
- sending, by the computing device and based on an incompatibility between the client device and the first video stream, the second video stream, wherein a first fragment of the first plurality of fragments is aligned with a second fragment of the second plurality of fragments.
A method comprising:
- receiving, by a computing device and from a client device, a request for a content item;
- sending, by a computing device and to the client device, a first video stream of a content item, wherein the first video stream comprises a first plurality of fragments associated with a first format;
- transcoding, by the computing device and based on determining an insufficient bandwidth for the first video stream, the content item to create a second video stream, wherein the second video stream comprises a second plurality of fragments associated with a second format;
- aligning, by the computing device, and based on a first time associated with the first plurality of fragments and a second time associated with the second plurality of fragments, a first fragment of the first plurality of fragments and a second fragment of the second plurality of fragments;
- and
- causing, by the computing device and after the aligning, sending of the second video stream to the client device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.