Method and apparatus for media data transmission

#The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for preparing time related sequences of media data for transmission, and more particularly to packetized transmission of such media data.

#There are various different file structures used today to store time-based media: audio formats such as AIFF, video formats such as AVI, and streaming formats such as RealMedia. One reason that such file structures are different is their different focus and applicability. Some of these formats are sufficiently relatively widely accepted, broad in their application, and somewhat simple to implement, and thus, may be used not only for content delivery but also as interchange formats. Foremost among these general formats is the QuickTime file format. It is used today in the majority of web sites serving time-based data; in the majority of authoring environments, including professional ones; and on the majority of multimedia CDROM titles.

#The QuickTime media layer supports the efficient display and management of general multimedia data, with an emphasis on time-based material (video, audio, etc.). The media layer uses the QuickTime file format as the storage and interchange format for media information. The architectural capabilities of the layer are generally broader than the existing implementations, and the file format is capable of representing more information than is currently demanded by the existing QuickTime implementations.

#FIG. 1 shows an example of the structure of a simple movie with one track in the prior art.

#FIG. 2 is an example of a self-contained movie file of the prior art.

#FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing one example of a method according to the present invention.

#The present invention provides methods and apparatuses for allowing the transmission, and particularly the packetized transmission of time related sequences of media data, which may include, for example, video, audio, video and audio, etc., over a communication media, such as in a computer network.

#In one embodiment of the present invention, a digital processing system creates a set of data for indicating how to transmit a time related sequence of media data according to a transmission protocol. Typically, this set of data is stored on a storage device coupled to the digital processing system. Further, this set of data is a time related sequence of data associated with the time related sequence of media data.

#The present invention may be implemented entirely in executable computer program instructions which are stored on a computer readable media or may be implemented in a combination of software and hardware, or in certain embodiments, entirely in hardware. Typically, a server computer system coupled to a network will create the set of data, which may be referred to as a hint track and will store this hint track in a storage device which is coupled to the server computer system. When a client computer system requests a presentation (e.g. a viewing or listening or viewing and listening) of a media data file, the server system uses the hint track to determine how to packetize the media data for transmission to the client computer system. It will be appreciated that the present invention is generally applicable to time related sequences of media data, and that QuickTime is represented herein as one example of this general applicability. Thus, the invention should not necessarily be limited to QuickTime.