Smooth, stateless client media streaming

A computer system for smoothly processing media from a live event, the system comprising:

• a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions;
• a chunk request component configured to make requests from a client for individual media chunks from an origin server, wherein the chunks represent portions of a media file available individually from the server, and wherein each request comprises a standard hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request that does not include byte ranges such that a corresponding response can be cached by a common Internet cache server that does not cache byte ranges;
• a chunk parsing component configured to interpret a format of each media chunk received by the chunk request component and separate the chunk into component parts, wherein an HTTP response header received with each requested chunk does not include a codec with which a media data portion of the chunk is encoded;
• a manifest assembly component configured to build a manifest that describes a media element to which received media content chunks belong;
• a media playback component configured to play back received media content chunks using client hardware;
• a QoS monitoring component configured to analyze a result of receiving packets from the server and adapt client requests based on a set of current network conditions;
• and
• a clock synchronization component configured to synchronize clocks of the server and the client so that the server and client can identify particular chunks based on time.

A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to playback media on a client, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

• selecting an initial encoding at which to request encoded media from a server, wherein each request comprises a standard hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request that does not include byte ranges such that a corresponding response can be cached by a common Internet cache server that does not cache byte ranges;
• receiving a particular media chunk from the server, wherein an HTTP response header received with the requested chunk does not include a codec with which a media data portion of the chunk is encoded;
• playing the received media chunk;
• determining a quality of service (QoS) metric based on the received chunk;
• and
• upon determining that the QoS metric is too low and the client connection to the server cannot handle the current encoding,
• selecting a second encoding of the encoded media, wherein the second encoding of the encoded media is encoded at a lower bit rate than the initial encoding.