Streaming media segment preparation method and apparatus

A streaming media segment preparation apparatus, comprising:

• a first determining unit, configured on a processor to:
• obtain quality of a plurality of segments, existing in streaming media in a first time period, to serve as candidate quality points;
• select, from the candidate quality points, a quality point which has a minimum absolute value of a quality difference between the quality point and an ith quality point in the M quality points;
• or
• select, from the candidate quality points, a quality point whose quality is less than that of an ith quality point in the M quality points and is closest to the quality of the ith quality point;
• or
• select, from the candidate quality points, a quality point whose quality is greater than that of an ith quality point in the M quality points and is closest to the quality of the ith quality point, wherein i is a positive integer ranging from 1 to M, wherein the quality point is separately used to indicate quality of at least one target segment of streaming media in the first time period;
• and
• a second determining unit, configured on the processor to determine, according to the quality point selected by the first determining unit, the at least one target segment of the streaming media in the first time period.