Playlists for real-time or near real-time streaming

摘要

Methods and apparatuses for real-time or near real-time streaming of content using transfer protocols such as an HTTP compliant protocol. In one embodiment, a method includes dividing a stream of data, representing the contiguous time based content of a program (e.g. a live video broadcast), into a plurality of distinct media files, and generating a playlist file having a plurality of tags and Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) indicating an order of presentation of the plurality of distinct media files. The plurality of media files and the playlist file can be made available for transmission to a client device which can retrieve the media files using the playlist file.

主权项

1. A computer implemented method comprising:
requesting, with a client device, a variant playlist file over a network using a transfer protocol; receiving, in response to the requesting, the variant playlist indicating a first playlist file and a second playlist file representing first and second alternative media playlist files for a same contiguous media presentation, each of the first and second playlist files specifying segments of the same contiguous media presentation encoded according to a different value of an encoding parameter, and the encoding parameter indicating a bit rate at which the segments are encoded, the variant playlist comprising:
a plurality of tags, wherein each tag indicates a value of the encoding parameter of a respective one of the first and second playlist files, anda plurality of Universal Resource Indicators (URIs) wherein each URI corresponds to one of the plurality of tags and the URI specifies a respective one of the first and second playlist files that specify segments encoded according to a value of the encoding parameter, wherein selection of a URI from the variant playlist file requests transmittal of a respective one of the first and second playlist files specified by the selected URI, and wherein the requested playlist file includes a plurality of URIs specifying segments of the same contiguous media presentation encoded according to the value of the encoding parameter indicated by the tag in the variant playlist file corresponding to the selected URI, wherein one or more of the plurality of tags indicates a first encoding parameter associated with the first playlist file and a second encoding parameter associated with the second playlist file wherein the first encoding parameter is different than the second encoding parameter, wherein the first and second encoding parameters each specify a bandwidth parameter, and the first encoding parameter specifies a lower associated bandwidth parameter than the second encoding parameter, and wherein the first playlist and the second playlist each is configured to be used at the client device to recreate a contiguous time based stream of content for the same program; selecting and requesting, from the variant playlist with the client device, the first playlist file or the second playlist file using the transfer protocol, wherein the requesting uses a URI from the variant playlist file corresponding to the selected playlist file; receiving, with the client device, the requested playlist file, the requested playlist file having one or more URIs indicating encoded segments of the contiguous time based stream of content and one or more tags having parameters related to playback of the encoded segments; using the transfer protocol, requesting the encoded segments in an order indicated by the URIs in the requested playlist file; receiving the requested encoded segments over the network using the transfer protocol.