Streaming media

摘要

A method and associated apparatus for controlling the provision of media from a server to a receiver. The media is divided into portions (or fragments) with each portion having multiple versions that are available from the server at different encoding bit rates. A first value indicative of a first bit rate (which may be the available bandwidth on a connection between the server and the receiver) and second values indicative of a ranking for the portions are used to select different encoding bit rates for the portions. The portions corresponding to the selected encoding bit rates are then provided to the receiver from the server. The method is designed to ensure that the most appropriate bit-rate is chosen for each portion by basing the choice of the encoding bit-rate on both the first bit-rate (which may the available bandwidth) and on a value that is indicative of the ranking of the portions.