Methods and apparatus for displaying interstitial breaks in a progress bar of a video stream

摘要

Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for presenting information regarding interstitials of a video stream. A recording of a television show may include segments of the show interspersed with interstitials (e.g., commercials). The location of the interstitials within the recording is identified, and the locations of the interstitials are presented in progress bar during presentation of the video stream. The location of the interstitials may also be utilized to determine durations of the interstitials, and provide a user with information regarding the lengths of the interstitials of a recording, and/or the length of the other content of a recording (e.g., segments of a television show).

主权项

1. A method for providing a user with locations of interstitials in a video stream of a show, the method comprising:
receiving a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream; receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify a first anchor frame and a second anchor frame within a segment of the show, the metadata comprising a first displayable text string that is unique for the segment and a second displayable text string that is unique for the segment, the first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, and the metadata further comprising a first offset, relative to the first anchor frame, that identifies a beginning of the segment, and a second offset, relative to the second anchor frame, that identifies an ending of the segment; parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame in the segment, corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data; identifying a beginning boundary of the segment based on the located first anchor frame and the first offset; parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame in the segment, corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data; identifying an ending boundary of the segment based on the located second anchor frame and the second offset; identifying a location of the at least one interstitial based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries; outputting the video stream for presentation to a user; and outputting a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial.