METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE TRANSCODING AND TRANSRATING IN A VIDEO NETWORK

摘要

An apparatus for downloading video content to a client device over a communication network, the apparatus comprising an encoder for encoding video content according to an initial video encoding standard and an initial video encoding rate; a storage unit coupled to the encoder for storing the encoded video content; a transcoder coupled to the storage unit for transcoding the video content stored in the storage unit according to a second video encoding standard and a second video encoding rate, wherein the first and second video encoding standards differ; a communications interface coupled to the transcoder for downloading the video content to the client device over the communication network; and a controller coupled to and controlling the storage unit, the encoder, the transcoder, and the communications interface, the controller monitoring and determining a transmission rate between the communications interface and the client device and adaptively selecting the second video encoding standard and the second video encoding rate based on the determined transmission rate; wherein the controller is configured to determine the transmission rate between the communications interface and the client device based on a transmission rate of the communication network and a respective bandwidth allocation of the client device; and wherein the controller is further configured to allocate a plurality of respective bandwidth allocations to a plurality of client devices on the communication network.