Video stream transmission system, apparatus and method having dynamic video encoding mechanism

Abstract

A video stream transmission apparatus having a dynamic video encoding mechanism is provided that includes a video encoding circuit, a communication circuit and a control circuit configured to perform steps outlined below. The video encoding circuit is controlled to generate test image frames having different test bit rates in an environment test stage. The communication circuit is controlled to transmit the test image frames to a remote apparatus through a network to be decoded and receive operation signals from the remote apparatus through the network. Round-trip times are calculated according to the transmission of the test image frames and the receiving of the operation signals. The video encoding circuit is controlled to determine an encoding strategy according to a smallest round-trip time and a decoding ability of the remote apparatus to generate and transmit game image frames to the remote apparatus in a game performing stage.

Claims

1. An image streaming transmission device with a dynamic image encoding mechanism, comprising: an image encoding circuit; a communication circuit; and a control circuit configured to: control the image encoding circuit to generate a plurality of test image frames with a plurality of different test bit rates during an environmental testing phase; control the communication circuit to transmit the test image frames to a remote device via a network for decoding, and receive a plurality of operation signals from the remote device via the network; calculate a plurality of test round-trip times for the transmission of the test image frames and the reception of the operation signals; and control the image encoding circuit to determine an image encoding strategy based on a minimum test round-trip time among the test round-trip times and a decoding capability of the remote device, and generate and transmit a plurality of game image frames to the remote device during a game execution phase.

2. The video streaming transmission apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further configured to: determine a plurality of game complexity parameters based on the game video images during the game's execution phase, thereby determining a game type; and control the video encoding circuit to adjust the video encoding strategy according to the game type.

3. The video streaming transmission device as described in claim 2, wherein the game complexity parameters include a number of video movement vectors, a distance of video movement vectors, a player key operation frequency, or a combination thereof, and the control circuit is configured to: determine that the game type is an action game when the number of video movement vectors is greater than a preset number, the distance of video movement vectors is greater than a preset distance, the time interval of player key operation is less than a preset interval, and a complexity evaluation value of the game complexity parameters is greater than a preset value, or a combination thereof, and control the video encoding circuit to adjust the video encoding strategy to improve screen smoothness, wherein the complexity evaluation value is the sum of the weighted number of video movement vectors and the weighted distance of video movement vectors, and the difference between the weighted time interval of player key operation and the sum of the weighted number of video movement vectors and the weighted time interval of player key operation.

4. The video streaming transmission apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control circuit is further configured to: determine a game round-trip time based on the game video images during the game's execution phase; and control the video encoding circuit to adjust the video encoding strategy based on the game round-trip time and the decoding capability of the remote device.

5. The image streaming transmission apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein the image encoding strategy includes an image bit rate, an image resolution, an image frame rate, a color space, an image frame reference mode, a compression rate, or a combination thereof.

6. The video streaming transmission apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the test round-trip times respectively include a video encoding time of the video encoding circuit, a network transmission time of the test video frames, a video decoding time of a video decoding circuit included in the remote device, a signal generation time of an operation device included in the remote device, an operation signal transmission time from the game operation device to the communication circuit receiving the operation signal, or a combination thereof.

7. The video streaming transmission apparatus as described in claim 6, wherein the operation signals are user key inputs made to the game operation device in response to the test video screens.

8. The video streaming transmission apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the decoding capability of the remote device includes a number of supported video encoding formats, a decoding rate, or a combination thereof, and the control circuit interacts with the remote device through the communication circuit to acquire the decoding capability of the remote device.

9. A video streaming transmission method with a dynamic video encoding mechanism, comprising: a control circuit controlling a video encoding circuit to generate a plurality of test video frames with a plurality of different test bit rates during an environmental testing phase; the control circuit controlling a communication circuit to transmit the test video frames to a remote device via a network for decoding, and receiving a plurality of operation signals from the remote device via the network; the control circuit calculating a plurality of test round-trip times for the transmission of the test video frames and the reception of the operation signals; and the control circuit controlling the video encoding circuit to determine a video encoding strategy based on a minimum test round-trip time among the test round-trip times and a decoding capability of the remote device, generating and transmitting a plurality of game video frames to the remote device during a game phase.

10. An image streaming transmission system, comprising: a remote device; and an image streaming transmission device, comprising: an image encoding circuit; a communication circuit; and a control circuit configured to: control the image encoding circuit to generate a plurality of test image frames having a plurality of different test bit rates during an environmental testing phase; control the communication circuit to transmit the test image frames to the remote device via a network for decoding, and receive a plurality of operation signals from the remote device via the network; calculate a plurality of test round-trip times for the transmission of the test image frames and the reception of the operation signals; and control the image encoding circuit to determine an image encoding strategy based on a minimum test round-trip time among the test round-trip times and a decoding capability of the remote device, and generate and transmit a plurality of game image frames to the remote device during a game execution phase.

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