Local Transcoding and Caching for Off-Air TV Streaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data service providers often throttle or cap data plans for television programming, leading to limitations in streaming high-data content, which can result in consumers being unable to stream television programming after reaching certain data limits.
Innovation Solution
A device that captures and caches off-air and/or cable programming locally, using Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) streaming to transcode and store content in various bit rates, allowing seamless streaming via a data communication network, and can be controlled remotely to adjust streaming quality based on connection speed and device type.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If television programming is streamed over data networks, then consumers can receive programming on various electronic devices, but data limits are reached quickly causing streaming interruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing and caching television programming content in advance before it needs to be streamed. The content is recorded from broadcast signals and stored locally on the consumer's device, creating a local cache that can be accessed without consuming additional data network bandwidth during playback.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary caching mechanism between the content source and the streaming delivery. A local content cache stores captured programming locally, acting as an intermediary that serves content without requiring continuous data network transmission, thus reducing data consumption while maintaining device compatibility for streaming.
2Adaptability or versatility
If content is cached locally with multiple bit rate streams, then streaming quality can be adapted to bandwidth conditions, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The captured content is segmented into multiple versions with different bit rates during the transcoding process. The content is divided into high-bit-rate and low-bit-rate streams, allowing the system to select the appropriate version based on available bandwidth conditions without requiring complex real-time processing during playback.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of bit rate by creating multiple versions of the same content with different compression levels. This allows adaptive streaming quality adjustment based on bandwidth conditions while keeping the playback mechanism relatively simple, as the appropriate bit rate version is already prepared in advance.
3Adaptability or versatility
If transcoding is performed to create multiple video streams, then adaptive streaming is enabled, but processing time and resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The transcoding process is performed as a preliminary action during the content capture and caching phase, rather than in real-time during playback. Multiple bit rate versions are created in advance and stored in the local content cache, eliminating the need for time-consuming transcoding operations when the content needs to be streamed.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques are disclosed for capturing, transcoding, and caching off-air programming at a location local to the consumer. According to certain embodiments, a device is provided that receives off-air (e.g., broadcast) and/or cable (e.g., ClearQAM) programming via one or more antennas and caches the programming in various streams having various bit rates for later viewing using, for example, Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) streaming. Such a device can be incorporated in a larger system that can stream content via a data communication network (e.g., the Internet) and the device in a seamless manner. The device also can be controlled by a remote system via the data communication network, and further can be configured to stream content to a remote device via the data communication network.