Media Stream Quality Switching via Automated Content Recognition
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing approaches to automatically switch to a higher quality media stream from a lower quality stream are limited, as they often rely on receiving channel information from set-top boxes or over-the-air devices and fail to seamlessly transition frames, making it difficult to synchronize the switch, especially when the lower quality stream is not received through these devices.
Innovation Solution
Implementing automated content recognition (ACR) on the media device to identify content items and their quality levels, allowing the device to request and switch to higher quality streams from content sources, ensuring seamless frame transitions by buffering content and synchronizing playback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If automated content recognition is used to identify and switch to higher quality media streams, then media quality is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The media device performs automated content recognition itself to identify the content item in the first media stream and determine its quality level, eliminating the need for external service providers and reducing system complexity while maintaining high media quality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual quality assessment and stream selection with automated content recognition technology, using digital signal processing and content identification algorithms to automatically detect content items and their quality levels, thereby improving media quality without requiring complex manual intervention systems
2Reliability
If seamless frame transition is implemented when switching between media streams, then user experience is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The media device requests the second media stream in advance from the content source before completing the switch, allowing the higher quality stream to be prepared and buffered ahead of time. This preliminary action enables seamless frame transition without significant processing delay, as the content is already ready when the switch occurs
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a buffering mechanism as an intermediary between the first and second media streams. The buffer temporarily stores frames from both streams and manages the transition, allowing seamless frame-by-frame switching without direct confrontation between the two streams, thereby maintaining user experience while minimizing processing time
3Manufacturing precision
If the media device requests and buffers the second media stream in advance, then frame synchronization is improved, but memory usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies buffering selectively only to the transition region where frame synchronization is needed, rather than buffering entire media streams. By buffering only the necessary frames around the switch point and using quality level indicators to guide the switching decision, the system achieves precise frame synchronization while minimizing memory usage to only what is necessary for the transition
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method and/or computer program product embodiments, and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for automatically offering and switching to outputting to a higher quality media stream in place of a lower quality media stream. An example embodiment operates by performing automated content recognition (ACR) on a first media stream thereby determining a first content item having a first quality level in the first media stream. The embodiment determines that the first content item matches a second content item having a second quality level in a second media stream at a content source, wherein the second quality level is higher than the first quality level. The embodiment requests the second media stream from the content source. The embodiment receives the second media stream from the content source. The embodiment then outputs the second media stream in place of the first media stream.