Media Renderer Prefetching for Seamless Playback Transitions
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Solution Overview
Problem
In home network environments, media renderers often experience time delays when transitioning between media content, leading to non-seamless playback, especially when separated from media servers, and existing solutions lack flexibility to accommodate various situations.
Innovation Solution
An operating method is introduced that involves a control device calling a playback action for a first resource and a multiple resource prefetch action to allow the media renderer to prefetch multiple resources, ensuring seamless transition between media content by preloading next resources, even when the media renderer is separated from the media server.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If a media renderer receives media content from a media server according to a transit command, then the media renderer can transition between media content, but time delay occurs at the transition and seamless transition cannot be provided
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by prefetching multiple media resources (current resource, next resource, and subsequent resources) before the actual playback transition occurs. The control point sends prefetch commands to the media renderer, which retrieves and buffers these resources in advance from the media server, ensuring that when a transition command is received, the next resource is already available in the buffer, eliminating transition delays.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a media renderer is separated from a media server, then device independence and network flexibility are achieved, but seamless transition between media content becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The control point initiates prefetch operations in advance, sending commands to retrieve multiple resources before they are needed for playback. This preliminary action ensures that even when the media renderer is separated from the media server, the necessary resources are already buffered and ready, maintaining seamless transition reliability across distributed network configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a control point as an intermediary between the media renderer and media server. The control point manages the complex prefetching and coordination logic, sending appropriate commands to the media renderer to retrieve resources from the media server. This intermediary layer simplifies the architecture and enables seamless transitions in distributed configurations by centralizing the control logic.
3Ease of operation
If existing prefetching methods are used, then some transition smoothing is achieved, but these methods lack flexibility to accommodate various network configurations and situations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic adaptability by enabling the control point to flexibly adjust prefetching parameters based on network conditions and playback requirements. The system can dynamically determine the number of resources to prefetch, the timing of prefetch operations, and which specific resources to prioritize, allowing it to adapt to various network configurations and situational requirements while maintaining smooth transitions.
Data Source
AI summary
After the calling of the playback action of the first resource, the control device calls a multiple resource prefetch action including a plurality of prefetch resource identifiers for a plurality of prefetch resources. The media renderer prefetches the plurality of prefetch resources from the media server on the basis of the plurality of prefetch resource identifiers. The control device calls a playback action of a second resource corresponding to one of the plurality of prefetch resources. The media renderer provides seamless transition between the first resource and the second resource.