Set-Top Box Internet Video Delivery via Server Intermediary
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional TV systems face challenges in delivering Internet content to TVs due to resolution, encoding, and navigation issues, with existing set-top boxes unable to decode Internet formats and lacking convenient search functionality, leading to delayed session setup and cumbersome user experience.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for delivering video content to TVs by providing pre-defined video segments, establishing a streaming video session, and transmitting navigational codes to allow seamless user selection and playback of Internet content, adapting content for TV compatibility and enabling intuitive navigation using remote controls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional set-top boxes are used to deliver Internet content to TVs, then existing infrastructure is maintained, but the set-top boxes cannot decode Internet encoding formats and display content at proper resolution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between the Internet content source and the traditional set-top box. The server retrieves Internet content, converts it from Internet encoding formats to TV-compatible formats (MPEG-2, MPEG-4), and delivers the converted content to the existing set-top box. This allows the set-top box to maintain its existing simple hardware architecture while gaining the ability to play Internet content through the server's format conversion capability.
2Reliability
If session setup procedures are implemented for each video clip on VOD systems, then proper rights management and billing are ensured, but the setup delay becomes annoying for short Internet clips
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple short Internet video clips into a single continuous session delivered by the server. Instead of establishing separate session management, rights checking, and billing procedures for each individual clip, the system delivers all clips in one session. The server handles the content delivery while maintaining rights management and billing at the session level rather than per-clip level, significantly reducing the time delay for users watching short clips.
3Productivity
If conventional VOD session management is used for each clip, then proper billing and rights verification are performed, but the process takes many seconds which is unacceptable for short clips
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as an intermediary that assumes responsibility for session management, rights verification, and content delivery. The server retrieves content from the Internet, verifies rights, and delivers clips to the client device in a continuous stream without requiring the set-top box to perform time-consuming session setup procedures for each clip. This maintains billing and rights management accuracy while dramatically improving delivery speed.
4Manufacturing precision
If Internet content is delivered at original resolution, then content quality is preserved, but the content does not match TV display resolution requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The server dynamically changes the resolution parameter of Internet content to match TV display requirements. When delivering content to a TV, the server converts the content resolution from typical Internet resolutions (e.g., 320×240) to TV resolutions (e.g., 1920×1080 for HD). The system adjusts encoding parameters including resolution, bitrate, and format to optimize content for the specific display device being used.
Data Source
AI summary
Roughly described, a system and method for delivering video content to a user's client device in a video-on-demand (VOD) system, which includes providing a collection of video segments, the segments having a predefined default sequence; establishing a streaming video session according to a session-oriented protocol; transmitting toward the client device a script executable by the client device, the script operable to transmit navigational codes toward the head-end equipment in response to and indicating user selection among navigational choices; beginning transmission of the video segments in the collection toward the client device in accordance with the default sequence of segments; and in response to receipt of one of the navigational codes, and without tearing down the streaming video session, altering the transmission sequence to jump to the segment that the user selected.