Variable Bitrate Frame Seeking via Cumulative Byte Offset Lookup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for seeking a target frame in multimedia content with variable bitrates are inefficient, leading to slow seek times, high memory usage, and inaccurate results, especially when dealing with large capacity content, as they often require parsing all frames or rely on seek tables that can be inaccurate and prone to errors.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that set a candidate position for a target frame based on the average bitrate of multimedia content, progressively adjust this position to narrow the search range, and determine the target frame within a predetermined error range, eliminating the need for parsing all frames and seek tables.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If all frames are parsed to determine a predetermined position in multimedia content, then the seeking operation can be performed, but the seek time increases significantly especially when the desired point is distant from the first frame
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-calculates and stores cumulative byte offsets and average bitrate information for each frame in the multimedia content during the encoding phase. This preliminary action allows the seeking operation to directly query pre-computed data instead of parsing frames in real-time, thereby resolving the contradiction between seeking accuracy and seek time.
2Productivity
If a seek table is generated by parsing all frames before decoding, then the overhead during decoding is reduced, but a large amount of initial playback delay occurs and memory usage increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential seeking information (cumulative byte offsets and average bitrate) during encoding and stores it in a compact format within the file metadata. This extraction approach provides sufficient data for accurate seeking without requiring the complete seek table generation during decoding, thereby reducing initial playback delay and memory usage while maintaining decoding efficiency.
3Productivity
If the bitrate of frames is variable to provide maximum compression rate and high quality, then the encoding efficiency is improved, but the seeking operation becomes inefficient as all frames need to be parsed to determine position
Solution Approach 1:
The patent computes and stores cumulative byte offsets and average bitrate information for each frame during the encoding phase. This preliminary computation creates a lookup structure that enables efficient seeking in variable bitrate content without requiring real-time frame parsing, thereby resolving the contradiction between encoding efficiency and seek time.
4Ease of operation
If a seek table is inserted into the file format during encoding to remove decoding overhead, then the decoding process is simplified, but the compression rate of the encoder deteriorates and the seek table may be deleted or damaged during storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the critical seeking parameters (cumulative byte offsets and average bitrate) and stores them in a compact metadata structure during encoding. This minimal extraction maintains high compression rates while providing sufficient information for accurate seeking, and the data is stored as essential metadata that is less prone to deletion or corruption.
Data Source
AI summary
A multimedia content frame seeking method and apparatus is provided. The multimedia content frame seeking method may include setting a candidate position for a target frame, the target frame corresponding to a target time, according to an average bitrate of an average bitrate calculation section that is set with respect to frames in the multimedia content, adjusting the candidate position by progressively decreasing a size of the average bitrate calculation section based on the candidate position, and determining the target frame to be a frame having a start time that differs from the target time by a difference within a predetermined allowable range of error, wherein the target frame is determined from among frames of which starting points are closest to candidate positions.