| US 7,603,689 B2 | ||
| Fast start-up for digital video streams | ||
| James Armand Baldwin, Redwood City, Calif. (US); Dustin L. Green, Mountain View, Calif. (US); and John H. Grossman, IV, Fremont, Calif. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash. (US) | ||
| Filed on Jun. 13, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/460,949. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2004/0255328 A1, Dec. 16, 2004 | ||
| Int. Cl. H04N 7/173 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 725—101 [725/86; 725/87; 725/93] | 25 Claims |
| 1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions encoded thereon that, when executed by a computer, perform
a method comprising:
selecting a lead-in video stream transmission, wherein the selected lead-in video-stream transmission corresponds to a unique
portion of a group-of-pictures (GOP) of a main video stream and has the same content as the unique portion of the GOP encoded
at a first bit-rate, the selected lead-in video-stream transmission is encoded using a second lower bit-rate than that used
by the first bit rate, wherein the second bit-rate represents a lower number of bits per frame than a number of bits per frame
represented by the first bit-rate, and is scheduled for transmission during the scheduled transmission of one group-of-pictures
(GOP) of the main video-stream transmission, wherein a GOP has only one access point, wherein the second bit-rate is determined
by a function based at least in part on a request time and a next access point transmission time, the request time corresponding
to a request to receive the main video-stream transmission, the next access point transmission time corresponding to transmission
of a next access point in the main video-stream following the request time, wherein if a first difference between a first
request time and the next access point transmission time is less than a second difference between a second request time and
the next access point transmission time, a first calculated bit-rate associated with the first difference is smaller than
a second calculated bit-rate associated with the second difference;
receiving the selected lead-in video-stream transmission;
presenting the selected lead-in video stream transmission;
switching reception from the selected lead-in to the main video-stream transmission;
switching presentation from the selected lead-in video-stream transmission to the main video-stream transmission.
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