Methods of converting an open group of pictures (GOP) to a Closed GOP are described that remove backward references to the GOP prior to the GOP undergoing conversion in an Open GOP interframe-encoded video stream. Within the GOP undergoing conversion, bipredictive frames with backward references to the prior GOP are replaced with frames referring only to the I frame of the GOP undergoing conversion, which is flagged as an IDR frame. Consolidation and assembly of video clips that are encoded using Open GOP compression schemes generally result in broken interframe references between GOPs. To address this, existing methods involve significant decoding and re-encoding of edited video sequences. The described methods serve to break the backward chain of references in the encoded stream, resulting in reduced re-encoding requirements, with attendant reduced quality degradation of the edited sequence.

A system includes an interface unit to receive a request, from a media client, to obtain a segment of media content at an ABR representation, and a transcoding unit. The transcoding unit includes a scalable decoder, hint stream decoder, and re-encoder. The scalable decoder receives and decodes a set of two or more layers of a scalable coded representation corresponding to the requested segment of media content at the requested ABR representation to provide a set of media frames and scalable stream information for the segment. The hint stream decoder receives and decodes a hint stream corresponding to the requested segment of media content at the requested ABR representation and the scalable stream information to provide transcoding hints for the segment. The re-encoder re-encodes the set of media frames using the transcoding hints to provide an encoded bit stream corresponding to the requested segment of media content.

A system and a method for simultaneous transmission of multiple media streams in a fixed bandwidth network are disclosed herein. The system is comprised of a central gateway media server and a plurality of client receiver units. The input media streams arrive from an external source and are then transmitted to the client receiver units in a compressed format. A state machine on the gateway media server detects if the network bandwidth is close to saturation. In one embodiment, the potential bandwidth saturation is measured by matching the time when the start of unit of media for each stream against the estimated transmission time for that unit. When any one actual transmission time exceeds its estimated transmission time by a predetermined threshold value, the network is deemed to be close to saturation, or already saturated, and the state machine executes a process of selecting at least one stream as a target for lowering total bandwidth usage. Once the target stream associated with a client receiver unit is chosen, the amount of data transmitted by the target stream is reduced, which could result in a lower data transmission rate. In one embodiment, the amount of data is reduced by a gradual degradation of the precision of the data, resulting in a greater potential for data compression, and/or by gradually reducing the resolution of the data of the target stream.

A system and a method for simultaneous transmission of multiple media streams in a fixed bandwidth network are disclosed herein. The system is comprised of a central gateway media server and a plurality of client receiver units. The input media streams arrive from an external source and are then transmitted to the client receiver units in a compressed format. A state machine on the gateway media server detects if the network bandwidth is close to saturation. In one embodiment, the potential bandwidth saturation is measured by matching the time when the start of unit of media for each stream against the estimated transmission time for that unit. When any one actual transmission time exceeds its estimated transmission time by a predetermined threshold value, the network is deemed to be close to saturation, or already saturated, and the state machine executes a process of selecting at least one stream as a target for lowering total bandwidth usage. Once the target stream associated with a client receiver unit is chosen, the amount of data transmitted by the target stream is reduced, which could result in a lower data transmission rate. In one embodiment, the amount of data is reduced by a gradual degradation of the precision of the data, resulting in a greater potential for data compression, and/or by gradually reducing the resolution of the data of the target stream.

A method of processing a video transport stream includes receiving a video transport stream and identifying at least one portion of the video transport stream that is not to undergo modification when processed by a rate shaping device. An indicator is inserted into the video transport stream. The indicator is used to signal the statistical multiplexer that the at least one portion of the video transport stream is not to be modified when the video transport stream is processed by the rate shaping device.

A method of processing a video transport stream includes receiving a video transport stream and identifying at least one portion of the video transport stream that is not to undergo modification when processed by a rate shaping device. An indicator is inserted into the video transport stream. The indicator is used to signal the statistical multiplexer that the at least one portion of the video transport stream is not to be modified when the video transport stream is processed by the rate shaping device.

A method, apparatus and non-transitory computer medium are provided for obtaining a required frame size for a first compressed data frame to be generated by compressing at least a first data frame of a media file, the first compressed data frame for use by a user equipment in a communications network. The method comprises, responsive to receiving a request for the media file from the user equipment, retrieving at least metadata of the media file. The required frame size for the first compressed data frame is determined based on a size of the at least a first data frame as indicated by the metadata, a compression parameter indicative of a requested compression factor for the at least a first data frame and a biasing factor that acts to reduce the effect of the requested compression factor.

A transcoding service is described that is capable of transcoding or otherwise processing content, such as video, audio or multimedia content, by utilizing one or more pipelines. A pipeline can enable a user to submit transcoding jobs (or other processing jobs) into an available pipeline, where a transcoding service (or other such service) assigns one or more computing resources to process the jobs received to each pipeline. The transcoding service and the pipelines can be provided by at least one service provider (e.g., a cloud computing provider) or other such entity to a plurality of customers. A service provider can also provide the computing resources (e.g., servers, virtual machines, etc.) used to process the transcoding jobs from the pipelines.

The disclosure is related to adaptive transcoding of video streams from a camera. A camera system includes a camera and a base station connected to each other in a first communication network, which can be a wireless network. When a user requests to view a video from the camera, the base station obtains a video stream from the camera, transcodes the video stream, based on one or more input parameters, to generate a transcoded video stream, and transmits the transcoded video stream to a user device. The base station can transcode the video stream locally, e.g., within the base station, or in a cloud network based on transcoding location factors. Further, the camera system can also determine whether to stream the video to the user directly from the base station or from the cloud network based on streaming location factors.

The disclosure is related to adaptive transcoding of video streams from a camera. A camera system includes a camera and a base station connected to each other in a first communication network, which can be a wireless network. When a user requests to view a video from the camera, the base station obtains a video stream from the camera, transcodes the video stream, based on one or more input parameters, to generate a transcoded video stream, and transmits the transcoded video stream to a user device. The base station can transcode the video stream locally, e.g., within the base station, or in a cloud network based on transcoding location factors. Further, the camera system can also determine whether to stream the video to the user directly from the base station or from the cloud network based on streaming location factors.