A system, apparatuses and methods are provided to download and process data and other content streamed over a wide area network using one or more dynamically fetched, material specific, data handlers (e.g., download assistants). A download assistant fetches a data stream from a remote location and processes the streamed data iteratively using buffers and multi-threaded processes through the decoder (e.g., codec), allowing source material-specific processing of the data as it is streamed from one or more download sources as well as content-indifferent and platform-indifferent decoding. To minimize versioning issues, payload construction for secure delivery is simplified to packing and encrypting a directory tree containing any number of files or other digital media into an archive and, when needed, dividing a payload into multiple files or archives with a descriptor that lists the archives.

An artificial intelligence (AI) decoding apparatus includes a memory storing one or more instructions, and a processor configured to execute the stored one or more instructions, to obtain image data corresponding to a first image that is encoded, obtain a second image corresponding to the first image by decoding the obtained image data, determine whether to perform AI up-scaling of the obtained second image, based on the AI up-scaling of the obtained second image being determined to be performed, obtain a third image by performing the AI up-scaling of the obtained second image through an up-scaling deep neural network (DNN), and output the obtained third image, and based on the AI up-scaling of the obtained second image being determined to be not performed, output the obtained second image.

The present invention provides a media player configurable to provide the user with a seamless way of conducting transactions from within a window of the media player itself. All intermediate steps relating to the required transaction are carried out by calling up relevant modules/applications from within the application libraries from within an e-commerce platform. In preferred embodiments, the media player is configured to retrieve an encoded media file from a server or other content delivery network (CDN). The media player is further configured to display predefined overlays to the user during playback of the media file in response to identifying cues encoded into the media file by the content owner. The content owner can upload the media files to a server or other CDN via a dashboard/user interface. The cues can be encoded with a plurality of fields to enable the desired functionality to be achieved.

Example methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for media metering are disclosed. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes at least one memory, instructions in the apparatus, and at least one processor installed in a media presentation device to execute the instructions to at least: cause a video decoder to generate video display rasterizing information, present the video display rasterizing information via an output device of the media presentation device, and in response to monitoring being enabled, generate metering information corresponding to media presented in association with the video display rasterizing information presented via the output device.

A system is provided for dynamic random access rendering of media content. The system includes a rendering tool that loads a recipe having a reference to input essence and an instruction that collectively generates an output essence using the at least one input essence. The system further includes a render engine that execute the instruction and includes a file format parser configured to load the input essence from a file of media content. The render engine also includes plugin having a web server embedded therein that is communicatively coupled with a TCP port for receiving a request from a client device for the output essence. The render engine generates the output essence from the input essence in accordance with the instruction in the recipe and transmits the generated output essence to the client device for display thereon.

Techniques for transforming a fragment media player into an access unit media player are described. As one example, a computer-implemented method includes receiving a play request for access units of media from a front end media player by a rendering engine, receiving the access units of media from the front end media player by a sample stream component of a fragment media player; storing the access units of media in a sample queue of the sample stream component, storing respective metadata for the access units in a metadata queue of the sample stream component, sending pulling the access units and the respective metadata by a renderer of the fragment media player based on the play request, and rendering the access units and the respective metadata with the renderer of the fragment media player to generate rendered media.

A terminal for receiving streaming data may receive information of a plurality of different quality versions of an image content; request, based on the information, a server for a version of the image content from among the plurality of different quality versions of the image content; when the requested version of the image content and artificial intelligence (AI) data corresponding to the requested version of the image content are received, determines whether to perform AI upscaling on the received version of the image content, based on the AI data; and based on a result of the determining whether to perform AI upscaling, performs AI upscaling on the received version of the image content through a upscaling deep neural network (DNN) that is trained jointly with a downscaling DNN of the server.

Methods and systems for selective archival of data include, in some aspects, determining, via an electronic processing circuit, a plurality of accessors for a data format, displaying indicators for at least a portion of the plurality of accessors on an electronic display, receiving input defining a selection of a subset of the plurality of accessors from an input device; and outputting the selected subset of accessors with data encoded in the data format to an archive.

A method of playing out media from a media engine run on a receiving apparatus, the method comprising: at the receiving apparatus, receiving a media data structure comprising audio or video content formatted in a plurality of layers, including at least a first layer comprising the audio or video content encoded according to an audio or video encoding scheme respectively, and a second layer encapsulating the encoded content in one or more media containers according to a media container format; determining that at least one of the media containers further encapsulates runnable code for processing at least some of the formatting of the media data structure in order to support playout of the audio or video content by the media engine; running the code on a code engine of the receiving apparatus in order to perform the processing of the media data structure for input to the media engine.

A server computing device receives, from a client device, a digest segment generated by the client device. The digest segment corresponds to a first media stream segment received by the client device, and the digest segment includes a representation of the first media stream segment. The server computing devices determines, using the digest segment, a playback command that corresponds to the first media stream segment and transmits, to the client device, the playback command.