Apple Inc.

Simon Goldrei

Roger N Pantos

David P Saracino

Johannes P Schmidt

Kevin Shen

Thomas M Alsina

James David Batson

Gregory R Chapman

Steven E Saunders

Nicholas James Paulson

Arvind S Shenoy

Szu-Wen Huang

Christopher L Oklota

Ronald Dennis Lue-Sang

Zhenheng Li

John Matienzo

Nimrod Gat

Control techniques are disclosed for devices that are members of ad hoc rendering networks. A first network device may receive a data record representing state of the network. The data record may contain data identifying device(s) that are members of the network, any grouping(s) of the device(s) defined for the network, and a play state of the device(s). When the first network device receives the data record, it may store the data record locally at the first player device. The first player device may determine whether the data record possesses a command altering a play state of a device. If so and if the command is addressed to the first player device, the first player device may execute the command at the first player device. The data record may be relayed among all devices in the ad hoc rendering network, and each device may perform this same process. In this manner, state updates propagate to all devices that are members of the rendering network, and all such devices store state data of all other devices.

Management of devices in ad hoc rendering networks

Techniques are disclosed for measuring propagation delay of a media distribution system based on content output by rendering devices. An output from an output device of the media distribution system may be captured and a token may be detected from the captured content. A timecode may be derived from the detected token. The system's propagation delay may be determined from the derived timecode and may provide a basis to analyze system delays and other processing artifacts. In this manner, propagation artifacts may be estimated between multiple rendering devices that lack controls to synchronize their operation.

Use of rendered media to assess delays in media distribution systems

Users can share a content stream and can create and/or edit playlists that include content items of the content stream. Each user device, or a subset of the user devices, can edit the playback commands of the content stream once it is being shared. Playback of the content items is synchronized between the sharing devices. If one device is associated with a content restriction, an alternate version may be provided to that device. The two versions can still be played synchronously with one another.

Synchronized playback of alternate content version

Videos may be loaded to an electronic device at any of a plurality of bitrates, each bitrate corresponding to a certain video quality level. The bitrate selected may be based on, for example, bandwidth capabilities and/or video quality standards. However, bandwidth capabilities may be taxed or exceeded if multiple videos are loaded simultaneously to the electronic device. Examples of the disclosure can be used to manage bandwidth, adjust bitrates, and/or selectively load video and audio in accordance with bandwidth capabilities to provide uninterrupted video playback at a relatively high quality. Further, video players may be allocated in memory and re-used as a user scrolls and switches through a number of videos playing onscreen concurrently.

Management of the channel bar

A method of switching media output includes receiving a first variant of a media item with a player, transmitting the first variant to a secondary device, and upon determining a change in operating conditions, switching from the first variant of the media item to a second variant of the media item by estimating a time to perform the switch to the second variant, transmitting to the secondary device a notification of a time to switch from the first variant to the second variant, and transmitting the second variant to the secondary device.

Distributed and synchronized media switching

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Simon Goldrei