Twitch Interactive, Inc.

Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Yuechuan Li

Abhinav Kapoor

Yueshi Shen

Eran Ambar

Jorge Arturo Villatoro

Spencer Nelson

Cyrus Hall

Andrew Francis

Martin Hess

Shawn Hsu

Chih-Chiang Lu

Jyotindra Vasudeo

Jeffrey Garneau

Yongjun Wu

Shyam Sadhwani

Matthew Richard Wozniak

Bakkama Srinath Reddy

Matthew Louis Szatmary

Nikhil Purushe

Victor Cherepanov

Graham Keefe Tremper

Techniques for low latency streaming, for example in a broadcasting environment, are described herein. In some examples, a playlist may include both currently encoded segments, which are segments that are fully encoded at or before playlist generation, and also future encoded segments, which are segments that have not yet been fully encoded at playlist generation. In some cases, the inclusion of future encoded segments in a playlist may result in a player requesting a segment that has not yet been fully encoded at the time that the request is received by the server. In some examples, even though the segment is not yet fully encoded, the server may nevertheless save and process the request, for example by transmitting encoded portions of the requested segment as those portions are made available by the encoder.

Streaming playlist including future encoded segments

Techniques for low latency streaming, for example in a broadcasting environment, are described herein. In some examples, one or more individual renditions may be encoded into multiple rendition versions associated with different respective latencies. Also, in some examples, one or more individual renditions may be encoded into multiple rendition versions having different respective amounts of forward error correction (FEC), for example by an edge node of a video streaming service. Also, in some examples, video may be broadcast using a protocol that does not require retransmission of lost packets, such as Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC), which is commonly used for point-to-point transmissions. Also, in some examples, one or more servers may receive quality of service feedback information from each player to which video content is transmitted. The one or more servers may use this feedback information to select and switch between appropriate renditions and rendition versions for each player.

Server-based encoded version selection

Requesting transmission of future encoded segments

Intra-rendition latency variation

Techniques for estimation of bandwidth for transfer of video content in chunked transfer mode are described herein. A number of chunk samples may be collected during video content transmission. For each chunk sample, its respective delivery speed may be compared to its respective encoding bitrate. If the delivery speed is greater than or equal to the encoding bitrate, then the chunk sample may be included in a primary set of chunk samples. The primary set of chunk samples may be clustered into a lower speed cluster and a higher speed cluster. A representative speed, such as an average or weighted average speed, of the delivery speeds of the chunk samples in the lower speed cluster may be determined, and the bandwidth may be estimated based on the representative speed.

Chunked transfer mode bandwidth estimation

Forward error correction for low latency streaming

Aspects extend to methods, systems, and computer program products for transforming video bit streams for parallel decoding. Aspects of the invention can be used to break segment coding structure limitations in video bit streams. Aspects can be used to maximize parallelization of video decoding tasks, including motion compensation processing, to more efficiently utilize multi-core and multi-processor computer systems. Multiple portions of intra-segment data can be processed in parallel to speed up single frame processing. Video communication latency and memory requirements are also reduced.

Transforming video bit streams for parallel processing

To decode encoded video using a computer with a central processing unit and a graphics processing unit as a coprocessor, parameters applied to blocks of intermediate image data are transferred from the central processing unit to the graphics processing unit. When the operation being performed applies to a small portion of the blocks of intermediate image data, then the central processing unit can transfer to the graphics processing unit the parameters for only those blocks to which the operation applies. In particular, the central processing unit can transfer a set of parameters for a limited number of blocks of intermediate image data, with an indication of the block to which each set of parameters applies, which both can improve speed of operation and can reduce power consumption.

Processing parameters for operations on blocks while decoding images

Growing community of inventors

Issaquah, WA, United States of America

Yuechuan Li