Content providing apparatus and content providing method

Content providing apparatus and content providing method

The present invention relates to a content providing apparatus and a content providing method, and can be applied to, for example, distributing music and images via the Internet. According to the present invention, one stream content is divided into a plurality of parts by time series, and the first part is decoded by stream distribution, and the remaining parts are decoded at the receiving end when the decoding of the immediately preceding part is finished. By transmitting by buffering distribution in a startable manner, the stream content can be distributed with high reliability, and the waiting time can be significantly shortened compared to the prior art.

Conventionally, in the distribution of information (hereinafter, referred to as stream contents) whose contents change with time, such as music and movies, a method of receiving and providing stream contents data (hereinafter referred to as stream distribution), and stream contents A method of providing data to a user after buffering once (hereinafter, referred to as buffering distribution) is employed.

That is, in the stream distribution, as shown in Fig. 1, the transmitting side transmits the stream contents to the client at a transmission rate substantially equal to the reproduction rate (Fig. 1A), and the receiving side decodes the stream contents. The received stream content is buffered (FIG. 1B) and decoded sequentially (hereinafter, in response to stream distribution, this processing on the receiving side is referred to as stream reception) only when a sufficient amount of data is necessary for this method. It is delayed by a minute by a minute delay due to the delay time required for data transmission and the delay time required for decoding, so that the stream contents transmitted from the transmission destination can be reproduced (Fig. 1c), and the reception of the stream contents is started. After that, the waiting time until the actual playback can be shortened, whereby the stream content can be provided comfortably.

On the other hand, in the buffering distribution, as shown in Fig. 2, the transmitting side transmits the stream content at a rate independent of the reproduction rate (Fig. 2A). The receiver receives and buffers all the stream contents (FIG. 2B), then decodes the buffered stream contents and provides them to the user (FIG. 2C) (hereinafter, corresponding to buffering distribution, processing on the receiving side) (referred to as buffered reception) In this method, there is a drawback in that a relatively long time is required between starting the reception of the stream content and then actually playing it back. However, in the case of this method, by receiving and buffering all stream contents in advance before playback, recovery techniques for transmission errors such as error correction processing and retransmission request processing in TCP/IP can be applied, so that , can distribute stream content with high reliability.

In this buffering distribution, one stream content is decomposed into a plurality of parts, and these parts are sequentially transmitted, so that the waiting time from starting the reception of the stream content to actual reproduction is shortened.

That is, in the case of this method, as shown in Fig. 3, the transmitting side divides one stream content into, for example, four parts AD in time series, and sequentially transmits these parts AD. ( Fig. 3A) On the other hand, the receiving side sequentially receives and buffers these parts AD, and when the reception of one part is completed, reproduction of this part is started. In this way, on the receiving side, after buffering the first part A, the part that has been received is decoded while buffering one part, thereby shortening the waiting time. (Fig. 3(b and c))

As described above, in buffering distribution, there is an advantage in that stream content can be distributed with high reliability, but there is a problem in that a waiting time occurs. As a result, on the user's side, after requesting the stream content, the content cannot be viewed during this waiting time. In this regard, as described with reference to FIG. 3 , even when one stream content is divided into a plurality of parts and distributed, there is a waiting time until the reception of the first part is completed.

Since the present invention has been accomplished in consideration of the above points, an object of the present invention is to propose a content providing apparatus and content providing method capable of distributing stream content with high reliability and remarkably shortening the waiting time compared to the prior art.

In order to solve such a problem, in the present invention, in a plurality of parts formed by applying a content providing apparatus that transmits predetermined stream content to a client, and dividing one stream content in time series, the first part is: It is transmitted by stream distribution, and the remaining parts are transmitted by buffering distribution so that decoding can be started when the receiving side complete|finishes decoding of the immediately preceding part.

In the stream distribution, while the waiting time is extremely short, there is a defect in reliability. In the buffering distribution, while the waiting time is long, there is an advantage of excellent reliability. Accordingly, according to the configuration of the present invention, the first part is transmitted by stream distribution, and the remaining parts are transmitted by buffering distribution so that decoding can be started when the reception side finishes decoding of the immediately preceding part. , while reproducing the first part with an extremely short waiting time, the buffering of the following parts can be completed, and the parts after these first parts can be reproduced without being cut. Thereby, it is possible to provide stream content with high reliability with a short waiting time.

Further, in the present invention, a content providing apparatus that receives stream content transmitted from a predetermined server and provides it to a user is applied, wherein the stream content is divided into a plurality of parts by time series and transmitted by the server, and the content is transmitted by the server. The providing apparatus receives the first part by stream reception, provides it to the user, and buffers and receives the remaining parts so that decoding is possible when the decoding of the immediately preceding part is completed.

As a result, according to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to provide stream contents with high reliability by processing on the receiving side with a short waiting time.

Further, in the present invention, the present invention is applied to a content providing method for transmitting predetermined stream content to a client, and for a plurality of parts formed by dividing one stream content by time series, the first part is transmitted by stream distribution, , the remaining parts are transmitted by buffering distribution so that decoding can be started when the decoding of the immediately preceding part is finished on the receiving side.

According to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to provide a content providing method capable of distributing stream content with high reliability and remarkably shortening the waiting time compared to the prior art.

Further, in the present invention, in a content providing method for receiving stream content transmitted from a predetermined server and providing it to a user, the stream content is divided into a plurality of parts by time series and transmitted from the server, and the content is provided In the method, the first part is received by stream reception and provided to the user, and the remaining parts are buffered and received so that decoding is possible when the decoding of the immediately preceding part is completed.

According to the configuration of the present invention, it is possible to provide a content providing method capable of distributing stream content with high reliability and remarkably shortening the waiting time compared to the prior art.

1 is a characteristic curve diagram provided for explanation of the conventional stream distribution.

2 is a characteristic curve diagram provided for explanation of the conventional buffering distribution.

3 is a characteristic curve diagram provided for explanation of buffering distribution in which stream content is divided into a plurality of parts.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing a distribution system according to an embodiment of the present description.

Fig. 5 is a characteristic curve diagram provided for explanation of distribution of stream content in Fig. 4;

[Explanation of code]

One. Distribution system 2. Client

3. service server 4. content server

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the enemy drawings.

(1) Configuration of the embodiment

Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing a distribution system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this distribution system 1, the client 2 is a computer connected by a network such as the Internet, and is a content receiving device. The service server 3 functions as an Http server, and performs, for example, introduction of content that can be provided by access from the client 2 . The content server 4 provides stream content by access by the client 2 of the same type.

Here, the content server 4 divides one stream content related to distribution into a plurality of parts in a time series direction, distributes the first part by stream distribution, and for the remaining parts, on the receiving side, At the time when reproduction is completed, as if reproduction is possible, that is, at the time when decoding of the immediately preceding part on the receiving side is completed, as buffering has been completed, transmission is performed by buffering distribution.

That is, in this Example, as shown in FIG. 5, one stream content is divided|segmented into four parts AD by time series, and is arrange|positioned. Here, this part AD is formed so that it may become a relationship in a clockwise direction sequentially, and a reproduction time may become double. The content server 4 transmits the head part A among these parts AD by stream distribution. Moreover, about the part BD after the part B following from this head part A, it transmits sequentially by buffering distribution. Moreover, when transmitting the first part A, the following part B is transmitted simultaneously and parallel (FIG. 5A).

As a result, in this embodiment, the receiving side receives and decodes the first part (A) while receiving and buffering the subsequent part (B), and when the reproduction of the part (A) is completed, the following Part (B) can be played back. In this way, while the part B is reproduced, the subsequent part C is received and buffered, and when the reproduction of the part B is completed, the successive part C can be reproduced. These processes can be executed on the receiving side, and the content server 4 reproduces the continuous parts AD without being cut off on the reproduction side, so that the waiting time after requesting can be significantly shortened. In this way, when the client 2 requests distribution of the stream content from the content server 4 through a menu obtained by accessing the service server 3, the first and second transmitted Simultaneously and parallelly receiving the parts A and B, the first part (A) is decoded and provided to the user, and the second part (B) is buffered. When the decoding of the first part (A) is completed, the decoding of the second part (B) is started, and at the same time, the sequentially distributed third part (C) is received and buffered. When the decoding of the second part (B) is completed, the decoding of the third part is started, and the reception and buffering of the fourth part is started. When the decoding of the third part (C) is completed, the fourth part Decoding of part (D) is started.

(2) operation of the embodiment

In the above configuration, in this distribution system 1, by accessing the service server 3 by the client 2, a list of contents to be provided for distribution, etc. are provided to the client 2 and added to the list. Stream content is provided from the content server 4 by other access.

In the provision of this content, the content server 4 divides one stream content by time series and, among the four parts AD, which are formed, the first part A and the subsequent part B are divided into stream distribution and It is provided by a buffering distribution, and for the following parts (C and D), it is provided by a buffering distribution. Moreover, when the decoding of the immediately preceding part is complete|finished on the receiving side, the decoding of the following parts can be reproduced|reproduced, and the parts BD other than these heads are distributed.

Thereby, on the receiving side, stream reception can be carried out about the head part A, and stream content can be provided to a user with extremely short time. Further, while providing the user with the first part (A) in this way, the subsequent part (B) is buffered and received, that is, at the time when this part (B) is received and buffered, and decoding of the part (A) is completed. , it is possible to start the decoding of the part B, and provide the user with successive parts A and B without cutting in the middle.

In this way, while providing the user with the part B, the following part C is received and buffered, and when the decoding of the part B is completed, the decoding of the part C is started. Further, while providing this part (C) to the user, the following part (D) is received and buffered, and when decoding of the part (C) is finished, decoding of the part (D) is started. Thereby, in this embodiment, a short waiting time can be ensured and continuous parts AD can be provided to a user without being cut. At this time, in the parts BD other than the head, by buffering distribution, recovery processing at the time of a transmission error can be performed as needed, and high reliability can be ensured.

(3) Effects of Examples

According to the above configuration, one stream content is divided into a plurality of parts in time series, the first part is stream distribution, and the remaining parts are at the receiving end when the decoding of the immediately preceding part is finished. , by transmitting the decode by buffering distribution so that the start is possible, the stream content can be distributed with high reliability, and the waiting time can be significantly shortened compared to the prior art.

(4) Second embodiment

In this embodiment, the first part A according to the first embodiment described above is distributed by unicast, and the remaining parts BD are distributed by multicast.

Here, unicast is a process of distributing one stream content exclusively to one client. On the other hand, multicast is a process of distributing one stream content to a plurality of clients in common. In the content server 4, in this multicast distribution, each of these parts (CD) is sequentially and cyclically transmitted, respectively, and in the client, these parts (CD) are sequentially selected and buffered.

Accordingly, in this embodiment, the stream distribution of the head part is performed by unicast, and the waiting time can be shortened by that amount.

In addition, by performing buffering distribution of the remaining parts by multicast, an increase in the bandwidth required for transmission is prevented.

In addition, by sequentially and cyclically transmitting each of a plurality of parts and performing distribution by this multicast, it is possible to prevent an increase in the bandwidth required for transmission even when the number of clients increases.

(5) other examples

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where one stream content is divided into four parts and distributed has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, it is divided into various parts as needed, and the above-mentioned implementation The same effect as in the example can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, the buffering distribution part has been described for sequential reception and buffering, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is sufficient that it is set to enable decoding start after completion, and in this limitation, the same effect as the above-described implementation can be obtained even if, for example, the first part and the following second and third parts are received simultaneously and in parallel. .

As described above, according to the present invention, one stream content is divided into a plurality of parts according to time series, and for the first part, by stream distribution, and for the remaining parts, the receiving side completes decoding of the immediately preceding part. By transmitting the decode by buffering distribution so as to be able to start from the start, the stream content can be distributed with high reliability, and the waiting time can be significantly shortened compared to the prior art.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be applied to a content providing apparatus and a content providing method, for example, when music and video are distributed over the Internet.