The present invention relates to controlling how digital assets are to be presented in a playback device.
Digital media assets are stored in a variety of forms for example on DVD, CD, memory cards, memory sticks, etc. In many instances these digital assets are designed to be presented in a particular designated presentation. Metadata is increasingly used for controlling how digital assets are presented in a playback device. For example, metadata is used in Music Photo Video (MPV) which uses XML-based descriptors to describe how various digital assets such as digital images, audio files, and video files are to be collectively presented to a user in the form of a slide show. The use of manifests to describe presentations has a shortcoming in that a consistent playback experience cannot be guaranteed, particularly if any one of the digital assets of the presentation is remote from the storage device.
In manifests used in MPV technology, the location of the digital assets to be presented is described by what is known as the Last URL XML element. The last known location can be a local file name or a remote URL. Zero or more <mpv:LastURL> elements may be specified for a particular digital asset allowing for multiple methods to locate a particular digital asset. The recommended use of all Last URL elements is to select them through the proper file system by the <mpv:filesystem> attribute. Normally, the same <mpv:filesystem> attribute is used only once.
An additional problem occurs when the Last URL is used for preparing the presentation because the Last URL is based on any URI type. (Uniform Resource Identifiers). The Last URL may reference a digital asset on the same store as the location of the manifest itself, or the digital asset may be on a different store, or the digital asset may be located by network access. Consequently, the time needed to access or retrieve the asset varies considerably. This results in potential variation in the playback experience when multiple digital assets are provided, particularly when located remotely.
While attempts have been made to avoid the above problems by providing a “show rendition” of the entire slide show, this prior art approach generally involves transcoding, which requires time and resources by the originating system and consumes space on the store.
The present invention is directed to an efficient way of solving the foregoing problems of the prior art by providing a method, system, and digital storage media in a format that provides a seamless uninterrupted presentation to the user.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for playing a digital media presentation present on a storage media on a playback device, the storage media having a descriptor file that describes a digital media presentation, the descriptor file having an asset location table which includes information regarding at least one remote digital media file that is to be played in the presentation, the information is used by the playback device so that the at least one remote digital asset can be located and properly sequenced in the presentation, comprising the steps of:
the playback device reading the descriptor file so as to obtain the information associated with the at least one remote digital asset;
retrieving the at least one remote digital asset using the information; and
coordinating the playing of the at least one remote digital asset with the digital media presentation using the information.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for creating a digital playback media having a digital media presentation to be played on a playback device, comprising the steps of:
defining a digital presentation having at least one remote digital asset; and
writing a descriptor file on a digital play back media that defines a digital presentation, the descriptor file containing an asset locatable table providing information with respect to at least one remotely located digital media to be played in the digital presentation, the information is used by the playback device so that the at least one remote digital asset can be located and properly sequenced in the presentation.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer software program such that when programmed in a computer of a playback device for playing a digital media presentation provided on a storage media allows the playback device to perform the steps of:
reading a descriptor file on the storage media that describes a digital media presentation, the descriptor file having an asset location table which includes information regarding at least one remote digital media file that is to be played in the presentation;
retrieving the at least one remote digital asset using the information; and
coordinating the sequential playing of the at least one remote digital asset in the digital media presentation using the information.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer software program such that when programmed in a computer of a device for creating a digital media presentation provided on a storage media allows the device to perform the steps of:
defining a digital presentation having at least one remote digital asset; and
writing a descriptor file on the storage media that describes the digital media presentation, the descriptor file having an asset location table which includes information regarding the at least one remote digital media file that is to be played in the presentation.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided a digital media storage device having a digital media presentation digitally recorded thereon, the digital media presentation comprising:
a descriptor file that describes the digital media presentation, the descriptor file having an asset location table which includes information regarding at least one remote digital media file that is to be played in the presentation, the information is used by a playback device so that the at least one remote digital asset can be located and properly sequenced in the presentation.
In accordance with yet still another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system for creating and/or playing a digital presentation providing a digital storage media comprising:
a creating device for creating a digital media presentation provided on a storage media, the creating device having a digital presentation generating unit for the media presentation having at least one remote digital asset and a descriptor file on the storage media that describes the digital media presentation, the descriptor file having an asset location table which includes information regarding the at least one remote digital media file that is to be played in the presentation;
a playback device for reading the descriptor file on the storage media for retrieving the at least one remote digital asset using the information, and for coordinating the sequential playing of the at least one remote digital asset in the digital media presentation using the information.
These and other aspects, objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims and by reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention presented below, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which:
a, 3b & 3c illustrate various forms of an album play manifest file provided on a media made in accordance with the present invention; and
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
The ALT 36 is a distinct structure, which could also be XML encoded. The primary purpose of the ALT 36 is to identify those digital assets that are not local to the playback device so that they can be queued before they are needed to prevent unplanned pauses in the playback presentation. In the present invention, the ALT 36 is an embedded structure in an album play list manifest 30. Each remote digital asset that is listed in the ALT 30 will have, in addition to its last URL, information regarding the remote asset size in bytes (not pixels), and the time offset in the designated presentation.
The ALT in the present invention is provided at the beginning of the album play list manifest 30 that enables more efficient processing of the digital assets. If, as in the prior art, the information for each remote asset is bound to the reference of the remote list in the album playlist manifest, then the queuing of remote assets would not be efficient because it's not guaranteed that a given playback device will scan the entire data set described by the manifest at once. By providing the ALT 30 at the beginning of the album playlist manifest 30, it assures that the identification of all the digital assets to be provided as a part of the presentation is identified first.
A feature of the asset location table 36 is that it contains time-based information that indicates the start time for each asset to be presented by an offset from the start time of the album presentation. This is in addition to the prior art, for example, in MPV presentations a presentation profile addresses the duration that each asset may be displayed. Audio and video assets with MPV real time is assumed. MPV asynchronously fetches assets to be displayed and the playback device coordinates their presentation. Sequential playback is implied in an MPV presentation, whereas in the present invention, time-based information enables the playback device to efficiently manage the queuing of remote assets in the appropriate time for presentation. The playback device 12 may also take into consideration whether the access to the remote digital asset is over broadband communication network or a slower communication network.
In the embodiment illustrated in
Referring to
Thus it can be seen that in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a method and system for efficiently presenting a presentation of digital assets on a digital media storage device 10 which includes at least one digital remote asset in a manner that provides a seamless presentation to the user of the playback device.
It is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The present invention being limited by the following claims: