CN107547917B

CN107547917B - Channel playing and processing method and device and channel processing system

Info

Publication number: CN107547917B
Application number: CN201610479102.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈勇; 蒋元春; 朱兴昌
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2016-06-27
Filing date: 2016-06-27
Publication date: 2020-07-10
Anticipated expiration: 2036-06-27
Also published as: WO2018001213A1; CN107547917A

Abstract

The invention provides a method and a device for playing and processing a channel, a channel processing system, and the channel playing method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that a streaming media playing terminal obtains a main index file for a main channel to be played from a channel list of streaming media system side equipment, wherein the main index file carries an extension mark for marking a sub index file of a sub channel; the stream media playing terminal analyzes the main index file to obtain a sub-index file; the method comprises the steps that a streaming media playing terminal obtains a first transport stream TS corresponding to a main index file and a second transport stream TS corresponding to a sub index file from streaming media system side equipment; and the streaming media playing terminal decodes the first TS and the second TS and plays the decoded main channel and sub channel on the same display interface. The invention solves the problem of complex channel management and playing caused by maintaining the mapping relation of two channels corresponding to two generated code streams when two channels are to be played in the related technology.

Description

Channel playing and processing method and device and channel processing system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for playing and processing a channel, and a channel processing system.

Background

In The existing video service (Over The Top, abbreviated as OTT) live broadcast service based on The open internet, if a certain channel needs a pip channel, two paths of code streams need to be sent at a streaming media server side, one path of OTT live broadcast and one path of pip, and two pieces of channel information are generated in a channel management system, one OTT live broadcast channel and one pip live broadcast channel, in addition, The channel management system and a terminal system need to maintain The mapping relationship between The OTT live broadcast channel and The pip channel, when The terminal plays The OTT live broadcast channel and The pip channel, The information of The two channels need to be processed, once The OTT live broadcast channels are increased, The pip channels are correspondingly increased, and The complexity of channel management and playing is increased.

Aiming at the problem that in the prior art, when two channels are to be played, the mapping relation of the two channels corresponding to the generated two code streams is maintained, so that the channel management and the playing are complex, an effective solution does not exist at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a method and a device for playing and processing a channel, and a channel processing system, which are used for at least solving the problem that the channel management and playing are complicated because the mapping relation of two channels corresponding to two generated code streams is maintained when two channels are to be played in the related technology.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a channel playing method, including: the method comprises the steps that a streaming media playing terminal obtains a main index file for a main channel to be played from a channel list of streaming media system side equipment, wherein the main index file carries an extension mark for marking a sub index file of the sub channel; the streaming media playing terminal analyzes the main index file to obtain a sub index file; the streaming media playing terminal acquires a first transport stream TS corresponding to the main index file and a second transport stream TS corresponding to the sub index file from the streaming media system side equipment; and the streaming media playing terminal decodes the first TS and the second TS and plays the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel on the same display interface.

Further, the playing, by the streaming media playing terminal, the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel on the same display interface includes: the streaming media playing terminal plays the main channel on a current display interface; and the streaming media playing terminal plays the sub-channel on a part of the display interface of the current display interface.

Further, after the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel are played on the same display interface, the method further includes: the streaming media playing terminal receives an instruction for closing the sub-channel; and the streaming media playing terminal closes the sub-channel.

Further, the main channel is an adaptive streaming media H L S channel on the Internet, and the sub-channel is a picture-in-picture PIP channel.

Further, the main index is a main m3u8 of the H L S channel, and the sub-index is a level one m3u8 of the PIP channel.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a channel processing method, including: the method comprises the steps that the streaming media system side equipment adds an extension mark to a main index file of a main channel to be played, wherein the extension mark is used for marking a sub index file of a sub channel; and the streaming media system side equipment acquires the main index file added with the extension mark and updates the main index file into a channel list.

Further, before the streaming media system side device adds the extension mark to the main index file of the main channel to be played, the method further includes: and the streaming media system side equipment determines to play the sub-channel at the same time of playing the display interface of the main channel to be played.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a channel playing apparatus, applied to a streaming media playing terminal side, including: the device comprises a first acquisition module, a second acquisition module and a third acquisition module, wherein the first acquisition module is used for acquiring a main index file of a main channel to be played from a channel list of a streaming media system side device, and the main index file carries an extension mark for marking a sub index file of the sub channel; the analysis module is used for analyzing the main index file to obtain the sub-index file; a second obtaining module, configured to obtain, from the streaming media system-side device, a first transport stream TS corresponding to the main index file and a second transport stream TS corresponding to the sub index file; and the playing module is used for decoding the first TS and the second TS and playing the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel on the same display interface.

Further, the playing module comprises: the first playing unit is used for playing the main channel on the current display interface; and the second playing unit is used for playing the sub-channel on a part of the display interface of the current display interface.

Further, after the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel are played on the same display interface, the apparatus further includes: a receiving module, configured to receive an instruction for closing the sub-channel; and the closing module is used for closing the sub-channels.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a channel processing apparatus, applied to a device side of a streaming media system, including: the adding module is used for adding an extension mark into a main index file of a main channel to be played, wherein the extension mark is used for marking a sub index file of a sub channel; and the third acquisition module is used for acquiring the main index file added with the extension mark and updating the main index file into a channel list.

Further, the apparatus further comprises: and the determining module is used for determining that the sub-channels are played simultaneously on a display interface for playing the main channel to be played before the adding module adds the extension mark to the main index file of the main channel to be played.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a channel processing system, including: the device applied to the streaming media server side and the device applied to the streaming media playing terminal side are described above.

According to the invention, the extension mark for marking the sub-index file of the sub-channel is added in the main index file of the main channel to be played, when the main channel is played, the first TS corresponding to the main index file and the second transport stream TS corresponding to the sub-index file can be analyzed, and the decoded main channel and sub-channel are played on the same display interface, so that only one channel is needed when two channels are required to be played, and the problem of complex channel management and playing caused by maintaining the mapping relation of the two channels corresponding to the generated two code streams when two channels are required to be played in the related technology is solved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the invention without limiting the invention. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is a first flowchart of a channel playing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a flow chart ii of a channel processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a first block diagram of a channel playing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a block diagram of a second configuration of a channel processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is a block diagram of a channel processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a block diagram of a structure of a pip playing system in OTT live broadcast using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a flowchart of a channel list generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 8 is a flowchart of a playing method of an OTT live channel and pip according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the relationship of the masters, children, and pip level m3u8 within ott, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a composition of a play proxy module in an OTT environment according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a flowchart of a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a flowchart of a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 13 is a flowchart of a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a flowchart of a fourth method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The invention will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in conjunction with embodiments. It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be combined with each other without conflict.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present invention and in the drawings described above are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order.

Example 1

In this embodiment, a method for playing a channel is provided, and fig. 1 is a first flowchart of a method for playing a channel according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, the process includes the following steps:

step S102: the method comprises the steps that a streaming media playing terminal obtains a main index file for a main channel to be played from a channel list of streaming media system side equipment, wherein the main index file carries an extension mark for marking a sub index file of a sub channel;

step S104: the stream media playing terminal analyzes the main index file to obtain a sub-index file;

step S106: the method comprises the steps that a streaming media playing terminal acquires a first Transport Stream (TS) corresponding to a main index file and a second Transport Stream (TS) corresponding to a sub index file from streaming media system side equipment;

step S108: and the streaming media playing terminal decodes the first TS and the second TS and plays the decoded main channel and sub channel on the same display interface.

Through the steps S102 and S108 in this embodiment, when the main channel is played, the extended mark of the sub index file for marking the sub channel in the main index file of the main channel to be played can be used to analyze the first TS corresponding to the main index file and the second transport stream TS corresponding to the sub index file, and then play the decoded main channel and sub channel on the same display interface, so that only one channel is needed when two channels need to be played, thereby solving the problem in the related art that the channel management and playing are complicated due to the fact that the mapping relationship of two channels corresponding to the generated two channels of code streams is maintained when two channels need to be played.

Based on this, the main index involved in this embodiment is the main m3u8 of the adaptive Streaming media (Http L ive Streaming, abbreviated as H L S) channel on the internet, and the sub-index is the level m3u8 of the PIP channel.

Wherein, the M3U8 file refers to M3U file in UTF-8 encoding format. The M3U file records an index plain text file, and when it is opened, the playing software does not play it, but finds the network address of the corresponding audio/video file according to its index to play online.

It can be seen that the main channel and the sub-channel involved in the present embodiment are preferably streaming media server and video service OTT channel of open internet; based on this, in order to facilitate better understanding of the extension tag of the content in the present embodiment, in a specific application scenario of the present embodiment, the OTT live original and the host m3u8 with pip extension tag are listed by the following four extension tags:

(1) OTT live original master m3u8:

#EXTM3U

#EXT-X-VERSION:1

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝1383680

01.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝940000

02.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝548960

03.m3u8

(2) OTT live master with pip extension mark m3u8:

#EXTM3U

#EXT-X-VERSION:1

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝1383680

01.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝940000

02.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝548960

03.m3u8

##EXT-X-STREAM-INF-PIP:PROGRAM-ID＝2

#index.m3u8

(3) main m3u8 with fixed pip playing extension mark in OTT live:

#EXTM3U

#EXT-X-VERSION:1

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝1383680

01.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝940000

02.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝548960

03.m3u8

##EXT-X-STREAM-INF-PIP:PROGRAM-ID＝2

#index.m3u8

#PERSISTENT-PIP

(4) the main m3u8 with the width and height of the pip playing window and the pip extension mark playing the coordinates of the upper left corner in the OTT live broadcast:

#EXTM3U

#EXT-X-VERSION:1

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝1383680

01.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝940000

02.m3u8

#EXT-X-STREAM-INF:PROGRAM-ID＝2，BANDWIDTH＝548960

03.m3u8

##EXT-X-STREAM-INF-PIP:PROGRAM-ID＝2

#index.m3u8

#WIDTH-PIP:100

#HEIGHT-PIP:200

#COORD-PIP:100，200

as can be seen, in the embodiment, by adding the # EXT-X-STREAM-INF-PIP and the PIP extension mark of # index m3u8 to the main m3u8 of OTT live broadcast, index m3u8 is the relative path of the first-level m3u8 of PIP in the streaming media server. The pip extension flag integrates the primary m3u8 of the corresponding pip channel of hls into the main m3u8 of hls.

In addition, it should be noted that # PERSISTENT-PIP in (3) indicates the fixed playback flag of the PIP extension, # WIDTH-PIP in (4) indicates the playback WIDTH of the PIP extension, # HEIGHT-PIP indicates the playback WIDTH of the PIP extension, and # COORD-PIP indicates the coordinate position of the upper left corner of the playback of the PIP extension.

In another optional implementation manner of this embodiment, the manner in which the streaming media playing terminal plays the decoded main channel and sub channel on the same display interface as mentioned in this embodiment may include:

step S108-1: the streaming media playing terminal plays the main channel on the current display interface;

step S108-2: and the streaming media playing terminal plays the sub-channel on a part of the display interface of the current display interface.

As known from the above steps S108-1 and S108-2, the sub-channel and the main channel are played on the same display interface, and are only a part of the current display interface; in combination with the above four specific extension marks, in this embodiment, the extension mark may be fixed or not fixed, that is, the sub-channel may be fixed, or one of the extension marks may be selected for playing according to needs; in addition, based on the above-mentioned type 4 extension mark, the position where the sub-channel is played can also be set, that is, what proportion is in the current display interface, and what position appears can be set. For example, the sub-channel is preferably in the upper left corner or the upper right corner of the current display interface, which occupies 1/8 of the entire display interface.

In addition, in an optional implementation manner of this embodiment, after the decoded main channel and sub-channel are played on the same display interface, the method further includes that the streaming media playing terminal receives an instruction for closing the sub-channel, and further the streaming media playing terminal can close the sub-channel, that is, when the PIP channel and the H L S channel are played on the same display interface, the user can close the PIP channel as needed, and only the H L S channel is played.

Example 2

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a channel processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2, the method includes the steps of:

step S202: the method comprises the steps that the streaming media system side equipment adds an extension mark to a main index file of a main channel to be played, wherein the extension mark is used for marking a sub index file of a sub channel;

step S204: and the streaming media system side equipment acquires the main index file added with the extension mark and updates the main index file into a channel list.

It should be noted that the streaming media system-side device includes: an OTT Electronic Program Guide (EPG) platform, wherein step S202 is performed by a streaming media server, and step S204 is performed by an OTT EPG.

In another optional implementation manner of this embodiment, before the streaming media system-side device adds the extension mark to the main index file of the main channel to be played, the method of this embodiment further includes: and the streaming media system side equipment determines that the sub-channel is played simultaneously on a display interface for playing the main channel to be played.

Through the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that the method according to the above embodiments can be implemented by software plus a necessary general hardware platform, and certainly can also be implemented by hardware, but the former is a better implementation mode in many cases. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the present invention may be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium (e.g., ROM/RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk) and includes instructions for enabling a terminal device (e.g., a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a network device) to execute the method according to the embodiments of the present invention.

Example 3

In this embodiment, a channel playing apparatus is further provided, and the apparatus is used to implement the foregoing embodiments and preferred embodiments, and the description already made is omitted. As used below, the term "module" may be a combination of software and/or hardware that implements a predetermined function. Although the means described in the embodiments below are preferably implemented in software, an implementation in hardware, or a combination of software and hardware is also possible and contemplated.

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a first structure of a channel playing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is applied to a streaming media playing terminal, as shown in fig. 3, the apparatus includes: a first obtaining module 32, configured to obtain a main index file for a main channel to be played from a channel list of a streaming media system-side device, where the main index file carries an extension tag for tagging a sub index file of the sub channel; the analysis module 34 is coupled to the first obtaining module 32, and configured to analyze the main index file to obtain a sub index file; a second obtaining module 36, coupled to the parsing module 34, configured to obtain, from the streaming media system-side device, a first transport stream TS corresponding to the main index file and a second transport stream TS corresponding to the sub index file; and a playing module 38, coupled to the second obtaining module 36, configured to decode the first TS and the second TS, and play the decoded main channel and sub-channel on the same display interface.

Optionally, after the decoded main channel and sub-channel are played on the same display interface, the apparatus further includes: the receiving module is used for receiving an instruction for closing the sub-channel; and the closing module is used for closing the sub-channels.

Optionally, the playing module 38 includes: the first playing unit is used for playing the main channel on the current display interface; and the second playing unit is used for playing the sub-channel on the part of the display interface of the current display interface.

It should be noted that, the above modules may be implemented by software or hardware, and for the latter, the following may be implemented, but not limited to: the modules are all positioned in the same processor; alternatively, the modules are respectively located in different processors in any combination.

Example 4

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of a second structure of a channel processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus is applied to a device side of a streaming media system, and as shown in fig. 4, the apparatus includes: an adding module 42, configured to add an extension tag to a main index file of a main channel to be played, where the extension tag is used to tag a sub index file of a sub channel; and a third obtaining module 44, configured to obtain the main index file with the extension flag added and update the main index file into the channel list.

Optionally, the apparatus may further include: and the determining module is used for determining that the sub-channels are played simultaneously on the display interface for playing the main channel to be played before the adding module adds the extension mark to the main index file of the main channel to be played.

Example 5

Fig. 5 is a block diagram of a channel processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, the system including: the apparatus of example 3 and the apparatus of example 4.

It should be noted that, the above embodiment 3 and embodiment 4 are device embodiments corresponding to the method embodiment 1 and embodiment 2 of this embodiment, respectively, and therefore are consistent in principle of the scheme, and the corresponding descriptions are also consistent, that is, consistent in the implementation of the whole scheme, and the above method embodiment can be used to explain and describe the device embodiment 3 and embodiment 4.

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to specific example 6 and the accompanying drawings;

example 6

The embodiment provides a method and a device for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using a pip extension mark.

Fig. 6 is a block diagram of a structure of a pip playing system in OTT live broadcast using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 6, the system includes: the system comprises a streaming media server module, a channel management module, a channel receiving module of a digital television Set-top box (Set TopBox, abbreviated as STB), a channel analysis module of the STB, an m3u8 processing module of the STB, a player module of the STB, a pip extension mark generating and integrating module and a pip extension mark analysis module.

The streaming media server module is used for generating a code stream of an OTT live channel and a main and sub m3u8, and generating a small code stream of pip and a first-level m3u8 file of the pip;

the pip extension mark generating and integrating module is used for putting the extension mark of the pip into the main m3u8 of the OTT live channel to generate a new main m3u8 of the OTT live channel;

and the channel management module is used for acquiring a new host m3u8 of the OTT live channel and generating the OTT live channel.

The STB comprises a channel receiving module and a channel management module, wherein the channel receiving module is used for acquiring a channel list from the channel management module after the STB successfully logs in an OTT EPG template;

and the channel analysis module of the STB is used for analyzing the received channel list and displaying the channel list on the OTT EPG of the STB. A user selects a certain channel to perform OTT live broadcast, the m3u8 processing module acquires a main m3u8 file of the channel from the streaming media server module, and starts the analysis of the main m3u 8;

at this time, the pip extension mark analysis module judges whether a pip extension mark exists, if so, the pip m3u8 information corresponding to the channel is stored, then the m3u8 processing module of the STB starts to download the sub m3u8 file to the streaming media server module, analyzes the sub m3u8 file, downloads the ts fragment, and then sends the code stream to the player of the STB to start the OTT live broadcast and the pip broadcast.

Based on the system device in this embodiment, the method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark in this embodiment includes the steps of:

step S602: one channel at the streaming media server side corresponds to hls and pip code streams, and the pip extension mark generation and integration module integrates the primary m3u8 of the pip into the main m3u8 of hls in a pip extension mark mode.

Step S604: the channel management module processes the updated master m3u8 for a channel to generate a hls channel.

Step S606: and a channel receiving module in the STB or the client software receives a channel list issued by the channel management module after the STB successfully logs in the OTT EPG platform, delivers the channel list to a channel analysis module of the STB or the client software to analyze channel information, and displays the channel information on an OTT EPG template of the STB or the client software.

Step S608: a user selects an hls channel by using a remote controller, an STB or client software acquires a main m3u8 file of the channel from a streaming media server, the main m3u8 file is delivered to a pip extension mark analysis module of the STB or the client software for analysis, if a pip extension mark exists in the main m3u8 of hls, primary m3u8 information of pip is analyzed, and then an m3u8 processing module starts to process hls and m3u8 information of the pip.

Step S610: the m3u8 processing module requests hls ts fragment file to the streaming media server for playing by the player, if there is pip playing, the m3u8 processing module requests the ts fragment of pip to the streaming media server for playing by the player.

Step S612: when the user closes hls channel playing, the m3u8 processing module exits and the player exits.

Step S614: and (3) the user closes the play of the pip channel, the pip extension mark analysis module exits, the m3u8 processing module exits, and the player exits.

Step S616: the user switches channels, and then the process goes to S612, S614, S608, and S610.

Through the above manner of this embodiment, when the master m3u8 of the OTT live channel is generated, the information of the pip channel is integrated into the master m3u8 file of the OTT live channel in a pip extension mark manner, so that only one piece of channel information needs to be generated in the channel management system for the OTT live channel and the pip of the same channel, the mapping relationship between the OTT live channel and the pip channel does not need to be maintained, when the OTT live channel and the pip need to be played by a terminal user, only the information of one channel needs to be processed, and the mapping relationship between the OTT live channel and the pip does not need to be maintained, and the pip is played by analyzing the extension pip mark in the master m3u8 of the channel, so that the channel management and the play management of the channel system and the terminal are simplified, and the play position, size and other pip characteristics such as the pip are conveniently extended in the OTT; therefore, the problems that hls and pip playing in an OTT system in the related art need to generate two channels and the mapping relation between hls channels and pip channels needs to be maintained are solved.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart of a channel list generation method according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 7, the method includes the steps of:

step S702: the encoder component of the streaming media server judges whether the hls channel being encoded has a pip requirement, if so, the steps enter S704, S706, S708 and S710, otherwise, the step enters S712;

step S704: acquiring a main m3u8 file of hls channels;

step S706: acquiring the relative address of the first-level m3u8 of the pip;

step S708: add an extended pip flag inside the main m3u8 of the hls channel;

step S710: update hls the main m3u8 of the channel, and then proceed to S712;

step S712: master m3u8 publishing hls channels;

step S714: the channel management module collects hls channel related information and generates hls channels.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart of a playing method of an OTT live channel and pip according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 8, the method includes the steps of:

step S802: the STB logs in the OTT EPG channel management module.

Step S804: and the OTT EPG channel management module issues a channel list to a channel receiving module of the STB.

Step S806: the channel analysis module analyzes the channel list of the channel receiving module and displays the channel list on the OTT EPG template of the STB.

Step S808: the user selects a channel to play using the remote control and the STB obtains the main m3u8 file of the channel to the streaming server.

Step S810: the pip extension mark parsing module judges whether a pip extension mark exists in the main m3u8 of the channel, if so, the step goes to step S812, and if not, the step goes to step S818.

Step S812: the pip extended mark parsing module parses out the primary m3u8 address of the pip.

Step S814: and judging whether a pip playing request exists or not, if so, entering S816, and if not, entering S818.

Step S816: the m3u8 processing module acquires pip level m3u8 and ts fragments.

Step S818: the m3u8 processing module obtains ott live m3u8 and ts slices.

Step S820: the m3u8 processing module distributes the ts slice to the player.

Step S822: the player decodes and plays the corresponding program.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of the relationship between the main and sub parts of the OTT and the PIP primary m3u8 according to the embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in FIG. 9, the main m3u8 of the OTT live broadcast has added: # EXT-X-STREAM-INF-PIP and the PIP extension mark of # index.m3u8. Furthermore, according to the m3u8 protocol of the industry standard, 01.m3u8 in the main m3u8 of the OTT live broadcast points to the ts fragments containing the program in the sub 01.m3u8 and 01.m3u8 of the OTT live broadcast. Furthermore, 02.m3u8 and 03.m3u8 are similar.

Wherein, the extension flag of the pip points to the first level m3u8 of the pip according to the extension parsing mode, and the first level m3u8 includes the ts fragment of the pip.

Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a composition of a play proxy module in an OTT environment according to an embodiment of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 10, the play proxy module includes: the play proxy consists of an m3u8 processing module, a pip extension mark analysis module and an m3u8 forwarding module. The m3u8 forwarding module is responsible for processing m3u8 and ts requests of the player and sending the requests to the m3u8 processing module for processing, the m3u8 processing module is responsible for interacting with the streaming media server to acquire m3u8 and ts, and after the m3u8 processing module and the pip extension mark parsing module are processed, the m3u8 and ts are sent to the m3u8 forwarding module, and the m3u8 forwarding module returns the m3u8 and ts to the player.

Example 7:

in this embodiment, a player is deployed in an STB/Pad/handset to develop OTT hls and pip video services, based on fig. 6, this embodiment provides a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using a pip extension mark, fig. 11 is a flow chart of a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using a pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 11, hls and pip of an STB/Pad/handset in an OTT environment are played in this method, and the method includes the steps of:

step S1102: an encoder in the streaming server encodes hls the codestream of live and pip, extending the pip marker to hls the main m3u8 of the live.

Step S1104: the media server publishes hls the live information.

Step S1106: the channel management system generates hls a live channel.

Step S1108: and the STB/Pad/mobile phone logs in an OTT EPG platform to acquire a channel list issued by the channel management module, and the channel list is analyzed by the channel analysis module and displayed on an OTT EPG template of the STB.

Step S1110: the user selects an hls channel by using a remote controller, the STB/Pad/mobile phone interacts with the streaming media server to acquire a main m3u8, the streaming media server returns to the main m3u8, the STB/Pad/mobile phone analyzes the main m3u8, if pip extension mark information exists, the extended pip information of the main m3u8 is analyzed, and then the STB/Pad/mobile phone acquires hls and sub m3u8 and ts of the pip from the streaming media server.

Step S1112: the streaming server returns hls and sub m3u8 and ts for pip to STB/Pad/handset, starting hls and pip play.

Example 8:

fixed advertisement of pip in OTT environment is live.

In this embodiment, a player is deployed in an STB/Pad/handset to carry out OTT hls and pip video services, and based on fig. 6, this embodiment provides a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using a pip extension mark, and fig. 12 is a flowchart of a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using a pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention, where as shown in fig. 12, the method includes the steps of:

s1202: an encoder in the streaming media server encodes hls live broadcast and advertisement PIP code streams, PIP marks of the expanded advertisement code streams are marked to hls live broadcast main m3u8, and fixed advertisement PIP marks of # PERSISTENT-PIP are newly added in the PIP expanded marks.

S1204: the media server publishes hls the live information.

S1206: the channel management system generates hls a live channel.

S1208: and the STB/Pad/mobile phone logs in an OTT EPG platform to acquire a channel list issued by the channel management module, and the channel list is analyzed by the channel analysis module and displayed on an OTT EPG template of the STB.

S1210: the user selects an hls channel by using a remote controller, the STB/Pad/mobile phone interacts with the streaming media server to acquire a main m3u8, the streaming media server returns to the main m3u8, the STB/Pad/mobile phone analyzes the main m3u8, if pip extension information exists, the extended pip information of the main m3u8 is analyzed, and then the STB/Pad/mobile phone acquires hls and sub m3u8 and ts of the pip from the streaming media server.

S1212: the streaming media server returns hls and sub m3u8 and ts of the PIP, the STB/Pad/mobile phone is given, hls and PIP playing are started, if the extension mark of the PIP can be analyzed to the fixed advertisement PIP mark of # PERSISTENT-PIP, the playing of the PIP is controlled by a player, under the condition that hls live broadcasting does not exit, the PIP playing always exists and cannot fast forward and fast backward, and the effect that the PIP always plays without exiting under the condition of OTT live broadcasting is achieved.

Example 9:

in this embodiment, the playing agent (the playing agent refers to a processing module supporting a pip extension mark, and not to a player) is deployed in the STB/Pad/handset, and the player is deployed on the STB/Pad/handset to perform OTT hls and pip video services. Based on fig. 6, this embodiment provides a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark, fig. 13 is a flowchart of a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 13, a proxy hls and a pip of a third party player in OTT environment, where the method includes the steps of:

step S1302, an encoder in the streaming media server encodes hls live and pip code streams, and extends pip marks to hls live main m3u 8.

In step S1304, the media server issues hls live information.

In step S1306, the channel management system generates hls a live channel.

Step S1308, the STB/Pad/mobile phone logs in the OTT EPG platform, acquires the channel list issued by the channel management module, and the channel list is analyzed by the channel analysis module and displayed on the template of the STB.

Step 1310, the user selects an hls channel on the STB by using the remote controller, the player of the STB forwards the playing request to the playing proxy, the playing proxy interacts with the streaming media server to obtain the main m3u8, if the pip extension information exists, the primary m3u8 of the pip is analyzed, then ts of hls and the pip and m3u8 are obtained from the streaming media server, then m3u8 and ts data of hls and the pip are returned to the player, and the player passively receives the data and starts hls and pip playing.

Example 10:

the player is deployed in the STB/Pad/handset to carry out OTT hls and pip video services. Based on fig. 6, this embodiment provides a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark, fig. 14 is a flowchart of a method for playing pip in OTT live broadcast by using pip extension mark according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 14, playing with an adjustable position size of pip is implemented in OTT environment, as shown in fig. 14, the method includes the steps of:

step S1402: an encoder in the streaming media server encodes hls code streams of live broadcast and advertisement PIPs, the PIPs of the expanded code streams are marked to hls main m3u8 of the live broadcast, and in addition, the expanded marks need to be provided with the size and the display position of the PIPs, specifically, 3 PIPs of # WIDTH-PIP, # HEIGHT-PIP and # COORD-PIP are newly added, which respectively represent the WIDTH, the HEIGHT and the coordinate value of the upper left corner of the PIP playing video.

Step S1404: the media server publishes hls the live information.

Step S1406: the channel management system generates hls a live channel.

Step S1408: and the STB/Pad/mobile phone logs in an OTT EPG platform to acquire a channel list issued by the channel management module, and the channel list is analyzed by the channel analysis module and displayed on an OTT EPG template of the STB.

Step S1410: the user selects an hls channel by using a remote controller, the STB/Pad/mobile phone interacts with the streaming media server to acquire a main m3u8, the streaming media server returns to the main m3u8, the STB/Pad/mobile phone analyzes the main m3u8, if pip extension information exists, the extended pip information of the main m3u8 is analyzed, and then the STB/Pad/mobile phone acquires hls and sub m3u8 and ts of the pip from the streaming media server.

Step S1412: the streaming media server returns hls and sub m3u8 and ts of PIP, gives STB/Pad/handset, starts hls and PIP playing, if PIP expansion mark has PIP playing attribute mark of # WIDTH-PIP, # HEIGHT-PIP, # COORD-PIP, the playing of PIP is controlled by the player according to the position and size information of PIP.

In summary, in the OTT environment provided by this embodiment, hls and pip are integrated into one channel by means of pip extension m3u8, which well solves the complexity of managing multiple channels by the head-end channel management system, solves the complexity of rapidly extending other characteristics of pip, simplifies the mapping relationship management of hls channels and pip channels, improves the values of OTT live broadcast and pip services, and reduces the load of the channel management system, STB/handset/Pad management and playing channels.

Optionally, the specific examples in this embodiment may refer to the examples described in the above embodiments and optional implementation manners, and this embodiment is not described herein again.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the modules or steps of the present invention described above may be implemented by a general purpose computing device, they may be centralized on a single computing device or distributed across a network of multiple computing devices, and alternatively, they may be implemented by program code executable by a computing device, such that they may be stored in a storage device and executed by a computing device, and in some cases, the steps shown or described may be performed in an order different than that described herein, or they may be separately fabricated into individual integrated circuit modules, or multiple ones of them may be fabricated into a single integrated circuit module. Thus, the present invention is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for playing a channel, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that a streaming media playing terminal obtains a main index file for a main channel to be played from a channel list of streaming media system side equipment, wherein the main index file carries an extension mark for marking a sub index file of the sub channel;

the streaming media playing terminal analyzes the main index file to obtain a sub index file;

the streaming media playing terminal acquires a first transport stream TS corresponding to the main index file and a second transport stream TS corresponding to the sub index file from the streaming media system side equipment;

and the streaming media playing terminal decodes the first TS and the second TS and plays the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel on the same display interface.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the playing the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel on the same display interface by the streaming media playing terminal comprises:

the streaming media playing terminal plays the main channel on a current display interface;

and the streaming media playing terminal plays the sub-channel on a part of the display interface of the current display interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein after the decoded main channel and the sub-channel are played on the same display interface, the method further comprises:

the streaming media playing terminal receives an instruction for closing the sub-channel;

and the streaming media playing terminal closes the sub-channel.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the main channel is an adaptive streaming media H L S channel on the internet and the sub-channels are picture-in-picture PIP channels.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the primary index is a primary m3u8 of the H L S channel and the sub-index is a level one m3u8 of the PIP channel.

6. A method for processing channels, comprising:

the method comprises the steps that the streaming media system side equipment adds an extension mark to a main index file of a main channel to be played, wherein the extension mark is used for marking a sub index file of a sub channel;

and the streaming media system side equipment acquires the main index file added with the extension mark and updates the main index file into a channel list.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein before the streaming media system side device adds the extension mark to the main index file of the main channel to be played, the method further comprises:

and the streaming media system side equipment determines to play the sub-channel at the same time of playing the display interface of the main channel to be played.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the main channel is an adaptive streaming media H L S channel on the Internet, and the sub-channel is a picture-in-picture (PIP) channel.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the primary index is a primary m3u8 of the H L S channel and the sub-index is a level one m3u8 of the PIP channel.

10. A playing device of a channel is applied to a streaming media playing terminal side, and is characterized by comprising:

the device comprises a first acquisition module, a second acquisition module and a third acquisition module, wherein the first acquisition module is used for acquiring a main index file of a main channel to be played from a channel list of a streaming media system side device, and the main index file carries an extension mark for marking a sub index file of the sub channel;

the analysis module is used for analyzing the main index file to obtain the sub-index file;

a second obtaining module, configured to obtain, from the streaming media system-side device, a first transport stream TS corresponding to the main index file and a second transport stream TS corresponding to the sub index file;

and the playing module is used for decoding the first TS and the second TS and playing the decoded main channel and the decoded sub channel on the same display interface.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the playback module comprises:

the first playing unit is used for playing the main channel on the current display interface;

and the second playing unit is used for playing the sub-channel on a part of the display interface of the current display interface.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein after the decoded main channel and the sub-channel are played on the same display interface, the apparatus further comprises:

a receiving module, configured to receive an instruction for closing the sub-channel;

and the closing module is used for closing the sub-channels.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the main channel is an adaptive streaming media H L S channel on the internet, and the sub-channel is a picture-in-picture, PIP, channel.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the primary index is a primary m3u8 of the H L S channel and the sub-index is a level m3u8 of the PIP channel.

15. A channel processing device is applied to a device side of a streaming media system, and is characterized by comprising:

the adding module is used for adding an extension mark into a main index file of a main channel to be played, wherein the extension mark is used for marking a sub index file of a sub channel;

and the third acquisition module is used for acquiring the main index file added with the extension mark and updating the main index file into a channel list.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

and the determining module is used for determining that the sub-channels are played simultaneously on a display interface for playing the main channel to be played before the adding module adds the extension mark to the main index file of the main channel to be played.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the main channel is an adaptive streaming media H L S channel on the internet, and the sub-channel is a picture-in-picture, PIP, channel.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the primary index is a primary m3u8 of the H L S channel and the sub-index is a level m3u8 of the PIP channel.

19. A system for processing channels, comprising: the device of any one of claims 10 to 14 and the device of any one of claims 15 to 18.