WO2009033345A1

WO2009033345A1 - A method for simultaneously downloading and playing hypertext transfer stream media

Info

Publication number: WO2009033345A1
Application number: PCT/CN2007/003831
Authority: WO
Inventors: Gang Liu; Dingyong Gou; Xin Xie; Xiaoyan Huang; Jiangyue Wu
Original assignee: Zte Corporation
Priority date: 2007-09-11
Filing date: 2007-12-27
Publication date: 2009-03-19
Also published as: CN101127989A

Abstract

A method for simultaneously downloading and playing hypertext transfer stream media in a terminal is disclosed, and includes the steps: the terminal requests to download the media designated by the URL from the hypertext transfer HTTP server, and buffers the media data in segments to the memory in the local buffer; while simultaneous downloading, sequently decoding and playing the segmented media data in each memory area which buffered the whole download data, after finishing downloading the first segment media data. The solution implements simultaneously downloading and playing the HTTP stream media in a terminal, and segmenting and periodic duty of buffer, thereby shortening the waiting time greatly, improving the user experience in a large extent, and decreasing the demand of memory resources at the same time.

Description

Method for simultaneously downloading and playing hypertext transmission streaming media by terminal

Technical field

The present invention belongs to the field of multimedia, and in particular, to a method for supporting a terminal hypertext transport (HTTP) streaming media service.

Background technique

With the popularization of terminals such as mobile phones and the continuous improvement of mobile networks, streaming media services represented by mobile TV, video advertising, online video, online music, etc. have gradually become one of the necessary applications for medium and high-end mobile phones.

The main technical feature of streaming media is the use of streaming, that is, the transmission of audio and video programs to the terminal via the Internet. There are currently two methods for implementing streaming: sequential streaming and real-time streaming. For sequential streaming, since a standard HTTP server can send this form of file without the need for other special protocols, it is often referred to as HTTP streaming; sequential streaming is suitable for high-quality media such as short films, advertisements, and music. Files; and, sequential streaming media files can be placed on standard HTTP or FTP servers for easy management.

For real-time streaming, it ensures that the media signal bandwidth matches the network connection so that the media can be viewed in real time. Unlike HTTP streaming, this type of transport requires a dedicated streaming server and transport protocol. Real-time streaming is ideal for live events and random access, allowing users to fast forward or rewind to view front or back content. In theory, real-time streaming can be watched as soon as it is played, but in reality, periodic pauses, especially in wireless environments, can occur.

In combination with the limitations of mobile phone hardware and software resources, HTTP streaming has many advantages compared with real-time streaming: Server control is simple and easy to manage; Transmission protocol uses the Internet's most popular HTTP protocol, which is versatile, easy to implement, and fast in response. The control overhead is small, especially suitable for wireless environments, and is not limited by firewalls; the protocol on the mobile phone is simplified, and only needs to use the HTTP protocol like a normal browser, and does not need to implement a complex RTSP protocol cluster. Therefore, HTTP streaming has been widely used, and many internationally renowned operators require mobile phone manufacturers to support HTTP streaming.

At present, the system structure of the mobile phone supporting HTTP streaming service is as shown in FIG. 1 , and the mobile phone passes through the base station and the network. The network is connected to the server. The solution for implementing the HTTP streaming service in the above system is generally to download the media data to a local file or a buffer through HTTP, and then play it, specifically including the following steps, as shown in FIG. 2:

Step 201: The mobile terminal sends a request to the server, and downloads the URL through the uniform resource locator.

( Uniform Resource Location ) specified media;

Step 202: The server returns a confirmation message to the mobile terminal.

Step 203: The mobile terminal requests the server to download the media data.

Step 204: The server sends the requested data to the mobile terminal.

Step 205: Repeat steps 203 and 204 until the entire media file is downloaded.

Step 206: After successfully downloading the entire media file, the media player is started to decode the downloaded media, and the downloaded media is played.

One of the big drawbacks of this traditional implementation is that mobile phone users must wait until all data has been downloaded before they can enjoy the media. Especially when the network speed is slow and the media data volume is large, the user experience is very poor, and the cache is also needed. The downloaded media data increases the requirements for mobile phone resources when the file is large. The same problem exists for other terminal types that use HTTP streaming to download media data and have limited resources.

Summary of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a method for a terminal to download and play HTTP streaming media at the same time, which supports synchronous playback of HTTP streaming media and shortens waiting time on the terminal.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a method for a terminal to simultaneously download and play a hypertext transport streaming medium, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

A: the terminal requests the hypertext transfer HTTP server to download the media specified by the uniform resource locator URL, and caches the media data into a locally cached storage area;

B: After the downloading of the first media data is completed, while continuing the downloading, the segmented media data in each storage area in which the full download data has been cached is sequentially decoded and played. Further, the above method may further have the following features: Step B is further divided into the following steps:

B1: The terminal starts playing the downloaded media after decoding the first piece of media data that has been downloaded and stored in the first segment of the locally cached storage area;

B2: The terminal requests and downloads the mth piece of media data in order to the HTTP server, and then stores the media data in the corresponding storage area; and simultaneously plays the media stored in the i th segment storage area in sequence, where i, m Is a natural number and i<m;

B3: The above download thread and play thread are executed in parallel until the entire media file is downloaded and played.

Further, the above method may also have the following features:

The play read pointer in the play thread cannot point to a storage area that has not yet stored the full download data. At the same time, the download write pointer in the download thread cannot point to the storage area where the media data that has not been played is located.

Further, the above method may also have the following features:

When the media data is stored, the downloaded mth segment data is stored in the mth segment of the local cache in the manner of sequential storage; if the m segment data is downloaded, if the playback has finished (m - 1) The media in the segment storage area is paused until the mth segment of data is downloaded and resumed.

Further, the above method may also have the following features:

The method of cyclic storage is used when storing media data. If m is less than or equal to N, the mth segment data is stored in the mth segment storage area of the local cache; if m is greater than the total number of storage areas allocated by the local cache for the media N, the mth segment data is stored in the | mod( /N)| segment storage area, and |mod(m/N)| indicates that m and N are divided by the remainder.

Further, the above method may also have the following features:

If m is greater than N, and the remainder obtained by dividing m and N by the remainder |mod(/n/N)l is equal to i, the download is suspended until the media stored in the i-th segment is played back. Download

If m is less than or equal to Ν, in the process of downloading the mth segment data, if the media of the (m - 1) segment of the storage area has been played, the playback is paused until the mth segment of data is downloaded and resumed. Further, the above method may also have the following features:

After converting the downloaded media data into a file format supporting the FIFO function, the terminal stores the FIFO file in the local cache, and uses the operating system to read the FIFO file during synchronous playback to synchronize the download and play.

Further, the above method may also have the following features:

The local cache is a main memory of the terminal, or a disk placed on the terminal, or a cache space allocated for the downloaded media on the mobile storage device connected to the terminal.

Further, the above method may also have the following features:

The local cache is a cache space allocated on the main memory of the terminal for the downloaded media.

Further, the foregoing method may further have the following features: The terminal is a mobile phone.

The invention realizes that the terminal supports the download and play synchronization of the HTTP streaming media, and the segmentation and recycling of the buffer, thereby greatly shortening the waiting time, greatly improving the user experience, and also reducing the memory resources. demand. Drawing fan

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a system for supporting a mobile phone HTTP stream;

2 is a flow chart of the system shown in FIG. 1 for implementing HTTP streaming of a mobile phone;

3 is a general flowchart of implementing HTTP streaming of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 4 is a detailed flowchart of implementing HTTP streaming of a mobile phone in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a cache structure used in the flow shown in FIG. Preferred embodiment of the invention

The main idea of the present invention is that the terminal can start playing after downloading a certain amount of data, and realize parallel execution of downloading and playing, which can be separately controlled by using two threads; in addition, downloading and playing need to process the buffer. The optimization scheme of the present invention adopts a scheme of recycling cache; In the process, the playback read pointer cannot exceed the download write pointer; the download write pointer cannot cover the content that has not been read and played, that is, under the premise of dual-thread control, the synchronization of download and play is guaranteed.

The cache processing of the present invention is not limited to being stored in a hardware memory such as FLASH or RAM, and includes a file format that is stored in a first in first out (FIFO) manner after the streaming media data is downloaded. The FIFO file format is closely related to the specific operating system. It is not necessarily stored in the main memory such as RAM or FLASH. It can also be stored on a disk or a removable storage device. The operating system ensures storage and reading. First in, first out. When using a file that supports FIFO function (also called FIFO file) for caching, the operating system that supports FIFO files on the terminal needs to convert the media files downloaded from the server to the local FIFO file before caching. This also allows the first to get the streaming media data to be played first, while the FIFO-enabled file format is available in existing technologies, such as Qualcomm's Brew platform.

Hereinafter, the technical solution of the present invention will be further described in detail by taking a mobile phone as an example and referring to the accompanying drawings.

A method for supporting synchronous download and play of a mobile phone HTTP streaming service, as shown in FIG. 3, includes the following steps:

Step 301: After the mobile terminal decodes the first piece of media data that has been downloaded and stored in the first segment of the local cache, the mobile terminal starts playing the downloaded media.

Step 302: The mobile terminal continues to request and download the mth segment of data in the order of the HTTP server, and then stores the data in the corresponding storage area in the local cache. Simultaneously, the media data stored in each segment of the storage area is synchronously played. That is, the media stored in the i th segment storage area is synchronously played in order, where i, m are natural numbers, i < m;

m is the segment number of the currently downloaded media data, i is the number of the storage area where the currently playing media data is located, i, m is sequentially numbered from 1 to i, m = 1, 2, 3, ... . The local cache refers to a cache space allocated by the terminal for this media download in the memory. The sequential play refers to playing in order of downloading.

Synchronous playback is achieved through dual-thread control, that is, the download thread and the play thread are executed in parallel. OK, but the playback read pointer in the playback thread cannot point to a memory area where the full download data has not yet been stored. At the same time, the download write pointer in the download thread cannot point to the storage area where the media data that has not been played is located.

Step 303: Repeat step 302 until the entire media file download is completed.

In this step, if the download is completed first, the unplayed content is continuously played in sequence until the end of the playback, and the entire process is ended.

In the above method, the memory for buffering the downloaded data may be any existing storage, and may be stored in a circular storage manner or in a sequential storage manner. In order to save resources, it is better to use a cyclic storage method.

When the cyclic storage mode is adopted, if m is greater than the total number of storage areas of the local cache, the total number of storage areas of m and the local cache is divided, and the mth piece of data is stored in the storage area of the obtained number after the remainder. in. If m is divided by the total number of locally cached storage areas and is equal to i, the download is suspended until the media stored in the i-th storage area is played back, and the download is resumed.

If m is less than or equal to the total number of storage areas of the local cache, the mth segment data is stored in the mth segment storage area of the local cache, and when the media of the (m - 1) segment storage area has been played, the playback is paused. , resume playback after the data download is completed in the mth segment.

When the sequential storage mode is adopted, the downloaded mth segment data is stored in the mth segment storage area of the local cache; if the mth segment is stored, the (m - 1) segment storage area is already played. The media is paused until the mth segment of data is downloaded and resumed.

The following provides a detailed process for implementing the HTTP streaming service of the mobile phone by using the circular cache, as shown in FIG. 4, including the following steps:

Step 401: The mobile phone sends a request to the HTTP server to download the media specified by the URL, for example: http://xyzw/media/testvideo.mp4; Specifically, the mobile phone may be used by an existing application software such as a media player. Implementation, the following downloads and other operations are also implemented by the corresponding application software, no longer - specified.

Step 402: After receiving the request, the HTTP server returns a confirmation message to the mobile phone application software; the above steps 401-402 are the same as the prior art. Step 403: After the mobile phone receives the confirmation message of the HTTP server; if the given resource does not exist, the error message is prompted; otherwise, the download thread is started, and the HTTP server is requested to download the first piece of media data;

Step 404: The mobile phone downloads the requested first segment data from the HTTP server, and stores the data into the first segment storage area of the local buffer area;

The structure of the local cache described in this step is as shown in FIG. 5;

Step 405: After successfully downloading the first data block, the mobile phone starts the playing thread, starts decoding the downloaded media data, and then plays the same;

Step 406: The mobile phone sequentially requests to download the media data of the mth segment, and the specific operation process is as follows: Step 403;

Step 407: The mobile phone downloads the requested mth segment data from the HTTP server. If m is not greater than N, the mth segment data is stored in the mth segment cache, otherwise the mth segment data is stored in the |mod(m/ N)| segment buffer, where mod represents the remainder, and N is the total number of storage areas allocated for downloading data;

After the play thread is started, while the mobile phone requests to download the media data, the play thread is not interrupted, and is executed concurrently with the download thread. If the download speed is slow, the data of the i-th buffer to be played is not downloaded, the playback is paused, and the playback is resumed until the media data of the i-th buffer is downloaded. If m is greater than N and the download speed is fast, When the media data in the lmod(m/N) segment cache is not played, the download thread waits until the data in the |mod( /N)| segment buffer is played.

Step 408: The HTTP server returns a confirmation message to the mobile phone, indicating that all the media data has been downloaded, stopping the downloading thread, and continuing to play the media data in the cache that has been downloaded; Step 409: The playback ends.

The cache structure used in the above method is as shown in FIG. 5, and the cache is divided into N segments and can be used cyclically. The capacity of each segment of the storage area is determined by the user as the case may be. In this embodiment, each storage area is 1 ΚΒ _0.

The above description is only a specific embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention. A person skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the invention, and the scope of the invention is defined by the claims.

For example, the present invention can also convert downloaded data into a FIFO file and store it. It is not necessary to write code related to read and write pointer control when downloading and playing. Synchronization of download and playback is possible with the operating system. It can be stored on a disk or on a removable storage device.

As another example, the present invention can also be applied to other terminals that use the HTTP stream to download media data and have limited resources.

Industrial applicability

The invention can be applied to terminals such as mobile phones, supports the synchronization of downloading and playing of HTTP streaming media, can greatly shorten the waiting time, greatly improves the user experience, and reduces the demand for memory resources.

Claims

Claim

A method for simultaneously downloading and playing a hypertext transport stream media by a terminal, the method comprising the steps of:

B: After the download of the first piece of media data is completed, while the download is continued, the segmented media data in each storage area in which the full download data has been cached is sequentially decoded and played.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein step B is further divided into the following steps:

B1: the terminal starts to play the downloaded media after decoding the first piece of media data that has been downloaded and stored in the first segment of the locally cached storage area;

3. The method of claim 2, wherein

4. The method of claim 3, wherein

5. The method of claim 3, wherein The method of cyclic storage is used when storing media data. If _{m is} less than or equal to N, the mth segment data is stored in the mth segment storage area of the local cache; if m is greater than the total number of storage areas allocated by the local cache for the media N, the mth segment data is stored in the lmod (m/N) l segment storage area, and |mod(m/N)| indicates that m and N are divided by the remainder.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein

If m is greater than N, and the remainder obtained by dividing m and N by the remainder |mod( /N)| is equal to i, the download is suspended until the media stored in the i th segment storage area is played back, and the download is resumed;

If m is less than or equal to N, in the process of downloading the mth segment data, if the media of the (m - 1) segment memory area has been played, the playback is paused, and the playback resumes after the mth segment data is downloaded.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein:

8. The method of claim 7 wherein:

9. The method of claim 2, wherein

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal is a mobile phone.