Preconditioning ad content for digital program insertion
View Patent ↗Methods are provided for inserting advertisements or the like and/or to perform grooming functions for a video, audio and/or data stream. Video programming is received in a network stream. Alternate content, such as advertisements, is received in content stream. The content stream is preconditioned to provide an entrance point therein for splicing the network stream to the content stream. Preconditioning of the content stream can also be performed to provide an exit point for splicing back to the network stream when the alternate content (e.g., advertisements) has concluded.
1. A method for inserting content into video programming, comprising:
receiving said video programming in a first video stream comprising a first sequence of pictures;
receiving said content in a second video stream comprising a second sequence of pictures; and
preconditioning said second video stream to provide a preconditioned second video stream with an entrance point for splicing the first video stream to the preconditioned second video stream;
wherein:
there is no need to precondition the first video stream to perform said splicing;
said preconditioning of said second video stream occurs prior to said splicing and is independent of any information from the first video stream; and
said preconditioning step comprises limiting a maximum size of at least a first picture of said content.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein:
said preconditioning step comprises limiting the maximum size of a set of pictures from the sequence of pictures of said content.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein:
said set of pictures comprises a set of consecutive pictures of said second video stream in a predetermined decoding order.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein:
the maximum size of said set of pictures is determined from a number of picture display intervals “T” required to display said set of pictures in a presentation order and an available data rate “r” for transmitting said set of pictures.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein:
the maximum size of said set of pictures is updated after each successive picture and enforced by compressing the next picture of the set of pictures.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein:
said preconditioning step is halted once an occupancy level of a buffer receiving said content is built up to a level that is likely to avoid at least one of an underflow and overflow condition.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein:
each of said pictures is one of an intra-coded (I) picture, a predicted (P) picture, or a bi-directional (B) picture; and
said preconditioning step comprises the steps of:
converting at least one B-picture to a P-picture following a first I-picture at said entrance point; and
limiting a maximum size of a set of pictures from the sequence of pictures of said content, where said set of pictures includes said first I-picture and the P-picture converted from said B-picture.
8. The method of claim 7 comprising:
converting a plurality of B-pictures to P-pictures following said first I-picture.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein:
the maximum size of said set of pictures is determined from a number of picture display intervals “T” required to display said set of pictures in a presentation order and an available data rate “r” for transmitting said set of pictures.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein:
the maximum size of said set of pictures is updated after each successive picture and enforced by compressing the next picture of the set of pictures.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein:
said preconditioning step is halted once an occupancy level of a buffer receiving said content is built up to a level that is likely to avoid at least one of an underflow and overflow condition.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the second video stream is received from an encoder that produces predicted (P) pictures instead of bi-directional (B) pictures at a start of said content.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the second video stream comprises a succession of different content streams.
14. A method for inserting content into video programming, comprising:
receiving said video programming in a first video stream comprising a first sequence of pictures;
receiving said content in a second video stream comprising a second sequence of pictures;
preconditioning said second video stream to provide a preconditioned second video stream with an exit point for splicing the preconditioned second video stream to the first video stream at said exit point;
wherein:
there is no need to precondition the first video stream to perform said splicing;
said preconditioning of said second video stream occurs prior to said splicing and is independent of any information from the first video stream; and
said preconditioning step comprises limiting a maximum size of at least a last picture of said content.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein:
said spliced video streams are communicated to a receiver;
said receiver temporarily stores data from the spliced video streams in a buffer; and
said preconditioning step establishes said exit point based on an amount of time sufficient to substantially fill said buffer with an end portion of said content immediately prior to starting the decoding of a first picture of said first video stream to which the second video stream is to be spliced.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein said amount of time is constrained to not exceed a predetermined maximum value.
17. The method of claim 15 , comprising:
determining whether the end portion of said content is likely to overflow said buffer prior to starting said decoding, and if so:
recompressing said end portion to reduce the amount of data therein to an amount that will not overflow said buffer.
18. The method of claim 14 wherein:
said second video stream contains a plurality of different content streams.
19. The method of claim 14 comprising:
preconditioning said second video stream to provide an entrance point in the second video stream for splicing the first video stream to the second video stream.
20. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
at least the first video stream is encrypted; and
said splicing occurs without unencrypting at least the first video stream.
21. The method of claim 14 , wherein:
at least the first video stream is encrypted; and
said splicing occurs without unencrypting at least the first video stream.
22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the preconditioned video stream is stored prior to said splicing.
23. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
a pre-processor is provided for said preconditioning of said second video stream;
said preconditioned second video stream is stored at an ad server; and
said preconditioned second stream is provided from the ad server to a splicer, which performs said splicing.
24. The method of claim 14 , wherein the preconditioned video stream is stored prior to said splicing.
25. The method of claim 14 , wherein:
a pre-processor is provided for said preconditioning of said second video stream;
said preconditioned second video stream is stored at an ad server; and
said preconditioned second stream is provided from the ad server to a splicer, which performs said splicing.