Self correcting record pipeline
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for a self-correcting DVR record pipeline may provider for simpler, lower cost transport producer hardware elements. A free running transport pipeline producer may fill transport buffers without waiting for feedback from the data consumer that data has been completely processed. The pipeline data consumer independently detects transport buffers that are overwritten before processing on the buffer content is complete. The pipeline data consumer drops or deletes any invalid content or stream data to recover from the data overflow condition.
1. A method for continuous content flow in a digital video recorder (DVR) record pipeline, the method comprising:
buffering, in at least one of a plurality of buffers, a first content from a pipeline producer in the DVR record pipeline, wherein the plurality of buffers buffer outputs from the pipeline producer for delivery to a pipeline data consumer that writes buffer content to a storage device,
wherein the pipeline producer continues transporting subsequent content to the plurality of buffers without waiting for feedback regarding an availability of the plurality of buffers;
transporting, from the pipeline producer in the DVR record pipeline, a second content to at least one of the plurality of buffers, independent of whether the first content has been successfully written from the at least one of the plurality of buffers to the storage device,
wherein a first checksum is computed when first content is buffered in the at least one of the plurality of buffers, and the pipeline data consumer detects whether a data overflow has occurred by comparing the first checksum to a second checksum associated with buffer content written from the same buffer to the storage device, and
wherein a checksum verification is done, before index data is written to the storage device, to verify whether at least one of a plurality of start code buffers was overwritten by subsequent start code data before index data produced from a first start code data is successfully written to the storage device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content is successfully written by the pipeline data consumer to the storage device.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a previously filled buffer in the plurality of buffers is overwritten by subsequent content from the pipeline producer, before the buffer content in the previously filled buffer is written to the storage device.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content is not successfully written to the storage device, the first content in at least one buffer is overwritten by the second content.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the checksum verification is done after transport buffer content has been written to the storage device to verify whether at least one of the plurality of transport buffers was overwritten by subsequent content before the first content was successfully written to the storage device.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein index data produced from start code data in a buffer is not written to the storage device if checksum verification fails for the start code data.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a flow of content from the pipeline producer to the plurality of transport buffers is free running and uninterrupted regardless of whether transport buffer content has been written to the storage device.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the DVR record pipeline bridges a content source to the storage device.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pipeline producer is uninformed as to whether buffer content is discarded or ignored by the pipeline data consumer.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein there is no feedback related to buffer overflow between the pipeline data consumer or storage device and the pipeline producer.
11. A method for self correcting data overflow in a digital video recorder (DVR) record pipeline, the method comprising:
buffering, at a transport buffer that buffers outputs from a transport pipeline producer for delivery to a pipeline data consumer, a first content from the transport pipeline producer for recording, wherein a checksum associated with the first content is stored when the first content buffers to the transport buffer;
receiving, at the pipeline data consumer in the DVR record pipeline, transport buffer content from the transport buffer for writing to a storage device; and
writing the transport buffer content to the storage device,
wherein the pipeline data consumer detects whether a transport data overflow has occurred by comparing a checksum corresponding to the transport buffer content written to the storage device to the checksum associated with the first content,
wherein if the checksums are not the same, the pipeline data consumer causes any of the first content in the storage device to be dropped to recover from the data overflow or writes a position or size of the transport buffer content that has failed checksum verification to a content file, wherein limits of the transport buffer content with the failed checksum verification are written onto another location on the storage device.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein checksums that are the same indicate that the transfer buffer content included the first content and the first content was successfully written to the storage device.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein if the checksums are not the same, the first content in the transport buffer was not successfully written to the storage device before being overwritten by subsequent content.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the checksum verification is done after the transport buffer content has been written to the storage device so transport buffer content is written to the storage device uninterrupted.
15. The method of claim 11 , if the first content in the transport buffer is overwritten by subsequent data before being successfully written to the content file, the pipeline data consumer drops the overwritten buffers to recover from the data overflow.
16. The method of claim 11 , wherein for dropped content, the pipeline data consumer initiates a drop of the corresponding start code records from an index file.
17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pipeline data consumer recovers from a data overflow without interruption to a flow of content from the transport pipeline producer.
18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the DVR record pipeline bridges a content source to the storage device.
19. The method of claim 11 , wherein the content flow from the transport pipeline producer is unaffected by whether data that is provided to the plurality of transport buffers is discarded or ignored by the pipeline data consumer.
20. The method of claim 11 , wherein there is no communication or feedback between a backend (consumer/hard drive) and the pipeline producer related to buffer overflow.
21. The method of claim 11 , wherein when no buffers are available that have been successfully written to the storage device, the subsequent content from the transport pipeline producer overwrites transport buffer content.
22. The method of claim 11 , wherein the content file is separate meta file.
23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the separate meta file created will be used at a time of playback to maintain a continuity of the playback.
24. The method of claim 11 , wherein the pipeline data consumer saves computing power when a content drop is detected.