Method of recording adaptive to the degree of wear of the storage medium
Method for recording a received stream such as an audio and/or video stream, the recording method including the steps: of evaluating the wear of a storage medium intended to record the received stream; of calculating as a function of the wear an optimal stream bitrate making it possible to increase a lifetime of the storage medium; of adapting the received stream so as to record it at the optimal stream bitrate.
1. A recording method for recording a received stream such as an audio and/or video stream, the recording method comprising the steps:
of evaluating wear of a storage medium for recording the received stream;
of calculating, as a function of the wear, an optimum stream data rate for increasing the lifetime of the storage medium;
of adapting the received stream so as to record it at the optimum stream data rate.
2. The recording method according to claim 1 , wherein the wear is evaluated by acquiring, from the storage medium, a wear parameter that is representative of the wear of the storage medium.
3. The recording method according to claim 2 , further comprising a step of adapting the wear parameter so that it better characterizes real wear of the storage medium.
4. The recording method according to claim 2 , wherein the wear parameter is a degree of wear lying in the range 0 to 1 or in the range 0 to 100%.
5. The recording method according to claim 2 , wherein the wear parameter is a number of write/delete cycles.
6. The recording method according to claim 1 , wherein the optimum stream data rate is equal to the data rate of the received stream when the wear of the storage medium is less than or equal to a predetermined wear threshold, and is equal to the data rate of the received stream multiplied by a predetermined limiting ratio when the wear of the storage medium is greater than the predetermined wear threshold, the predetermined limiting ratio lying in the range 0 to 1.
7. The recording method according to claim 1 , wherein the optimum stream data rate is a linear function of the wear of the storage medium.
8. The recording method according to claim 1 , wherein the optimum stream data rate is a linear function of the wear of the storage medium until the wear reaches a predetermined wear threshold.
9. The recording method according to claim 1 , wherein the received stream is adapted by adjusting a data rate of the received stream so that the data rate of the received stream, and thus of the recorded stream, is equal to the optimum stream data rate.
10. The recording method according to claim 9 , wherein the data rate of the received stream is adjusted by specifying a target data rate to an external server that generates the stream.
11. The recording method according to claim 10 , wherein the target data rate is equal to the optimum stream data rate when that data rate is less than or equal to a maximum transfer data rate of a network over which the received stream passes, and wherein the target data rate is equal to the maximum transfer data rate of the network when the optimum stream data rate is greater than the maximum transfer data rate of the network.
12. The recording method according to claim 1 , wherein the received stream is adapted by transcoding the received stream in order to obtain the recorded stream.
13. The recording method according to claim 12 , wherein the transcoding consists in acting on an audio stream contained in the received stream.
14. The recording method according to claim 13 , wherein the action on the audio stream consists in eliminating an audio track corresponding to a language that is not desired, and/or in reducing the number of channels in the audio tracks, and/or in adjusting a compression ratio of a codec, and/or in changing the codec being used.
15. The recording method according to claim 12 , wherein the transcoding consists in acting on a video stream contained in the received stream.
16. The recording method according to claim 15 , wherein the action on the video stream consists in reducing the resolution of images in the video stream, and/or in adjusting the compression ratio of a codec, and/or in changing the codec in use.
17. The recording method according to claim 1 , used for performing a time-shifting type function.
18. The recording method according to claim 1 , used for performing a video surveillance function.
19. A set-top box including processor means arranged to perform the recording method according to claim 1 .
20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage device, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable storage device stores a computer program containing instructions for enabling equipment of the set-top box type to perform the recording method according to claim 1 .