Signaling and processing content with variable bitrates for adaptive streaming

1. A method for preparing media content for adaptive streaming, the method comprising:

determining a target quality for a media content that comprises a plurality of segments;

detecting a plurality of content types that indicate a plurality of complexities for the plurality of segments;

determining a plurality of bitrates for the plurality of content types using the target quality;

encoding the plurality of segments using the plurality of bitrates; and

generating description information indicating that the plurality of segments are encoded based on a variable bitrate encoding scheme in which each of the plurality of segments is encoded using a different bitrate of the plurality of bitrates, wherein the description information further comprises the different bitrate that corresponds to each of the plurality of segments.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the description information is a representation element within a Media Presentation Description used for a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (DASH).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the segments are encoded with a constant quality determined by the target quality.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the constant quality determined by the target quality is indicated in a Media Presentation Description.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a second description information, wherein the second description information provides information on how the plurality of segments are encoded using a second target quality.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a plurality of second bitrates are used to encode the segments that meet the second target quality.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of bitrates for each of the content types produce a quality that meets the target quality, and wherein the target quality is specified as a range of a quality metric.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein more complex content types are assigned with higher bitrates and less complex content types are assigned with lower bitrates.

9. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on a non-transitory medium that when executed by a processor causes a node to perform the following:

determine a plurality of bitrates for a plurality of content types using a target quality for a media content that comprises a plurality of media segments, the plurality of content types indicating a plurality of complexities for the plurality of media segments;

encode the plurality of media segments using the plurality of bitrates;

transmit a presentation description that provides information about the plurality of media segments; and

transmit the plurality of media segments for a media presentation,

wherein the presentation description comprises a representation element-indicating that the media presentation is encoded based on a variable bitrate encoding scheme in which each of the plurality of media segments is associated with a different bitrate, and wherein the representation element comprises a bitrate of the plurality of bitrates for a media segment described by the representation element.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the presentation description further comprises a plurality of segment bandwidth elements that indicate encoded bitrates for the media segments.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the segment bandwidth elements are not located within the presentation description when the media presentation is encoded as constant bitrate streams.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements comprise a bandwidth attribute that specifies a bitrate for one or more media segments.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements further comprise a second attribute that specifies a number of media segments that correspond to each of the segment bandwidth elements, and wherein the bitrate is the same for the media segments associated with the segment bandwidth elements.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the segment bandwidth elements are embedded into one or more segment timeline elements.

15. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the presentation description further comprises a second representation element, and wherein the second representation element provides a different media content quality than the representation element.

16. A method for adaptively streaming media content, the method comprising:

determining, by a server, a target quality for a media content that comprises a plurality of segments;

detecting, by the server, a plurality of content types that indicate a plurality of complexities for the plurality of segments;

determining, by the server, a plurality of bitrates for the plurality of content types using the target quality;

encoding, by the server, the plurality of segments using the plurality of bitrates;

transmitting, by the server to a network receiver, a presentation description that provides information about the plurality of segments, wherein the presentation description comprises a representation element indicating whether the media content is provisioned as segments with different bitrates, and wherein the representation element comprises a bitrate of the plurality of bitrates for a media segment described by the representation element; and

transmitting, by the server to the network receiver, the plurality of segments for a media presentation.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising generating description information that indicates that one or more of the plurality of segments have different bitrates.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the description information is a representation within a Media Presentation Description used for a Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (DASH).

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the presentation description further comprises a plurality of segment bandwidth elements that indicate encoded bitrates for the plurality of segments, and wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements comprise a bandwidth attribute that specifies a bitrate for one or more of the plurality of segments.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein each of the segment bandwidth elements further comprise a second attribute that specifies a number of the plurality of segments that correspond to each of the segment bandwidth elements, and wherein the bitrate is the same for the plurality of segments associated with the segment bandwidth elements.

21. The method of claim 19 , wherein at least one of the segment bandwidth elements are embedded into one or more segment timeline elements.