Patent ID: 8990351
Filing Date: 2015-03-24
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method, comprising: sending a first request to a content server for a media stream; receiving a first plurality of packets associated with a first quality level media stream from the content server; beginning playback of the first quality level media stream at a first client device; dynamically monitoring hardware resource usage at the first client device; determining that the hardware resource usage at the first client device exceeds a threshold; sending a signal to the content server to reduce the quality of the first quality level media stream; sending a subsequent signal to the content server to increase the quality of the media stream after determining that sufficient processing resources, memory resource, and decoder resources have been available at the first client device for a predetermined period of time and sufficient network resources are currently available, wherein processor usage at the first client device is reported periodically to the content server; wherein resource usage at the first client device exceeds the threshold when decoder delay at the first client device exceeds a decoder delay threshold, wherein decoder delay results when a packet received by the first client device cannot yet be processed because decoder hardware is performing other tasks.