Patent ID: 8189472
Filing Date: 2012-05-29
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method for optimizing bandwidth utilization to a subscriber premises, the method comprising: receiving at a location remote from a settop attributes of a display device ascertained through the settop, the display device capable of providing up to a predetermined level of perceived picture quality; generating at the location remote from the settop a plurality of compressed versions of video content, wherein each of the compressed versions of content exhibits a set of compression characteristics that is different from the others; determining at the location remote from the settop which version of the plurality of compressed versions of video content has the set of compression characteristics most optimal for the display device, wherein the most optimal set of compression characteristics includes a data rate of the video content sufficient to provide a defined predetermined perceived picture quality of the video content to be displayed on the display device based upon the attributes, wherein the determined data rate does not degrade the predetermined level; receiving at a system resource manager a request for the video content from the settop, wherein the request for the video content includes an identifying tag related to the attributes, the request transmitted from the settop to the system resource manager, the system resource manager configured to manage bandwidth allocation; receiving by the system resource manager the attributes stored in a database corresponding to the system resource manager, the attributes received responsive to indexing based on the identifying tag; selecting the version of the video content having the set of compression characteristics most optimal for the display device; allocating bandwidth for transmission of the selected version of the video content so that the predetermined level is maintained; and receiving metadata within the video content, the metadata corresponding to a type of the video content, the type of video content requiring a different compression computational complexity between a first content type and a second content type, wherein the determining, selecting, and allocating are further based on the metadata.