Patent ID: 7617509

Claim:
A system for monitoring quality of service of play out of a digital video program, the system comprising: a program source to, encode each frame of the digital video program with a first unique signature that identifies the frame as being associated with the digital video program; create a meta-stream for the digital video program, the meta-stream including a play-out schedule for the digital video program and a length of the digital video program; and prior to play-out of the digital video program, transmit the meta-stream to a play-out device; and the play-out device to compute statistics associated with play-out of the digital video program, the play-out device including, a signature engine to generate a second unique signature for each frame of the digital video program being played out; and a matching engine to compare the second unique signature generated for each frame with a corresponding first unique signature encoded with the frame, compare a time of the play-out of the digital video program with a time specified in the play-out schedule, and compare an actual duration of the play-out of the digital video program with the length of the digital video program specified in the meta-stream.