Patent ID: 8683071

Claim:
A method for supporting time shift playback in a client device for Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) streaming transmission, comprising: sending a live media presentation description (MPD) request message to a media server; receiving a response message returned from the media server that comprises a first MPD for a current first time period, wherein the first MPD comprises media presentation information for other time periods, and wherein the media presentation information comprises a second time period and an address of a second MPD for the second time period; determining that a moment of a media segment to be requested currently exceeds a time range corresponding to the first MPD; determining, according to the second time period in the first MPD, the address of the second MPD for the second time period comprised in the media presentation information corresponding to the media segment to be requested currently; acquiring the second MPD according to the address of the second MPD; and requesting, from the media server according to the acquired second MPD, the media segment to be requested currently.