Patent ID: 8843983

Claim:
A method comprising: decomposing, by a device including a processor, a plurality of frames of a source video data stream, representing a version of video content, into a plurality of additional video data streams respectively representing additional versions of the video content, wherein the respective additional video data streams are of lower quality than the source video data stream, any two or more of the additional video data streams are combinable to generate a combined video data stream that is of higher quality than the respective additional video data streams, and the respective additional video data streams are based upon distinct assignment of pixels from blocks from which frames of the source video data stream have been divided to the respective additional video data streams; generating, by the device, metadata describing the distinct assignment of respective pixels from the blocks to the respective additional video data streams, respective timestamps identifying time positions of each frame of the respective additional video data streams or respective datastamps identifying byte positions of each frame of the respective additional video data streams and at least one of respective sizes of the blocks or respective quantities of blocks per frame of the source video data stream; and sending, by the device, the metadata to a client device.