Patent ID: 8437389

Claim:
A method, comprising: providing a plurality of video blocks for at least one of a plurality of bitstreams, each video block including a plurality of video segments and each video segment including a plurality of frames; determining a bit budget during an inspection period for the at least one of the plurality of bitstreams; parsing a header included in a video block corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of bitstreams to determine a plurality of bit rates used to encode a corresponding plurality of video segments included in the video block; selecting a video segment from the plurality of video segments included in the video block after parsing the header based at least in part on selecting a bit rate from the plurality of bit rates corresponding to the video segment that most substantially meets the bit budget; and providing the video segment selected from the plurality of video segments included in the video block to an output buffer; wherein each of the plurality of video segments included in the video block is independently decodable; wherein each video segment included in the video block includes a same portion of content as other plurality of video segments in the video block; and wherein each of the video segments comprises a bit rate different than a bit rate used to encode other of the plurality of video segments.