Patent ID: 8924580

Claim:
A method, comprising: encoding by an encoding device a received content stream at a plurality of quality levels, each quality level explicitly specified as input to the encoder in preference to deriving the quality level from a specified average or maximum bitrate; fragmenting a plurality of encoded content streams at the plurality of quality levels into a plurality of chunks for each of the representations of the encoded content stream; and providing a manifest listing the plurality of representations and an explicit indication of the plurality of quality levels, wherein a first of the plurality of representations comprises a first set of the chunks at a first quality level, wherein the first set of the chunks comprises chunks of varying size, wherein a second of the plurality of representations comprises a second set of the chunks at a second quality level, wherein the second set of the chunks comprises chunks of varying size, the first and second quality levels explicitly indicated in the manifest, wherein the quality levels are explicitly expressed in terms of pre-determined Peak Signal-to-Noise decibels, and wherein the manifest file further contains time stamp information for the plurality of representations.