Patent attributes
Various implementations disclosed herein enable a more efficient allocation of one or more shared network resources (e.g., bandwidth, memory, processor time, etc.) amongst a number of client devices based on media content data complexity and client device resource constraints in order to better manage perceptual playback quality of adaptive streaming content. In some implementations, a method includes aligning sequences of one or more temporal segments such that time boundaries of temporal segments across the sequences are in alignment; and, selecting segment representations for each temporal segment based on a combination of the sequence alignment and perceptual quality level values associated with available segment representations, such that a combination of resulting perceptual quality levels satisfies a joint quality criterion. Each sequence is associated with a respective one of a number of client devices sharing a network resource and an instance of a respective video stream. The one or more temporal segments of each sequence are used to provide segment representations of media content data to one of the client devices. The alignment of time boundaries of temporal segments is achieved at least in part by adjusting performance characteristics associated with at least some of the one or more temporal segments.
