Providing responsive video previews during rewind and fast forward

Abstract

The subject disclosure is directed towards on-demand downloading of trickplay images during fast forwarding or rewinding of streaming video. A next trickplay image is selected and downloaded based upon the fast forward or rewind rate and the current location in the video. To ensure sufficient download time, the trickplay image may be chosen with a specified quality/resolution based upon historical timing data (e.g., a running average) to adaptively adjust to network bandwidth changes.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising, determining a trickplay image to download based upon a fast forward or rewind rate, downloading the trickplay image, and presenting the trickplay image during a fast forward or rewind operation. 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising, while presenting the trickplay image, determining a next trickplay image to download based upon a fast forward or rewind rate and downloading the next trickplay image. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining the trickplay image to download comprises selecting the image based upon quality. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  further comprising, determining the quality based upon historical timing data. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising, maintaining the historical timing data as a running average. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising, updating the historical timing data based at least in part on a time taken with respect to downloading the trickplay image. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising, detecting a play operation request, and in response, obtaining a final trickplay image and presenting the final trickplay image until video streaming resumes. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining the trickplay image to download comprises evaluating a presentation rate of displaying trickplay images and a temporal spacing of available trickplay images for download. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein presenting the trickplay image during a fast forward or rewind operation comprises displaying a full screen representation of the trickplay image. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising, superimposing a timeline representation over the full screen representation of the trickplay image. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising, buffering at least part of an anticipated trickplay image. 
     
     
         12 . A system comprising, a memory, and a processor that is operatively coupled to the memory and which executes code stored in the memory, the processor, in response to execution of the code, being configured to operate as trickplay logic, the trickplay logic configured to select a trickplay image from among a set of trickplay images corresponding to streaming video content maintained at a server, based upon a fast forward or rewind rate and an estimated download time, and to display the trickplay image. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  12  wherein the estimated download time is used by the trickplay logic to select a resolution of the trickplay image. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  12  wherein the trickplay images are maintained at the server as subsets of one or more trickplay images per sampling time division. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  14  wherein at least one of the subsets comprises a plurality of different quality representations of a trickplay image. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  14  wherein one or more of the subsets comprise at least a higher and lower quality representation of each trickplay image per sampling time division of video. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  12  wherein the estimated download time corresponds to historical data maintained by the trickplay logic. 
     
     
         18 . One or more machine-readable storage media having machine-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:
 (a) entering a trickplay mode during a rewind or fast forward operation with respect to streaming video;   (b) selecting a trickplay image to present based at least in part upon a current rewind or fast forward rate;   (c) downloading the trickplay image from a remote source;   (d) presenting the trickplay image;   (e) at a presentation rate, returning to step (b) until the trickplay mode is exited.   
     
     
         19 . The one or more machine-readable storage media of  claim 18  wherein selecting the trickplay image further comprises determining the image based at least in part upon historical timing data that includes at least one previous download time. 
     
     
         20 . The one or more machine-readable storage media of  claim 18  having further instructions comprising, presenting a final trickplay image upon detecting that the trickplay mode is being exited.