Efficient Buffer Output Control for Multimedia Stream Playback

Abstract

Recently, it has become a major network application to use mobile devices to watch multimedia streams through the network or Internet. Buffer overflow/underflow caused by an unstable network(e.g. a weak wireless connection) is very likely to result in flickering or stuttering playback of a media stream. A general but complicated solution is to implement complex streaming protocol to control the output of stream data. However, it comes with higher development and maintenance costs and also reduces the flexibility of integrating compatible player software. In this paper, we propose an efficient playback buffer output control mechanism. The media timestamp, sleep instruction and system time are employed to regulate the output of stream data. Evaluation results prove that the proposed mechanism achieves high output accuracy and minimize output jitters of stream data.