QBR Streaming

Traditional ABR streaming addresses the problem of video buffering by dynamically adapting to changes in network conditions. Because the ABR manifest contains only bitrate information the player is forced to assume that higher quality equals higher bitrate. It thus selects the highest bitrate allowed by network conditions. The relationship between quality and bitrate is complex and depends heavily on the content. For scenes with high motion or visual complexity there is a noticeable quality difference between bitrates. For simpler scenes, however, the quality difference between bitrates is often imperceptible. The result is that ABR streaming wastes bandwidth and increases costs to assure quality.

QBR solves this problem by adding quality information to the player’s decision-making process. The player’s use of both bitrate and quality information results in an increase in visual quality while reducing associated streaming costs.