Media Fragments URI 1.0 (original) (raw)

1 Introduction

Audio and video resources on the World Wide Web are currently treated as "foreign" objects, which can only be embedded using a plugin that is capable of decoding and interacting with the media resource. Specific media servers are generally required to provide for server-side features such as direct access to time offsets into a video without the need to retrieve the entire resource. Support for such media fragment access varies between different media formats and inhibits standard means of dealing with such content on the Web.

This specification provides for a media-format independent, standard means of addressing media fragments on the Web using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). In the context of this document, media fragments are regarded along three different dimensions: temporal, spatial, and tracks. Further, a fragment can be marked with a name and then addressed through a URI using that name. The specified addressing schemes apply mainly to audio and video resources - the spatial fragment addressing may also be used on images.

The aim of this specification is to enhance the Web infrastructure for supporting the addressing and retrieval of subparts of time-based Web resources, as well as the automated processing of such subparts for reuse. Example uses are the sharing of such fragment URIs with friends via email, the automated creation of such fragment URIs in a search engine interface, or the annotation of media fragments with RDF. Such use case examples as well as other side conditions on this specification and a survey of existing media fragment addressing approaches are provided in the requirements Use cases and requirements for Media Fragmentsdocument that accompanies this specification document.

The media fragment URIs specified in this document have been implemented and demonstrated to work with media resources over the HTTP protocol. This specification is not defining the protocol aspect of RTSP handling of a media fragment in the normative sections. We expect the media fragment URI syntax to be generic and a possible mapping between this syntax and RTSP messages can be found in an appendix of this specification D Processing media fragment URIs in RTSP. Existing media formats in their current representations and implementations provide varying degrees of support for this specification. It is expected that over time, media formats, media players, Web Browsers, media and Web servers, as well as Web proxies will be extended to adhere to the full specification. This specification will help make video a first-class citizen of the World Wide Web.

2 Standardisation Issues

2.1 Terminology

The keywords MUST, MUST NOT,SHOULD and SHOULD NOT are to be interpreted as defined in RFC 2119.

According to RFC 3986, the term "URI" does not include relative references. In this document, we consider both URIs and relative references. Consequently, we use the term "URI reference" as defined in RFC 3986 (section 4.1). For simplicity reasons, this document, however, only uses the term "media fragment URI" in place of "media fragment URI reference".

The following terms are used frequently in this document and need to be clearly understood:

2.2 Media Fragments Standardisation

The basis for the standardisation of media fragment URIs is the URI specification, RFC 3986. Providing media fragment identification information in URIs refers here to the specification of the structure of a URI fragment or a URI query. This document will explain how URI fragments and URI queries are structured to identify media fragments. It normalises the name-value parameters used in URI fragments and URI queries to address media fragments. These build on existing CGI parameter conventions.

In this section, we look at implications of standardising the structure of media fragment URIs.

2.2.1 URI Fragments

The URI specification RFC 3986 says about the format of a URI fragment in Section 3.5:

"The fragment's format and resolution is [..] dependent on the media type [RFC2046] of a potentially retrieved representation. [..] Fragment identifier semantics are independent of the URI scheme and thus cannot be redefined by scheme specifications."

This essentially means that only media type definitions (as registered through the process defined in RFC 4288) are able to introduce a standard structure on URI fragments for that mime type. One part of the registration process of a media type can include information about how fragment identifiers in URIs are constructed for use in conjunction with this media type.

Note that the registration of URI fragment construction rules as expressed in Section 4.11 of RFC 4288 is only a SHOULD-requirement. An analysis of all media type registrations showed that there is not a single media type registration in the audio/*, image/*, video/* branches that is currently defining fragments or fragment semantics.

The Media Fragment WG has no authority to update registries of all targeted media types. To the best of our knowledge there are only few media types that actually have a specified fragment format even if it is not registered with the media type: these include Ogg, MPEG-4, and MPEG-21. Further, only a small number of software packages actually supports these fragment formats. For all others, the semantics of the fragment are considered to be unknown.

As such, the intention of this document is to propose a specification to all media type owners in the audio/*, image/*, and video/* branches for a structured approach to URI fragments and for specification of commonly agreed dimensions to address media fragments (i.e. subparts of a media resource) through URI fragments. We recommend media type owners to harmonize their existing schemes with the ones proposed in this document and update or add the fragment semantics specification to their media type registration.

2.2.2 URI Queries

The URI specification RFC 3986 says about the format of a URI query in Section 3.4:

"The query component [..] serves to identify a resource within the scope of the URI's scheme and naming authority (if any). [..] Query components are often used to carry identifying information in the form of "key=value" pairs [..]."

URI query specifications are more closely linked to the URI scheme, some of which do not even use a query component. We are mostly concerned with the HTTPRFC 2616 and the RTP/RTSP rfc2326 protocols here, which both support query components. HTTP says nothing about how a URI query has to be interpreted. RTSP explicitly says that fragment and query identifiers do not have a well-defined meaning at this time, with the interpretation left to the RTSP server.

The URI specification RFC 3986 says generally that the data within the URI is often parsed by both the user agent and one or more servers. It refers in particular to HTTP in Section 7.3:

"In HTTP, for example, a typical user agent will parse a URI into its five major components, access the authority's server, and send it the data within the authority, path, and query components. A typical server will take that information, parse the path into segments and the query into key/value pairs, and then invoke implementation-specific handlers to respond to the request."

Since the interpretation of query components resides with the functionality of servers, the intention of this document wrt query components is to recommend standard name-value pair formats for use in addressing media fragments through URI queries. We recommend server and server-type software providers to harmonize their existing schemes in use with media resources to support the nomenclature proposed in this specification.

3 URI fragment and URI query

| Editorial note | | | ----------------------------- | | | This section is non-normative | |

To address a media fragment, one needs to find ways to convey the fragment information. This specification builds on URIs RFC 3986. Every URI is defined as consisting of four parts, as follows:

: [ ? ] [ # ]

There are therefore two possibilities for representing the media fragment addressing in URIs: the URI query part or the URI fragment part.

3.1 When to choose URI fragments? When to choose URI queries?

For media fragment addressing, both approaches - URI query and URI fragment - are useful.

The main difference between a URI query and a URI fragment is that a URI query produces a new resource, while a URI fragment provides a secondary resource that has a relationship to the primary resource. URI fragments are resolved from the primary resource without another retrieval action. This means that a user agent should be capable to resolve a URI fragment on a resource it has already received without having to fetch more data from the server.

A further requirement put on a URI fragment is that the media type of the retrieved fragment should be the same as the media type of the primary resource. Among other things, this means that a URI fragment that points to a single video frame out of a longer video results in a one-frame video, not in a still image. To extract a still image, one would need to create a URI query scheme - something not envisaged here, but easy to devise.

There are different types of media fragment addressing in this specification. As noted in the Use cases and requirements for Media Fragments document (section "Fitness Conditions on Media Containers/Resources"): not all container formats and codecs are "fit" for supporting the different types of fragment URIs. "Fitness" relates to the fact that a media fragment can be extracted from the primary resource without syntax element modifications or transcoding of the bitstream.

Resources that are "fit" can therefore be addressed with a URI fragment. Resources that are "conditionally fit" can be addressed with a URI fragment with an additional retrieval action that retrieves the modified syntax elements but leaves the codec data untouched. Resources that are "unfit" require transcoding. Such transcoded media fragments cannot be addressed with URI fragments, but only with URI queries.

Therefore, when addressing a media fragment with the URI mechanism, the author has to know whether this media fragment can be produced from the (primary) resource itself without any transcoding activities or whether it requires transcoding. In the latter case, the only choice is to use a URI query and to use a server that supports transcoding and delivery of a (primary) derivative resource to satisfy the query.

3.2 Resolving URI fragments within the user agent

A user agent may itself resolve and control the presentation of media fragment URIs. The simplest case arises where the user agent has already downloaded the entire resource and can perform the extraction from its locally cached copy. For some media types, it may also be possible to perform the extraction over the network without any special protocol assistance. For temporal fragments this requires a user agent to be able to seek on the media resource using existing protocol mechanisms.

An example of a URI fragment used to address a media fragment ishttp://www.example.org/video.ogv#t=60,100. In this case, the user agent knows that the primary resource ishttp://www.example.org/video.ogv and that it is only expected to display the portion of the primary resource that relates to the fragment#t=60,100, i.e. seconds 60-100. Thus, the relationship between the primary resource and the media fragment is maintained.

In traditional URI fragment retrieval, a user agent requests the complete primary resource from the server and then applies the fragmentation locally. In the media fragment case, this would result in a retrieval action on the complete media resource, on which the user agent would then locally perform its fragment extraction - something generally unviable for such large resources.

Therefore, media resources are not always retrieved over HTTP using a single request. They may be retrieved as a sequence of byte range requests on the original resource URI, or may be retrieved as a sequence of requests to different URIs each representing a small part of the media. The reasons for such mechanisms include bandwidth conservation, where a client chooses to space requests out over time during playback in order to maximize bandwidth available for other activities, and bandwidth adaptation, where a client selects among various representations with varying bitrate depending on the current bandwidth availability.

A user agent that knows how to map media fragments to byte ranges will be able to satisfy a URI fragment request such as the above example by itself. This is typically the case for user agents that know how to seek to media fragments over the network. For example, a user agent that deals with a media file that includes an index of its seekable structures can resolve the media fragment addresses to byte ranges from the index. This is the case e.g. with seekable QuickTime files. Another example is a user agent that knows how to seek on a media file through a sequence of byte range requests and eventually receives the correct media fragment. This is the case e.g. with Ogg files in Firefox versions above 3.5.

Similarly, a user agent that knows how to map media fragments to a sequence of URIs can satisfy a URI fragment request by itself. This is typically the case for user agents that perform adaptive streaming. For example, a user agent that deals with a media resource that contains a sequence of URIs, each a media file of a few seconds duration, can resolve the media fragment addresses to a subsequence of those URIs. This is the case with QuickTime adaptive bitrate streaming or IIS Smooth Streaming.

If such a user agent natively supports the media fragment syntax as specified in this document, it is deemed conformant to this specification for fragments and for the particular dimension.

3.3 Resolving URI fragments with server help

For user agents that natively support the media fragment syntax, but have to use their own seeking approach, this specification provides an optimisation that can make the byte offset seeking more efficient. It requires a conformant server with which the user agent will follow a protocol defined later in this document.

In this approach, the user agent asks the server to do the byte range mapping for the media fragment address itself and send back the appropriate byte ranges. This can not be done through the URI, but has to be done through adding protocol headers. User agents that interact with a conformant server to follow this protocol will receive the appropriate byte ranges directly and will not need to do costly seeking over the network.

Note that it is important that the server also informs the user agent what actual media fragment range it was able to retrieve. This is important since in the compressed domain it is not possible to extract data at an arbitrary resolution, but only at the resolution that the data was packaged in. For example, even if a user asked forhttp://www.example.org/video.ogv#t=60,100 and the user agent sent a range request of t=60,100 to the server, the server may only be able to return the range t=58,103 as the closest decodable range that encapsulates all the required data.

Note that if done right, the native user agent support for media fragments and the improved server support can be integrated without problems: the user agent just needs to include the byte range and the media fragment range request in one request. A server that does not understand the media fragment range request will only react to the byte ranges, while a server that understands them will ignore the byte range request and only reply with the correct byte ranges. The user agent will understand from the response whether it received a reply to the byte ranges or the media fragment ranges request and can react accordingly.

3.4 Resolving URI fragments in a proxy cacheable manner

The current setup of the World Wide Web relies heavily on the use of caching Web proxies to speed up the delivery of content. In the case of URI fragments that are resolved by the server as indicated in the previous section, existing Web proxies have no means of caching these requests since they only understand byte ranges.

To make use of the existing Web proxy infrastructure of the Web, we need to make sure that the user agent only asks for byte ranges, so they can be served from the cache. This is possible if the server - instead of replying with the actual data - replies with the mapped byte ranges for the requested media fragment range. Then, the user agent is able to resend his range request this time with bytes only, which can possibly already be satisfied from the cache. Details of this will be specified later.

| Editorial note: Raphael | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Should we not foresee future "smart" media caches that would be able to actually cache range request in other units than bytes? | |

3.5 Resolving URI queries

The described URI fragment addressing methods only work for byte-identical segments of a media resource, since we assume a simple mapping between the media fragment and bytes that each infrastructure element can deal with. Where it is impossible to maintain byte-identity and some sort of transcoding of the resource is necessary, the user agent is not able to resolve the fragmentation by itself and a server interaction is required. In this case, URI queries have to be used since they result in a server interaction and can deliver a transcoded resource.

Another use for URI queries is when a user agent actually wants to receive a completely new resource instead of just a byte range from an existing (primary) resource. This is, for example, the case for playlists of media fragment resources. Even if a media fragment could be resolved through a URI fragment, the URI query may be more desirable since it does not carry with itself the burden of the original primary resource - its file headers may be smaller, its duration may be smaller, and it does not automatically allow access to the remainder of the original primary resource.

When URI queries are used, the retrieval action has to additionally make sure to create a fully valid new resource. For example, for the Ogg format, this implies a reconstruction of Ogg headers to accurately describe the new resource (e.g. a non-zero start-time or different encoding parameters). Such a resource will be cached in Web proxies as a different resource to the original primary resource.

An example URI query that includes a media fragment specification ishttp://www.example.org/video.ogv?t=60,100. This results in a video of duration 40s (assuming the original video was more than 100s long).

Note that this resource has no per-se relationship to the original primary resource. As a user agent uses such a URI with e.g. a HTML5 video element, the browser has no knowledge about the original resource and can only display this video as a 40s long video starting at 0s. The context of the original resource is lost.

A user agent may want to display the original start time of the resource as the start time of the video in order to be consistent with the information in the URI. It is possible to achieve this in one of two ways: either the video file itself has some knowledge that it is an extract from a different file and starts at an offset - or the user agent is told through the retrieval action which original primary resource the retrieved resource relates to and can find out information about it through another retrieval action. This latter option will be regarded later in this document.

An example for a media resource that has knowledge about itself of the required kind are Ogg files. Ogg files that have a skeleton track and were created correctly from the primary resource will know that their start time is not 0s but 60s in the above example. The browser can simply parse this information out of the received bitstream and may display a timeline that starts at 60s and ends at 100s in the video controls if it so desires.

Another option is that the browser parses the URI and knows about how media resources have a fragment specification that follows a standard. Then the browser can interpret the query parameters and extract the correct start and end times and also the original primary resource. It can then also display a timeline that starts at 60s and ends at 100s in the video controls. Further it can allow a right-click menu to click through to the original resource if required.

A use case where the video controls may neither start at 0s nor at 60s is a mashed-up video created through a list of media fragment URIs. In such a playlist, the user agent may prefer to display a single continuous timeline across all the media fragments rather than a collection of individual timelines for each fragment. Thus, the 60s to 100s fragment may e.g. be mapped to an interval at 3min20 to 4min.

No new protocol headers are required to execute a URI query for media fragment retrieval. Some optional protocol headers that improve the information exchange will be recommended later in this document.

3.6 Combining URI fragments and URI queries

A combination of a URI query for a media fragment with a URI fragment yields a URI fragment resolution on top of the newly created resource. Since a URI with a query part creates a new resource, we have to do the fragment offset on the new resource. This is simply a conformant behaviour to the URI standardRFC 3986.

For example, http://www.example.org/video.ogv?t=60,100#t=20will lead to the 20s fragment offset being applied to the new resource starting at 60 going to 100. Thus, the reply to this is a 40s long resource whose playback will start at an offset of 20s.

| Editorial note: Silvia | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | | We should at the end of the document set up a table with all the different addressing types and http headers and say what we deem is conformant and how to find out whether a server or user agent is conformant or not. | |

4 Media Fragments Syntax

This section describes the external representation of a media fragment specifier, and how this should be interpreted.

Guiding principles for the definition of the media fragments syntax were as follows:

4.1 General Structure

A list of name-value pairs is encoded in the query or fragment component of a URI. The name and value components are separated by an equal sign (=), while multiple name-value pairs are separated by an ampersand (&).

name = fragment - "&" - "=" value = fragment - "&" namevalue = name [ "=" value ] namevalues = namevalue *( "&" namevalue )

The names and values can be arbitrary Unicode strings, encoded in UTF-8 and percent-encoded as per RFC 3986. Here are some examples of URIs with name-value pairs in the fragment component, to demonstrate the general structure:

http://www.example.com/example.ogv#a=b&c=d http://www.example.com/example.ogv#t=10,20 http://www.example.com/example.ogv#track=audio&t=10,20 http://www.example.com/example.ogv#id=Cap%C3%ADtulo%202

While arbitrary name-value pairs can be encoded in this manner, this specification defines a fixed set of dimensions. The dimension keyword name is encoded in the name component, while dimension-specific syntax is encoded in the value component.

Section 5.1.1 Processing name-value components defines in more detail how to process the name-value pair syntax, arriving at a list of name-value Unicode string pairs. The syntax definitions in 4.2 Fragment Dimensions apply to these Unicode strings.

4.2 Fragment Dimensions

Media fragments support addressing the media along four dimensions:

temporal

This dimension denotes a specific time range in the original media, such as "starting at second 10, continuing until second 20";

spatial

this dimension denotes a specific range of pixels in the original media, such as "a rectangle with size (100,100) with its top-left at coordinate (10,10)";

track

this dimension denotes one or more tracks in the original media, such as "the english audio and the video track";

named

this dimension denotes a named section of the original media, such as "chapter 2".

The temporal, spatial and track dimensions are logically independent and can be combined; the outcome is independent of the order of the dimensions.

The track dimension refers to one of a set of parallel media streams (e.g. "the english audio track for a video"), not to a (possibly self-contained) section of the source media (e.g. "Audio track 2 of a CD").

The name dimension cannot be combined with the other dimensions, because the semantics depend on the underlying source media format: some media formats support naming of temporal extents, others support naming of groups of tracks, etc. Error semantics are discussed in 6 Media Fragments Semantics.

4.2.1 Temporal Dimension

Temporal clipping is denoted by the name t, and specified as an interval with a begin time and an end time (or an in-point and an out-point, in video editing terms). Either or both may be omitted, with the begin time defaulting to 0 seconds and the end time defaulting to the duration of the source media. The interval is half-open: the begin time is considered part of the interval whereas the end time is considered to be the first time point that is not part of the interval. If a single number only is given, this is the begin time.

Examples:

t=10,20 # => results in the time interval [10,20) t=,20 # => results in the time interval [0,20) t=10, # => results in the time interval [10,end) t=10 # => also results in the time interval [10,end)

Temporal clipping can be specified either as Normal Play Time (npt) RFC 2326, as SMPTE timecodes, SMPTE, or as real-world clock time (clock) RFC 2326. Begin and end times are always specified in the same format. The format is specified by name, followed by a colon (:), with npt: being the default.

timeprefix = %x74 ; "t" timeparam = npttimedef / smptetimedef / clocktimedef

In this version of the media fragments specification there is no extensibility mechanism to add time format specifiers.

4.2.1.1 Normal Play Time (NPT)

Normal Play Time can either be specified as seconds, with an optional fractional part to indicate miliseconds, or as colon-separated hours, minutes and seconds (again with an optional fraction). Minutes and seconds must be specified as exactly two digits, hours and fractional seconds can be any number of digits. The hours, minutes and seconds specification for NPT is a convenience only, it does not signal frame accuracy. The specification of the "npt:" identifier is optional since NPT is the default time scheme. This specification builds on the RTSP specification of NPT RFC 2326.

npt-sec = 1*DIGIT [ "." *DIGIT ] ; definitions taken npt-hhmmss = npt-hh ":" npt-mm ":" npt-ss [ "." *DIGIT] ; from RFC 2326, npt-mmss = npt-mm ":" npt-ss [ "." DIGIT] npt-hh = 1DIGIT ; any positive number npt-mm = 2DIGIT ; 0-59 npt-ss = 2DIGIT ; 0-59

npttimedef = [ deftimeformat ":"] ( npttime [ "," npttime ] ) / ( "," npttime )

deftimeformat = %x6E.70.74 ; "npt" npttime = npt-sec / npt-mmss / npt-hhmmss

Examples:

t=npt:10,20 # => results in the time interval [10,20) t=npt:120, # => results in the time interval [120,end) t=npt:,121.5 # => results in the time interval [0,121.5) t=0:02:00,121.5 # => results in the time interval [120,121.5) t=npt:120,0:02:01.5 # => also results in the time interval [120,121.5)

4.2.1.2 SMPTE time codes

SMPTE time codes are a way to address a specific frame (or field) without running the risk of rounding errors causing a different frame to be selected. The format is always colon-separated hours, minutes, seconds and frames. Frames are optional, defaulting to 00. If the source format has a further subdivison of frames (such as odd/even fields in interlaced video) these can be specified further with a number after a dot (.). The SMPTE format name must always be specified, because the interpretation of the fields depends on the format. The SMPTE formats supported in this version of the specification are:

smpte is a synonym for smpte-30.

smptetimedef = smpteformat ":"( frametime [ "," frametime ] ) / ( "," frametime ) smpteformat = %x73.6D.70.74.65 ; "smpte" / %x73.6D.70.74.65.2D.32.35 ; "smpte-25" / %x73.6D.70.74.65.2D.33.30 ; "smpte-30" / %x73.6D.70.74.65.2D.33.30.2D.64.72.6F.70 ; "smpte-30-drop" frametime = 1*DIGIT ":" 2DIGIT ":" 2DIGIT [ ":" 2DIGIT [ "." 2DIGIT ] ]

Examples:

t=smpte-30:0:02:00,0:02:01:15 # => results in the time interval [120,121.5) t=smpte-25:0:02:00:00,0:02:01:12.40 # => results in the time interval [120,121.5) # (80 or 100 subframes per frame seem typical)

Using SMPTE timecodes may result in frame-accurate begin and end times, but only if the timecode format used in the media fragment specifier is the same as that used in the original media item.

4.2.1.3 Wall-clock time code

Wall-clock time codes are a way to address real-world clock time that is associated typically with a live video stream. These are the same time codes that are being used by RTSP RFC 2326, by SMILSMIL, and by HTML5 HTML 5. The scheme uses ISO 8601 UTC timestamps (http://www.iso.org/iso/date\_and\_time\_format). The format separates the date from the time with a "T" character and the string ends with "Z", which includes time zone capabilities. To that effect, the ABNF grammar is referring toRFC 3339, which include the relevant part of ISO 8601 in ABNF form. The time scheme identifier is "clock".

datetime = <date-time, defined in RFC 3339>

clocktimedef = clockformat ":"( clocktime [ "," clocktime ] ) / ( "," clocktime ) clockformat = %x63.6C.6F.63.6B ; "clock" clocktime = (datetime / walltime / date)

; WARNING: if your date-time contains '+' (or any other reserved character, per RFC 3986), ; it should be percent-encoded when used in a URI.

For convenience, the definition is copied here

; defined in RFC 3339 ; date-fullyear = 4DIGIT date-month = 2DIGIT ; 01-12 date-mday = 2DIGIT ; 01-28, 01-29, 01-30, 01-31 based on ; month/year time-hour = 2DIGIT ; 00-23 time-minute = 2DIGIT ; 00-59 time-second = 2DIGIT ; 00-58, 00-59, 00-60 based on leap second ; rules time-secfrac = "." 1*DIGIT time-numoffset = ("+" / "-") time-hour ":" time-minute time-offset = "Z" / time-numoffset

partial-time = time-hour ":" time-minute ":" time-second [time-secfrac] full-date = date-fullyear "-" date-month "-" date-mday full-time = partial-time time-offset

date-time = full-date "T" full-time

Examples:

t=clock:2009-07-26T11:19:01Z,2009-07-26T11:20:01Z # => results in a 1 min interval # on 26th Jul 2009 from 11hrs, 19min, 1sec t=clock:2009-07-26T11:19:01Z # => starts on 26th Jul 2009 from 11hrs, 19min, 1sec t=clock:,2009-07-26T11:20:01Z # => ends on 26th Jul 2009 from 11hrs, 20min, 1sec

4.2.2 Spatial Dimension

Spatial clipping selects an area of pixels from visual media streams. For this release of the media fragment specification, only rectangular selections are supported. The rectangle can be specified as pixel coordinates or percentages.

Pixels coordinates are interpreted after taking into account the resource's dimensions, aspect ratio, clean aperture, resolution, and so forth, as defined for the format used by the resource. If an anamorphic format does not define how to apply the aspect ratio to the video data's dimensions to obtain the "correct" dimensions, then the user agent must apply the ratio by increasing one dimension and leaving the other unchanged.

Rectangle selection is denoted by the name xywh. The value is an optional format pixel: or percent: (defaulting to pixel) and 4 comma-separated integers. The integers denote x, y, width and height, respectively, with x=0, y=0 being the top left corner of the image. If percent is used, x and width are interpreted as a percentage of the width of the original media, and y and height are interpreted as a percentage of the original height.

xywhprefix = %x78.79.77.68 ; "xywh" xywhparam = [ xywhunit ":" ] 1DIGIT "," 1DIGIT "," 1DIGIT "," 1DIGIT xywhunit = %x70.69.78.65.6C ; "pixel" / %x70.65.72.63.65.6E.74 ; "percent"

Examples:

xywh=160,120,320,240 # => results in a 320x240 box at x=160 and y=120 xywh=pixel:160,120,320,240 # => results in a 320x240 box at x=160 and y=120 xywh=percent:25,25,50,50 # => results in a 50%x50% box at x=25% and y=25%

4.2.3 Track Dimension

Track selection allows the extraction of tracks (audio, video, subtitles, etc) from a media container that supports multiple tracks. Track selection is denoted by the name track. The value is a string. Percent-escaping can be used in the string to specify unsafe characters (including separators such as semi-colon), see the grammar below for details. Multiple track specification is allowed, but requires the specification of multiple track parameters. Interpretation of the string depends on the container format of the original media: some formats allow numbers only, some allow full names.

trackprefix = %x74.72.61.63.6B ; "track" trackparam = unistring

Examples:

track=1 # => results in only extracting track 1 track=video&track=subtitle # => results in extracting track 'video' and track 'subtitle' track=Wide%20Angle%20Video # => results in only extracting track 'Wide Angle Video'

As the allowed track names are determined by the original source media, this information has to be known before construction of the media fragment. There is no support for generic media type names (audio, video) across container formats: most container formats allow multiple tracks of each media type, which would lead to ambiguities. Note that there are existing discovery mechanisms for retrieving the track names of a media resource, such as the Rich Open multitrack media Exposition format (ROE) ROE or the Media Annotations API Media Annotations.

| Editorial note: Davy | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | We can also reference the HTML5 Media Multitrack API here, when it's mentioned in the HTML5 spec. | |

4.2.4 Named Dimension

Name-based selection is denoted by the name id, with the value being a string enclosed in single quotes. Percent-escaping can be used in the string to include unsafe characters such as a single quote, see the grammer below for details. Interpretation of the string depends on the underlying container format: some container formats support named chapters or numbered chapters (leading to temporal clipping), some may support naming of groups of tracks or other objects. As with track selection, determining which names are valid requires knowledge of the original media item.

nameprefix = %x69.64 ; "id" nameparam = unistring

Examples:

id=1 # => results in only extracting the section called '1' id=chapter-1 # => results in only extracting the section called 'chapter-1' id=Airline%20Edit # => results in only extracting the section called 'Airline Edit'

Note that, despite the use of the name id, there is no correspondence to XML id: the values are uninterpreted strings, from the point of view of media fragment handling.

4.2.5 Common Syntax

DIGIT = <DIGIT, defined in RFC 5234> pchar = <pchar, defined in RFC 3986> unreserved = <unreserved, defined in RFC 3986> pct-encoded = <pct-encoded, defined in RFC 3986> fragment = <pct-encoded, defined in RFC 3986>

unichar = unistring = *unichar

For convenience, the following definitions are copied here. Only the definitions in the original documents are considered normative

; defined in RFC 5234 ALPHA = %x41-5A / %x61-7A ; A-Z / a-z DIGIT = %x30-39 ; 0-9 HEXDIG = DIGIT / "A" / "B" / "C" / "D" / "E" / "F"

; defined in RFC 3986 unreserved = ALPHA / DIGIT / "-" / "." / "_" / "~" pct-encoded = "%" HEXDIG HEXDIG sub-delims = "!" / "$" / "&" / "'" / "(" / ")" / "*" / "+" / "," / ";" / "=" pchar = unreserved / pct-encoded / sub-delims / ":" / "@" fragment = *( pchar / "/" / "?" )

5 Media Fragments Processing

This section defines the different exchange scenarios for the situations explained in section 3 URI fragment and URI query over the HTTP protocol.

The formal grammar defined in the section 4 Media Fragments Syntax describes what producers of media fragment should output. It is not taking into account possible percent-encoding that are valid according to RFC 3986 and the grammar is not a specification of how a media fragment should be parsed. Therefore, section 5.1 Processing Media Fragment URI defines how to parse media fragment URIs.

In a well known context where the MIME TYPE of the resource requested is known, various recipes are proposed depending on the dimension addressed in the media fragment URI, the container and codec formats used by the media resource, or some advanced processing features implemented by the User Agent. Hence, if the container format of the media resource is fully indexable (e.g. MP4, Ogg or WebM) and if the time dimension is requested in the media fragment URI, the User Agent MAY priviledge the recipe described in the section 5.2 Protocol for URI fragment Resolution in HTTP since it will be in a position of issuing directly a normal RANGE request expressed in terms of byte ranges. On the other hand, if the container format of the media resource is a legacy format such as AVI, the Use Agent MAY priviledge the recipe described in the section 5.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges, issuing a RANGE request expressed with a custom unit such as seconds and waiting for the server to provide the mapping in terms of byte ranges. Finally, if the track dimension is requested in the media fragment URI, the User Agent MAY priviledge the recipe described in the section 5.2.3 Server triggered redirect.

The User Agent MAY also implement a so-called optimistic processing of URI fragments in particular cases where the MIME TYPE of the resource requested is not yet known. Hence, if a URL fragment occurs within a particular context such as the value of the @src attribute of a media element (audio, video or source) and if the time dimension is requested in the media fragment URI, the User Agent MAY follow the scenario specified in section 5.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges and issues directly a range request using custom units assuming that the resource requested is likely to be a media resource. If the MIME-type of this resource turns out to be a media type, the server SHOULD interpret the RANGE request as specified in section 5.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges. Otherwise it SHOULD just ignore the RANGE header.

5.1 Processing Media Fragment URI

This sections defines how to parse media fragment URIs defined in section 4 Media Fragments Syntax, along with notes on some of the caveats to be aware of. Implementors are free to use any equivalent technique(s).

| Editorial note: Raphael | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | | To generate a simple figure that shows this processing: URI parsing (percent decoding) => name=value pairs => (rfc2047encoding) HTTP | |

5.1.1 Processing name-value components

This section defines how to convert an octet string (from the query or fragment component of a URI) into a list of name-value Unicode string pairs.

  1. Parse the octet string according to the namevalues syntax, yielding a list of name-value pairs, where name and value are both octet string. In accordance withRFC 3986, the name and value components must be parsed and separated before percent-encoded octets are decoded.
  2. For each name-value pair:
    1. Decode percent-encoded octets in name and value as defined byRFC 3986. If either name or value are not valid percent-encoded strings, then remove the name-value pair from the list.
    2. Convert name and value to Unicode strings by interpreting them asUTF-8. If either name or value are not valid UTF-8 strings, then remove the name-value pair from the list.

Note that the output is well defined for any input.

Examples:

Input Output Notes
"t=1" [("t", "1")] simple case
"t=1&t=2" [("t", "1"), ("t", "2")] repeated name
"a=b=c" [("a", "b=c")] "=" in value
"a&b=c" [("a", ""), ("b", "c")] missing value
"%74=%6ept%3A%310" [("t", "npt:10")] unnecssary percent-encoding
"id=%xy&t=1" [("t", "1")] invalid percent-encoding
"id=%E4r&t=1" [("t", "1")] invalid UTF-8

While the processing defined in this section is designed to be largely compatible with the parsing of the URI query component in many HTTP server environments, there are incompatible differences that implementors should be aware of:

5.1.2 Processing name-value lists

This section defines how to convert a list of name-value Unicode string pairs into the media fragment dimensions.

Given the dimensions defined in section 4.2 Fragment Dimensions, each has a pair of production rules that corresponds to the name and value component respectively:

Keyword Dimension
t 4.2.1 Temporal Dimension
xywh 4.2.2 Spatial Dimension
track 4.2.3 Track Dimension
id 4.2.4 Named Dimension
  1. Initially, all dimension are undefined.
  2. For each name-value pair:
    1. If name matches a keyword in the above table, interpret value as per the corresponding section.
    2. Otherwise, the name-value pair does not represent a media fragment dimension. Validators should emit a warning. User agents must ignore the name-value pair.

Note: Because the name-value pairs are processed in order, the last valid occurence of any dimension is the one that is used.

5.2 Protocol for URI fragment Resolution in HTTP

This section defines the protocol steps in HTTP RFC 2616 to resolve and deliver a media fragment specified as a URI fragment.

5.2.1 UA mapped byte ranges

| Editorial note | | | ----------------------------------- | | | This section is ready to implement. | |

As described in section 3.2 Resolving URI fragments within the user agent, the most optimal case is a user agent that knows how to map media fragments to byte ranges. This is the case typically where a user agent has already downloaded those parts of a media resource that allow it to do or guess the mapping, e.g. headers or a resource, or an index of a resource.

In this case, the HTTP exchanges are exactly the same as for any other Web resource where byte ranges are requested RFC 2616.

How the UA retrieves the byte ranges is dependent on the media type of the media resource. We here show examples with only one byte range retrieval per time range, which may in practice turn into several such retrieval actions necessary to acquire the correct time range.

Here are the three principle cases a media fragment enabled UA and a media Server will encounter:

5.2.1.1 UA requests URI fragment for the first time

A user requests a media fragment URI:

The UA has to check if a local copy of the requested fragment is available in its buffer - not in this case. But it knows how to map the fragment to byte ranges: 19147 - 22890. So, it requests these byte ranges from the server:

The server extracts the bytes corresponding to the requested range and replies in a 206 HTTP response:

Assuming the UA has received the byte ranges that it requires to serve t=10,20, which may well be slightly more, it will serve the decoded content to the User from the appropriate time offset. Otherwise it may keep requesting byte ranges to retrieve the required time segments.

Illustration of a UA requesting a URI fragment for the first time

5.2.1.2 UA requests URI fragment it already has buffered

A user requests a media fragment URI:

The UA has to check if a local copy of the requested fragment is available in its buffer - it is in this case. But the resource could have changed on the server, so it needs to send a conditional GET. It knows the byte ranges: 19147 - 22890. So, it requests these byte ranges from the server under condition of it having changed:

The server checks if the resource has changed by checking the date - in this case, the resource was not modified. So, the server replies with a 304 HTTP response. (Note that a If-Range header cannot be used, because if the entity has changed, the entire resource would be sent.)

So, the UA serves the decoded resource to the User our of its existing buffer.

Illustration of a UA requesting a URI fragment it already has buffered

5.2.1.3 UA requests URI fragment of a changed resource

A user requests a media fragment URI and the UA sends the exact same GET request as described in the previous subsection.

This time, the server checks if the resource has changed by checking the date and it has been modified. Since the byte mapping may not be correct any longer, the server can only tell the UA that the resource has changed and leave all further actions to the UA. So, it sends a 412 HTTP response:

So, the UA can only assume the resource has changed and re-retrieve what it needs to get back to being able to retrieve fragments. For most resources this may mean retrieving the header of the file. After this it is possible again to do a byte range retrieval.

Illustration of a UA requesting a URI fragment it has buffered, but that changed

5.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges

As described in section 3.3 Resolving URI fragments with server help, some User Agents cannot undertake the fragment-to-byte mapping themselves, because the mapping is not obvious. This typically applies to media formats where the setup of the decoding pipeline does not imply knowledge of how to map fragments to byte ranges, e.g. Ogg without OggIndex. Thus, the User Agent would be capable of decoding a continuous resource, but would not know which bytes to request for a media fragment.

In this case, the User Agent could either guess what byte ranges it has to retrieve and the retrieval action would follow the previous case. Or it could hope that the server provides a special service, which would allow it to retrieve the byte ranges with a simple request of the media fragment ranges. Thus, the HTTP request of the User Agent will include a request for the fragment hoping that the server can do the byte range mapping and send back the appropriate byte ranges. This is realized by introducing new dimensions for the HTTP Range header, next to the byte dimension.

The specification for all new Range Request Header dimensions is given through the following ABNF as an extension to the HTTP Range Request Header definition (see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.35.2):

Range = "Range" ":" ranges-specifier ranges-specifier = byte-ranges-specifier | fragment-specifier ; ; note that ranges-specifier is extended from RFC 2616 ; to cover alternate fragment range specifiers ; fragment-specifier = "include-setup" | fragment-range *( "," fragment-range ) [ ";" "include-setup" ] fragment-range = time-ranges-specifier | track-ranges-specifier | name-ranges-specifier ; ; note that this doesn't capture the restriction to one fragment dimension occurring ; maximally once only in the fragment-specifier definition. ; time-ranges-specifier = npttimeoption / smptetimeoption / clocktimeoption npttimeoption = pfxdeftimeformat "=" npt-sec "-" [ npt-sec ] smptetimeoption = pfxsmpteformat "=" frametime "-" [ frametime ] clocktimeoption = pfxclockformat "=" datetime "-" [ datetime ]

track-ranges-specifier = trackprefix "=" trackparam *( ";" trackparam )

name-ranges-specifier = nameprefix "=" nameparam

This specification is meant to be analogous to the one in URIs, but it is a bit stricter. The time unit is not optional. For instance, it can be "npt", "smpte", "smpte-25", "smpte-30", "smpte-30-drop" or "clock" for temporal. Where "ntp" is used for a temporal range, only specification in seconds is possible. Where "clocktime" is used for a temporal range, only "datetime" is possible and "walltime" is fully specified in HHMMSS with fraction and full timezone. Indeed, all optional elements in the URI specification basically become required in the Range header.

There is an optional 'include-setup' flag on the fragment range specifier - this flag signals to the server whether delivery of the decoder setup information (i.e. typically file header information) is also required as part of the reply to this request. This can help avoid an extra roundtrip where a Media Fragment URI is, e.g. directly typed into a Web browser.

If there were multiple track parameters provided in the media fragment URI, they are all aggregated together here in a single track ranges specifier, where the track names are separated by semi-colon. Note that if a track name did include a semi-colon in the media fragment URI, it is now percent escaped.

Note that the specification does not foresee a Range dimension for spatial media fragments since they are typically resolved and interpreted by the User Agent (i.e., spatial fragment extraction is not performed on server-side) for the following reasons:

| Editorial note: Davy | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Special attention should be paid for named fragments and more specifically when a named fragment represents a spatial fragment. We should clearly describe 1. what named fragments are and 2. how they are resolved. | |

Next to the introduction of new dimensions for the HTTP Range request header, we also introduce a new HTTP response header, called Content-Range-Mapping, which provides the mapping of the retrieved byte range to the original Range request, which was not in bytes. It serves two purposes:

The specification for the Content-Range-Mapping header is based on the specification of the Content-Range header (see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.16) and is shown below. Note that the Content-Range-Mapping header adds in case of the temporal dimension the instance start and end in terms of seconds after a slash "/" character in analogy to the Content-Range header. Also, we introduce an extension to the Accept-Ranges header (see http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.5).

Content-Range-Mapping = "Content-Range-Mapping" ":" '{' ( content-range-mapping-spec [ ";" def-include-setup ] ) / def-include-setup '}' '=' '{' byte-content-range-mapping-spec '}'

def-include-setup = %x69.6E.63.6C.75.64.65.2D.73.65.74.75.70 ; "include-setup"

byte-range-mapping-spec = bytes-unit SP byte-range-resp-spec ( "," byte-range-resp-spec ) "/" ( instance-length / "" )

content-range-mapping-spec = time-mapping-spec | track-mapping-spec | name-mapping-spec time-mapping-spec = timeprefix ":" time-mapping-options time-mapping-options = npt-mapping-option / smpte-mapping-option / clock-mapping-option npt-mapping-option = deftimeformat SP npt-sec "-" npt-sec "/" [ npt-sec ] "-" [ npt-sec ] smpte-mapping-option = smpteformat SP frametime "-" frametime "/" [ frametime ] "-" [ frametime ] clock-mapping-option = clockformat SP datetime "-" datetime "/" [ datetime ] "-" [ datetime ]

track-mapping-spec = trackprefix SP trackparam *( ";" trackparam )

name-mapping-spec = nameprefix SP nameparam

Accept-Ranges = "Accept-Ranges" ":" acceptable-ranges acceptable-ranges = 1#range-unit *( "," 1#range-unit )| "none" ; ; note this does not represent the restriction that range-units can only appear once at most ; range-unit = bytes-unit | other-range-unit bytes-unit = "bytes" other-range-unit = token | timeprefix | trackprefix | nameprefix

Three cases can be distinguished when a User Agent needs assistance by a server to perform the byte range mapping. In the next subsections, we'll go through the protocol exchange action step by step.

5.2.2.1 Server mapped byte ranges with corresponding binary data

The UA has to check if a local copy of the requested fragment is available in its buffer. If it is, we revert back to the processing described in sections5.2.1.2 UA requests URI fragment it already has buffered and 5.2.1.3 UA requests URI fragment of a changed resource, since the UA already knows the mapping to byte ranges. If the requested fragment is not available in its buffer, the UA sends an HTTP request to the server, including a Range header with temporal dimension. The request is shown below:

If the server does not understand a Range header, it MUST ignore the header field that includes that range-set. This is in sync to the HTTP RFC RFC 2616. This means that where a server does not support media fragments, the complete resource will be delivered. It also means that we can combine both, byte range and fragment range headers in one request, since the server will only react to the Range header it understands.

Assuming the server can map the given Range to one or more byte ranges, it will reply with these in a 206 HTTP response. Where multiple byte ranges are required to satisfy the Range request, these are transmitted as a multipart message-body. The media type for this purpose is called "multipart/byteranges". This is in sync with the HTTP RFC RFC 2616.

Here is the reply to the example above, assuming a single byte range is sufficient:

Note the presence of the new reply header called Content-Range-Mapping, which provides the mapping of the retrieved byte range to the original Content-Range request, which was not in bytes. As we return both, byte and temporal ranges, the UA and any intermediate caching proxy is enabled to map byte positions with time offsets and fall back to byte range request where the fragment is re-requested. Also note that through the extended list in the Accept-Ranges it is possible to identify which fragment schemes a server supports.

Illustration of a UA requesting a URI time to byte range mapping from the server

In the case where a media fragment results in a multipart message-body, the Content-Range headers will be spread throughout the binary data ranges, but the Content-Range-Mapping of the media fragment will only be with the main header. Note that requesting track fragments typically result in multipart message-bodies, on condition that the parent resource is characterized by interleaved tracks. For example:

Note that a caching proxy that does not understand a Range header must not cache "206 Partial Content" responses as per HTTP RFC RFC 2616. Thus, the new Range requests won't be cached by legacy Web proxies.

5.2.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges with corresponding binary data and codec setup data

When the User Agent needs help from the server to setup the initial decoding pipeline (i.e., the User Agent has no codec setup information at its disposal), the User Agent can request, next to the bytes corresponding to the requested fragment, the bytes necessary to setup its decoder. This is possible by adding the 'include-setup' flag to the Range header, as illustrated below:

Analogous to section 5.2.2.1 Server mapped byte ranges with corresponding binary data, the server can map the given Range to one or more byte ranges, it will reply with these in a 206 HTTP response. Additionally, the server adds the bytes corresponding with the requested setup information to the response. Since this setup information usually appears in front of a media resource, the response typically results in a multipart message-body. The response is shown below:

Note that the Content-Range-Mapping header indicates that the codec setup information is included in the response. In this example, the response consists of two parts of byte ranges: the first part corresponds to the setup information, the second part corresponds to the requested fragment.

Illustration of a UA requesting a URI time to byte range mapping from the server, including the codec setup information

5.2.2.3 Proxy cacheable server mapped byte ranges

As described in section 3.4 Resolving URI fragments in a proxy cacheable manner, the server mapped byte ranges approach can be extended to play with existing caching Web proxy infrastructure. This is important, since video is a huge bandwidth eater in the current Internet and falling back to using existing Web proxy infrastructure is important, particularly since progressive download and direct access mechanisms for video rely heavily on this functionality. Over time, the proxy infrastructure will learn how to cache media fragment URIs directly as described in the previous section and then will not require this extra effort.

To enable media-fragment-URI-supporting UAs to make their retrieval cacheable, we introduce some extra HTTP headers, which will help tell the server and the proxy what to do. There is an Accept-Range-Redirect request header which signals to the server that only a redirect to the correct byte ranges is necessary and the result should be delivered in the Range-Redirect header.

The ABNF for these additional two HTTP headers is given as follows:

Accept-Range-Redirect = "Accept-Range-Redirect" ":" bytes-unit

Range-Redirect = "Range-Redirect" ":" byte-range-resp-spec *( "," byte-range-resp-spec )

Let's play it through on an example. A user requests a media fragment URI:

The UA has to check if a local copy of the requested fragment is available in its buffer. In our case here, it is not. If it was, we would revert back to the processing described in sections 5.2.1.2 UA requests URI fragment it already has buffered and 5.2.1.3 UA requests URI fragment of a changed resource, since the UA already knows the mapping to byte ranges. The UA issues a HTTP GET request with the fragment and requesting to retrieve just the mapping to byte ranges:

The server converts the given time range to a byte range and sends an empty reply that refers the UA to the right byte range for the correct time range.

Note that codec setup information can also be requested in combination with the Accept-Range-Redirect header, which can be realized by adding the 'include-setup' flag to the Range request header.

The UA proceeds to put the actual fragment request through as a normal byte range request as in section 5.2.1.1 UA requests URI fragment for the first time:

The Origin Server puts the data together and sends it to the UA:

The UA decodes the data and displays it from the requested offset. The caching Web proxy in the middle has now cached the byte range, since it adhered to the normal byte range request protocol. All existing caching proxies will work with this. New caching Web proxies may learn to interpret media fragments natively, so won't require the extra packet exchange described in this section.

Illustration of a UA requesting a URI time to byte range mapping from the server with proxy capability of byte ranges

5.2.3 Server triggered redirect

When a server decides not to serve the requested media fragment in terms of byte ranges (i.e., serving the requested media fragment as specified in section5.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges), it can redirect the UA to a representation of this fragment (for instance by transforming the media fragment URI into a media fragment query, as specified in section 5.3 Protocol for URI query Resolution in HTTP). This is particularly useful in cases where too many byte ranges would need to e extracted to satisfy the range request.

A user requests a media fragment URI using a URI fragment:

Subsequently, the UA requests the media fragment from the server using the Range header:

The server decides not to serve the requested media fragment in terms of byte ranges (for instance, because the track media fragment results in too many byte ranges). The server redirects the UA to an alternate representation. For example, the URI fragment can be transformed into a URI query. Further, a Link header is added stating that the redirected location is a fragment of the originally requested resource.

| Editorial note: Davy | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | We need to register the 'fragment' Link Relation Web Linking. | |

Finally, the UA follows the redirect, which in this case corresponds to the process specified in section 5.3 Protocol for URI query Resolution in HTTP.

The server can also decide to combine a redirect and a media fragment URI:

The UA requests the media fragment to the server using the Range header:

The server decides not to serve the requested media fragment in terms of byte ranges and redirects the UA to an alternate representation. However, in this case, the server decides to handle the track fragment through a URI query and the temporal fragment through a URI fragment:

Finally, the UA follows the redirect, which in this case corresponds to the process specified in section 5.3 Protocol for URI query Resolution in HTTP for the track fragment, combined with the process specified in section 5.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges for the temporal fragment.

Illustration of a UA requesting a combined track and temporal media fragment URI and a server using a server triggered redirect.

5.3 Protocol for URI query Resolution in HTTP

This section describes the protocol steps used in HTTP RFC 2616 to resolve and deliver a media fragment specified as a URI query.

A user requests a media fragment URI using a URI query:

This is a full resource, so it is a simple HTTP retrieval process. The UA has to check if a local copy of the requested resource is available in its buffer. If yes, it does a conditional GET with e.g. an If-Modified-Since and If-None-Match HTTP header.

Assuming the resource has not been retrieved before, the following is sent to the server:

If the server doesn't understand these query parameters, it typically ignores them and returns the complete resource. This is not a requirement by the URI or the HTTP standard, but the way it is typically implemented in Web browsers.

A media fragment supporting server has to create a complete media resource for the URI query, which in the case of Ogg requires creation of a new resource by adapting the existing Ogg file headers and combining them with the extracted byte range that relates to the given fragment. Some of the codec data may also need to be re-encoded since, e.g. t=10 does not fall clearly on a decoding boundary, but the retrieved resource must match as closely as possible the URI query. This new resource is sent back as a reply:

Note that a Link header MAY be provided indicating the relationship between the requested URI query and the original media fragment URI. This enables the UA to retrieve further information about the original resource, such as its full length. In this case, the user agent is also enable to choose to display the dimensions of the primary resource or the ones created by the query.

The UA serves the decoded resource to the user. Caching in Web proxies works as it has always worked - most modern Web servers and UAs implement a caching strategy for URIs that contain a query using one of the three methods for marking freshness: heuristic freshness analysis, the Cache-Control header, or the Expires header. In this case, many copies of different segments of the original resource video.ogv may end up in proxy caches. An intelligent media proxy in future may devise a strategy to buffer such resources in a more efficient manner, where headers and byte ranges are stored differently.

Further, media fragment URI queries can be extended to enable UAs to use the Range-Redirect HTTP header to also revert back to a byte range request. This is analogous to section 5.2.2.3 Proxy cacheable server mapped byte ranges.

Note that a server that does not support media fragments through either URI fragment or query addressing will return the full resource in either case. It is therefore not possible to first try URI fragment addressing and when that fails to try URI query addressing.

6 Media Fragments Semantics

Errors can occur at several levels:

We will look at errors in the different dimensions and their values in the subsequent sub-sections and we will start with errors on the more general levels.

6.1 Errors on the General URI level

6.1.1 Non-existent dimension:

Attempting to do fragment selection on a dimension that does not exist in the source media, such as temporal clipping on a still image or spatial clipping on an audio file, should be considered a no-op and not throw an error.

6.1.2 Under-specified Dimension

The result of doing spatial clipping on a media resource that has multiple video tracks is that the spatial clipping is applied to all tracks.

6.2 Errors on the temporal dimensions

Assuming a single temporal dimension is present, we now analyse what fragment values may be specified here and how they should be handled.

For this, we make the following definitions:

6.2.1 Valid requests

For t=a,b with a <= b

| Editorial note: Raphael | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | The following paragraph is controversial since it could lead to non-interoperable implementations. | |

| Editorial note: Silvia | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | If the UA needs to retrieve a large part of the resource or even the full resource, it will probably decide to make multiple range requests rather than a single one. If the resource is, however, small, it may decide to just retrieve the full resource without a range request. The UA should make this choice given context information, e.g. if it knows that it will be a lot of data, it will retrieve it in smaller chunks. If it chooses to request the full resource in one go and not make use of a Range request, the result will be a 200 rather than a 206. | |

6.2.2 Empty

The resolved time segment is empty.

Effect: retrieve whatever the browser needs to set up playback, but otherwise nothing

6.2.3 Non-existent

The value resolves to a non-existent fragment.

If the UA is already set up for decoding the resource and it can identify that the fragment is non-existent (i.e. knows about start and end times), it will avoid undertaking an unnecessary retrieval action. Otherwise it will undertake the RANGE retrieval request with the 'include-setup' as specified in section 5.2.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges with corresponding binary data and codec setup dataand will receive a 206 with just the setup data. If the UA is set up for decoding, but cannot identify that the fragment is non-existent and does the retrieval action without the 'include-setup', it will result in a 416.

Effect: retrieve whatever the browser needs to set up playback, but otherwise nothing

6.2.4 Validity error

The value cannot be parsed for the dimension.

If the UA is already set up for decoding the resource, it will identify that the fragment is invalid and avoid undertaking an unnecessary retrieval action. Otherwise it will undertake the RANGE retrieval request with the 'include-setup' as specified in section 5.2.2.2 Server mapped byte ranges with corresponding binary data and codec setup data and will receive a 206 with just the setup data.

Examples:

Effect: retrieve whatever the browser needs to set up playback, but otherwise nothing

6.2.5 SMPTE time code mismatch

When there is a mismatch between the SMPTE time code used by the UA and the encoding settings of the requested media resource (e.g., use of smpte-25 time code when the media resource is encoded at 30fps), the server MUST ignore the RANGE header and returns the whole resource (i.e., a 200).

6.3 Errors on the spatial dimensions

Assuming a single spatial dimension is present, we now analyse what content can appear here and how it should be handled.

| Editorial note: Silvia | | | ----------------------------------- | | | This list still has to be provided. | |

6.4 Errors on the track dimensions

Assuming a single track dimension is present, we now analyse what content can appear here and how it should be handled.

| Editorial note: Silvia | | | ----------------------------------- | | | This list still has to be provided. | |

6.5 Errors on the named dimensions

Assuming a single named dimension is present, we now analyse what content can appear here and how it should be handled.

| Editorial note: Silvia | | | ----------------------------------- | | | This list still has to be provided. | |

7 Notes to Implementors (non-normative)

This section contains notes to implementors. Some of the information here is already stated formally elsewhere in the document, and the reference here is mainly a heads-up. Other items are really outside the scope of this specification, but the notes here reflect what the authors think would be good practice.

The sub-sections are not mutually exclusive. Hence, an implementer of a web browser as a media fragment client should read the sections 7.1 Browsers Rendering Media Fragments, 7.2 Clients Displaying Media Fragments and 7.3 All Media Fragment Clients.

7.1 Browsers Rendering Media Fragments

The pixel coordinates defined in the section 4.2.2 Spatial Dimension are intended to be identical to the intrinsic width and height defined in HTML5.

For spatial URI fragments, the next section describes two distinct use cases, highlighting and cropping. HTML rendering clients, however, are expected to implement cropping as the default rendering mechanism.

7.2 Clients Displaying Media Fragments

When dealing with media fragments, there is a question whether to display the media fragment in context or without context. In general, it is recommended to display a URI fragment in context since it is part of a larger resource. On the other hand, a URI query results in a new resource, so it is recommended to display it as a complete resource without context. The next paragraphs discuss for each axis the context of a media fragment and provides suggestions regarding the visualization of the URI fragment within its context.

For a temporal URI fragment, it is recommended to start playback at a time offset that equals to the start of the fragment and pause at the end of the fragment. When the "play" button is hit again, the resource will continue loading and play back beyond the end of the fragment. When seeking to specific offsets, the resource will load and play back from those seek points. It is also recommended to introduce a "reload" button to replay just the URI fragment. In this way, a URI fragment basically stands for "focusing attention". Additionally, temporal URI fragments could be highlighted on the transport bar.

For a spatial URI fragment, we foresee two distinct use cases: highlighting the spatial region in-context and cropping to the region. In the first case, the spatial region could be indicated by means of a bounding box or the background (i.e., all the pixels that are not contained within the region) could be blurred or darkened. In the second case, the region alone would be presented as a cropped area. How a document author specifies which use case is intended is outside the scope of this specification, we suggest implementors of the specification provide a means for this, for example through attributes or stylesheet elements.

Finally, for track URI fragments, it is recommended to play only the tracks identified by the track URI fragment. If no tracks are specified, the default tracks should be played. Different tracks could be selected using drop-down boxes or buttons; the selected tracks are then highlighted during playback. The way the UA retrieves information regarding the available tracks of a particular resource is out of scope for this specification.

7.3 All Media Fragment Clients

Resolution Order: Where multiple dimensions are combined in one URI fragment request, implementations are expected to first do track and temporal selection on the container level, and then do spatial clipping on the codec level. Named selection is done for whatever the name stands for: a track, a temporal section, or a spatial region.

Media Fragment Grammar: Note that the grammar for Media Fragment URI only specifies the grammar for features standardised by this specification. If a string does not parse correctly it does not necessarily mean the URI is wrong, it only means it is not a Media Fragment according to this specification. It may be correct for some extended form, or for a completely different fragment specification method. For this reason, error recovery on syntax errors in media fragment specifiers is unwise.

External Clipping: There is no obligatory resolution method for a situation where a media fragment URI is being used in the context of another clipping method. Formally, it is up to the context embedding the media fragment URI to decide whether the outside clipping method overrides the media fragment URI or cascades, i.e. is defined on the resulting resource. In the absence of strong reasons to do otherwise we suggest cascading. An example is a SMIL element as follows: <smil:video clipBegin="5" clipEnd="15" src="http://www.example.com/example.mp4#t=100,200"/>. This should start playback of the original media resource at second 105, and stop at 115.

Content-Range-Mapping: The Content-Range-Mapping header returned sometimes refers to a completely different range than the one that was specified as the Range: in the request. This can happen if a byte-based range is requested from a cache server that is not Media Fragment aware, and that server had previously cached the data as a result of a time range request. Technically, the information in the Content-Range-Mapping header is still correct, but it is completely unrelated to the request issued.

7.4 Media Fragment Servers

Media type: The media type of a resource retrieved through a URI fragment request is the same as that of the primary resource. Thus, retrieval of e.g. a single frame from a video will result in a one-frame-long video. Or, retrieval of all the audio tracks from a video resource will result in a video and not a audio resource. When using a URI query approach, media type changes are possible. E.g. a spatial fragment from a video at a certain time offset could be retrieved as a jpeg using a specific HTTP "Accept" header in the request.

Synchronisation: Synchronisation between different tracks of a media resource needs to be maintained when retrieving media fragments of that resource. This is true for both, URI fragment and URI query retrieval. With URI queries, when transcoding is required, a non-perceivable change in the synchronisation is acceptable.

Embedded Timecodes: When a media resource contains embedded time codes, these need to be maintained for media fragment retrieval, in particular when the URI fragment method is used. When URI queries are used and transcoding takes place, the embedded time codes should remain when they are useful and required.

SMPTE Timecodes: Standardisation of SMPTE timecodes in this document is primarily intended to allow frame-accurate references to sections of video files, they can be seen as a form of content-based addressing.

Reasonable Clipping: Temporal clipping needs to be as close as reasonably possible to what the media fragment specified, and not omit any requested data. "Reasonably close" means the nearest compression entity to the requested fragment that completely contains the requested fragment. This means, e.g. for temporal fragments if a request is made forhttp://www.example.org/video.ogv#t=60,100, but the closest decodable range is t=58,102 because this is where a packet boundary lies for audio and video, then it will be this range that is returned. The UA is then capable of displaying only the requested subpart, and should also just do that. For some container formats this is a non-issue, because the container format allows specification of logical begin and end.

Reasonable byte ranges: If a single temporal range request would result in a disproportionally large number of byte ranges it may be better if the server returns a redirect to the query form of the media fragment. This situation could happen, for example, if the underlying media file is organized in a strange way.

7.5 Media Fragment Web Applications

Media Fragment URIs are only defined on media resources. However, many Web developers that create Web pages with video or audio want to provide their users the ability to jump directly to media fragments - in particular to time offsets in a video - through providing a URI scheme for the Web page.

The way in which to realize this without requiring an extra server interaction is by using a URI fragment scheme on the Web page which is parsed by JavaScript and communicates the media fragment to the audio or video resource loader. In HTML5 it would need to change the @src attribute of the appropriate or

A URI scheme for such a Web page may involve ampersand-separated name-value pairs as defined in this specification, e.g. http://example.com/videopage.html#t=60,100 .

However, the Web developer has to create a scheme that works with the remainder of the Web page fragment addressing functionality. If, for example, the Web page makes use of the ID attributes of the elements on the page for scrolling down on the page, adding media fragment URI addressing to the Web page addressing will fail. For example, if http://example.com/videopage.html#first works and scrolls to an offset on that Web page, http://example.com/videopage.html#first&t=60,100 will not do the same scrolling. The Web developer will then need to parse the fragment parameter and implement the scrolling functionality in JavaScript manually using the scrollTo() or scrollTop() functions.

8 Conclusions

8.1 Qualification of Media Resources

HTTP byte ranges can only be used to request media fragments if these media fragments can be expressed in terms of byte ranges. This restriction implies that media resources should fulfil the following conditions:

Not all media formats will be compliant with these two conditions. Hence, we distinguish the following categories:

  1. The media resource meets the two conditions (i.e., fragments can be extracted in the compressed domain and no syntax element modifications are necessary). In this case, caching media fragments of such media resources is possible using HTTP byte ranges, because their media fragments are addressable in terms of byte ranges.
  2. Media fragments can be extracted in the compressed domain, but syntax element modifications are required. These media fragments are cacheable using HTTP byte ranges on condition that the syntax element modifications are needed in media-headers applying to the whole media resource/fragment. In this case, those media-headers could be sent to the client in the first response of the server, which is a response to a request on a specific resource different from the byte-range content.
  3. Media fragments cannot be extracted in the compressed domain. In this case, transcoding operations are necessary to extract media fragments. Since these media fragments are not expressible in terms of byte ranges, it is not possible to cache these media fragments using HTTP byte ranges. Note that media formats which enable extracting fragments in the compressed domain, but are not compliant with category 2 (i.e., syntax element modifications are not only applicable to the whole media resource), also belong to this category.