Miguel A Valdez

US Patent:

20080256341, Oct 16, 2008

Filed:

Apr 11, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/734254

Inventors:

Tomer Weisberg - Haifa, IL
Gurpratap Virdi - Bellevue WA, US
Thobias Jones - Redmond WA, US
Miguel M. Valdez - Redmond WA, US
Alexandre V. Grigorovitch - Redmond WA, US
Matthew Howard - Redmond WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 9/30

US Classification:

712220, 712E09016

Abstract:

Strategies for automatically selecting the most appropriate processing pipeline (or runtime) for a particular data item are described. In one embodiment, a media playing application automatically selects the most appropriate media processing pipeline for a media data item from multiple available processing pipelines, or candidates. In this regard, the application makes this selection by utilizing heuristic techniques to identify which available pipeline provides the most enhanced playback experience to a user with respect to certain attributes such as supported playback features and security. These heuristic techniques can take one or more criteria into account and can be implemented in any suitable way. By way of example and not limitation, in one embodiment, a selection process is used wherein potential pipeline candidates are ordered and sequentially evaluated.