Server side crossfading for progressive download media

摘要

Systems and methods are provided to implement and facilitate cross-fading, interstitials and other effects/processing of two or more media elements in a personalized media delivery service. Effects or crossfade processing can occur on the broadcast, publisher or server-side, but can still be personalized to a specific user, in a manner that minimizes processing on the downstream side or client device. The cross-fade can be implemented after decoding, processing, re-encoding, and rechunking the relevant chunks of each component clip. Alternatively, the cross-fade or other effect can be implemented on the relevant chunks in the compressed domain, thus obviating any loss of quality by re-encoding. A large scale personalized content delivery service can limit the processing to essentially the first and last chunks of any file, there being no need to process the full clip.