A method for providing a broadcasting service containing contents includes: generating contents representations metadata for describing possible representations of the contents; and outputting the contents representations metadata, wherein the contents representations metadata includes one or more contents representations description elements which describe a metadata tool defined by a standard specification.

Provided is a scalable video coding method and apparatus. Motion data of a high-quality fine grain scalability (FGS) layer is used for interlayer coding in order to remove redundancy between coarse grain scalability (CGS) layers or layers having different spatial resolutions, and information indicating that data of the FGS layer has been used for interlayer motion prediction is inserted for Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG)-4 scalable video encoding. A bitstream extractor checks the information and performs extraction to maintain the data of the FGS layer. MPEG-4 scalable video decoding is performed using the information. By using the FGS layer, interlayer redundancy can be efficiently removed, thereby improving encoding efficiency.

A multiple ROI (region of interest) setting method and apparatus in scalable video coding and an ROI reconstructing method and apparatus are provided. The multiple ROI setting apparatus includes: an ROI setting unit which sets at least one or more ROIs and allocates ROI identification numbers to the each of ROIs; a mapping unit which allocates at least one or more slice group identification numbers to the at least one or more ROI identification numbers; and a message generating unit which generates a message including ROI-associated information, slice-group-associated information, mapping information on mapping of the ROI identification number to the at least one or more slice group identification numbers, and scalability information.

A multimedia player downloads chunks (parts of the segment file) during the download of a segment of a stream of segments of a low-latency stream. The first chunks of a segment may be downloaded while the segment is still being written to the CDN server. A chunk-based prediction adaptation logic uses throughput measurements on a chunk instead of a segment and specifically looks at bursts in a sliding window. This data is used to build a prediction of future throughput by applying linear adaptive filter algorithms that may rely on recursive least squares. This adaptation logic leads to very accurate bandwidth predictions and as a consequence, better user experience, compared to existing adaptation algorithms.

A method and apparatus for an adaptive Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) streaming service using metadata of content are provided. The metadata may include a minBufferTime attribute indicating a minimum amount of initially buffered media content. A terminal may receive content from a server before playback of the content, and may buffer the content by at least the minimum amount. The metadata may include a range attribute that designates a range of a target indicated by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The terminal may receive bytes designated by the range attribute from the URL, and may play back the content using the received bytes.