Method and apparatus for compressing video sequences

• US 20040047417A1
• Filed: 09/04/2003
• Published: 03/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Grant Prideco Incorporated (NOV, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Comcast IP Holdings I LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Edmonds, Jeremy S., Gordon, Donald F., Bayrakeri, Sadik, Ludvig, Edward A., Comito, John P., Gershtein, Eugene, Wild, Joseph R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,505,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/577 Motion compensation with bidirectional frame interpolation, i.e. using B-pictures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4344 Remultiplexing of multiplex streams, e.g. by modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A method and apparatus for compressing a plurality of video sequences, where each sequence has information that is common with other video sequences. The invention ensemble encodes the video sequences into an MPEG compliant transport stream using less predicted frame information than separately encoding each video sequence. One illustrative application of the invention is efficiently encoding and transmitting a user interface such as a program guide, interactive program guide, electronic program guide, navigator and the like. The user interface is illustratively embodied in an interactive program guide (IPG).

Claims

1. A bitstream containing information for representing a plurality of encoded video streams comprising:

a first portion comprising a plurality of reference pictures, each reference picture being taken from a different encoded video stream; and

a second portion comprising predicted pictures from one of said video streams.

2. The bitstream of claim 1 wherein each of said first portions is identified by a distinct packet identifier and said second portion is identified by a packet identifier.

3. The bitstream of claim 1 wherein said first portion represents a program guide graphic of each of a plurality of interactive program guide pages.

4. The bitstream of claim 1 wherein said second portion represent non-changing imagery amongst a plurality of interactive program guide pages.

5. The bitstream of claim 1 wherein said first portion comprises reference pictures of an MPEG elementary stream and said second portion comprises predicted pictures of an MPEG elementary stream.

6. The bitstream of claim 1 further comprising an audio portion.

7. The bitstream of claim 1 further comprising a data portion.

8. A stream recombination apparatus comprising:

a packet identifier filter for identifying packets having a particular packet identifier and mapping said packet identifiers;

a demultiplexer for extracting packets from a transport stream, where a first plurality of extracted packets comprise a reference picture and a second plurality of extracted packets comprise predicted pictures;

a decoder for decoding the extracted packets to form an uncompressed video sequence.

9. A stream recombination apparatus of claim 8, wherein said packet identifier filter is part of a demodulator.

10. A method of stream recombining and decoding comprising the steps of:

extracting a first plurality of packets containing reference pictures from a transport stream;

extracting a second plurality of packets containing predicted pictures from said transport stream;

concatenating payloads from said first plurality of packets and payloads from said second plurality of packets;

decoding the concatenated payloads to produce a video sequence;

conducting a query if said reference picture is desired and identifying a new packet identifier if a new reference picture is desired.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said concatenating step comprises coupling said reference pictures and said predicted pictures to the decoder in exactly the order in which said packets arrive at a demultiplexer.

12. The method of claim 10 being conducted within a demultiplexer.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein said payloads of said first plurality of packets contain imagery information that changes across a plurality of interactive program guides and said payloads of said second plurality of packets contain common imagery information of a plurality of interactive program guide pages.

14. A method of stream recombining and decoding comprising the steps of:

re-mapping a packet identifier of a reference stream to a pre-defined packet identifier;

re-mapping a packet identifier of a predicted picture stream to said pre-defined packet identifier;

extracting from a transport stream the packets of the stream having said pre-defined packet identifier;

coupling the payloads of transport packets of said transport stream to a video decoder;

decoding the payloads to produce a video sequence;

conducting a query if a reference picture is desired and identifying a new packet identifier if a new reference picture is desired.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said payloads of said first plurality of packets contain imagery information that changes across a plurality of interactive program guides and said payloads of said second plurality of packets contain common imagery information of a plurality of interactive program guide pages.

16. A method of stream recombining and decoding comprising:

coupling each payload of transport packets of a reference stream to a video decoder, including a packet with a zero splice countdown value;

coupling each payload of transport packets of a predicted picture stream to a video decoder upon receiving a reference stream packet with a zero splice countdown value;

decoding the payloads to produce a video sequence;

conducting a query if a reference picture is desired and identifying a new packet identifier if a new reference picture is desired.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said payloads from said reference stream contain imagery information that changes across a plurality of interactive program guides and said payloads from said predicted picture stream contain common imagery information of a plurality of interactive program guide pages.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein said coupling step further comprises the step of reprogramming a packet identifier filter to receive said packets having said new packet identifier.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein said coupling step comprises the step of coupling said payloads from said reference stream and said payloads from said predicted stream to the decoder in exactly the order in which said packets arrive at a demultiplexer.