Packet stream receiving apparatus

• US 20080007653A1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Saito, Tatsunori, Mori, Hirofumi, Osada, Masataka
• Application Number:
  US11/796,950
• Publication Number:
  US 20080007653A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/462
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/89 involving methods or arrangements for detection of transmission errors at the decoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4305 Synchronising client clock from received content stream, e.g. locking decoder clock with encoder clock, extraction of the PCR packets arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter by comparing receiver clock with transmitter clock H04L7/0012; arrangements for synchronising receiver with transmitter wherein the receiver takes measures against momentary loss of synchronisation H04L7/0083
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4425 Monitoring of client processing errors or hardware failure

Abstract

The present invention provides a packet stream receiving apparatus, comprising a packet separation section that extracts a presentation time from a packet, a discontinuity detection section that detects a discontinuity of the packet, a storage buffer that stores decoded frames after the discontinuity has been detected, and a presentation time comparison section that calculates a number of lost frames based on the actual number of frames received from a discontinuity point in which the discontinuity was detected until the presentation time is obtained in the case where the storage buffer has stored the decoded frames. By accurately comprehending the number of lost frames caused by packet losses, outputs without timing mismatch are enabled.

Claims

1. An apparatus for receiving a packet stream, comprising:

a packet separation section configured to separate packets from the packet streams, each of the packets having a packet header and a payload, and extract a presentation time from the packet header;

a decoder configured to decode payloads to data frames;

a discontinuity detection section configured to detect a discontinuity of a sequence of the packets from the packet headers;

a storage buffer section configured to store peculiar data frame or frames between the detection of the discontinuity and the detection of the presentation time after the detection of the discontinuity; and

a calculating section configured to calculate a number of lost frames based on the actual number of the peculiar data frames stored in the storage buffer section.

2. An apparatus for receiving a transport stream, comprising:

a packet separation section configured to separate the transport stream to PES packets, each PES packet having a packet header and a payload, the packet header including presentation time stamp and continuity index, and the packet separation section extracting the presentation time stamp from the PES packet header;

a discontinuity detection section configured to detect a discontinuity of a sequence of the packets based on the continuity indexes to output discontinuity information, the sequence of the packets including a preceding packet header and a following packet header;

a decoding section configured to decode the payloads to audio frames, and separate peculiar audio frame or frames between the detection of the discontinuity and the detection of the time stamp received in the following packet header, in response to the discontinuity information;

a storage buffer section configured to store the peculiar audio frames; and

a presentation time comparison section configured to calculate the actual number of peculiar audio frames, and calculate a total number of lost audio frames and the peculiar audio frames between the preceding packet header and the following packet header from a time interval between the presentation time stamps received in the preceding and following packet headers, respectively, so that the number of lost frames is calculated by subtracting the actual number of frames from the total number of frames.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the presentation time comparison section calculates the total number of the lost and peculiar audio frames by dividing the time interval by the frame time length.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the presentation time comparison section calculates the actual number of the peculiar audio frames by dividing the difference between a discontinuity point identified by the discontinuity information and the presentation time stamp received in the following packet header by the frame time length.

5. The packet stream receiving apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, if any error occurs between the preceding packet header and the following packet header, the processing is performed assuming that the number of lost frames caused by errors is one.

6. An apparatus for receiving a transport stream, comprising;

a packet separation section configured to separate the transport stream to PES packets, each of the PES packets having a packet header and a payload of encoded audio frames, the packet header including a presentation time stamp and continuity index, and the packet separation section extracting the presentation time stamp and encoded audio frames from the PES packet;

a discontinuity detection section configured to detect a discontinuity of a sequence of the packets based on the continuity indexes to output discontinuity information, the sequence of the packets including a preceding packet header and a following packet header

a decoding section configured to decode the encoded audio frames to audio frames and separate peculiar audio frames or frames between the detection of the discontinuity and the detection of the time stamp received in the following packet header, in response to the discontinuity information;

a storage buffer section configured to store the peculiar audio frames;

a presentation time comparison section configured to calculate the actual number of peculiar audio frames, and calculate a total number of lost audio frames and the peculiar audio frames between the preceding packet header and the following packet header from a time interval between the presentation time stamps received in the preceding and following packet headers, respectively, so that the number of lost frames is calculated by subtracting the actual number of audio frames from the total number of frames;

a lost frame interpolation section configured to generate interpolation frames depending on the number of lost frames;

a presentation time calculation section configured to calculate a presentation time of the interpolation frame by adding frame time to the presentation time stamp in the preceding packet header, and also calculate a presentation time of the interpolation frame by adding frame time to the presentation time stamp in the packet header of the interpolation frame;

a presentation control section configured to control the audio frames so as to be outputted with being interpolated by the interpolation frames based on the presentation time; and

an outputting section configured to output the audio frames and the interpolation frames, based on the control of the presentation control section.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the presentation time comparison section calculates the total number of the lost and peculiar audio frames by dividing the time interval by the frame time length.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the presentation time comparison section calculates the actual number of the peculiar audio frames by dividing the difference between a discontinuity point identified by the discontinuity information and the presentation time stamp received in the following packet header by the frame time length.

9. The packet stream receiving apparatus according to claim 7, wherein, if any error occurs between the preceding packet header and the following packet header, the processing is performed assuming that the number of lost frames caused by errors is one.