APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COMBINING REALTIME AND NON-REALTIME ENCODED CONTENT

• US 20100296574A1
• Filed: 08/05/2010
• Published: 11/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TiVo Corporation (Adeia 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
• Granted Patent: US 8,661,465 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/593 involving spatial prediction techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• 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 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• 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 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4351 involving reassembling additional data, e.g. rebuilding an executable program from recovered modules
• 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 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8146 involving graphical data, e.g. 3D object, 2D graphics
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• 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

Abstract

A terminal for decoding and presenting encoded realtime and non-realtime interactive program guide (IPG) content including a realtime video portion and a non-realtime guide graphics portion. The terminal includes a demodulator operative to receive and demodulate a modulated signal to provide a transport stream, and a transport demultiplexer coupled to the demodulator and operative to receive and process the transport stream to provide a sequence of transport packets re-timestamped to synchronize encoded realtime content and encoded non-realtime content included therein. At least one video decoder is coupled to the transport demultiplexer and operative to receive and decode the encoded realtime and non-realtime contents to recover the realtime and non-realtime contents for the user interface.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to;

receive a signal comprising first data of a video portion of a first frame, second data of a video portion of at least one frame subsequent to the first frame, and third data of a graphics portion of the first frame; and

generate a sequence of frames, comprising the first frame and the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame, based on the first data, the second data, and the third data,

wherein the first frame comprises the first data of the video portion of the first frame concatenated with the third data of the graphics portion of the first frame, and

wherein the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame comprises the second data of the video portion of that frame concatenated with skipped macroblocks indicating that the graphics portion of that frame is the same as the graphics portion of the first frame.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a demultiplexer;

wherein the instructions comprise at least one instruction that, when executed by the processor, causes the apparatus to;

extract the first data, the second data, and the third data from a transport stream, wherein the transport stream comprises the skipped macroblocks; and

concatenate the extracted data in the order in which the extracted data arrives at said demultiplexer.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to:

remap packet identifiers identifying the first data of the video portion of the first frame, packet identifiers identifying the second data of the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame, and packet identifiers identifying the third data of the graphics portion to a pre-defined packet identifier; and

extract the first data, the second data, and the third data from a transport stream based on identifying packets in the transport stream having said pre-defined packet identifier.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the video portions comprises video and audio contents.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the graphics portion comprises guide data.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to:

encode the video portion of the first frame as one or more reference picture slices;

encode the video portion of the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame as one or more predicted picture slices; and

encode the graphics portion of the first frame as one or more reference picture slices.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the first data, the second data, and the third data are provided as a transport stream, and the transport stream comprises packets,

a first plurality of the packets comprise the first data and the second data of the video portions and a first packet identifier, and

a second plurality of the packets comprise the third data of the graphics portion of the first frame and a second packet identifier.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

a demodulator,

wherein the demodulator is configured to filter out packets from the transport stream which are not identified with the first or the second packet identifiers.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

a demultiplexer,

wherein;

the demultiplexer is configured to extract the first data, the second data, and the third data from the transport stream based on a selected packet identifier, and

the packets identified with the first and the second packet identifiers further include information for instructing the demultiplexer to change the selected packet identifier for subsequently received packets in the transport stream.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

a demodulator,

wherein the demodulator is configured to filter out packets from the transport stream which do not include a selected packet identifier, and

wherein the packets identified with the first and the second packet identifiers further include information for instructing the demodulator to change the selected packet identifier for subsequently received packets in the transport stream.

11. A method comprising:

receiving at a terminal a signal comprising first data of a video portion of a first frame, second data of a video portion of at least one frame subsequent to the first frame, and third data of a graphics portion of the first frame; and

generating a sequence of frames, comprising the first frame and the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame, based on the first data, the second data, and the third data,

wherein the first frame comprises the first data of the video portion of the first frame concatenated with the third data of the graphics portion of the first frame, and

wherein the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame comprises the second data of the video portion of that frame concatenated with skipped macroblocks indicating that the graphics portion of that frame is the same as the graphics portion of the first frame.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

remapping packet identifiers identifying the first data of the video portion of the first frame, packet identifiers identifying the second data of the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame, and packet identifiers identifying the third data of the graphics portion to a pre-defined packet identifier; and

extracting the first data, the second data, and the third data from a transport stream based on identifying packets in the transport stream having said pre-defined packet identifier.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

encoding the video portion of the first frame as one or more reference picture slices;

encoding the video portion of the at least one frame subsequent to the first frame as one or more predicted picture slices; and

encoding the graphics portion of the first frame as one or more reference picture slices.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

extracting the first data, the second data, and the third data from a transport stream,

wherein the transport stream comprises the skipped macroblocks, and the extracted data is concatenated in exactly the order in which the extracted data arrives at a demultiplexer, and

wherein the terminal comprises a set top box.

15. An apparatus comprising:

an encoder configured to encode a graphics portion into encoded graphics slices and a video portion into encoded video slices;

a multiplexer configured to assign packet identifiers to the video slices and the graphics slices, wherein said assigning of packet identifiers comprises assigning a different packet identifier to each graphics slice that is part of a different graphic, and assigning a common packet identifier to all common video slices;

a remultiplexer configured to repacketize the encoded graphics slices and the encoded video slices;

a slice combiner coupled to the encoder and the remultiplexer, the slice combiner configured to combine slices of the encoded video portion with slices of the encoded graphics portion in a predetermined order; and

a re-timestamp unit coupled to the remultiplexer and configured to provide timestamps to be applied to the repacketized encoded graphics slices and video slices in order to synchronize the video portion and the graphics portion.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the encoder comprises a first encoder configured to encode the graphics portion into the encoded graphics slices and a second encoder configured to encode the video portion into the encoded video slices.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:

a rate control unit configured to determine an encoding rate for the graphics portion and to provide the determined encoding rate for the graphics portion to the encoder.

18. A method comprising:

encoding, at a server, a graphics portion into encoded graphics slices and a video portion into encoded video slices;

assigning packet identifiers to the video slices and the graphics slices, wherein said assigning of packet identifiers comprises assigning a different packet identifier to each graphics slice that is part of a different graphic, and assigning a common packet identifier to all common video slices;

repacketizing the encoded graphics slices and the encoded video slices;

combining slices of the encoded video portion with slices of the encoded graphics portion in a predetermined order; and

providing timestamps to be applied to the repacketized encoded graphics slices and video slices in order to synchronize the video portion and the graphics portion.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating the timestamps based on a common clock signal.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

controlling a bit rate for the graphics portion based at least in part on a bit rate for a transport stream.