Apparatus for converting moving picture stream of MPEG1 to transport stream of MPEG2

• US 5,801,781 A
• Filed: 06/19/1996
• Issued: 09/01/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Ozawa, Masayuki, Okada, Akihiro, Udagawa, Mamoru, Hiroshima, Shuuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Tommy P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DIN, LUANNE PAN
• Application Number:
  US08/666,788
• Time in Patent Office: 804 Days
• Field of Search: 348/441, 348/443, 348/445, 348/432, 348/426, 348/458, 348/398, 348/397, 348/409, 348/412, 348/7, 348/13, 348/845.2
• US Class Current: 348/441
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23605 Creation or processing of packetized elementary streams [PES]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23611 Insertion of stuffing data into a multiplex stream, e.g. to obtain a constant bitrate synchronisation arrangements in time-division multiplex systems using bit stuffing for systems with different or fluctuating information rates H04J3/073
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2362 Generation or processing of Service Information [SI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64307 ATM

Abstract

A demultiplexer receives an MPEG1 system stream obtained by multiplexing encoded data of video and audio and separates the stream into elementary streams (ES) of video and audio. A packetizer forms packetized elementary streams (PES) of MPEG2. Finally, a multiplexer divides the stream into transport packets each having a prefixed length of 188 bytes and, after that, converts the stream to an MPEG2 transport stream (TS).

Claims

1. A moving picture stream converting apparatus to convert an MPEG1 system stream, that includes a stream of encoded video data and a stream of encoded audio data, to a transport stream of MPEG2, the apparatus comprising:

a demultiplexer for receiving the MPEG1 system stream and for separating the streams of encoded video and audio data to form a separate elementary video stream and a separate elementary audio stream, the MPEG1 system stream having a plurality of packs, one of the plurality of packs having a packet header, and each of the plurality of packs having a corresponding system header and a corresponding plurality of packets, each of the plurality of packets having an elementary stream payload to store video or audio encoded data, and an elementary stream header having a packet start code, a stream ID, a packet length corresponding to the elementary stream payload, and time management information;

a packetizer for forming a corresponding MPEG2 elementary stream packet for each of the separate video and audio elementary streams separated by said demultiplexer, each MPEG2 elementary stream packet having a packetized elementary stream payload to store video or audio encoded data, and a packetized elementary stream header having a packet start code, a stream ID, a packet length corresponding to the packetized elementary stream payload, and time management information; and

a multiplexer for dividing said packetized elementary streams and storing the divided packetized elementary streams into transport packets having a corresponding prefixed length, and for multiplexing the transport packets and converting the packetized elementary streams to the transport stream of MPEG2, wherein the packetizer receives the separated MPEG1 system streams, analyzes the elementary stream header, and extracts and stores the stream ID, packet length, and time management information in the MPEG2 packetized stream header, and data of said elementary stream payload is stored in the MPEG2 packetized elementary stream payload.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a video-on-demand system, having a video server, formed by said demultiplexer, said packetizer, and said multiplexer, wherein the MPEG2 transport stream converted from the MPEG1 system stream is provided to the video server.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

said MPEG2 transport stream has a transport stream header of a predetermined byte length and a transport stream payload, said transport stream header having sync bytes, an error indicator for indicating a bit error in a packet, a payload unit start indicator for indicating a start of a new packetized elementary stream packet in the transport stream payload, a stream ID for identifying audio and video data and a channel number, control information for indicating the presence of an adaptation field and the payload, and wherein

said multiplexer cuts out and stores each of the video and audio packetized elementary stream packets formed by said packetizer on a predetermined byte length unit basis into the transport stream payload, forms said transport stream header corresponding to the stored data, and adds to a location before each of the transport stream payloads, to convert the separate streams of encoded video and audio data to the MPEG2 transport stream.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said multiplexer has an invalid packet inserting module for inserting a transport stream packet in which invalid data has been stored in the transport stream payload to be adapted to a transmission rate of MPEG2 when the packetized elementary stream formed by said packetizer is converted to the MPEG2 transport stream.

5. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said multiplexer inserts a transport stream packet in which the invalid data has been stored in the payload to obtain a transmission rate of 6.144 Mbps of MPEG2 for a transmission rate of 1.536 Mbps of MPEG1.

6. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the transport stream packet has a head, in which program specification information and a system clock reference have been stored and wherein the multiplexer arranges the transport stream packet and multiplexingly arranges video and audio transport stream packets.

7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said program specification information has a transport stream packet, having a transport stream payload, in which a program association table has been stored, and a transport stream packet in which a program map table has been stored.

8. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said invalid packet inserting module stores user data and information indicating that meaningful data has been stored in the transport stream packet in which invalid data has been stored.

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein

the invalid transport stream packet has a payload with a head position having a head byte, and said invalid packet inserting module sets data indicating to the unit start indicator that the payload is not in the head position, sets an invalid packet ID, sets "there is a payload" to the adaptation field control, and sets a predetermined user flag to the head byte of the payload, and wherein,

when the user flag is recognized, a process corresponding to the meaningful data stored in the transport stream packet is in enabled.

10. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an invalid packet inserting unit for inserting a transport stream packet in which invalid data has been stored in the transport stream payload to be adapted to the transmission rate of MPEG2.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said invalid packet inserting unit inserts the transport stream packet in which invalid data has been stored so that the transmission rate is set to a transmission rate of 6.144 Mbps of MPEG2 for a transmission rate of 1.536 Mbps of MPEG1.

12. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the transport stream packet in which invalid data has been stored has a program clock reference that is set by said invalid packet inserting unit.

13. An apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising an ATM cell forming processing unit for converting the MPEG2 transport stream to a cell of an ATM network and transmitting the cells to the ATM network after insertion of a transport stream packet by said invalid packet inserting unit.