Transmitting/receiving system, transmitting apparatus, transmitting method, receiving apparatus, receiving method, recording medium, and program

• US 7,593,424 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2003
• Issued: 09/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamane, Kenji, Kyusojin, Hiroshi, Futenma, Satoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Harper; Kevin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Andrews; Leon
• Application Number:
  US10/504,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20050105557A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,178 Days
• Field of Search: 370/464, 375/240.1, 375/240.27
• US Class Current: 370/464
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/154 Measured or subjectively estimated visual quality after decoding, e.g. measurement of distortion use of rate-distortion criteria H04N19/147
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/166 concerning the amount of transmission errors, e.g. bit error rate [BER]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/187 the unit being a scalable video layer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/44 Decoders specially adapted therefor, e.g. video decoders which are asymmetric with respect to the encoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/46 Embedding additional information in the video signal during the compression process H04N19/517, H04N19/68, H04N19/70 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/89 involving methods or arrangements for detection of transmission errors at the decoder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/04 Synchronising for television systems using pulse code modulation H04N7/56

Abstract

A transmission and reception system includes a transmission apparatus for transmitting content and a reception apparatus for receiving the content. The transmission apparatus includes a coding section that codes the content into hierarchy codes and outputs coded data of a plurality of layers, a packet generation section that generates packets including the coded data and a timestamp and outputs packets from low-level information of the coded data, and a transmission section that transmits the packets. The reception system includes a reception section that receives the packets, a holding section that holds the packets, a writing control section that controls the writing of the packets, and a determination section that determines whether there is packet loss in the packets. When there is packet loss, the writing control section writes the packets received up to a time of packet loss based on a timestamp in the packets.

Claims

1. A transmission and reception system comprising:

a transmission apparatus configured to transmit content; and

a reception apparatus configured to receive said content, said transmission apparatus comprises

a coding section configured to code said content into hierarchy codes and output coded data of a plurality of layers,

a packet generation section configured to generate packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers and a timestamp and output packets from low-level information of said coded data, and

a transmission section configured to transmit said packets, and said reception apparatus comprises

a reception section configured to receive said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus,

a holding section configured to hold said packets received by said reception section,

a writing control section configured to control the writing of said packets received by said reception section into said holding section, and

a determination section configured to determine whether there is packet loss in said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus, and when there is packet loss within one frame of said content, said writing control section is further configured to write into the holding section said packets received up to a time said packet loss within one frame has occurred based on the timestamp in said packets, and not to write the remaining packets of said one frame into said holding section.

2. A transmission and reception system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a decoding control section configured to control the decoding of said coded data placed in said packets held in said holding section;

a decoding section configured to decode said coded data; and

a threshold-value holding section configured to hold a threshold value with regard to the decoding of said decoding section,

wherein said decoding control section is configured to control the decoding by said decoding section in accordance with said threshold value.

3. A transmission and reception system according to claim 2, wherein:

said transmission apparatus is configured to transmit frame information containing a number of packets of said coded data for each of said plurality of layers and information on an image quality of an image, which is obtained by decoding said coded data;

said reception section is further configured to receive said frame information; and

said decoding control section is configured to control the decoding by said decoding section in accordance with said threshold value held in said threshold-value holding section and said frame information.

4. A transmission and reception method for use with a transmission and reception system comprising a transmission apparatus for transmitting content and a reception apparatus for receiving said content, the method comprising:

coding said content into hierarchy codes;

outputting coded data of a plurality of layers;

generating packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers;

outputting packets from low-level information of said coded data;

transmitting said packets from a transmission apparatus;

receiving said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus;

controlling a writing of said packets received in the receiving step; and

determining whether there is packet loss in said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus, and when there is packet loss within one frame of said content, writing into the holding section said packets received up to a time the packet loss within said one frame has occurred based on the timestamp in said packets, and not writing the remaining packets of said one frame.

5. A transmission apparatus comprising:

an input section configured to receive frame information,

a coding section configured to code said content into hierarchy codes and output coded data of a plurality of layers,

a packet generation section configured to generate packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers and a timestamp and output packets in a plurality of layers with from low-level information of said coded data in packets in the lowest layer of said plurality of layers;

a holding section configured to hold said frame information containing a number of packets of said coded data for each of said plurality of layers and information on an image quality of an image, which is obtained by decoding said coded data; and

a transmission section configured to transmit said packets and said frame information,

wherein said coding section is configured to code said content into hierarchy codes in accordance with said frame information, and said packet generation section is configured to generate packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers and the timestamp in accordance with said frame information.

6. A transmission method comprising:

receiving frame information;

coding content into hierarchy codes;

outputting coded data of a plurality of layers;

generating packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers and a timestamp;

outputting packets in a plurality of layers with from low-level information of said coded data in packets in the lowest layer of said plurality of layers;

holding said frame information containing a number of packets of said coded data for each of said plurality of layers and information on an image quality of an image, which is obtained by decoding said coded data; and

transmitting said packets and said frame information, said content is coded into hierarchy codes in accordance with said frame information, and said generating includes generating packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers and the timestamp in accordance with said frame information.

7. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program that, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform steps comprising:

receiving frame information;

coding content into hierarchy codes;

outputting coded data of a plurality of layers;

generating packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers;

outputting packets in a plurality of layers with from low-level information of said coded data in packets in the lowest layer of said plurality of layers; and

transmitting frame information containing a number of packets of said coded data for each of said plurality of layers and information on an image quality of an image, which is obtained by decoding said coded data, said coding includes coding content into hierarchy codes in accordance with said frame information, and said generating includes generating packets including said coded data of the plurality of layers and the timestamp in accordance with said frame information.

8. A reception apparatus configured to receive packets transmitted from a transmission apparatus, said packets including a timestamp and coded data of a plurality of layers, which is obtained by performing hierarchy coding on content, comprising:

a receiving section configured to receive said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus;

a holding section configured to hold said packets received by said receiving section;

a writing control section configured to control the writing of said packets received by said receiving section into said holding section; and

a determination section configured to determine whether there is packet loss in said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus, and when there is packet loss within one frame of said content, said writing control section is further configured to write into the holding section said packets received up to a time said packet loss within one frame has occurred based on the timestamp in said packets, and not to write the remaining packets of said one frame into said holding section.

9. A reception apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

a decoding control section configured to control the decoding of said coded data placed in said packets held in said holding section;

a decoding section configured to decode said coded data; and

a threshold-value holding section configured to hold a threshold value with regard to the decoding of said decoding section,

wherein said decoding control section is further configured to control decoding by said decoding section in accordance with said threshold value.

10. A reception apparatus according to claim 9, wherein:

said transmission apparatus is further configured to transmit frame information containing a number of packets of said coded data for each of said plurality of layers and information on an image quality of an image, which is obtained by decoding said coded data;

said receiving section is further configured to receive said frame information; and

said decoding control section is configured to control decoding by said decoding section in accordance with said threshold value held in said threshold-value holding section and said frame information.

11. A reception apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

a storage section configured to store said content decoded by said decoding section;

a display control section configured to control a display of said content; and

a display section configured to display said content,

wherein, when the decoding of said coded data is not permitted by said decoding control section, said display control section makes the display section display said content that is stored in said storage section earlier than content corresponding to the coded data.

12. A reception method for use with a reception apparatus for receiving packets transmitted from a transmission apparatus that transmits said packets that include a timestamp and coded data of a plurality of layers, which is obtained by performing hierarchy coding on content, said reception method comprising:

receiving said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus;

controlling a writing of said packets received in the receiving step; and

determining whether there is packet loss in said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus, and

when there is packet loss within one frame of said content, writing into a holding section said packets received up to a time said packet loss within one frame has occurred, the time based on the timestamp in said packets, and not writing the remaining packets of said one frame.

13. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program that, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to receive packets transmitted from a transmission apparatus, said packets including a timestamp and coded data of a plurality of layers, which is obtained by performing hierarchy coding on content, said computer performing steps comprising:

receiving said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus;

controlling a writing of said packets received in the receiving step; and

determining whether there is packet loss in said packets transmitted from said transmission apparatus, and

when there is packet loss within one frame of said content, writing into a holding section said packets received up to a time said packet loss within one frame has occurred, the time based on the timestamp in said packets, and not writing the remaining packets of said one frame.