Apparatus and method for combining realtime and non-realtime encoded content

• US 9,264,711 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2014
• Issued: 02/16/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: TiVo Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Comcast IP Holdings I LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Gordon, Donald F., Bayrakeri, Sadik, Ludvig, Edward A., Gershtein, Eugene, Edmonds, Jeremy S., Comito, John P.
• Primary Examiner(s): RABOVIANSKI, JIVKA A
• Application Number:
  US14/151,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20140189749A1
• Time in Patent Office: 768 Days
• Field of Search: 725/54, 725/114, 725/119, 725/146
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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. A method, comprising:

generating, by at least one computing device, data representing (a) a first plurality of video slices, identified by a first packet identifier, that represent an intra-coded video frame of first content, (b) a second plurality of slices, identified by a different second packet identifier, that represent a plurality of skipped macroblocks for the first content, and (c) a third plurality of video slices, identified by the second packet identifier, that represent a plurality of video frames of second content; and

transmitting the data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of video frames comprises the second content in a first portion thereof and null data in a second portion thereof.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises an MPEG-compliant data stream.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising encoding the first content into predicted video frames and using the predicted video frames to generate the second plurality of slices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first content comprises textual data and graphics data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first content comprises a program guide and the second content comprises video content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating further comprises generating the data to also represent (d) a fourth plurality of video slices, identified by a different third packet identifier, that represent an intra-coded video frame of third content, and (e) a fifth plurality of video slices, identified by the second packet identifier, that represent a plurality of skipped macroblocks for the third content.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating comprises:

generating the first plurality of video slices based at least in part on graphics information; and

generating the third plurality of video slices based at least in part on video content.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the first plurality of video slices comprises encoding first information into the first video slices using a first protocol, and wherein the generating the third plurality of video slices comprises encoding second information into the third video slices using a different second protocol.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the first content based at least in part on textual program guide data.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein a first subset of the third video slices comprises the second content as a portion of each of the plurality of video frames, and a second subset of the third video slices comprise null data.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving, over a network, data representing (a) a first plurality of video slices, identified by a first packet identifier, that represent an intra-coded video frame of first content, (b) a second plurality of slices, identified by a different second packet identifier, that represent a plurality of skipped macroblocks, and (c) a third plurality of video slices, identified by the second packet identifier, that represent a plurality of video frames of second content; and

generating, by a computing device, a plurality of combined video frames for display based at least in part on the first plurality of video slices, the second plurality of slices, and the third plurality of video slices.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of video frames comprises the second content in a first portion thereof and null data in a second portion thereof.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the data comprises an MPEG-compliant data stream.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the first content comprises a program guide and the second content comprises video content.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the network comprises an Internet Protocol based network.

17. The method of claim 8, wherein the first content comprises graphics information and the second content comprises video content.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first plurality of video slices are encoded using a first set of encoding parameters, and the third plurality of video slices are encoded using a different second set of encoding parameters.

19. The method of claim 8, wherein a first subset of the third video slices comprises the second content as a portion of each of the plurality of video frames, and a second subset of the third video slices comprises null data.

20. The method of claim 8, wherein the generating for display comprises sending the plurality of combined video frames to a display device.