Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Electric Co., Ltd.

Akihiro Watabe

Eiji Miyagoshi

Nobuo Setoguchi

Takayuki Morishige

Hisashi Kodama

Masaki Toyokura

Akihiko Ohtani

Noboru Mizuguchi

Makoto Yasuda

William Brent Wilson

Yuichiro Aihara

Yoshiyuki Goi

Akihiro Otani

Hiroyori Morimoto

Eiji Miyagosi

Yasushi Tanaka

In order to cope with format conversion of user data, the bit rate value and VBV (Video Buffering Verifier) buffer size value in a sequence header of an input code and the VBV delay value in a picture header of the input code are modified to obtain an intermediate code (to), and additional information () is generated for distinguishing GOP (Group of Pictures) user data () from the other main data. A VBV buffer simulation is performed using this additional information () to multiplex the GOP user data in a picture user data region to a data amount such that the operation does not fail, whereby an output code is generated.

Code conversion method and device thereof

A priority control value, which is smaller as the priority of access by each of requesters is higher, decreases with the lapse of time when an access request is issued. When the access is completed, the priority control value increases by a priority decrease value (PERIOD). When there is no access request, the priority control value decreases to a reference priority value (TMIN) and is then maintained at the reference priority value. Access permission is given to the one of the requesters issuing requests which has the smallest priority control value. As a result, proper arbitration is performed at a high speed with a simple hardware configuration.

Access arbiter and arbitrable condition verification device

A digital motion picture decoding apparatus comprising an input buffer memory for storing coded data to be decoded, a reproduced picture memory for storing the decoded picture data to be displayed, and a display picture deciding means for deciding a reproduced picture to be output from the picture data stored in the reproduced picture memory, further comprises: a program changing means for changing the type of the coded data to be decoded; a program change detecting means for detecting from the output of the program changing means that the type of the coded data to be decoded is changed; and a display state maintaining means for controlling the picture data output from the reproduced picture memory so as to maintain the display state of the reproduced picture which is currently displayed according to the decision of the display picture deciding means, when it is detected from the output of the program change detecting means that the change of the type of the coded data to be decoded makes the coded data not continuous in time sequence.

Digital motion picture decoding apparatus and digital motion picture decoding method

When a digitized broadcast is recorded in a storage medium, a required capacity of the storage medium is firstly calculated on the basis of a bit-rate of digitized broadcast data and a recording time which is known in advance. If the remaining capacity of the storage medium is smaller than the required capacity of the storage medium, for example, a frame rate decimation and pixel reduction are performed upon a broadcast to be newly stored, a re-encoding processing is performed for the broadcast and then the resultant broadcast is stored in the storage medium. If the remaining storage capacity of the storage medium is larger than the required capacity of the storage medium and thus remains, a frame interpolation and pixel interpolation are performed for the broadcast to be stored and then a re-encoding processing is performed for the resultant broadcast in order to improve its image quality. As a result, recording of the broadcast data in the storage medium can be ensured.

Method and device for ensuring storage time for digital broadcast

An image coding apparatus includes a coding unitfor generating a code A, a coding unitfor generating a code B, an image reproduction unitan image reproduction memoryand a motion vector detection unitThe motion vector detection unitdetects a motion vector using an image in the image reproduction memorywhereby the coding unitgenerates the code A, while the image reproduction unitreconstructs an image on the basis of output from the coding unitand stores the image in the image reproduction memoryIn the operation for generating the code B, the coding unitis employed as a coding unit for generating the code B, while commonly employing the image reproduction memorythe motion vector detection unitand the image reproduction unitas employed in the generation operation for code A.

Image coding apparatus and image coding method

A decoding devicedecodes a bit stream including a plurality of packets. Data corresponding to an access unit includes a first data portion-and a second data portion-. The decoding deviceincludes a packet regeneration sectionfor receiving a first packetand a second packetfollowing the first packet, and when the first packetincludes the first data portion-and the second packetincludes the second data portion-, producing a new packetincluding the data corresponding to the access unit by combining the first data portion-and the second data portion-. The decoding devicealso includes a decoding sectionfor decoding the data corresponding to the access unit. The new packetincludes information indicating a length of the data corresponding to the access unit.

Method and apparatus for decoding

When an input picture is inputted to a video interface and stored in a reordering memory, the input time is recorded utilizing a reference time generator and a frame sync signal, and a frame memory to be encoded by an encoding unit is designated using the time information. Therefore, an encoder, which can perform stable encoding even when intervals of vertical sync signals are varied, is realized.

Video encoding apparatus, video encoding method, and frame rate conversion apparatus

A variable length encoding apparatus such as an encoding apparatus using the MPEG standard, wherein without degrading the precision of quantization step, the generated code bit amount is limited. Encoding is performed at the quantization step of required picture quality by an encoding part , and a bit stream is written in an external memory . The generated encoded bit amount is measured from the increment of a write pointer increased because of the writing in the external memory by a control unit . If the amount is larger than a preset value, the data is replaced with data leading to the same decoding result as those of the preceding or following reference picture by using a replacement pattern in accordance with the picture type and the position on a times series, and the data is written in the external memory , thus outputting the data as an output bit stream controlled to the generated code amount within an upper limit value.

Variable-length encoder

An encoder apparatus transmits encoded data without missing any part of it. The apparatus includes: an encoder for compressing and encoding multiple moving pictures and calculating the number of bits used to obtain encoded data by encoding each said picture to be encoded; original picture data storage for storing the pictures to be encoded thereon; encoded data storage for storing the encoded data thereon; and bit number comparator for obtaining a threshold value of the number of bits available for each said picture to be encoded and determining whether or not the bit number exceeds the threshold value. If the encoder has determined that there will be enough time for the encoder to re-encode a current one of the pictures to be encoded before encoding of a next one of the pictures is started and if the comparator has found the bit number exceeding the threshold value, then the encoder re-encodes the current picture by changing encoding parameters in such a manner as to reduce the bit number.

Apparatus and method for encoding

A picture data encoding apparatus includes a target bit amount determining part for calculating a target bit amount for each block according to a bit rate and a number of blocks to be converted; and a bit amount adjusting part for reducing a bit amount for each block to the target bit amount by means of reducing the bit amount for each code by converting run level information for each code into lower run level information.

Picture data encoding apparatus with bit amount adjustment

A frame memory is provided which has five fields each having N slots, and three additional slots. Each slot has a storage capacity to store eight image lines. Four fields of the five fields serve to store motion compensation reference frames. The remaining one field and the three additional slots are used for B-picture interlace conversion. Disposed in a control unit are a slot control memory, a write slot pointer, and a read slot pointer. For an image output unit to acquire information from the frame memory in a correct slot order, the contents of the slot control memory are updated at the time of performing write operation to enter information into the frame memory by a bit stream analysis unit.

Image processor

A decoding method includes using a plurality of first bitstreams that are obtained by dividing a main bitstream with a hierarchical structure as inputs, successively arranging the plurality of first bitstreams and arranging selected second bitstreams before first hierarchical information of specified bitstreams among bitstreams constituting a specified hierarchy in the main bistream. Each second bitstream includes at least one of a plurality of codes including portions of the second bitstreams that do not corresond to specified code tables that are used for decoding bistreams, thereby forming a third bitstream.

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Nara, Japan

Akihiro Watabe