Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

North American Philips Corporation

Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.p.

Other

Faramarz Azadegan

Mikhail Tsinberg

Hideki Mimura

Hiroaki Unno

Tetsuya Kitamura

Christopher J Cookson

Greg B Thagard

Andrew Drusin Rosen

Alan P Cavallerano

Jay Yogeshwar

Sheau-Bao Ng

David Lehmann

Carlo Basile

Aldo G Cugnini

David A Bryan

Eberhard H Fisch

Yo-Sung Ho

Tomoo Yamakage

Kiran Srinivas Challapali

Toshinori Odaka

Teiichi Ichikawa

Masaru Sakurai

Shigeo Ogawa

Antony Hu

Shin-ichiro Koto

Shin-Ichiro Koto

An audiovisual encoding system using a multipass video encoder and a plurality of one-pass audio encoders. The number of audio encoders used by the system is equal to the number of audio tracks to be encoded divided by the number of passes required for the video encoding rounded up to the nearest integer, if necessary. The system allows the video encoder and audio encoders to be used at the same time so that the encoding of the video is completed at the same time as the encoding of all audio tracks is completed, using the minimum number of audio encoders.

Audiovisual encoding system with a reduced number of audio encoders

A method and system in which a user manually changes the quality of portions of video frames after the frames have been previously encoded. Regions of one or more frames of video are selected to have an increased quality, a decreased quality, or a quality which should not be altered. After the regions are defined by a user, the frame of video is digitally re-encoded and inserted into the digitally encoded data stream in place of the previously encoded data. In order to easily remove a previously encoded frame from the data steam and replace it with a newly encoded frame having regions of quality defined by the user, it is preferable to have the newly encoded frame consume the same number of bits as the previously encoded frame. Accordingly, if the user desires a region of a frame to have an increased quality, the extra bits necessary to provide the increased quality must be taken from other areas of the frame. This is accomplished by an automatic process which is transparent to the user. Additionally, if the user wants to change the quality of an object for a series of video frames, the user can mark a region in a first frame and a corresponding region in a last frame and the system will automatically adjust the quality of the region as the region moves through the series of video frames.

Method and system for a user to manually alter the quality of previously

A method and system in which a user manually changes the quality of specific time periods of encoded video. After the automatic encoding of video into a compressed digital format, a person editing the encoded video reviews the quality of the video and manually indicates that the quality of specific time periods of the video is to be altered. As the digital storage medium such as an optical disc which stores the encoded video has a finite storage capacity, the total number of bits for the encoded video and the quality of the video is limited. Consequently, in order to increase the quality for one time period, bits must be taken from other time periods. After the editor assigns the qualities to different time periods, a percentage of bits is removed from the time sequences and placed into a bit pool. The new number of bits for the various time periods are calculated using an exponential function and the bits in the bit pool are proportionally distributed to the video frames. The frames must then be checked and possibly adjusted to assure that underflow of the video buffer will not occur. After the underflow checking procedure, the video is re-encoded with an adjusted quantization in accordance with a quantizer model which will result in a picture having the calculated number of bits and a quality in accordance with the user's selection.

Method and system for a user to manually alter the quality of a

A method and system for re-encoding frames of a digital video stream in which selected areas are designated to have increased or reduced image quality, i.e., decreased or increased quantization levels, respectively, as compared to a previously run automatic encoding process, but without changing the previously calculated bit length of the stream. A set of macroblocks at a time are re-encoded, the number of resulting bits is calculated and the deviation from an estimated number of bits is calculated, either set-by-set or cumulatively. Based on the accuracy of the estimate and the remaining number of sets of macroblocks to re-encode, a correction factor for the quantization level of the next set of macroblocks is chosen from a lookup table. The correction factor is added to the quantization level of the next set of macroblocks and the results stored as the new quantization level of the set. This sequential process is done for all sets of macroblocks in the digital stream which are to be recoded according to changed image qualities.

Rate-controlled digital video editing method and system which controls

A system and method for determining quantization level versus bit-rate characteristics of raw video signals in video frames during a pre-encoding phase for video technologies such as MPEG and MPEG-2. During a pre-encoding phase, various quantization levels are assigned to various parts of a frame, and the frame is then pre-encoded to determine a bit-rate for each quantization level used in the pre-encoding phase. Depending on the embodiment, quantization levels are assigned in one of many ways: checkerboard style, block style or any other distribution that avoids statistical anomalies. The method and system repeat the pre-encoding for plural frames, recording all quantization level versus bit-rate statistics on a frame by frame basis. These statistics are then used during encoding or re-encoding of a digital video to control the number of bits allocated to one segment of the digital video as compared to another segment, based on a target quality and target storage size for each segment. The resulting encoded digital video is stored on a digital storage medium, such as a compact disc.

Video encoding method and system which encodes using a rate-quantizer

A video system that avoids disruption of a displayed scene. A scene from a first data stream is held on a display while a second scene from a second data stream is being built up. A first embodiment includes a transition memory for holding the first scene and a frame memory for building up the second scene. Once the second scene is built up, it is displayed. A second embodiment includes a memory in which the first scene is held and displayed on the display while the second scene is also being built up in the memory.

Video compression system with editing flag

A video signal processor receives a digital video input signal containing I-data and other data in random positions in a data frame. A pre-processor separates the frames into the data components. A tessellation of a video screen containing vertical columns and horizontal rows is programmed into the pre-processor. The pre-processor assembles records with the I-data positioned in the records such that a video recorder head, scanning the data in any trick-mode speed, will update sequential rows or sequential columns of the tessellation according to the I-data.

Trick-play VCR for digitally coded video

A method and apparatus for encoding a television source signal having a first bandwidth, into a frequency multiplexed signal having a narrower bandwidth and comprising a plurality of subcarriers modulated with digital information. Each of said subcarriers has an amplitude, bandwidth and coding characteristic which reflects the relative importance of the digital information provided thereby. The frequency multiplexed signal is suitable for use in a broadcasting environment wherein a conventional television signal is also used and wherein said subcarriers are disposed in frequency, in positions which are least likely to result in interference to or from said conventional signal. The invention also includes a receiver for decoding the frequency multiplexed signal and for providing a high definition display.

Method and apparatus for the transmission and reception of a

A method and apparatus for concealing errors occurring during the transmission and or reception of digital television signals. Blocks of video information are received and if any of the blocks contain errors including missing coefficients and/or motion vectors which are not correctable by the error correction circuitry, they are concealed by deriving replacement coefficients and/or motion vectors from at least one of the other received blocks of video.

Method and apparatus for concealing errors in a digital television

A method and apparatus for digital encoding are described for compressing the augmentation channel signals (chrominance and luminance signals for panel information and high frequency luminance and line difference signal) so that this information can be transmitted in a 3 MHz wide RF channel using a digital transmission scheme such as QPSK. Analog signal components are sampled and converted to digital signals. Each of the signals is fed into a separate coder which reduces the number of bits/pixel required to reconstruct the original signal. Compression is achieved by quantization and removal of redundancy. The compression scheme is based on the use of DCT together with VLC. Each augmentation signal has its own coder, which is adapted to the unique statistics of this signal.

Method and apparatus for digitally processing a high definition

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Waltham, MA, United States of America

Faramarz Azadegan