Sarnoff Corporation

Sri International

Thomson Licensing S.a.

Thomson Licensing

Thomson Multimedia S.a.

Crystalmedia Technology, Inc.

Robert Norman Hurst

Christopher Ward

Jungwoo Lee

Scott D Casavant

Charles M Wine

Ragnar Hlynur Jonsson

Glenn Arthur Reitmeier

Paul Wallace Lyons

Raymond Lowe

Terrence R Smith

Gary Hughes

Chris Ward

Arkady Kopansky

Xiaobing Lee

Clifford Arthur Pecota

Paul Harquail Meehan

David Andrew Birks

Jonathan Parlett

A computing system includes an interface, a memory, and processing circuitry. The interface is configured to receive, from a production system, a first test stream and a second test stream. The memory is in communication with the interface and is configured to store at least a portion of the first test stream and at least a portion of the second test stream. The processing circuitry is in communication with the memory and is configured to: detect first embedded information in the first test stream representative of a first timestamp and second embedded information in the second test stream representative of a second timestamp; determine, based on the first timestamp and the second timestamp, an offset between the first test stream and the second test stream; output the offset.

Embedded timestamps for determining offset between test streams

A method for detecting and quantifying losses in at least one of video and audio equipment, comprising the steps of generating the test pattern; processing the test pattern through video equipment; and displaying the processed test pattern to a display to a viewer. In one embodiment, the test pattern is indicative of video compression losses due to quantization. In another embodiment, the test pattern is indicative of a color transformation mismatch after encoding/decoding with incompatible video transmission standards. In a third embodiment, the test pattern is iso-luminant after a color transformation between a first and second video transmission standard. In a fourth embodiment, the test pattern is indicative of lipsync error.

Method for generating test patterns for detecting and quantifying losses in video equipment

A method and apparatus for generating universal splice point adapters, where during a splicing operation an 'out-point splicing adapter' is used to transition from an exit stream, while an 'in-point splicing adapter' is used to transition to an entry stream.

Frame-accurate seamless splicing of information streams

A digital video decoding system receives packetized video data representing programs conveyed on a plurality of video channels. The system includes a plurality of buffers for storing encoded video data representing images of video programs conveyed on a corresponding plurality of video channels. An individual buffer, corresponding to an individual video channel, stores sufficient encoded video data to prevent an underflow condition following switching to decode a program conveyed on the individual video channel. A processor initiates switching to decode a program conveyed on a selected one of the plurality of video channels in response to a user channel selection input. A decoder decodes encoded video data received from one of the plurality of buffers corresponding to the program conveyed on the selected video channel as determined by switching initiated by the processor. The decoder also predicts a next channel to be selected by a user based on, (a) predetermined user channel and program preference criteria, (b) predetermined user channel navigation patterns, or (c) user data entry device sensory data.

Video decoding and channel acquisition system

A method for generating a transition stream and processing video, audio or other data within the transition stream using, respectively, pixel domain processing, audio domain processing or other data domain processing.

Method for generating and processing transition streams

Compression-related information is used to constrain the selection and control of video imagery and content used to produce one or more uncompressed video streams for subsequent compression processing. Rather than taking an uncompressed video stream &ldquo;as is&rdquo; for compression processing, characteristics of compression processing are taken into consideration during the video production stage when the uncompressed video stream is generated. Different types of constraints include &ldquo;intra-frame&rdquo; constraints that constrain video content within a frame of a video stream, &ldquo;inter-frame&rdquo; constraints that constrain video content from frame to frame within a video stream, and &ldquo;inter-stream&rdquo; constraints that constrain video content across different video streams. Two or more different constraints and two or more different types of constraints may be applied simultaneously. The compression-related information may be &ldquo;static&rdquo; (e.g., in the form of processing &ldquo;rules&rdquo; that are applied) or fed back in real time from the video compression stage as &ldquo;dynamic&rdquo; information. By taking the subsequent compression processing into account during the video production stage, the resulting uncompressed video stream(s) can be encoded (e.g., to achieve more programs per channel and/or higher quality per program) using computationally inexpensive &ldquo;objective&rdquo; video compression algorithms that operate without taking video content into consideration, while still achieving the bit rate and video quality levels achieved using computationally expensive &ldquo;subjective&rdquo; video compression algorithms that do take video content into consideration.

Constraining video production based on compression-related information

A method and concomitant apparatus for incorporating one or more relatively low bitrate information streams (e.g., MPEG) into a relatively high bitrate information stream (e.g., SDTI) in a manner aligning low bitrate sub-stream splice entrance points and splice exit points within the frame boundaries of the high bitrate information stream. In this manner, the splicing of the relatively high bitrate information stream at appropriate In Frames and Out Frames will provide relatively seamless splicing of information sub-streams. The packing and unpacking methods are implemented such that the temporal offset between elementary streams carried within relatively low bitrate information stream is removed, i.e., the elementary streams are synchronized.

Method and apparatus for aligning sub-stream splice points in an information stream

In predictive encoders that support both intra-frame and inter-frame coding, the coding of intermediate dissolve frames (i.e., those falling between the first and last dissolve frames) is restricted, such that either (1) no intermediate dissolve frame is coded as an anchor frame (e.g., MPEG I or P frame) or (2) only a specific number of frames at specific locations within the dissolve are encoded as anchor frames. In certain MPEG implementations, all intermediate dissolve frames are coded as B frames, while the first and last frames are coded as anchor frames (e.g., I or P frames). In other implementations, particular intermediate dissolve frames may be coded as anchor frames with the other intermediate frames coded as B frames. The present invention can provide improved coding results in terms of both bit rate and video quality by avoiding the accumulation of predication errors that can otherwise occur when fixed GOP patterns are applied during dissolves.

Coding video dissolves using predictive encoders

Processing is applied to convert an input compressed video bitstream into an output compressed video bitstream having a different bit rate and/or representing different imagery from the input bitstream. The bitstream conversion processing is adjusted based on control parameters that are generated by comparing analogous measurements made to the input and output bitstreams so that subsequent measurements of the output bitstream will more closely match subsequent measurements of the input bitstream. In certain embodiments, the bitstream conversion processing involves decoding the input bitstream, optionally applying image processing functions to the resulting decoded video data, and re-encoding the resulting processed video data to generate the output bitstream. In one embodiment, the quantization data used during quantization of DCT coefficients during the re-encoding process are scaled using quantization re-scale factors (QRFs) generated by comparing the arrival margin for each frame in the input bitstream to the arrival margin for the corresponding frame in the output bitstream, where the arrival margin is defined as the amount of time between when the last bit of a frame has entered the decode buffer and when that frame is removed from the buffer.

Rate control for bitstream re-encoding

An interface, e.g., a modem-like interface for converting a digital information signal into an analog signal for use within an analog television studio infrastructure. Namely, the present invention employs a novel modulator that conveys compressed video data into analog video lines by creating an analog &ldquo;video&rdquo; signal that contains video gray-scale levels which correspond to digital data values, instead of containing an image.

Method and apparatus for carrying digital data as analog video

Flash frames are detected in video streams, for example, by looking for short sequences of one or more frames (or, to be more general, pictures) in which the frames within the sequence are not well-correlated to the frames that immediately precede and follow the flash sequence, where those frames before and after the flash sequence are themselves well-correlated to each other. Video compression processing is then adjusted in some way to handle flash frames in a special manner. For example, since flash frames are poorly correlated to their neighboring frames, it would be best not to make predictions based on such flash frames when encoding other frames. Encoding flash frames as anchor frames (e.g., I or P frames in an MPEG encoder) would be detrimental to those frames that are predicted from the anchor frames. Rather, flash frames are preferably encoded as frames that are never used as references for coding other non-flash frames (e.g., as B frames in an MPEG encoder). As such, any errors in coding flash frames are limited to those frames and do not propagate to other frames in the video sequence.

Detecting and coding flash frames in video data

In a data transmission system, an encoder provides a bitstream having a sequence of frame segments, wherein each frame segment has a bit size which is limited by the encoder to a maximum bit size. A transmission channel is provided which has a channel rate sufficient to transmit a frame segment of maximum bit size within a frame interval. A burst transmitter receives the bitstream from the encoder and transmits each consecutive frame segment, at regular frame intervals, in a burst at the channel rate via the transmission channel, to provide a bursty bitstream over the transmission channel.

Bursty data transmission of compressed video data

When logos or other imagery are to be added to compressed digital video bitstreams, certain constraints are applied to the encoder that generates the original compressed bitstream to enable a video logo processor (e.g., at a local broadcaster) to insert logo-inserted encoded data into the bitstream without placing substantial processing demands on the video logo processor. In one embodiment, areas where logos can be inserted are identified and the encoder is not allowed to use image data within those logo areas as reference data when performing motion-compensated inter-frame differencing for pixels outside of the logo areas. Preferably, the compressed data corresponding to the desired location for logo insertion are extracted from the compressed bitstream and replaced by logo-inserted encoded data. As a result, logos can be inserted into compressed digital video bitstreams without having to completely decode and re-encode the bitstreams, while maintaining the overall quality of the video display.

Logo insertion based on constrained encoding

Video signal compression apparatus generates residues representing pixel value differences between predicted and real pixel values of a current frame of a video signal. Noise reduction circuitry, in the form of nonlinear processing functions, attenuates lower amplitude residues greater than higher amplitude residues and is responsive to a noise estimate. The processed residues are transformed to provide a compressed video data output. The nonlinear processing functions attenuate noise and reduce image distortion.

Noise estimation and reduction apparatus for video signal processing

During transform-based video compression processing, motion vectors, which are identified during motion estimation and then used during motion-compensated inter-frame differencing, are constrained to coincide with block boundaries in the reference data. Block-based motion vectors have components that correspond to integer multiples of block dimensions. For example, for (8&times;8) blocks, allowable motion vector components are ( . . . , &minus;16, &minus;8, 0, &plus;8, &plus;16, . . . ). Constraining motion vectors in this way enables the resulting encoded video bitstream to be further processed in the transform domain without having to apply inverse and forward transforms. In particular, an existing input bitstream is partially decoded to recover the motion vectors and prediction error (i.e., dequantized transform coefficients). Because the motion vectors coincide with block boundaries in the corresponding reference data, motion-compensated inter-frame addition can then performed in the transform domain to generate transform data for subsequent processing (which may ultimately involve re-encoding the transform data into another encoded video bitstream). Because motion compensation can be performed in the transform domain, the bitstream data can be further processed in the transform domain and without having to apply expensive and lossy inverse and forward transforms.

Growing community of inventors

Hopewell, NJ, United States of America

Robert Norman Hurst