The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 19, 1999
Filed:
Nov. 21, 1995
Paul Shen, San Francisco, CA (US);
Edward A Krause, El Cerrito, CA (US);
Adam S Tom, San Francisco, CA (US);
Imedia Corporation, San Francisco, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus multiplexing several encoded program streams into a single multiplex suitable for transmission over a data channel, the streams typically including video and audio. According to one embodiment of the invention, high data channel utilization is achieved by determining the order of sending data packets of program streams into the data channel. According to this embodiment, whenever data is to be sent into the data channel, a determination is made of which packet to send or append to the multiplex, said determination by selecting a channel that has a decoder buffer that is not approaching a full state, and said next packet is appended to said multiplex. The method further includes selecting a channel that substantially balances the decoder buffers of the decoders with which the program streams are decodeable.