Patent ID: 7673321
Filing Date: 2010-03-02
Classification: H04H,H04N

Abstract:
1. A method for providing audiovisual information to at least one remotely located user receiving system, the method comprising: providing access to a plurality of source materials, each source material containing at least one audiovisual item comprising audiovisual information, the audiovisual item having a format, the plurality of source materials including a first source material containing a first audiovisual item and a second source material containing a second audiovisual item; assigning by an encoder at least a unique identification code and a unique address code to the first audiovisual item; receiving the first audiovisual item by a converter and converting by the converter the format of the first audiovisual item into a predetermined format comprising a series of digital data bytes which represent frames of video data and samples of audio data; receiving the series of digital data bytes which represent the frames of video data of the first audiovisual item by a time encoder, receiving by the time encoder the series of digital data bytes which represent the samples of audio data of the first audiovisual item, assigning by the time encoder a relative time marker to at least one frame of the video data, outputting by the time encoder time-encoded video data of the first audiovisual item, assigning by the time encoder a relative time marker to at least one of the samples of the audio data, and outputting by the time encoder time-encoded audio data of the first audiovisual item, the relative time markers of the time-encoded video data and the time-encoded audio data allowing for realignment thereof; receiving the time-encoded video data of the first audiovisual item for processing thereof separate from the time-encoded audio data by a video data processor, and, if necessary, converting by the video data processor at least on of an aspect ratio of the frames of the time-encoded video data and a frame rate of the time-encoded video data; receiving the time-encoded video data of the first audiovisual item from the video data processor by a video frame buffer and temporarily storing the time-encoded video data by the video frame buffer; receiving the time-encoded audio data of the first audiovisual item for processing thereof separate from the time-encoded video data by an audio data processor, and transcoding by the audio data processor the time-encoded audio data and blocking the time-encoded audio data into frames; receiving the time-encoded audio data of the first audiovisual item from the audio data processor by an audio frame buffer and temporarily storing the time-encoded audio data by the audio frame buffer; receiving the time-encoded video data of the first audiovisual item from the video frame buffer by a video data compressor and data compressing by the video data compressor the time-encoded video data using discrete cosine transform and motion compensation, the time-encoded video data being compressed by the video data compressor separately from the time-encoded audio data; receiving the time-encoded audio data of the first audiovisual item from the audio frame buffer by an audio data compressor and data compressing by the audio data compressor the time-encoded audio data, the time-encoded audio data being compressed by the audio data compressor separately from the time-encoded video data; receiving the compressed, time-encoded video data and the compressed, time-encoded audio data of the first audiovisual item by a compressed data formatter, realigning the compressed, time-encoded video data and the compressed, time-encoded audio data by the compressed data formatter using the relative time markers of the time-encoded video data and the time-encoded audio data, and placing by the compressed data formatter the realigned compressed, time-encoded video and audio data of the first audiovisual item into a first file; receiving and storing the first file by at least one storage device, the first file being addressable on the at least one storage device by the unique address code assigned to the first audiovisual item, and the relative time markers of the time-encoded video data and the time-encoded audio data making a subset of the first file retrievable; receiving the first file from the at least one storage device by a format conversion CPU and converting by the format conversion CPU the contents of the first file into a format suitable for transmission; and receiving the converted contents of the first file from the format conversion CPU by a transmitter, multiplexing first formatted digital data blocks corresponding to the video data of the first file and second formatted digital data blocks corresponding to the audio data of the first file, and transmitting by the transmitter the multiplexed data blocks corresponding to at least a portion of the first file to at least one remotely located user receiving system over a communication channel.