Patent ID: 6351471
Filing Date: 2002-02-26
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A method for optimizing the bandwidth of a transport stream comprising the steps of:(a) receiving a transport stream having a given bit rate, said transport stream including variably compressed program data bring transport packets and one or more null transport packets, each of said null transport packets occupying a time period of said received transport stream to maintain said given bit rate of said transport stream in lieu of compressed program data bearing transport packets, (b) selectively replacing one or more of said null transport packets with another to-be-remultiplexed non-null data bearing transport packet, and (c) independently of determining an amount of information carried by program data bearing transport packets from time to time in said received transport stream, scheduling at least one selected program data bearing transport packet for output in an output remultiplexed bitstream said scheduling being performed to transmit said program data at said given bit rate for proper receipt and decoding.