Source: http://patents.com/us-9521420.html
Timestamp: 2018-11-18 12:49:30
Document Index: 275572135

Matched Legal Cases: ['artz\n2007', 'Application No. 09', 'Application No. 200980145072', 'Application No. 200980124140', 'Application No. 08', 'Application No. 200980118689', 'Application No. 200980145072', 'Application No. 09', 'Application No. 09', 'art 1', 'art 10']

US Patent # 9,521,420. Managing splice points for non-seamless concatenated bitstreams - Patents.com
United States Patent 9,521,420
Rodriguez , et al. December 13, 2016
Rodriguez; Arturo A. (Norcross, GA), Au; James (Richmond, CA), De Lameillieure; Jan (Kortrijk, BE), Beheydt; Samie (Geluwe, BE)
TECH 5 (Issy les Moulineaux, FR)
Family ID: 1000002289265
14/457,236
US 20140351854 A1 Nov 27, 2014
13443580 Aug 12, 2014 8804843
12351785 Apr 10, 2012 8155207
61019964 Jan 9, 2008
Current CPC Class: H04N 19/44 (20141101); H04N 19/46 (20141101); H04N 19/61 (20141101); H04N 19/70 (20141101); H04N 21/23424 (20130101); H04N 21/2665 (20130101); H04N 21/44016 (20130101); H04N 21/47202 (20130101); H04N 21/812 (20130101); H04N 21/8451 (20130101); H04N 21/8456 (20130101)
Current International Class: H04N 19/46 (20140101); H04N 19/61 (20140101); H04N 21/2665 (20110101); H04N 19/70 (20140101); H04N 21/81 (20110101); H04N 19/44 (20140101); H04N 21/234 (20110101); H04N 21/44 (20110101); H04N 21/472 (20110101); H04N 21/845 (20110101)
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1. A method performed by a digital home communication terminal (DHCT), comprising: receiving a video stream in a transport stream from a headend by the DHCT, the video stream comprising a first message comprising first information from a splicer; and controlling an overlap transition period via the first information from the splicer; wherein controlling the overlap transition period includes: controlling, via the first information, output of decoded picture buffer ("DPB") pictures at the splice point of non-seamless concatenated bitstreams; and controlling, via the first information, DPB space usage for the overlap transition period lasting a number of picture output times defined in the first information.
9. A method comprising: transmitting a video stream in a transport stream from a headend to a digital home communication terminal (DHCT) coupled to the headend; controlling an overlap transition period via first information from a splicer at the headend; wherein controlling the overlap transition period includes: controlling at the DHCT, via the first information, output of decoded picture buffer (DPB) pictures at a splice point of non-seamless concatenated bitstreams; and controlling at the DHCT, via the first information, DPB space usage for the overlap transition period lasting a number of picture output times defined in the first information.
14. A digital home communication terminal apparatus comprising: a memory; a processor configured to execute instructions stored in the memory, the instructions comprising: receiving a video stream in a transport stream from a headend, the video stream comprising a first message comprising first information from a splicer; and controlling an overlap transition period via the first information from the slicer; wherein controlling the overlap transition period includes: controlling, via the first information, output of decoded picture buffer (DPB) pictures at the splice point of non-seamless concatenated bitstreams; and controlling, via the first information, DPB space usage for the overlap transition period lasting a number of picture output times.
This application is related to copending U.S. utility application entitled, "INDICATING PICTURE USEFULNESS FOR PLAYBACK OPTIMIZATION," having Ser. No. 11/831,916, filed Jul. 31, 2007, which claims priority to U.S. provisional application, "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SIGNALING CHARACTERISTICS OF PICTURES' INTERDEPENDENCIES," having Ser. No. 60/865,644, filed on Nov. 13, 2006, both of which are entirely incorporated herein by reference. Application Ser. No. 11/831,916 has also published on May 15, 2008 as U.S. Patent Publication No. 20080115176A1.
This application is related to copending U.S. utility application entitled, "CONVEYANCE OF CONCATENATION PROPERTIES AND PICTURE ORDERNESS IN A VIDEO STREAM," having Ser. No. 12/252,632, filed Oct. 16, 2008, which claims priority to U.S. provisional application entitled, "SPLICING AND PROCESSING VIDEO AND OTHER FEATURES FOR LOW DELAY," having Ser. No. 60/980,442, filed Oct. 16, 2007, both of which are entirely incorporated herein by reference.
A description of the MPEG-2 Video Coding standard can be found in the following publication, which is hereby incorporated by reference: (1) ISO/IEC 13818-2, (2000), "Information Technology--Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio--Video." A description of the AVC video coding standard can be found in the following publication, which is hereby entirely incorporated by reference: (2) ITU-T Rec. H.264 (2005), "Advanced video coding for generic audiovisual services." A description of MPEG-2 Systems for transporting AVC video streams in MPEG-2 Transport packets can be found in the following publications, which are hereby entirely incorporated by reference: (3) ISO/IEC 13818-1, (2000), "Information Technology--Generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio--Part 1: Systems," and (4) ITU-T Rec. H.222.01 ISO/IEC 13818-1:2000/AMD.3, (2004), "Transport of AVC video data over ITU-T Rec. H222.0|ISO/IEC 13818-1 streams." Additionally, also published is ITU Rec H.264/ISO/IEC 14496 Part 10, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Thus, N expresses the number of consecutive pictures or access units between the two locations (e.g., 302 and 304) in the bit stream 300. A data field is a data element that conveys the value for N. The data element may be pre-assigned to a particular "non-zero" value that is sufficient to identify the N.sup.th picture in the bit stream 300 (or herein AVC stream) as the picture or point in the bitstream 300 identifying particular property or location. Note that in some embodiments, the message 302 may provide a cue to additional potential splice points, such as potential splice point 306 immediately following the N.sub.1.sup.th picture and immediately preceding the N.sub.1+1.sup.th picture in the video stream 300.
Information conveying a stream property provides: (1) a location in the AVC stream where the stream property becomes effective, and (2) information related to, and identifying, a particular stream property. The conveyed information enables a video processing device to perform a corresponding stream manipulation operation that is suitable to be performed at the location in the AVC stream where the identified particular stream property is effective. For instance, a first stream property may be a "suitable splice point," which is a location in the AVC stream suitable for transitioning from the AVC stream into another AVC stream, such as an advert or commercial. A suitable splice point may be also called a potential splice point or an identified or determined splice point.
In one embodiment, the message 302 includes a form of providing a value for N consecutive pictures in a first AVC stream (e.g., 300) corresponding to the location for a "suitable splice point" (e.g., 304) that allows a stream splicing operation to performed by a splicing device from the first bitstream 300 to a second bitstream (not shown). A first data element provides a value, N, corresponding to the number of consecutive pictures, including the first picture, to identify the location 304 after the N.sup.th picture and prior to the (N+1).sup.th picture as the location in the first AVC stream 300 where the "suitable splice point" becomes effective. A second data element provides a value, M, that conveys the number of decompressed pictures in the decoded picture buffer (DPB) (e.g., DPB 297, FIG. 2) that have successive picture-output times, with the first of the successive output times being at the picture-output time immediately after the decompression time of the N.sup.th picture. The DPB 297 is in accordance with the AVC (also ITU H.264) standard and resides in decompression memory (e.g., decompression engine memory 299) of a decoder (e.g., decompression engine 222). The location 304 in the AVC stream 300 where the "suitable splice point" becomes effective equals the decompression time of the N.sup.th picture (i.e., under the assumption of a hypothetical instantaneous decoder). The earliest output time of the M decompressed pictures of the first AVC stream residing in the DPB, output-time (1_of_M), equals the decompression time of the N.sup.th picture plus one picture-output interval. That is, it is at the next picture-output time, thus output (1_of_M)=decode-time (N_of_N)+1.
The number of picture-output times from the decompression of the first of the N consecutive picture, decode-time (1_of_N), to the picture-output time of the last of the M pictures in the DPB, output-time (M_of_M), equals (N+M). Hence, there are (N+M) different pictures that are output from the first AVC stream up to the "suitable splice point." Each of the (N+M) different pictures has a respective output-time corresponding to one of (N+M) consecutive picture-output times, the first picture-output time being coincident with decode-time (1_of_N).
In one embodiment, a first AVC stream is required to exhibit the following properties at the location where the "suitable splice point" becomes effective:
In summary, in one embodiment, a compression engine (e.g., encoder 111) or video processing device (e.g., splicer 112) may not provide a "suitable splice point" that results in a discontinuity or gap for any of the (M+N) picture-output times, possibly forcing a previously output picture to be output repeatedly (i.e., because the picture corresponding to a respective picture-output time was not in the first AVC stream prior to the "suitable splice point"). If a picture had an output time after output-time (M_of_M), it would reside in the DPB 297 and not be output. A video processing device and/or compression engine provides a message corresponding to a "suitable splice point" only if the corresponding location in the stream satisfies the above properties.
1. the M pictures from the first AVC stream with successive output times and residing in the DPB buffer at a "suitable splice point," are assigned a respective output (or display) time for each of the M picture-output times in accordance with their original output order,
In one embodiment, at least one of the N consecutive pictures prior to the identified "suitable splice point" in the first AVC stream is also one of the M decompressed pictures of the first AVC stream in the DPB 297 with successive output times at the time that the "suitable splice point" becomes effective.
In one embodiment, N is required to be greater than M to announce the "suitable splice point" in the first AVC stream with sufficient lead time before it becomes effective. In an alternate embodiment, N>M and N is also greater than a pre-specified threshold (e.g., three picture-output intervals or picture-output times). In yet another embodiment, the same "suitable splice point" is announced N times with respective messages corresponding respectively to each of the N consecutive picture in the first AVC stream. That is, starting with the first of the N consecutive in the first AVC stream, N instances of messages is provided in the video stream, each instance corresponding respectively to one of the N consecutive pictures. The information in the message conveys respective values for the first data element and second data element as necessary to provide an indication of a potential or suitable splice point." The first data element's value is N for the first picture and decreases by one successively in each successive instance of the message and corresponds to each one of the successive access units in the sequence of N consecutive access units. The first data element's value, N, finally becomes equal to one for the N.sup.th picture. The second data element's value remains constant, equal to M, through the N successive instances of the message that respectively corresponds to the N consecutive pictures. Two "different devices" may use two different announced messages that convey a potential splice point in the first AVC stream to prepare and perform the transition to the second AVC stream at the identified location of the "suitable splice point" of the first AVC stream. A third "video splicing device" may use more than one, and possibly all N instances of messages to prepare and perform the transition.
In one embodiment, the video splicing device 112 producing the third AVC stream retains in the bitstream the original information that conveyed the "suitable splice point" for the first AVC stream. The third AVC stream may then be spliced at a later time at the location in the third AVC stream where the "suitable splice point" becomes effective. Thus the portion of the third AVC stream containing the first AVC stream can be retained and the portion corresponding to the second AVC stream can be overwritten, in part or in its entirety, starting with the FPOSAS-picture. As a non-limiting example, when the second AVC stream corresponds to a first commercial, this allows for another splice operation to be performed to overwrite the second AVC stream by a fourth AVC stream that corresponds to a second commercial. The stream splicing operation from the third AVC stream to the fourth AVC stream can be performed by a different video splicing device than the one that produced the third AVC video stream. The produced fifth AVC stream comprises of the portion of the first AVC stream in the third AVC stream followed by the fourth AVC stream.
In one embodiment, the video splicing device producing the third AVC stream uses the additional information for the "suitable splice point, to perform and enhance the splicing of the first and second AVC streams.
In one embodiment, a message conveying a "suitable splice point" and corresponding to the first of N consecutive pictures in the first AVC stream also includes a third data element that provides a value corresponding to P consecutive pictures prior to, but not including, the first of N consecutive pictures (i.e., the identified picture). Whereas N conveys the location in the first AVC stream where the "suitable splice point" becomes effective, P conveys the number of consecutive pictures in the first AVC stream that must be decompressed prior to the first of the N consecutive pictures so that all (N+M) pictures can be output with their complete information. For instance, if a user has merely started receiving a broadcast video program, it may not be possible to obtain all the information to decompress some pictures that depend on reference pictures that were transmitted prior to when the user started receiving the program. Likewise, some pictures may indirectly depend on some reference pictures that are not available. In an alternate embodiment, P may be the number of pictures that must be decompressed prior to the N.sup.th picture, and P>N. In another embodiment, P pictures must be decompressed to guarantee the output with complete information of the M pictures in the DPB.
In yet another embodiment, a message conveying information for a potential (i.e., suitable) "splice point" is only provided at a location in the AVC stream that guarantees the output with complete information of the M pictures in the DPB. Alternatively, it is only provided at a location in the AVC stream that guarantees the output with complete information of the (N+M) pictures.
TABLE-US-00001 splice_point_cue1 (payloadSize) {C Descriptor N_num_fields_to_prior_pics_dpb_output 5 u(8) M_num_fields.sub.-- dpb_output_delay 5 u(5) num_prior_pics_in_dpb 5 u(5) for (j=0; j<num_prior_pics_in_dpb; j++) {consecutive_poc_flag[i] 5 u(1) pic_struct[i] 5 u(3)} Splice Point Cue1 Message Semantics
TABLE-US-00003 splice_point_cue3(payloadSize) {C Descriptor N_num_AU_to_prior_pics_dpb_output u(8) M_num_AU_dpb_output_delay 5 u(4) num_prior_pics_in_dpb u(4) last_pic_before_splice_POC u(32) if(CpbDpbDelaysPresentFlag){splice_pic_initial_buffering_delay 5 u(v) splice_pic_dpb_output_delay 5 u(v)}} Splice Point Cue3 Message Semantics
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