Patent ID: 7075994

Claim:
A signal transmission method for selecting streams from a plurality of streams, each composed of a signal packetized in compliance with the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Standard, and concatenating the streams into one single output stream and outputting the output stream, said signal transmission method comprising the steps of: assuring synchronization in System Time Clocks (STC's) across a plurality in stream output means for outputting streams; assuring the continuity of Program Clock Reference (PCR), Presentation Time Stamp (PTS), and Decoding Time Stamp (DTS) of the output stream when the streams are concatenated, wherein the PCR information, PTS information and DTS information are extracted from the output stream; and controlling said stream output means, as a function of the PCR information, PTS information and DTS information extracted from the output stream, so that any stream containing information is not transmitted at the switching of streams when the streams are concatenated, setting a duration of time as a switching period where a redundancy encoder controls an encoding information amount and a transmission information amount.