Patent ID: 7574102

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: means for calculating the magnitude of a discontinuity in continuity counter values resulting from the linking a first edit point in a first sequence of MPEG transport packets and a second edit point in a second sequence of MPEG transport packets, the linking allowing subsequent seamless splicing the first and second sequences together with the first edit point being approximately the end of a portion of the first sequence in the spliced sequence and the second edit point being approximately the beginning of a portion of the second sequence in the spliced sequence and the second edit point closely following the first edit point in the spliced sequence, without violating constraints imposed by a predefined MPEG decoder, wherein each of the first and second sequences contains at least one series of transport packets of an MPEG stream, the transport packets of a given series including respective continuity counter values each related by predetermined continuity rules to the preceding packet in the same respective stream, and means for generating one or more additional transport packets corresponding to the calculated magnitude of the discontinuity, each having its own continuity counter value, defining an edited sequence of transport packets linking the first and second edit points so as to comply with the decoder constraints and the continuity rules.