Patent ID: 8849103

Claim:
A playback device for playing back video images from a transport stream having a base-view video stream and a dependent-view video stream multiplexed therein, the base-view video stream to be used for monoscopic video playback, and the dependent-view video stream to be used for stereoscopic video playback in combination with the base-view video stream, the playback device comprising: an extracting unit operable to extract the base-view video stream including pictures and the dependent-view video stream including pictures from the transport stream; a first buffer unit operable to receive the base-view video stream from the extracting unit and to store the base-view video stream therein; a second buffer unit operable to receive the dependent-view video stream from the extracting unit and to store the dependent-view video stream therein; a decoder unit; and a switching unit operable to, during the stereoscopic video playback of the video images from the transport stream, alternate between transferring a picture of the base-view video stream from the first buffer unit and transferring a picture of the dependent-view video stream from the second buffer unit, with a timing of the alternating being determined by using decoding time stamps attached to the pictures of the base-view video stream and the pictures of the dependent-view video stream, the decoding time stamps representing times at which the pictures of the base-view video stream and the pictures of the dependent-view video stream are to be transferred from the first and second buffer units to the decoder unit, wherein the decoder unit includes a single circuit operable to alternately receive the picture of the base-view video stream and the picture of the dependent-view video stream transferred from the switching unit, and to serially decode the pictures of both the base-view and the dependent-view video streams.