Patent ID: 7539249

Claim:
A method of reconstructing an image sequence originally encoded in a variable bit rate (VBR) representation, the VBR representation comprising a plurality of blocks of information, the VBR representation defining a plurality of time intervals wherein at least a first plurality of blocks of information per unit time is greater than a second plurality of blocks of information per unit time, the method comprising: receiving a second representation of the image sequence in which some blocks of information of the first plurality of blocks of information are interlaced with blocks of information of the second plurality of blocks of information to reduce a variation in a number of blocks of information per unit time; and reconstructing frames of the image sequence concurrently with said receiving, said reconstructing comprising: during a period of time when the received stream comprises blocks of information of the first plurality of blocks of information interlaced with blocks of information of the second plurality of blocks of information, reconstructing frames of the image sequence based on blocks of information of the second plurality of information received about in real time, and storing blocks of information of the first plurality of blocks of information in a buffer; and during a period of time when the received stream does comprises blocks of information of the first plurality of blocks of information only, reconstructing frames of the image sequence based on blocks of information of the first plurality of blocks of information stored in the buffer and blocks of information received about in real time.