Patent ID: 6973137

Claim:
An apparatus for generating an Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) 8-VSB bit stream that comprises a robust ATSC 8-VSB bit stream, said apparatus comprising: a Reed Solomon encoder unit capable of encoding a plurality of ATSC 8-VSB bit streams, said Reed Solomon encoder unit comprising: a first Reed Solomon encoder capable of encoding a first bit stream that comprises a standard ATSC 8-VSB bit stream; a hierarchical block capable of encoding a second bit stream, wherein said second bit stream comprises a first portion of bits to be encoded as robust ATSC 8-VSB bits and a second portion of bits to be encoded as standard embedded ATSC 8-VSB bits; and a first multiplexer having a first input coupled to an output of said first Reed Solomon encoder and having a second input coupled to an output of said hierarchical block, said multiplexer capable of multiplexing said first bit stream and said second bit stream.