Patent ID: 7680181

Claim:
A method for converting video, the method comprising: receiving, as input to a spooler, at a first rate, video data that is in an inter-frame compressed format; converting output from the spooler, by a converter, at a second rate; wherein converting output from the spooler includes converting the video data that is output from the spooler from the inter-frame compressed format to an independent-frame format; and in response to detecting that the first rate exceeds the second rate, the spooler spooling, in the inter-frame compressed format, the video data that is received by the spooler in the inter-frame compressed format; wherein frames input to the spooler at the first rate are the same frames, in number, content and format, that are output from the spooler at the second rate; wherein the amount of video data that is being spooled by the spooler varies over time based on changes to at least one of the first rate and the second rate; wherein a rate of change of the amount of video data that is being spooled by the spooler varies over time based on a difference between the first rate and the second rate; wherein the spooler spools the video data while the converter continues to convert the video data that is output from the spooler to the independent-frame format at the second rate; wherein the spooler does not affect the video data in the inter-frame compressed format; wherein the steps of receiving, converting and spooling are performed by one or more computing devices.