Patent ID: 7949052

Claim:
A method comprising: accepting a DVB-ASI bit stream containing a plurality of data words of the packets of one or more compressed media streams, a plurality of DVB-ASI sync words, and either no stuffing words, or one or more stuffing words; identifying starts of packets in the accepted DVB-ASI stream; identifying and discarding stuffing words from the accepted DVB-ASI bit stream, each stuffing word having a pre-defined bit pattern, the identifying and discarding including keeping track of the number of stuffing words being discarded by keeping track of the number of words being discarded or by keeping track of the number of words that are in the accepted DVB-ASI stream, starting from the last identified start of packet; and adding indicating information to form a compressed bit stream, the indicating information sufficient to reconstruct a reconstructed bit stream from the compressed serial bit stream, reconstructing including inserting stuffing words into the compressed stream, the indicating information included in a trailer after the data words of each packet in the formed compressed bit stream, the trailer consisting of a number denoted M of bits, M being more than 8, the indicating information indicative of the numbers of stuffing words that were discarded between consecutive identified starts of packets, the trailer further including information on how the stuffing bytes are organized in the accepted DVB-ASI stream to provides a way to recover an MPEG transport bit stream identical to that in the accepted DVB-ASI bit stream, the relative locations of the starts of packets of programs in the reconstructed bit stream matching the relative locations of the corresponding starts of corresponding packets in the accepted DVB-ASI bit stream, wherein the accepted DVB-ASI stream can contain multiple programs, wherein the keeping track of the number of words being discarded in the accepted DVB-ASI stream is for each program, and wherein the indicating information provides for each program an indication of the number of words from the first data word of the packet of a program to the first word of the subsequent packet of the program in the accepted DVB-ASI stream, such that the added indicating information preserves the timing of the accepted DVB-ASI bit stream in the compressed serial bit stream.