Patent ID: 7054369

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 Tp in which a number of blocks of information per unit time is greater than a baseline value and a plurality of time intervals Tn in which a number of blocks of information per unit time is less than the baseline value, the method comprising: receiving a second representation of the image sequence in which some blocks of information Bp are removed from the time intervals Tp and interlaced with blocks of information Bn in the time intervals Tn to reduce a variation in a number of blocks of information per unit time between the time intervals Tp and Tn; and reconstructing frames of the image sequence concurrently with said receiving, said reconstructing comprising: during the time intervals Tn, reconstructing frames of the image sequence based on blocks of information Bn received about in real time, and storing the blocks of information Bp in a buffer; and during the time intervals Tp, reconstructing frames of the image sequence based on the blocks of information Bp stored in the buffer and blocks of information received about in real time.