Patent ID: 7756127

Claim:
A transmitter, comprising: a transmitting unit configured to transmit a packet of packetized image data; a receiving unit configured to receive a retransmission request for retransmission of the packet transmitted by the transmitting unit; a packet managing unit configured to manage reproduction time information of the packet transmitted by the transmitting unit; and a packet retransmission controller configured to, (i) if the retransmission request is received by the receiving unit, read out from the packet managing unit a first reproduction time, at which image data of the packet requested for retransmission is reproduced, and a second reproduction time, which is later than the first reproduction time and is a time at which a frame containing intra prediction data nearest to the first reproduction time is reproduced, and (ii) if a difference between the first reproduction time and the second reproduction time is not less than a predetermined threshold value, send to the transmitting unit a command for retransmitting the packet requested for retransmission; wherein the packet retransmission controller is configured not to send to the transmitting unit the command for retransmitting the packet requested for retransmission, if the difference between the first reproduction time and the second reproduction time is less than the predetermined threshold value.