Patent ID: 8170401

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a video splicer, a first data stream; receiving, at the video splicer, a second data stream of known length to be spliced into the first data stream beginning at a predetermined time, wherein the first data stream comprises a slot of known length to accommodate the second data stream; analyzing the second data stream and parameters of the slot to determine if the slot can accommodate the second data stream, and when the slot can not accommodate the second data stream adding one or more low information frames to the first data stream to allow a decoder buffer to drain information related to the first data stream; and removing one or more pre-identified frames from the first data stream to remove a delay ΔT 2 in the first data stream to compensate for a delay ΔT 1 resulting from adding one or more low information frames such that a sum of ΔT 1 and ΔT 2 equals or approaches zero, wherein the pre-identified frames comprise redundant or near redundant frames.