Patent ID: 7289565

Claim:
A method for decoding a bitstream received over two channels using multiple description coding, comprising the steps of: a) determining which of the two channels are working; b) entropy decoding each output from the two channels separately; c) inverse quantizing the decoded output from each of the two channels; and d) inverse pairing and transforming the inverse quantized outputs using information regarding which channels are working, wherein the step of inverse pairing further comprises transforming the outputs (C, D, C-perp, D-perp) from the inverse quantizers into two coefficients according to the following equation: A _ = β 2 ⁢ ( C ~ - D ~ ) B _ = 1 2 ⁢ β ⁢ ( C ~ + D ~ ) wherein {tilde over (C)}=a linear estimate of D; wherein {tilde over (D)}=a linear estimate of C; and wherein β = σ A σ B × 2 2 ⁢ ρ ⁢ ( 1 - ( 1 - 2 - 4 ⁢ ρ ) ) 2 , where ρ is a difference between a total transmitted bitrate and a lowest rate that a coder uses to achieve a two channel distortion.