Patent ID: 8831109

Claim:
A decoder for decoding at least first and second streams, comprising: at least first and second decoder stages, each simultaneously decoding a separate one of the at least first and second streams to yield at least first and second uncompressed streams, wherein each of the at least first and second streams are encoded first and second formats, which format is known before decoding commences, and wherein each of the at least first and second decoder stages have first and second decoding formats, each matching the first and second formats of the at least first and second streams; a routing stage for routing a separate one of the at least first and second streams to the at least first and second decoding stages, respectively; at least first and second buffer stages each storing a frame of a separate one of the first and second uncompressed streams, respectively; and a scaler for scaling the frames from the first and second buffer stages to a common size, wherein frames smaller than the common size are upconverted and frames larger than the common size are downconverted and further wherein a lock semaphore prevents each of the at least one or the first and second buffer stages from overrunning the other buffer stage.