Patent ID: 8477852

Claim:
A method of decoding and displaying compressed video data, said method comprising: accessing a compressed video frame in a bitstream; selecting, with a frame buffer manager, a frame buffer from a plurality of available frame buffers, each of said available frame buffers for receiving a respective decompressed video frame of data; requesting said frame buffer from said frame buffer manager, wherein said frame buffer manager, upon receiving the request for said frame buffer: updates a listing comprising a plurality of available frame buffers, each of said available frame buffers operable for receiving a respective decompressed video frame; determines when said listing includes an unneeded frame buffer that is available for recycling; recycles said unneeded frame buffer for use as said frame buffer, when said unneeded frame buffer is available; and allocates said frame buffer from available memory, when said unneeded frame buffer is not available; assigning a frame identifier to said frame buffer producing an assigned frame identifier, wherein said assigned frame identifier serves as a pointer to a memory address of said frame buffer; decoding said compressed video frame into a decompressed video frame that is stored in said frame buffer, wherein said assigned frame identifier is used to identify which of said frame buffers is to receive said decompressed video frame; and passing said assigned frame identifier to a display module that outputs a video stream comprising said decompressed video frame.