Patent ID: 8804843

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a plurality of video streams, comprising at least a first video stream and a second video stream; receiving a first message in the plurality of video streams, the message including a first data element and a second data element, wherein the first data element corresponds to a location in the first video stream of a potential splice point in the first video stream, wherein the second data element corresponding to decompressed pictures yet to be output (DPYTBO) by a video decoder, wherein the value of the second data element is a number corresponding to the DPYTBO by the video decoder at the potential splice point, and wherein the first message further comprises a third data element corresponding to pictures with contiguous output times (WCOT), wherein the value of the third element corresponds to a set of pictures WCOT of the DPYTBO by the video decoder at the potential splice point, wherein the value of the third data element represents element output times, wherein the first message further comprises of a plurality of fifth data elements, wherein each of the plurality of fifth data elements corresponds to a respective DPYTBO by the video decoder at the potential splice point, wherein the number of fifth data elements in the plurality of fifth data element equals to the value of the second data element, and wherein the value of each of the fifth data elements indicates whether the output of each DPYTBO by the video decoder at the potential splice point or a portion thereof is to be repeated; and producing a third video stream comprising a portion of the first video stream and the second video stream, wherein the portion of the first video stream in the third video stream terminates at the location indicated by the first element, wherein the third video stream has an overlap transition period equal to the time to output the DPYTBO.