Patent ID: 7711051

Claim:
A splicing apparatus for splicing a first encoded stream comprised of frames of encoded first video data and a second encoded stream comprised of frames of encoded second video data at a splicing point, said splicing apparatus comprising: decoding means for decoding only a first predetermined number of frames of said encoded first video data, said first predetermined number of frames preceding a first splicing point set in the first encoded stream and including said first splicing point and for decoding only a second predetermined number of frames of said encoded second video data, said second predetermined number of frames following a second splicing point set in the second encoded stream and including said second splicing point for generating first and second decoded video data, respectively; target-bit-amount setting means for setting a target amount of bits in a re-encoded stream generated by re-encoding the first and second decoded video data; re-encoding means for splicing said second predetermined number of frames of said second decoded video data to said first predetermined number of frames of said first decoded video data at the respective first and second splicing points to generate a spliced stream of video data and for re-encoding said spliced stream of video data to output said re-encoded stream; and splice control means for controlling said re-encoding means to re-encode said spliced stream of video data in accordance with the target amount of bits set by said target-bit-amount setting means.