System and method for decoding 3d stereoscopic digital video

A system for displaying stereoscopic digital video to a user, comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive one or more video streams, wherein the one or more video streams comprise a header and a first eye image;
• a decoder configured to read the header and determine if the one or more video streams do or do not also comprise a delta, wherein the delta, when present, was calculated by subtracting the first eye image from a second eye image to determine a difference between the first eye image and the second eye image, and wherein if the header indicates that the delta is present, adding the delta to the first eye image to form a decoded second eye image;
• wherein the receiver is configured to receive an MPEG-compatible digital video stream comprising a first eye image, a header, and a data structure stored in the video stream with the first eye image;
• and
• wherein the decoder is an MPEG-compatible decoder configured to decode the MPEG-compatible digital video stream, the decoder further configured to:
• read bits in the header,
• determine if the header has bit flags signifying the presence of a delta stored in the data structure, the delta, when present in the data structure, calculated by determining a difference between the first eye image and a second eye image,
• if the header does not have the bit flags, decode the first eye image according to MPEG standards and output an MPEG-compatible two-dimensional digital video comprising the decoded first eye image, and
• if the header has the bit flags, decode the first eye image and the second eye image, the second eye image decoded by comparing the delta stored in the data structure to the first eye image, and output a stereoscopic digital video comprising the decoded first eye image and the decoded second eye image.

A method for decoding stereoscopic digital video, comprising:

• receiving an MPEG-compatible video stream comprising a first eye image, a header and a data structure;
• reading the header to identify the presence of a bit pattern in the header indicating the presence of a delta stored in the data structure, wherein the delta, when present, was calculated by subtracting a first eye image from a second eye image;
• decoding the MPEG-compatible video stream by adding the delta to the first eye image to form a decoded second eye image if the bit pattern in the header indicates that the delta is present in the data structure and forming a stereoscopic digital image frame from the first eye image and the decoded second eye image;
• and
• decoding the MPEG-compatible video stream by forming a MPEG-compatible two-dimensional digital video frame if the bit pattern in the header indicates that the delta is not present in the data structure.