An HDTV compression system

In a receiver for receiving a television signal of the type including compressed video data variably parsed on an image area by image area basis into high and low priority channels, the data in said high and low priority channels occurring in transport blocks of predetermined data capacity, said transport blocks including transport header information having control data related to said variable parsing, signal data, and error check data related to the transport header information and signal data contained in respective blocks, the signal data in each transport block corresponding to an exclusive type of data (e.g., to high priorty video data, or low priority video data);

• apparatus comprising:
• first means for receiving said television signal and providing first and second data streams corresponding to transport blocks from said high and low priority channels respectively;
• second means, coupled to said first means, for providing first and second sequences of codewords corresponding to high priority video dat and low priority video data respectively with said transport block header information excised therefrom, and providing a further sequence of codewords corresponding to said transport block header information;
• third means, coupled to said second means, and responsive to said transport block header information, including said control data, for combining said first and second sequences of codewords into a further sequence of codewords;
• and
• fourth means, coupled to said third means, for decompressing said further sequence of codewords representing compressed video data to produce a noncompressed video signal.

Apparatus for encoding a television signal comprising:

• a source of video signals;
• first means, coupled to said source, for providing a compressed version of said video signals, said compressed version including a first sequence of codewords of varying types defining said compressed video signal and a second sequence of codewords associated with said first sequence and indicating said types;
• second means, coupled to said first means, and responsive to said second sequence of codewords for variably parsing, on an image area by image area basis, said first sequence of codewords into a high priority codeword sequence and a low priority codeword sequence according to the type of respective codewords of said first sequence;
• third means, coupled to said second means, for forming mutually exclusive transport blocks of said high priority codeword sequence, and said low priority codeword sequence, each transport block including a predetermined bit capacity occupied by codewords of one of high priority and low priority data, transport block header information for identifying said data, and including control information related to said variable parsing, and error check bits generated over said data and said transport block header information, said third means providing a first transport block sequence including transport blocks of said high priority codewords, and a second transport block sequence including transport blocks of said low priority codewords;
• forward error check means, for developing error correction data corresponding to mutually exclusive portions of said first transport block sequence and said second transport block sequence and appending the corresponding error correction data to the respective first transport block sequence and second transport block sequence
• means including means for separately modulating said first and second transport block sequences with appended error correction data.

Apparatus for encoding a television signal representing images, comprising:

• a source of a sequence of codewords representing compressed video signal;
• first means, coupled to said source and responsive to said codewords for parsing, as a function of the amount of video signal data representing respective predetermined image areas, said sequence of codewords into a high priority codeword sequence and a low priority codeword sequence according to the relative importance of respective codewords for image. reproduction, and providing indicia for reconstructing said high and low priority sequences into a single sequence;
• second means, coupled to said first means, for forming mutually exclusive transport blocks of said high priority codeword sequence, and said low priority codeword sequence, each transport block including a predetermined bit capacity occupied by codewords of one high priority and low priority data, transport block header information, including said indicia, for identifying said data, and error check bits generated over said data and said transport block header information, said second means providing a first transport block sequence including transport blocks of said high priority codewords, and a second transport block sequence including transport blocks of said low priority codewords;
• forward error check means, for developing error correction data corresponding to mutually exclusive portions of said first transport block sequence and said second transport block sequence and appending the corresponding error correction data to the respective first transport block sequence and second transport block sequence.