Standard screen image and wide screen image selective receiving and encoding apparatus

A video signal encoding apparatus for selectively receiving and encoding either an image A or an image B each constituted by successive frames, the image B having a greater number of pixels than a number of pixels of the image A, comprising:

• first and second input terminals for inputting therethrough the image A and the image B, respectively;
• first switch means operable when the image B is received for alternately passing therethrough a first frame of each two successive frames of the image B inputted through said second input terminal and an interframe difference image between the first frame and a second frame of each two successive frames of the image B;
• second switch means for selectively passing therethrough the image A inputted through said first input terminal when the image A is received and an output image from said first switch means when the image B is received;
• encoding means coupled to said second switch means for encoding each successive frame of the image A to obtain image A intraframe coded data when the image A is received and for encoding, when the image B is received, the first frame of each two successive frames of the image B to obtain image B intraframe coded data and the interframe difference image to obtain image B interframe coded data;
• third switch means having a first output terminal connected to an output terminal of said apparatus and a second output terminal for selectively outputting the image A intraframe coded data from said encoding means to said first output terminal and the image B intraframe coded data and the image B interframe coded data to said second output terminal;
• decoding means for decoding the image B intraframe coded data from the second output terminal of said third switch means to obtain a decoded first frame of each two successive frames of the image B;
• subtracting means for calculating a difference between the second frame of each two successive frames of the image B inputted through said second input terminal and said decoded first frame from said decoding means to obtain said interframe difference image;
• and
• data control means coupled to the second output terminal of said third switch means for controlling a sequence of the image B intraframe coded data and the image B interframe coded data to obtain image B coded data such that a data quantity of the image B coded data is constant in each two successive frames of the image B.

A video signal encoding apparatus for selectively receiving and encoding either an image A or an image B each constituted by successive frames, the image B having a greater number of pixels than a number of pixels of the image A, comprising:

• first and second input terminals for inputting therethrough the image A and the image B, respectively;
• dividing means for dividing each frame of the image B into an image C which is a part of the image B having a same number of pixels as a number of pixels of the image A and an image D which is the remaining part of the image B;
• first switch means operable when the image B is received for alternately passing therethrough the image C in a first frame of each two successive frames of the image B from said dividing means and a first interframe difference image between the image C in the first frame and the image C in a second frame of each two successive frames of the image B;
• second switch means for selectively passing therethrough the image A inputted through said first input terminal when the image A is received and an output image from said first switch when the image B is received;
• first encoding means coupled to said second switch means for encoding each successive frame of the image A to obtain image A intraframe coded data when the image A is received and for encoding, when the image B is received, the image C in the first frame of each two successive frames of the image B to obtain image C intraframe coded data and said first interframe difference image to obtain image C interframe coded data;
• third switch means having a first output terminal connected to an output terminal of said apparatus and a second output terminal for selectively outputting the image A intraframe coded data from said encoding means to said first output terminal and the image C intraframe coded data and the image C interframe coded data to said second output terminal;
• first decoding means for decoding the image C intraframe coded data from the second output terminal of said third switch means to obtain a decoded image C in the first frame of each two successive frames of the image B;
• first subtracting means for calculating a difference between the image C in the second frame of each two successive frames of the image B from said dividing means and said decoded image C from said first decoding means to obtain said first interframe difference image;
• fourth switch means operable when the image B is received for alternately passing therethrough the image D in a first frame of each two successive frames of the image B from said dividing means and a second interframe difference image between the image D in the first frame and the image D in the second frame of each two successive frames of the image B;
• second encoding means coupled to said fourth switch means and operable when image B is received for encoding the image D in the first frame of each two successive frames of the image B to obtain image D intraframe coded data and said second interframe difference image to obtain image D interframe coded data;
• second decoding means for decoding the image D intraframe coded data from the second encoding means to obtain a decoded image D in the first frame of each two successive frames of the image B;
• second subtracting means for calculating a difference between the image D in the second frame of each two successive frames of the image B from said dividing means and said decoded image D from said second decoding means to obtain said second interframe difference image;
• and
• data control means coupled to the second output terminal of said third switch means for controlling a sequence of the image C intraframe coded data, the image B interframe coded data, the image D intraframe coded data and the image D interframe coded data to obtain image B coded data such that a data quantity of the image B coded data is constant in each two successive frames of the image B.