US 5,619,337 A · MPEG transport encoding/decoding system for recording transport streams

Abstract

A system records a single program from a multi-program transport stream that is encoded according to the MPEG-2 standard. The system demultiplexes transport packets from the multi-program transport stream and records the demultiplexed packets on a digital video cassette recorder (DVCR). The system includes circuitry in the encoder which emulates a buffer in the digital recorder that is used to hold the packets to convert the bursty packet data into constant rate data for recording. This emulated buffer controls the overall rate at which packets of the selected program are inserted into the multi-program transport stream by the encoder. As each packet is recorded, a time stamp value, representing when the packet was demultiplexed and a clock count value, representing a number of pulses of a high-frequency system clock signal that occurred during a predetermined number of bytes of the demultiplexed packet are recorded with the demultiplexed packet. These values are used to regenerate timing signals for a single program transport stream when the recorded packet data is replayed from the tape.

Claims9

Dependent claims

Apparatus for recording a program selected from a multi-program transport stream including a plurality of transport packets, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a user selection related to the selected program in the multi-program transport stream;
means, responsive to the received user selection, for processing and extracting transport packets corresponding to the selected program from the multi-program transport stream to provide a transport data stream for the selected program and for providing a timing signal containing timing information for each respective one of the transport packets in the transport stream representing the selected program;
means for encoding the timing information;
and
means for recording the encoded timing information with each respective packet of the transport data stream representing the selected program.

2 more elements

Apparatus for recording a program selected from a multi-program transport stream including a plurality of transport packets, each transport packet containing a predetermined number of digital bytes of data, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a user selection related to the selected program in the multi-program transport stream;
means, responsive to the received user selection, for processing and extracting transport packets corresponding to the selected program from the multi-program transport stream to provide a transport data stream representing the selected program;
means, responsive to the transport data stream, for generating a first timing signal having pulses coincident with the first byte of each transport packet;
means for generating a second timing signal having pulses coincident with each byte of each transport packet;
means for generating first successive digital values representing respective time stamps for each pulse of the first timing signal;
means for generating second successive digital values representing an average frequency of the second timing signal;
and
means for recording, in succession, one of the first successive digital values, a corresponding one of the second successive digital values and the predetermined number of digital bytes of a corresponding one of the transport packets.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

MPEG transport encoding/decoding system for recording transport streams

Life of this patent

MPEG transport encoding/decoding system for recording transport streams

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims9