Cable television system using transcoding method

Abstract

The present invention provides a telecommunication. The present provides a method for editing a first digital signal such as a constant bit rate digital signal in a cable head end. The present method uses a step of providing a first constant bit rate information stream (e.g., multiple constant bit rate streams), where the first constant bit rate stream includes a plurality of variable bit rate streams. Each of the variable bit rate streams correspond to a program, e.g., television program. The method removes one or more of the variable bit rate streams from the first constant bit rate stream, and converts the first constant bit rate stream without the one or more variable bit rate streams into a second constant bit rate stream. A step of transferring the second constant bit rate stream to a user location is included. The present invention uses a transcoding technique to edit the first constant bit rate stream without interfering with video picture quality at the user location.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.