Data structure and methods for providing an interactive program guide

Abstract

A data structure suited to efficiently representing a plurality of image streams including common and non-common portions. Specifically, a plurality of similar group of picture (GOP) data structures representing the corresponding plurality of image streams including common and non-common portions is adapted to provide a first encoded stream comprising only P-picture and B-picture access units of one of the similar GOP data structures, and a corresponding plurality of encoded streams comprising only respective I-picture access units of the similar GOP data structures. In this manner, the redundant P-picture and B-picture access units within the encoded streams are eliminated, thereby greatly reducing the bandwidth or memory resources needed to transmit or store the plurality of image streams.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.