Embedding encoded audio into transport stream for perfect splicing

A method for transport stream splicing, including steps of:

• (a) providing, using a transport stream generator implemented by a processor, a transport stream having an essential perfect splicing property, where the transport stream is indicative of encoded audio data and video data, the encoded audio data and the video data are indicative of at least one program, for each program of the at least one program including a given program the encoded audio data and video data indicative of the given program includes frames of video data which determine at least one video elementary stream and frames of encoded audio data which determine at least one audio elementary stream, the frames of video data include I-frames of video data, and the frames of encoded audio data include I-frames of encoded audio data, and wherein the essential perfect splicing property is that:
• for each program of the at least one program including the given program indicated by the transport stream, each video elementary stream of the given program has a frame rate which is the same as the frame rate of each encoded audio elementary stream of the given program, and for each video frame of the given program there is at least one corresponding encoded audio frame of the given program;
• and
• for each program of the at least one program including the given program indicated by the transport stream, for each video I-frame in each video elementary stream of the given program, there is at least one matching audio I-frame in an audio elementary stream of the program;
• and
• (b) splicing the transport stream, using a splicer device, thereby generating a spliced transport stream, without modifying any encoded audio elementary stream of the transport stream,
• wherein the transport stream includes metadata that indicates that the transport stream has the essential perfect splicing property, and wherein the metadata does not identify splice points in the transport stream,
• wherein the splicer device uses the metadata to generate a warning when the transport stream has less than a full set of perfect splicing properties, and
• wherein providing the transport stream includes:
• determining, by the transport stream generator, that the frame rate of each video elementary stream of the program is not the same as the frame rate of each encoded audio elementary stream of the program;
• and
• in response to the determining, re-encoding at least one elementary stream of the program when the frame rate for another elementary stream of the program has changed, so that the frame rate of each video elementary stream of the program is the same as the frame rate of each encoded audio elementary stream of the program after re-encoding.

A system for generating a transport stream, said system including:

• an encoder, implemented by a processor, that encodes audio data and generates encoded audio data;
• and
• a transport stream generator, implemented by the processor that generates the transport stream in response to video data and the encoded audio data, such that the video data and the encoded audio data are included in said transport stream in such a manner that said transport stream has an essential perfect splicing property, the video data and the encoded audio data are indicative of at least one program, wherein for each program of the at least one program including a given program, the encoded audio data and video data indicative of the given program includes frames of video data which determine at least one video elementary stream and frames of encoded audio data which determine at least one audio elementary stream, the frames of video data include I-frames of video data, and the frames of encoded audio data include I-frames of encoded audio data, and where the essential perfect splicing property is that:
• for each program of the at least one program including the given program indicated by the transport stream, each video elementary stream of the given program has a frame rate which is the same as the frame rate of each encoded audio elementary stream of the given program, and for each video frame of the given program there is at least one corresponding encoded audio frame of the given program;
• and
• for each program of the at least one program including the given program indicated by the transport stream, for each video I-frame in each video elementary stream of the given program, there is at least one matching audio I-frame in an audio elementary stream of the given program,
• wherein the transport stream includes metadata that indicates that the transport stream has the essential perfect splicing property, and wherein the metadata does not identify splice points in the transport stream,
• wherein a splicer device uses the metadata to generate a warning when the transport stream has less than a full set of perfect splicing properties, and
• wherein including the encoded audio data and the video data in the transport stream includes:
• determining that the frame rate of each video elementary stream of the program is not the same as the frame rate of each encoded audio elementary stream of the program;
• and
• in response to the determining, re-encoding at least one elementary stream of the program when the frame rate for another elementary stream of the program has changed, so that the frame rate of each video elementary stream of the program is the same as the frame rate of each encoded audio elementary stream of the program after re-encoding.