Patent · US Expired

Video editing buffer management

US5949487A · kind A · utility

8Cited by
8References
8Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateNov 30, 1995
Grant dateSep 7, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 30, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04N19/146
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for encoding of digital video signals in the form of video clips (A,B) to enable them to be seamlessly joined without requiring reset of a decoder to a starting state. The system uses an encoder having a coding stage and an encoder buffer, and comprises successively encoding the pictures of a clip according to a predetermined coding scheme (suitably according to MPEG standards), reading the encoded pictures into the buffer, and subsequently reading the encoded clip out of the buffer at a substantially constant bit rate. To enable simple joining of the clips, a predetermined encoder buffer occupancy (B.sub.ic) is specified with a controllably varied target number of bits being used to encode a picture. The targeting produces an encoder buffer occupancy substantially equal to the predetermined buffer occupancy (B.sub.ic) at the moment the last picture of the segment has been read into the buffer. Particular applications for the technique are in interactive video systems where the user can affect a narrative flow without having discontinuities in the presentation of that narrative.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.