Robert Stuart Nemiroff, 77West Fort Lee, NJ

6573945, Jun 3, 2003

Jan 12, 2000

09/481722

Siu-Wai Wu - San Diego CA
Robert Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04N 726

348584, 348581, 348587, 348588, 348589, 345641

An encoder and encoding method for inserting logos into a digital television signal. The logo insertion is performed at the front end of the encoder (e. g. , prior to compression) by sharing the video capture frame buffer of the encoder, so there is no need for a separate logo inserter with a separate buffer, and encoding cost are reduced. An alpha blending function receives logo image and logo alpha map data for blending with input video data. The input video is retrieved from the frame buffer, and written back to the frame buffer after blending with the logo data. Subsequently, the frame buffer contents are provided to a pre-processing function for filtering and film mode detection. For a film mode frame, a drop field decision is provided from the pre-processing function to the frame buffer to drop the redundant field. The pre-processed video data is then provided for conventional compression processing. In an HDTV embodiment, several compressors are provided which each receive a panel of a video frame.

6724825, Apr 20, 2004

Sep 22, 2000

09/667734

Robert S. Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA
Vincent Liu - San Diego CA
Siu-Wai Wu - San Diego CA

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04B 766

37524027, 386 96, 386111

A system for providing an accurate time reference for multiple input and output digital video signals of a transcoder that is particularly suited for use with MPEG data. The multiple streams are synchronized with a single master system time clock at the transcoder. Timing data from the master clock is compared to timing data from packets that are input to the transcoder to determine an offset. In particular, timing data, such as a program clock reference (PCR) field, is recovered from packets of different channels that are input to the transcoder. For each channel, timing data is then provided for packets that are output from the transcoder based on the offset and timing data of the master clock at the respective output times. In particular, the adjusted timing data is determined as a sum of the offset and an associated hardware error, less a delay (PcrSysDly) associated with the transcoder, which includes a lookahead delay and a buffer delay. The associated hardware error represents an error of the master clock and/or a system time clock of an encoder that encoded the particular channel.

6731685, May 4, 2004

Sep 20, 2000

09/665373

Vincent Liu - San Diego CA
Siu-Wai Wu - San Diego CA
Hanson On - San Diego CA
Robert S. Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA
Michael Casteloes - Poway CA
Jing Yang Chen - San Diego CA
Rebecca Lam - San Diego CA

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04N 712

37524014, 370477, 3483851

A statistical multiplexer for coding and multiplexing multiple channels of digital television data, or multiple panels of HDTV digital television data. A bit rate need parameter is determined for each encoder in a stat mux group by scaling the complexities of previous pictures of the same and different picture types. Scaling factors based on an activity level, motion estimation score, and number of pictures of a certain type in a GOP, may be used. Moreover, the scaling factors may be bounded based on a linear or non-linear operator to prevent large variations in the factors. An encoding bit rate is allocated to each channel based on its need parameter.

6847656, Jan 25, 2005

Sep 25, 2000

09/669517

Siu-Wai Wu - San Diego CA, US
Robert S. Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA, US
Vincent Liu - San Diego CA, US
Ajay Luthra - San Diego CA, US

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04B 166

370477, 37524012

An efficient statistical remultiplexer for processing a number of channels that include video data. In one aspect, transcoding of the video data is delayed while statistical information is obtained from the data. Bit rate need parameters for the data are determined based on the statistical information, and the video data is transcoded based on the respective bit rate need parameters following the delay. In another aspect, a transcoding bit rate for video frames is updated a plurality of times at successive intervals to allow a closer monitoring of the bit rate. Minimum and maximum bounds for the transcoding bit rate, e. g. , for buffer overflow and underflow protection, are also updated in each interval. In another aspect, the pre-transcoding quantization scales of the macroblocks in a frame are scaled to provide corresponding new quantization scales for transcoding based on a ratio of a pre-transcoding amount of data in the frame and a target, post-transcoding amount of data for the frame. The quantization scales are adjusted for different portions of the frame as transcoding progresses to ensure that a minimum amount of transcoding bandwidth is allocated to each macroblock.

6904094, Jun 7, 2005

Sep 20, 2000

09/665372

Vincent Liu - San Diego CA, US
Robert S. Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA, US
Siu-Wai Wu - San Diego CA, US
Ajay Luthra - San Diego CA, US
Limin Wang - San Diego CA, US

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04N007/12
H04N011/02

37524013, 37524026

An efficient processing system, such as for transcoding video data. In an embodiment that is suitable for single or multiple processor embodiments, a processing mode is set for each input video frame, e. g. , as a full transcode mode, which uses motion compensation, a requantization mode, which avoids motion compensation, or a bypass mode. The processing mode selection is based on a number of processing cycles that are available to process a frame, and an expected processing requirement of the frame. The bypass or requantization modes are selected to avoid a buffer overflow of the processor.

6961384, Nov 1, 2005

Dec 14, 2000

09/737152

Robert S. Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA, US
Robert J. Stone - Poway CA, US

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04N007/12

37524026, 37524025

Still picture images are encoded and transmitted at reduced rates using the MPEG-2 standard. Video frames are captured for processing at a still picture capture rate that is lower than the video input frame rate. The captured frames are compressed as Intra frames at the input frame rate. Selected ones of the compressed frames are inserted in the MPEG-2 transport stream for communication to a decoder at a still picture repetition rate which is no less, in frames per second, than the capture rate.

7068719, Jun 27, 2006

Jun 1, 2001

09/872783

Vincent Liu - San Diego CA, US
Robert S. Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA, US
Siu-Wai Wu - San Diego CA, US

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04N 7/12

37524012, 37524025, 37524026, 37524028

A mechanism for splicing advertisements, local programming and the like into a digital video transport stream is provided. In order to achieve proper splicing, an appropriate number of frames is inserted between bitstreams to properly close a GOP of the first bitstream into which a second bitstream carrying the spliced content is inserted. Program clock references (PCRs) of the bitstreams are adjusted as necessary in order to force continuity between the bitstreams. For inserting advertisements, the PCR of the program stream and ad stream can be tracked, and the PCR of the program stream can be used both before and after splicing. For local program insertion (which are typically substantially longer than advertisements), the PCR of the local program can be used, after adjustment thereof with an offset to maintain continuity at the splice point. The PTS and/or DTS of the inserted bitstream can be modified to keep them continuous at the splice point for both video and audio streams. The spliced bitstream is transcoded to maintain a desired output bit rate, and to provide overflow/underflow protection of the video buffers.

7072402, Jul 4, 2006

May 13, 2002

10/145166

Robert S. Nemiroff - Carlsbad CA, US
Siu-Wai Wu - San Diego CA, US

General Instrument Corporation - Horsham PA

H04N 7/12

37524026, 37524016

The present invention provides methods and apparatus for dynamically adjusting f-codes for a digital picture header of a coded picture. A video encoder having at least one motion estimation stages is provided for encoding the current picture. Motion vectors are determined for one motion estimation stage of the encoder. The motion vectors are analyzed to determine a maximum motion vector range for the picture. A corresponding minimum f-code is determined for the maximum range. The minimum f-code is then inserted into the digital picture header. In this manner, the f-codes carried in the digital picture header can be reduced to the minimum required value, thus reducing the number of bits needed to encode the f-codes.