Stream reproducing method and device

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a stream reproducing method comprises a rewriting and decoding operation. First, a time stamp value added to transport stream (TS) packet in a time stamped transport stream is rewritten. The rewritten time stamp value now is synchronous with a program clock reference (PCR) value. Next, the TS packet is output in a synchronous time stamped transport stream based on a comparison between count values produced by a first counter counting clocks generated by a clock oscillator and the rewritten time stamp value of the TS packet in the synchronous time stamped transport stream. Thereafter, the TS packet is decoded according to a count in a second counter counting the clocks generated by the clock oscillator.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings and the associated descriptions are provided to illustrate embodiments of the invention and not to limit the scope of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a stream reproducing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary embodiment of the TTS format;

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary embodiment of the TS header format;

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary embodiment of the PES format;

FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating a first embodiment of an operation of the time stamp rewriting section shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating a second embodiment of an operation of the time stamp rewriting section shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of a stream reproducing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method comprising: rewriting a time stamp value added to transport stream (TS) packet in a time stamped transport stream, the rewritten time stamp value being synchronous with a program clock reference (PCR) value;outputting the TS packet in a synchronous time stamped transport stream based on a comparison between count values produced by a first counter counting clocks generated by a clock oscillator and the rewritten time stamp value of the TS packet in the synchronous time stamped transport stream; anddecoding the TS packet according to a count in a second counter counting the clocks generated by the clock oscillator.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the clock oscillator is a fixed clock oscillator.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein prior to rewriting the time stamp value, the method further comprising: temporarily recording the time stamped transport stream in a data buffer, the time stamped transport stream including a plurality of TS packets, one of the plurality of TS packets including the time stamp value and the PCR value that is asynchronous with the time stamp value.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the time stamped transport stream is read from a recording medium.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein prior to rewriting the time stamp value, the method further comprising: detecting the PCR value in the time stamped transport stream supplied from the data buffer.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the rewriting of the time stamp value includes (1) detecting a difference between the PCR value and the time stamp value and (2) rewriting the time stamp value of the TS packet by using the difference.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein each TS packet includes a header and a payload, the payload including video.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the header of the TS packet includes a code indicating a beginning of the TS packet, a packet identifier to uniquely identify the video, and a flag set to identify that the TS packet includes the PCR value.

9. A method comprising: detecting program clock reference (PCR) values in a time stamped transport stream, the time stamped transport stream including a plurality of transport stream (TS) packets each including a time stamped value and a corresponding PCR value;rewriting each time stamp value added to each TS packet in the time stamped transport stream to a value synchronous with the corresponding PCR value;outputting the plurality of TS packets in the synchronous time stamped transport stream based on a comparison between a count in a first counter counting clocks generated by a clock oscillator and the rewritten time stamp value of the TS packet in the synchronous time stamped transport stream; anddecoding the output TS packets according to a count in a second counter counting the clocks generated by the clock oscillator.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein prior to detecting the PCR values, the method further comprising: temporarily storing the time stamped transport stream in a data buffer.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein prior to rewriting one or more time stamp values, the method further comprising: detecting a remaining capacity of the data buffer; andcausing the clock oscillator to vary its oscillation frequency according to the remaining capacity of the data buffer.

12. A stream reproducing device comprising: a rewriting section to rewrite a time stamp value within a time stamped packet partially forming a time stamped transport stream so that the time stamp value is synchronous with a detected program clock reference (PCR) value in order to produce a synchronous time stamped transport stream;a clock oscillator;a first counter to count clocks generated by the clock oscillator;a comparator to compare the count in the first counter with the rewritten time stamp value of the time stamped packet in the synchronous time stamped transport stream received from the rewriting section;a second counter to count clocks generated by the clock oscillator; anda decoder to decode the time stamped packet output from the comparator according to the count in the second counter.

13. The stream reproducing device of claim 12, wherein the time stamp value and the PCR value are initially asynchronous and are generated using different clock systems.

14. The stream reproducing device of claim 12 further comprising: a buffer to temporarily store the time stamped transport stream externally input as a data stream and to provide the time stamped transport stream to the rewriting section, the time stamped transport stream being such that each transport stream packet forming the time stamped transport stream has been added with a time stamp value, some of the transport stream packets contain a PCR value, and the time stamp and PCR values are asynchronous with each other due to different clock systems.

15. The stream reproducing device of claim 14 further comprising: a PCR detector to detect the PCR value in the time stamped transport stream supplied from the buffer.

16. The stream reproducing device of claim 15 further comprising: a remaining capacity detector to detect a remaining capacity of the buffer and to cause the oscillation frequency of clock oscillator to vary according to the remaining capacity of the buffer.