Inductor devices – With vibration control
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-28
2002-03-12
Boccio, Vincent F. (Department: 2615)
Inductor devices
With vibration control
C375S240020, C386S349000, C386S349000, C348S722000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06356178
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an encoding method and apparatus for compressing picture/speech signals for recording the signals in this compressed form on a recording medium. More particularly, it relates to an encoding method and apparatus used with advantage for storing picture/speech signals on so-called package mediums, such as digital video discs (DVDs).
2. Description of the Related Art
In an encoding system for compressing and encoding the video signals for compression for recording on a so-called package medium, such as a digital video disc (DVD) or a video CD, there is routinely used such a method in which the difficulty of encoding of a video material is first measured and bit assignment is then performed, in terms of a frame of each video information as a unit, so that the bits assigned to each frame will be within a given number of bytes comprised in the range of the recording capacity of the package medium based on the measured value of the encoding difficulty. This two-stage encoding processing is hereinafter referred to as a two-path encoding.
FIG. 1
shows a basic structure of an authoring system used for authoring for a digital video disc (DVD) in which the video information is encoded for compression.
In this authoring system, various units used for respective encoding steps, namely a video encoder
22
, an audio encoder
21
, a sub-title encoder
23
, a menu encoder
24
, an emulator
26
and a multiplexer
25
, a hard disc array (RAID)
4
in which to write the encoding results, and a supervisor
3
for supervising the operation of these units, are interconnected by a network
2
.
This authoring system is superior in operating efficiency because the encoding operations for respective parts, such as video or audio, can be performed substantially in parallel.
FIG. 2
shows an illustrative structure of a conventional encoding system in the authoring system shown for example in FIG.
1
.
The supervisor
103
controls the video encoding system in its entirety and sets encoding conditions for the respective encoding systems, such as video, audio or menu, while receiving reports on the results of encoding. In the present case, the video encoding conditions are specified by a file ┌v. enc┘ and a report is made from the video encoder side on an address ┌v. adr┘ on a RAID
104
on which a bitstream on the encoding results is written for the video encoder side and on data ┌vxxx. aui┘ required for bitstream multiplexing.
A main controller
111
controls the operation of this video encoding system in its entirety by communication with the supervisor
103
connected to the main controller
111
over the network
102
.
Specifically, the main controller
111
accepts the control from the supervisor
103
and the operation by an operator, under control by a graphical user interface (GUI)
114
, in order to control the operation of the encoder
112
and a video tape recorder (VTR)
110
by a bit assignment unit
115
, an encoder control unit
116
and a VTR control unit
117
. This permits the main controller
111
to encode the material being processed, in accordance with the encoding conditions as notified by the supervisor
103
, to notify the results of the processing to the supervisor
103
. The main controller
111
also accepts the setting byte operator via the GUI unit
114
to modify the detailed conditions for encoding.
The GUI unit
114
of the main controller
111
controls three programs, namely a bit assignment program ┌BIT_ASSIGN┘, an encoder control program ┌CTRL_ENC┘ of an encoder control program and a VTR control program of the VTR control unit
117
.
The bit assignment unit
115
determines, on the frame basis, the conditions for encoding processing in accordance with the encoding conditions file ┌v. enc┘ notified from the supervisor
103
to notify he control data under these conditions to the control unit
116
in accordance with the file form ┌CTL file┘.
The bit assignment unit
115
then sets bit assignment in the encoding processing and modifies the so-set conditions depending on the operator's actuations. When the compressed video data D
2
is recorded on the RAID
104
, the bit assignment unit
115
notifies the address data ┌v. adr┘ on the RAID
104
, having the video data D
2
written therein, along with the information ┌vxxx. aui┘ such as the data quantity required in a downstream side multiplexing operation, to the supervisor
103
.
An encoder control unit
116
controls the operation of the encoder
112
in accordance with the control file ┌CTL file┘ notified from the bit assignment unit
115
. The encoder control unit
116
notifies data on encoding difficulty ┌Difficulty┘ to the bit assignment unit
115
on the frame basis. When the video data D
2
is recorded on the RAID
104
, the recording address data ┌v. adr┘ and data required for subsequent multiplexing ┌vxxx. aui┘ is notified to the bit assignment unit
115
.
The VTR control unit
117
controls the operation of the video tape recorder (VTR)
110
in accordance with the editing list notified from the supervisor
3
to reproduce the material of a desired editing subject.
The video tape recorder (VTR)
110
reproduces the video data D
1
recorded on the magnetic tape to output the reproduced data to the encoder
112
in accordance with the editing list communicated from the supervisor
103
via the main controller
111
.
The encoder
112
has its operation switched in accordance with the conditions notified from the supervisor
103
via main controller
111
to encode the video data D
1
outputted by the VTR
110
by compression in accordance with the MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) technique.
The encoder
112
at this time notifies the results of the encoding processing to the main controller
111
which then controls the encoding conditions for the data compression to control the quantity of generated bits. This permits the main controller
111
to grasp the amount of bits generated on data compression on the frame basis.
At the time of preliminary setting the encoding conditions for two-path encoding, the encoder
112
simply compresses video data D
1
to notify the results of processing to the main controller
111
. However, at the time of ultimate data compression processing, that is encoding per se, compressed video data D
2
is recorded on the RAID
104
and the addresses for the recorded data and the data quantity etc are notified to the main controller
111
.
A monitor device
113
is configured for monitoring the video data D
2
compressed by the encoder
112
. This video encoding system is able to perform so-called pre-view of ascertaining the results of data compression by an operator with the aid of the monitor
113
as the occasion may demand. The operator actuates the main controller
111
based on the results of the preview to modify the details of the encoding conditions.
The MPEG is a system of compressing data by removing redundancy in the time domain by motion compensated prediction. In this MPEG system, there are used three sorts of the encoded pictures, namely an intra-picture (I-picture) encoded within one frame, a predictive picture or a P-picture, encoded on predicting the present from a past picture, and a bidirectionally predicted picture (B-picture) encoded on prediction from a past picture and a future picture.
These pictures are grouped into a unit termed a group-of-pictures GOP in which there is contained at least one I-picture.
The conventional two-path encoding operation is explained with reference to the structure of a video encoding system shown for example in FIG.
1
.
FIG. 3
shows a basic processing sequence for two-path encoding in the conventional video encoding system shown in FIG.
2
.
First, at step S
51
, the encoding conditions ┌v. enc┘, such as the total bit quantity or the maximum rate, assigned to the video informati
Boccio Vincent F.
Frommer William S.
Frommer & Lawrence & Haug LLP
Smid Dennis M.
Sony Corporation
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