Pulse or digital communications – Bandwidth reduction or expansion
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-10
2001-08-14
Kelley, Chris (Department: 2713)
Pulse or digital communications
Bandwidth reduction or expansion
C375S240270
Reexamination Certificate
active
06275528
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a picture encoding method and a picture encoding apparatus adapted for encoding video material, and more particularly to a picture encoding method and a picture encoding apparatus adapted for carrying out encoding on the basis of pull-down pattern of pull-down converted input video material.
BACKGROUND ART
In encode (encoding) system for implementing compression encoding processing to video information in storing (accumulating) video information onto package media such as DVD (Digital Versatile Disk, Digital Video Disk) or Video CD, there is popularly (generally) employed an encoding method for first measuring encoding difficulty of picture of video material thereafter to carry out Bit Assign (Assignment) processing every frames of respective video information so as to fall within given number of bytes within the range of recording capacity of package media on the basis of that encoding difficulty. This encoding method will be referred to as 2-pass encoding method.
FIG. 1
shows an example of the configuration of conventional video encoding system used for the purpose of compression-encoding video information to carry out authoring of DVD, etc.
A supervisor
103
carries out management of the entirety of the video encoding system, and serves to give encoding condition to respective encoding systems such as video, audio or menu, etc. to receive notification of encode result. In this example, there are notified (informed), from the video encoder side, address “v.adr” on RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks)
104
on which bit stream of encode result is written and data “vxxx.aui” necessary for multiplexing bit stream.
A main controller
111
serves to control the operation of the entirety of this video encoding system by data communication between the main controller
111
and the supervisor
103
connected through a network
102
.
In more practical sense, the main controller
111
accepts control from the supervisor
103
and accepts operation by operator by management of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) section
114
and to control the operation of an encoder
112
and a Video Tape Recorder (VTR)
110
by a bit assign section
115
, an encoder control section
116
and a VTR control section
117
which are caused to undergo management by the above-mentioned GUI section
114
. Thus, the main controller
111
carries out encoding processing of material to be processed in accordance with encode condition notified from the supervisor
103
to notify its processing result to the supervisor
103
. Further, the main controller
111
can accept setting by operator through the GUI section
114
to change (alter) detailed condition of the above-mentioned encoding.
The GUI section
114
of the main controller
111
carries out management of three programs of bit assign program “BIT_ASSIGN” of the bit assign section
115
, encoder control program “CTRL_ENC” of the encoder control section
116
and VTR control program of the VTR control section
117
.
Moreover, the bit assign section
115
determines, in frame units, the condition of encoding processing in accordance with file “v.enc” of the encoding condition notified from the supervisor
103
to notify control data by the above-mentioned condition to the control section
116
by file form “CTL file”.
At this time, the bit assign section
115
sets bit assign (assignment) in the encoding processing to further change (alter) the set condition in accordance with operation by operator. When data-compressed video data D
2
is recorded onto the RAID
104
, the bit assign section
115
notifies, to the supervisor
103
, data “v.adr” of address on the RAID
104
where that video data D
2
is written along with information “vxxx.aui” such as data quantity, etc. necessary for multiplexing processing at the succeeding stage.
The encoder control section
116
controls the operation of the encoder
112
in accordance with control file “C.L. file” notified from the bit assign section
115
. Further, the encoder control section
116
notifies, to the bit assign section
115
, in frame units, data of encoding difficulty “difficulty” required for encoding processing. When video data D
2
is recorded onto the RAID
104
, the encoder control section
116
notifies, to the bit assign section
115
, data “V.ADM.” of that recording address and data “vxxx.aui” necessary for later multiplexing processing.
The VTR control section
117
controls the operation of the Video Tape Recorder (VTR)
110
in accordance with editing list notified from the supervisor
103
to reproduce desired material to be edited.
The video Tape Recorder (VTR)
110
reproduces video data D
1
recorded on the magnetic tape in accordance with editing list notified from the supervisor
103
through the main controller
111
to output it to the encoder
112
.
The encoder
112
switches the operation in accordance with the condition notified through the main controller
111
from the supervisor
103
to compression-encode the video data D
1
outputted from the VTR
110
by the technique of MEG (Moving Picture Experts Group).
At this time, the encoder
112
notifies result of encoding processing to the main controller
111
, and the main controller
111
controls the condition of encoding in that data compression to control quantity of bits generated. Thus, the main controller
111
can grasp, in frame units, quantity of bits generated by data compression.
Moreover, at the time of processing of encode condition setting in advance in the 2-pass encode operation (at the time of provisional encoding or pre-encoding), the encoder
112
merely data-compresses video data to only notify processing result to the main controller
111
. On the other hand, at the time of final data compression processing (at the time of main encoding), the encoder
112
records the compression-processed video data D
2
onto the RAID
104
to further notify, to the main controller
111
, address where that data is recorded, data quantity, etc.
A monitor unit
113
is caused to be of configuration capable of monitoring video data D
2
which has been data-compressed by the encoder
112
. By this monitor unit
113
, in this video encoding system, operator can carry out the so-called preview to confirm result of data compression processing as occasion demands. In addition, operator can operate the main controller
111
on the basis of this preview result to change (alter) the condition of encoding in detail.
As described above, in the DID, as compression system for video data, there is employed MEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) system.
The MEG is the system of removing redundancy in the time direction by motion compensation prediction to thereby carry out data compression, and there are used three kinds of encoded pictures of I (Intra) picture encoded only within frame, P (Predictive) picture encoded by predicting current (present) picture (frame) from past picture (frame) and B (Bidirectionally Predictive) picture encoded by current (present) picture (frame) from past picture (frame) and future picture (frame).
Moreover, these pictures are caused to be of GOP (Group of Pictures) which are set (group) necessarily including one I picture.
FIG. 2
shows an example of GOP structure.
In this example, the number N of pictures (frames) constituting one GOP is
15
. The order where respective pictures of GOP are displayed is different from the order where they are encoded. The leading picture of GOP in the display order is B picture which is before I picture and next to P picture or I picture. In addition, the last picture of the GOP in the display order is the first P picture which exists before next I picture.
The 2-pass encoding operation will now be described with reference to the configuration of the video encoding system illustrated in FIG.
1
.
FIG. 3
shows the fundamental processing procedure of 2-pass encoding operation in the video encoding system.
Initially, at step S
51
, there is given encode condition “Vance” such as total quantity of bits or maximum rate, etc. assign
Isozaki Masaaki
Yada Atsuo
Frommer William S.
Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP.
Kelley Chris
Smid Dennis M.
Sony Corporation
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