MULTIMEDIA PROCESSING WITHIN A VEHICULAR COMMUNICATION NETWORK

1 . A head end unit for performing multimedia processing within a vehicle, comprising:

a graphics engine for generating a video graphics overlay;

a compositor for combining the video graphics overlay with a video stream received from a video source via a vehicular communication network to produce an enhanced video stream;

an encoder for receiving the enhanced video stream and producing an encoded file or stream therefrom.

2 . The head end unit of claim 1 , further comprising:

a video decoder for receiving encoded video data from the video source, decoding the encoded video data to produce the video stream and providing the video stream to the compositor.

3 . The head end unit of claim 2 , wherein the video source is a Global Positioning System (GPS) processing module and the encoded video data is GPS navigation video data.

4 . The head end unit of claim 2 , wherein the video source is a memory device within the vehicular communication network storing the encoded video data, a remote device that provides the encoded video data to the video decoder via a wireless or wireline communication interface of the vehicular communication network or a rear seat entertainment unit coupled to the vehicular communication network.

5 . The head end unit of claim 1 , further comprising:

a pre-processing module for receiving raw video data from the video source, processing the raw video data to produce the video stream and providing the video stream to the compositor.

6 . The head end unit of claim 5 , wherein the video source includes one or more video cameras attached to the vehicle.

7 . The head end unit of claim 1 , further comprising:

a video decoder for receiving the encoded file or stream, decoding the encoded file or stream to produce a decoded video stream and providing the decoded video stream to a video display for playback thereon.

8 . The head end unit of claim 7 , wherein the encoded file is an encoded audio-video (A/V) file including an audio portion and a video portion, the video decoder for decoding the video portion of the A/V file to produce the decoded video stream and further comprising:

an audio decoder for receiving the audio portion of the encoded A/V file, decoding the audio portion of the A/V file to produce a decoded audio stream and providing the decoded audio stream to an audio device for playback thereon.

9 . The head end unit of claim 1 , wherein the encoder provides the encoded file to a memory via the vehicular communication network for storage therein.

10 . The head end unit of claim 1 , wherein the encoder provides the encoded file or stream to one or more client modules via the vehicular communication network for decoding and rendering thereon.

11 . The head end unit of claim 10 , wherein the vehicular communication network has a wireless communication interface that provides a wireless connection to the one or more client modules.

12 . The head end unit of claim 1 , wherein the encoded file is a 3-D video file including a first video stream corresponding to a first video angle of the 3-D video file, a second video stream corresponding to a second video angle of the 3-D video file and a third video stream corresponding to a no video angle of the 3-D video file, wherein the first, second and third video streams form a 3-D image without requiring 3-D glasses for viewing when presented together on a screen.

13 . The head end unit of claim 1 , wherein the vehicular communication network is a packet-switched network.

14 . A multimedia processing system within a vehicle, comprising:

a head end unit for receiving a high-resolution audio-video (A/V) file via a vehicular communication network and converting the high-resolution A/V file to a low-resolution A/V file; and

a processing module coupled to the head end unit via the vehicular communication network, the processing module for receiving a request for the high-resolution A/V file from a low-resolution client via the vehicular communication network, providing the high-resolution A/V file to the head end unit for conversion to the low-resolution A/V file and providing the low-resolution A/V file to the low-resolution client.

15 . The multimedia processing system of claim 14 , wherein the head end unit includes:

a video decoder for receiving a video portion of the high-resolution A/V file via the vehicular communication network and decoding the video portion to produce a decoded video stream; and

an A/V encoder for receiving the decoded video stream and processing the decoded video stream and an audio portion of the high-resolution A/V file to produce the low-resolution A/V file.

16 . The multimedia processing system of claim 15 , wherein the head end unit further includes:

a graphics engine for providing video graphics; and

a compositor for combining the video graphics with the decoded video stream to produce a combined video stream that is provided to the A/V encoder.

17 . The multimedia processing system of claim 16 , wherein the video graphics are 3-D video graphics and the low-resolution A/V file is a 2-D video file of the 3-D video graphics.

18 . The multimedia processing system of claim 14 , wherein the processing module retrieves the high-resolution A/V file from a memory within the vehicular communication network or from a remote device via a wireless communication interface of the vehicular communication network.

19 . The multimedia processing system of claim 14 , wherein the processing module instructs the head end unit to provide the low-resolution A/V file to the low-resolution client via a wireless communication interface of the vehicular communication network.

20 . The multimedia processing system of claim 14 , wherein the processing module further provides the low-resolution A/V file to a memory within the vehicular communication network for storage therein and subsequent retrieval by one or more of the low-resolution client and additional low-resolution clients.

21 . The multimedia processing system of claim 14 , wherein the processing module further packetizes and segments the low-resolution A/V file to produce low-resolution packets and sends the low-resolution packets to the low-resolution client.