Image domain compliance

1. A method for generating domain-compliant image data, comprising:

evaluating, by a computing system, whether particular encoded image data received from one of a live streaming video source and a particular memory location storing recorded video content is restricted from direct export to a particular computing system other than the computing system based on domain-specific usage rights that are associated with the transfer of encoded image data to the particular computing system and that are at least content provider-specific, and wherein the domain-specific usage rights specify maximum allowable spatial frequency content of the particular encoded image data;

generating, by the computing system and based on the evaluating, domain-compliant image data by removing particular disallowable spatial frequency content from the encoded image data without fully decoding the encoded image data prior to transfer to the particular computing system when the particular encoded image data is restricted from direct transfer to the particular computing system; and

exporting the particular encoded image data without or with scrambling to the particular computing system when the particular encoded image data is unrestricted from direct transfer to the particular computing system, and the domain-compliant image data to at least a particular memory location of the particular computing system without or with scrambling when the particular encoded image data is restricted from direct transfer to the particular computing system.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising descrambling the encoded image data prior to removing disallowable spatial frequency content.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising evaluating domain-specific usage rights according to standard-specific usage rights.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising quantizing disallowable spatial frequency content of the encoded image data to zero magnitude.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising generating domain-compliant image data to include allowable spatial frequency content, and disallowable spatial frequency content quantized to zero magnitude.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising modifying at least a portion of the allowable spatial frequency content to exhibit a finite magnitude less than a corresponding original magnitude within the encoded image data.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, a data stream of encoded packetized content;

identifying, by the computing system, a particular encoded packet of the data stream as having video content that requires electronic scrambling prior to export from the computing system to a different computing system;

determining, by the computing system, a particular threshold value that defines allowable spatial frequencies of video content within the particular encoded packet, the threshold associated with the export of packetized content from the computing system to the different computing system;

modifying, by the computing system, discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of the particular encoded packet that exhibit a matrix column or row index value greater than the particular threshold value to zero magnitude, without completely decoding the particular encoded packet; and

one of streaming the particular encoded packet to the particular computing system over a network connection and storing the particular encoded packet to a particular memory location of the computing system.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising preserving DCT coefficients of the particular encoded packet that exhibit a matrix column or row index value less than the particular threshold value without fully decoding the particular encoded packet.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising modifying DCT coefficients of the particular encoded packet, that exhibit a matrix column or row index value less than the particular threshold value and greater than a second threshold value, to exhibit a finite magnitude less than a corresponding original magnitude.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising applying one of a power-law transfer function, an exponential transfer function, a linear transfer function; a weighted transfer function, and a raised-cosine transfer function to modify DCT coefficients of the particular encoded packet that exhibit a matrix column or row index value less than the particular threshold value and greater than the second threshold value.

11. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: determining that the particular encoded packet is associated with video interlacing; and implementing a DCT filter operation to modify each DCT coefficient, of the DCT coefficients, that are associated with horizontal image resolution.

12. The method of claim 7 , further comprising implementing a process preventing appearance of block-like artifacts within an image associated with the DCT coefficients.

13. The method of claim 7 , further comprising modifying one or more of the DCT coefficients to exhibit an absolute magnitude different from a corresponding original magnitude to simulate high frequency content.

14. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: identifying particular high frequency content; and modifying each of the DCT coefficients to zero magnitude.

15. The method of claim 7 , further comprising: identifying particular high frequency content; and removing each of the DCT coefficients.

16. A set-top-box, comprising:

a first module to receive at least one video packet that has a particular pixel count, and extract direct cosine transform (DCT) coefficients within the at least one video packet without fully decoding the at least one video packet;

a second module to modify particular DCT coefficients of the at least one video packet that exhibit a matrix column or row index value greater than a threshold value to zero magnitude, wherein the threshold value defines allowable spatial frequencies of video content within the at least one video packet and is associated with the export of packetized content from the set-top-box to a different computing system;

a third module to generate a particular video packet that has the particular pixel count, the video packet comprising particular DCT coefficients modified by the second module and including DCT coefficients of finite magnitude associated with allowable spatial frequency content, and DCT coefficients of zero magnitude associated with disallowable spatial frequency content; and

at least one communication interface to receive the particular video packet, stream the particular video packet to the different computing system over a network connection, and store the particular video packet to a particular memory location of a particular computing device.

17. The set-top-box of claim 16 , wherein the second module further: preserves particular DCT coefficients that exhibit a matrix column or row index value less than the threshold value; and modify particular DCT coefficients, that exhibit a matrix column or row index value less than the threshold value and greater than another threshold value, to exhibit a finite magnitude less than a corresponding original magnitude.