Granted Patent B2

US 12,238,310 · App. 17/813,321 · Granted Feb 25, 2025

Inventors: Luca Rossato (Milan, IT); Guido Meardi (Milan, IT)

Assignee: V-NOVA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

H04N19/31H04N19/30H04N19/46H04N19/85H04N19/88

Abstract

Claims (30)

1. A method comprising:

via computer processor hardware:

receiving a signal;

receiving a first rendition of the signal, the first rendition of the signal being reproduced from first portions of encoded data that are generated by implementing a first encoder;

implementing a second encoder to produce second portions of encoded data, the second portions of encoded data indicating how to modify the first rendition of the signal and produce a second rendition of the signal, the second rendition of the signal being of a higher level of quality than the first rendition of the signal; and

producing a data stream to include at least the second portions of encoded data,

wherein the signal is an original video signal that is received at a first display element resolution,

wherein implementing the second encoder comprises:

implementing a first generator of reconstruction data at a second display element resolution, the second display element resolution being lower than the first display element resolution, and

implementing a second generator of reconstruction data at the first display element resolution;

implementing a down-convertor configured to produce a first down-converted signal at the second display element resolution for the first generator of reconstruction data and a second down-converted signal at a third display element resolution that is lower than the second display element resolution, the second down-converted signal being encoded by the first encoder;

wherein the second portions of encoded data comprise encoded enhancement data;

wherein implementing the first generator of reconstruction data comprises processing the first down-converted signal and a reconstructed rendition of the original video signal as generated from the first portions of encoded data to produce first encoded enhancement data at the second display element resolution;

wherein implementing the second generator of reconstruction data comprises processing the original video signal and a reconstructed rendition of the original video signal as received from the first generator of reconstruction data to produce second encoded enhancement data at the first display element resolution; and

wherein producing the data stream further comprises combining the first portions of encoded data, the first encoded enhancement data, and the second encoded enhancement data into the data stream.

2. The method as in claim 1 , wherein producing a data stream comprises producing a data stream to include the first portions of encoded data and the second portions of encoded data, wherein the data stream is organized as an MPEG transport stream.

3. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the first portions of encoded data are encoded in accordance with an MPEG compression protocol and the second portions of encoded data are encoded according to a hierarchical encoding compression protocol, wherein the second portions of encoded data include compressed residual data and specify upsample operations to be applied to the first rendition of the signal to produce the second rendition of the signal.

4. The method as in claim 3 , further comprising:

tagging the first portions of encoded data with a first unique tag, the first unique tag indicating that the first portions of encoded data are to be decoded by a first decoder; and

tagging the second portions of encoded data with a second unique tag, the second unique tag indicating that the second portions of encoded data are to be decoded by a second decoder.

5. The method as in claim 1 , wherein producing a data stream comprises producing a data stream to include the first portions of encoded data and the second portions of encoded data, wherein the data stream is organized as an MPEG transport stream, and the method further comprises:

tagging the first portions of encoded data with a first unique tag, the first unique tag comprising a first Packet Identifier (PID) and indicating that the first portions of encoded data are to be decoded by a first decoder; and

tagging the second portions of encoded data with a second unique tag, the second unique tag comprising a second Packet Identifier (PID) and indicating that the second portions of encoded data are to be decoded by a second decoder,

wherein the second Packet Identifier (PID) differs from the first Packet Identifier (PID).

6. The method as in claim 1 , wherein producing a data stream comprises producing a data stream to include the first portions of encoded data and the second portions of encoded data, and the method further comprises:

transmitting the data stream to a first destination that decodes only the first portions of encoded data to reproduce and play back the first rendition of the signal; and

transmitting the data stream to a second destination that decodes the first portions of encoded data and the second portions of encoded data, the second destination reproducing the first rendition of the signal based on the decoded first portions of encoded data, the second destination applying the decoded second portions of encoded data to the first rendition of the signal to produce and play back the second rendition of the signal.

7. The method as in claim 1 , wherein the data stream is organized as an MPEG transport stream and the first encoded enhancement data and the second encoded enhancement data are associated to specific Packet Identifiers (PIDs) that differ from the PID of the first portions of encoded data.

8. The method as in claim 7 , wherein the encoded enhancement data comprises compressed residual data and an indication of upsample operations to generate a reconstructed rendition of the original video signal at the first display element resolution.

9. The method as in claim 8 , where the first encoder is a legacy encoder.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (6)

References Cited (33)