A method and device for producing and delivering constant quality digital video bitstreams over channels of any bit-rate and variability are provided. The method and device may be applicable to any standardized video coding system, but preferably within the MPEG-4 standard. For constant capacity networks, the method and the device re-distribute the coded bits in a constant-quality variable bit-rate bitstream to construct a constant bit-rate bitstream. For variable capacity networks, the method a...

A video decoding system is disclosed with a increased efficiency by allowing a parallel processing when high speed is required and/or a serial processing when high speed is not required, and by effectively managing memory requests from different system blocks. The video decoding system according to the present invention includes a variable length decoder, an inverse quantizer, an inverse scanner, an inverse discrete cosine transform unit, a motion compensation unit, a half pel prediction unit, a...

A system for coding video data comprised of one or more frames codes a portion of the video data using a frame-prediction coding technique, and generates residual images based on the video data and the coded video data. The system then codes the residual images using a fine-granular scalability coding technique, and outputs the coded video data and at least one of the coded residual images to a receiver.

A method for transcoding a compressed video partitions the compressed video into hierarchical levels, and extracts features from each of the hierarchical levels. One of a number of conversion modes of a transcoder is selected dependent on the features extracted from the hierarchical levels. The compressed video is then transcoded according to the selected conversion mode.

A system and method for capturing image data captures images responsive to programmed sequences. The sequences are performed on a periodic basis as well as in response to inputs corresponding to alarm conditions and transactions conducted at automated banking machines or other devices. Image data may also be captured in response to image conditions including the sensing of motion or the loss of usable video from selected cameras. Image data is stored in connection with data corresponding to circ...

The invention enables "low attention recording," i.e., recording that need not appreciably affect interaction of a recorder (i.e., a person in control of a recording unit according to the invention) or others with the environment in which the recording is taking place. The low attention recording enabled by the invention can be particularly advantageously employed in "social recording," i.e., recording in which multiple participants in an event are recording the event. As described in more detai...

A moving image decoding method and a moving image decoding apparatus for reproducing a natural image from a digital image signal, even when it is viewed on a TV monitor in which emphasis processing is performed. A moving image signal is encoded using a predetermined prediction image signal, the encoded signal is subjected to predetermined processing, the signal resulting from the processing is quantized, and a moving image signal, which is variable length encoded from the quantized signal, is de...

A current image is supplied to a current image input circuit 10. Also, a reference image is inputted to a reference image input circuit 11. A search range setting circuit 12 sets a search range for detecting motion vectors to the reference image inputted from the reference image input circuit 11. A motion vector storage circuit 17 stores the motion vectors detected up to the present. A search order setting circuit 13 sets scan order of the search range set by the search range setting circuit 12 ...

A dual HDTV/NTSC receiver for recovering one of a HDTV signal and a NTSC signal coexisting in a desired channel includes a tuning unit for converting a desired one of HDTV signals and NTSC signals into an intermediate frequency (IF) signal, a sync detector, coupled to receive the IF signal for detecting a sync signal of the NTSC signal, a timing recovery unit, coupled to receive the IF signal for self-recovering symbol timing of the applied HDTV signal, and providing a symbol timing lock signal ...

A video encoder for encoding a series of groups of frames with an adjustable quantization step, and a method for adjusting the quantization step. The method tracks a complexity parameter of the encoded scenes, and computes a first quantization value in dependence upon the generated complexity parameter. The method further computes a minimum and a maximum step size in dependence upon a number of the bits that have already been generated, and upon the preset target number of bits. The quantization...