Picture data reproducing apparatus and method

Abstract

In a picture data reproducing method of reproducing picture data recorded to a recording medium according the MPEG standard, there is provisionally stored, into a stream buffer, picture data grouped as a GOP which begins with an I picture, the picture data provisionally stored in the stream buffer is read sequentially starting with a previous picture and the read picture data is decoded in the course of a FORWARD reproduction being done, and picture data acquired from the recording medium is additionally supplied to the stream buffer. When the picture data provisionally stored in the stream buffer have been read in the decoding step to before last N frames, a predetermined amount of picture data is additionally supplied, in the data adding step, beginning at the head of a GOP including picture data in the remaining N-th frame in the stream buffer. Thus, a smooth variable-speed reproduction can be done according to the MPEG Standard.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a picture data reproducing apparatus and method, particularly suitable for reproducing picture data compressed by encoding according to the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standard by decoding data. [0002] This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-206120 filed on July 15, 2002, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Background technique [0003] Recently, various digital video encoding technologies typified by MPEG-2 (ISO / IEC 13818) have been proposed to compress video by encoding. Video compression according to the MPEG standard is quantization and variable length coding of a signal produced by a hybrid transform which is a combination of inter-picture motion compensation and DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform). [0004] According to the MPEG standard, frames (frames or fields) included in video are compressed by encoding them into any picture type includi...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Conventionally, it is not easy to select an appropriate amount of picture data to be added to the stream buffer, and such picture data cannot be added to the stream buffer at a fixed timing

[0011] When switching the playback direction from forward to reverse or from reverse to forward, preventing image quality from deteriorating during variable-speed playback requires very complicated control operations, making it impossible to achieve smooth variable-speed playback

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