Interleaved Extent Blocks for Seamless 3D Video Playback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing recording media face challenges in seamlessly playing back both monoscopic and stereoscopic video images due to buffer underflow issues during playback, particularly when switching between different data streams or layers, leading to interruptions and poor video quality.
Innovation Solution
A recording medium and playback device design that interleaves main-view and sub-view streams into extent blocks, ensuring each block has a minimum size to prevent buffer underflow during jumps, with a decoding unit that decodes data blocks in a manner that matches or exceeds the reading time, allowing seamless playback by maintaining data flow during transitions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If extents are arranged in an interleaved pattern for both 2D and 3D playback compatibility, then versatility is improved, but buffer underflow occurs during playback jumps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and setting the extent block size to be greater than or equal to the product of the maximum jump time and the bit rate. This advance preparation ensures that sufficient data is available in the buffer before a jump occurs, preventing buffer underflow during playback transitions between extents in interleaved arrangements.
2Reliability
If extent block size is increased to prevent buffer underflow during jumps, then reliability is improved, but data transmission time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by optimizing the extent block size parameter to satisfy the inequality: extent block size ≥ maximum jump time × bit rate. This parameter setting ensures that the block size is just sufficient to prevent buffer underflow during the maximum expected jump time, avoiding unnecessarily large blocks that would increase transmission time without additional benefit.
3Productivity
If the optical pickup jumps between extents during 3D playback, then stereoscopic video playback is enabled, but buffer underflow occurs during the jump period
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies beforehand cushioning by ensuring that each extent block contains sufficient data to cover the maximum jump time. This creates a data cushion in the buffer that absorbs the interruption caused by optical pickup jumps, maintaining continuous data supply to the decoder during transitions between extents in interleaved 3D video streams.
Data Source
AI summary
A playback device includes a reading unit that reads extent blocks from a recording medium. A switching unit extracts a main-view stream and a sub-view stream from the extent blocks. Each stream is stored in a different read buffer. A decoding unit reads and decodes each stream from a corresponding read buffer. A time (t) required for the decoding unit to decode all data blocks in one extent block is greater than or equal to the sum (t1+t2+t3) of a time (t1) required for the reading unit to read the data blocks except for the top data block in the extent block, a time (t2) required for the reading unit to start to read the top of a next extent block from the time of finishing reading the tail of the extent block, and a time (t3) required for the reading unit to read the top data block in the next extent block.