Apparatus and method of seamless switching between a live DTV decoding and a PVR playback

摘要

Methods and apparatus for switching between a live video decoding and a recorded playback in a digital video and recording system. A received video data stream is transmitted to a first-in first-out video decoder buffer without first looping the video data stream through a playback buffer. The video data stream is transmitted from the video decoder buffer to a video decoder. If a “pause” command is received, the video data stream is transmitted to a first-in first-out playback buffer, while continuing to transmit the video data stream to the video decoder buffer. Transmission of the video data stream to the video decoder buffer is halted when the video decoder buffer fills up. The last byte of the video data stream that was transmitted to the video decoder buffer is marked. If a “play” command is received, the video data stored in the video decoder buffer is transmitted to the video decoder. The video data stored in the playback buffer is transmitted to the video decoder buffer starting at a point immediately after the data element that was marked previously.

主权项

1. A method, comprising:
transmitting a video data stream to a first-in first-out video decode buffer without initially looping the video data stream through a playback buffer; transmitting the video data stream to the playback buffer in response to receiving a first command; marking a data element of the video data stream by storing an address that points to a location in the video data stream that was last transmitted to the first-in first-out video decode buffer, the marked data element indicating a portion of the video data stream that was last transmitted to the first-in first-out video decode buffer to be decoded by a video decoder without initially looping the video data stream through the playback buffer; transmitting the video data stream from the playback buffer to the first-in first-out video decode buffer in response to receiving a second command; and decoding, by the video decoder, the video data stream from the first-in first-out video decode buffer according to the marked data element in response to transmitting the video data stream from the playback buffer to the first-in first-out video decode buffer.